A recent study published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology highlights the potential synergy between meditation and psychedelics. Meditators who received a combination of DMT and harmine reported greater mystical experiences, non-dual awareness, emotional breakthroughs, and lasting increases in well-being compared to those given a placebo.
DMT (N,N-Dimethyltryptamine) is a powerful psychedelic compound that induces intense, short-lived experiences of altered consciousness. It is naturally found in many plants, including those used in the traditional Amazonian brew ayahuasca. DMT is known for producing vivid visual hallucinations, profound mystical experiences, and a temporary breakdown of the sense of self.
However, when consumed alone, DMT is quickly broken down by the body, limiting its effects. To prolong these effects, harmine, a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI), is combined with DMT. Harmine slows down the breakdown of DMT, allowing it to remain active longer in the body.
Meditation and psychedelics are both known to promote psychological insight, emotional regulation, and well-being, but they have typically been studied independently. Prior research has suggested that psychedelics can enhance meditation, but much of this research has focused on psilocybin. Given that DMT, when combined with harmine, can produce long-lasting effects similar to those reported in ayahuasca ceremonies, the researchers wanted to investigate whether DMT-harmine could enhance meditation in a similar way.
“Meditation and psychedelics have attracted increasing interest from science and society over the past few years, mostly for their respective potential benefits for mental health and well-being,” said study author Daniel Meling, a cognitive scientist affiliated with the Psychedelic Research & Therapy Development group at the University of Zurich.
“Initial studies have started to look at potential synergistic effects between meditation and psychedelics for increasing their benefits and limiting their risks for adverse effects. With this study, we explored the potential effects of DMT-harmine on mindfulness, compassion, insight, and transcendence during a meditation retreat with experienced meditators.”
The study involved 40 experienced meditators (18 females and 22 males) who were randomly assigned to receive either the DMT-harmine combination or a placebo during a double-blind, placebo-controlled 3-day meditation retreat. The participants, with an average of over 2,400 hours of meditation experience, were recruited from various meditation traditions, such as Zen and Tibetan Buddhism.
The retreat took place at a Zen meditation center in Switzerland, where participants practiced mindfulness and compassion meditation through daily group sessions. On the second day, the participants received either DMT-harmine or a placebo in incremental doses throughout the day. They engaged in sitting and walking meditation interspersed with vital sign measurements and psychometric evaluations to assess their experiences.
Several psychological measures were used to assess the effects of the retreat. These included questionnaires on mindfulness, compassion, insight, and mystical experiences, which were filled out before, during, and after the retreat, as well as one month later. The researchers also asked participants to rate how meaningful and spiritually significant their experiences were at the 1-month follow-up.
The researchers found that participants in the DMT-harmine group reported higher levels of mystical-type experiences, non-dual awareness, and emotional breakthroughs during the retreat compared to the placebo group. These participants also showed a greater increase in psychological insight one day after the retreat.
Notably, participants in the DMT-harmine group rated their experience as more personally meaningful and spiritually significant than those in the placebo group. At the 1-month follow-up, 45% of the participants in the DMT-harmine group rated the experience as one of the top five most meaningful events in their lives, compared to none in the placebo group. Similarly, 55% of the DMT-harmine group reported significant increases in well-being or life satisfaction, compared to just 15% in the placebo group.
However, the DMT-harmine combination did not significantly enhance mindfulness or compassion compared to placebo. While both groups showed increased mindfulness during the retreat, there was no significant difference between them. Similarly, compassion scores, both for oneself and for others, did not differ significantly between the DMT-harmine and placebo groups.
“Some recent studies have started to look at the similarities between meditation and psychedelics, and some have even suggested that psychedelics may increase mindfulness and prosocial behavior,” Meling told PsyPost. “Our study found that the psychedelic compound combination DMT-harmine did not increase mindfulness and compassion to a larger extent than meditation with a placebo. The main differences we found were for insight and transcendence.”
These findings contribute to the growing body of research exploring the potential synergies between meditation and psychedelics. However, the study, like all research, includes some caveats. One limitation is the “breaking blind” problem, which is common in psychedelic research. Many participants (82%) accurately guessed whether they had received DMT-harmine or a placebo, which could have influenced their responses.
“While it is important to not overgeneralize these results, they may provide an important indicator of potential differences between psychedelics and meditation, and therefore offer interesting insights into how psychedelics and certain styles of meditation practice could complement each other to maximize benefits and minimize risks,” Meling said. “While this study provides a pointer in this direction, much more research is required to test such hypotheses around the exact synergistic effects between psychedelics and meditation.”
The study, “Meditating on psychedelics. A randomized placebo-controlled study of DMT and harmine in a mindfulness retreat,” was authored by Daniel Meling, Klemens Egger, Helena D. Aicher, Javier Jareño Redondo, Jovin Mueller, Joëlle Dornbierer, Elijah Temperli, Emilia A. Vasella, Luzia Caflisch, David J. Pfeiffer, Jonas T.T. Schlomberg, John W. Smallridge, Dario A. Dornbierer, and Milan Scheidegger.