Ayahuasca, a traditional Amazonian psychedelic drink, has been found to help people feel less anxious about death and more accepting of it in a new study published in the journal Psychopharmacology. Long-term ayahuasca users showed lower levels of fear, anxiety, and avoidance around death compared to non-users, with impermanence acceptance as the key mediator.
Researchers at the University of Haifa recruited 107 participants, including 54 experienced ayahuasca users and 53 non-users. The study used a combination of questionnaires, behavioral tasks, and implicit measures to assess how participants related to death. The results showed that ayahuasca users scored lower on death anxiety, were less likely to avoid thinking about death, and expressed greater acceptance of mortality.
The key psychological variable driving this effect was impermanence acceptance, an attitude of openness towards the fact that all things, including life itself, are temporary. This concept is found in Buddhism as a cross-cultural idea referring to the acceptance that everything changes and passes.
Mediation analyses indicated that impermanence acceptance alone explained the differences in death-related responses between ayahuasca users and non-users. The researchers also explored what aspects of ayahuasca experiences might shape this attitude towards impermanence, finding that ego dissolution played a significant role.
Source: https://www.psypost.org/scientists-studied-ayahuasca-users-what-they-found-about-death-is-stunning