Awakened States: Exploring The Harmony Between Psychedelics & Meditation

Psychedelics offer on-demand access to transformational insights, ego dissolution, & improvements in brain connectivity — but enduring change rests on the stable ground of daily meditation.

For centuries, the use of psychedelic states of consciousness and meditation have been used in similar regard — to free the mind from the shackles of ego, transcend our mundane and selfish perceptions of the world, and experience reality with more clarity.

Both pathways offer opportunities for what the Buddhists call “direct experience” — which is viewed as the ultimate path to enlightenment. Some even argue that psychedelics could be a shortcut to enlightenment — offering a temporary glimpse of nirvana — something that usually requires years of dedicated meditation practice to achieve.

In this article, we’ll explore the connection between psychedelics and meditation, what makes them similar and different, and how they can be used in conjunction to amplify the benefits of each, enriching the meditative practice and deepening the psychedelic experience.

Meditation vs. Psychedelics: Key Similarities & Differences

Both meditation and psychedelics can induce powerful altered states of consciousness. These are mental states that differ from your normal waking state — changing how you perceive and respond to the world around you. 

However, the way that meditation and psychedelics get you there are completely different — even if we disregard the obvious — that one is a drug and one is not. 

Psychedelics, especially at full, psychoactive doses, can induce rapid, dramatic changes in self-consciousness — otherwise known as drug-induced ego dissolution (DIED). Classic psychedelics like LSD, psilocybin, and DMT achieve this by interacting with serotonin receptors in the brain, producing profound changes in perception, cognition, and mood.

Meditation, on the other hand, promotes incremental changes in brain activity through focused attention and relaxation, leading to states of heightened awareness and tranquility. Over time, these practices cultivate a sustained ability to resist stress and enhance emotional resilience.  

As it turns out, meditation and psychedelics may be more similar than they are different, as both have the potential to reduce the activation of the default mode network (DMN) and increase the functional connectivity between the DMN and task-positive networks, such as the salience network (SN).

The result of these changes has been shown to alter the way we think for the better — improving our ability to think more clearly, notice toxic patterns in our thinking more quickly, and experience smoother transitions between different types of cognitive tasks.

The Default Mode Network: Rumination, Creativity, & Self-Awareness

The DMN is discussed a lot in the field of psychedelics and is believed to be the seat of the ego (more metaphorically speaking than physically).

The DMN is one of several large-scale brain networks (separate regions of the brain that work together to perform specific, albeit highly complex functions). The DMN is involved in self-referential thinking, memory, and social cognition. 

Like all things, there can be too much of a good thing. Overactivity in the DMN is implicated in mental health issues like depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. 

Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris, one of the leading researchers on psychedelic states of consciousness working at Imperial College London, published a paper in 2014 outlining the “Entropic Brain Hypothesis.” His theory suggests that the richness of a person's conscious experience is directly related to the level of entropy (disordered brain activity) within the default mode network. The result is greater creativity and cognitive flexibility.

Other studies have found similar but more long-lasting changes in the DMN in meditators compared to non-meditators — suggesting that regular meditation practice might lead to a less active DMN when at rest. Expert meditators who come from traditions with separate and isolated meditation practices have shown strikingly similar patterns of neural activity.

Salience Network (SN): Focused Attention, Problem-Solving, & Goal-Oriented Behavior

The salience network is another one of the 7 large-scale brain networks. The regions that make up the SN become activated during tasks that require focused attention, problem-solving, goal-oriented behavior, and active engagement with the external environment — basically the exact opposite of the DMN.

The DMN and SN operate as counterparts. You can think of them as two ends of a seesaw — when one is active, the other is at rest. Increased connectivity between the two implies that the seesaw can move smoothly up and down, effectively switching between each mode of thinking with less mental fatigue.

Meditation and psychedelics have both shown clear, independent improvements in DMN/SN connectivity. 

The difference is that the changes induced by meditation appear to develop more gradually and remain stable for longer. Psychedelics, on the other hand, kick in quickly, making rapid, chemically-induced alterations to neural network activation and connectivity, but tend to wear off gradually over the course of a few days or weeks.

What Happens When You Combine Meditation & Psychedelics?

The concept of combining meditation with psychedelics isn't new — there are countless examples of cultures using these practices in conjunction for greater therapeutic, spiritual, or transcendental impact.