Recent scientific advancements have shed light on the potential synergistic effects of meditation and psychedelic substances. A study published in Scientific Reports reveals how psilocybin, a psychedelic compound, when combined with open monitoring meditation may enhance the depth of insightfulness in experienced meditators. This enhancement appears to be mediated by changes in the brain’s organizational patterns.
Open monitoring meditation is a type of meditation that emphasizes the broad, non-reactive awareness of the content of experience from moment to moment. Unlike focused attention meditation, which narrows the attention on a single object such as breath or a mantra, open monitoring encourages practitioners to remain aware of all experiences without attachment or judgment. This practice is thought to enhance meta-awareness — the awareness of awareness itself.
Psilocybin is a naturally occurring psychedelic compound found in certain species of mushrooms. Known for its ability to induce profound alterations in perception, emotion, and cognitive processes, psilocybin has been a subject of both traditional use in ritual contexts and modern scientific research. In clinical settings, psilocybin has shown promise for treating various mental health disorders, including depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. Its effects include the disruption of normal thought patterns, potentially leading to increased psychological flexibility and openness.
The rationale for combining psilocybin with open monitoring meditation in this study stems from a hypothesis about the complementary nature of their effects on the brain and consciousness. Both meditation and psychedelics are believed to alter the functional connectivity patterns within the brain — meditation through trained introspection and increased meta-awareness, and psilocybin through its pharmacological impact on serotonin receptors, which significantly alters perception and thought.
Researchers at the University of Zurich aimed to investigate how the combination of psilocybin and meditation could influence brain connectivity during meditative practice. They used a mathematical method known as topological data analysis to visualize and analyze the brain’s activity.
“I was interested in the technical part of the topic, because I am fascinated by how pure mathematics, especially topology, can be applied to extract important information from latent structures in data that is not apparent to other methods,” explained study author Berit Singer, a PhD in pure mathematics. “Psychedelic neuroscience and mediation is particularly interesting to me, because I can see that there is a lot of research needed to better understand the mechanisms of these substances and techniques, and because I wish that this will help to use them in a beneficial way for individuals and society.”
The study included 36 healthy, experienced meditators, matched for age, sex, previous meditation experience, and dispositional mindfulness. The core of the study was a five-day silent meditation retreat. On the fourth day of this retreat, participants were administered either psilocybin or a placebo during their routine meditation practice.
To capture the effects of the interventions on brain activity, participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans both one day before and one day after the retreat. Each fMRI session included sequences of resting state, focused attention meditation, and open monitoring meditation.
To analyze the data, the researchers employed the Mapper algorithm, a method used in topological data analysis to dissect and visualize high-dimensional data sets. This algorithm constructs a graphical representation, known as a Mapper shape graph, which captures the global and local structure of the data. By applying this algorithm, the researchers could map and quantify the relationships and dependencies between different meditative and resting brain states, revealing insights into how these states interact and overlap.
“It surprised me that the subject-specific Mapper graphs were at first sight very different and did not seem to share many similarities, but when described and simplified using suitable graph measures (the optimal transport distance and centrality) their common structure was revealed and turned out to be quite stable across both groups,” Singer said. “In other words, their common features were not obvious to spot by eye from looking at the subject-specific Mapper graphs, but only after calculating their topological features.”
After the meditation retreat, there was a notable increase in the degree centrality of the nodes associated with open monitoring meditation. This suggests that these brain regions became more connected with other regions following the retreat and psilocybin intake. The closeness centrality of the nodes related to open monitoring meditation also increased after the retreat, which implies that these brain regions could disseminate information more efficiently across the brain network.
A key finding from the study was that psilocybin significantly affected the brain’s connectivity patterns. The optimal transport distance, a measure used to assess the similarity between different brain states, indicated that psilocybin induced notable changes in how different meditation states are connected.
Specifically, participants in the psilocybin group showed greater shifts in the brain’s functional architecture between the resting state and open monitoring meditation compared to those in the placebo group. This suggests that psilocybin enhances the brain’s ability to transition between different functional states during meditation.
This increased differentiation was particularly marked in individuals experiencing positive derealization, a state where reality is perceived in a novel and often more meaningful way. Additionally, perceived insightfulness was strongly linked to positive derealization, and models incorporating changes in brain connectivity offered better predictions of insightfulness than those considering positive derealization alone.
The findings suggest that psilocybin may enhance the depth and quality of meditation by facilitating a more profound disengagement from ordinary consciousness and promoting a heightened state of openness and awareness. This could potentially make meditation practices more effective, particularly in inducing states of deep introspection and expanded awareness, which are often the goals of such practices.
“The key finding is that meditation and psilocybin are likely to form a useful synergy that brings about insightfulness and that they do so by balancing each other’s effects,” Singer told PsyPost. The research also highlights the “advantages of topology to analyze data and uncover latent structures” Singer said. “This particular method brings an alternative and useful way to look at brain imaging data.”
While the study provides evidence that psilocybin can significantly modify the cognitive and perceptual effects of meditation, there are limitations to consider. The participant pool consisted entirely of experienced meditators, which limits the generalizability of the results to broader populations, including novice meditators or individuals without any meditation experience. Additionally, the study’s sample size was relatively small, which could affect the statistical power and robustness of the findings.
“Long-term goals are to link the topological structures of the Mapper shape graphs and related phenomenology with the usual functional connectivity, similar to the work of Saggar et al. and Geniesse et al.,” Singer explained. “Another long-term goal is to do similar research with other psychedelics and understand their common and distinct features particularly combined with mediation. Finally, it would be nice to create an understanding of the landscape of different psychedelics and meditative states and how they are related and how they interact.”
The study, “Psilocybin enhances insightfulness in meditation: a perspective on the global topology of brain imaging during meditation,” was authored by Berit Singer, Daniel Meling, Matthias Hirsch-Hoffmann, Lars Michels, Michael Kometer, Lukasz Smigielski, Dario Dornbierer, Erich Seifritz, Franz X. Vollenweider, and Milan Scheidegger.
