ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Consciousness Research
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1533055
This article is part of the Research TopicPsychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapies: From Clinical Trials to CredibilityView all 5 articles
Aesthetic quality of psychedelic experience is linked to insight and psychological outcomes
Provisionally accepted
- University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, United States
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The aesthetic qualities of psychedelic experiences have long been documented, but their specific contribution to therapeutic outcomes remains unexplored. This study investigates the association between psychedelic-induced aesthetic experiences and positive psychological outcomes. Using a cross-sectional naturalistic survey, participants who had recently used classic psychedelics such as psilocybin, mescaline, LSD, or DMT completed measures assessing their acute experiences, including the novel Psychedelic Aesthetic Experience Questionnaire (PAEQ), the Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ), the Emotional Breakthrough Inventory (EBI), and the Challenging Experience Questionnaire (CEQ). Post-experience psychological outcomes were evaluated using the Psychological Insight Scale (PIS) and general outcome measures, such as depression, anxiety, and quality of life. We found significant positive correlations and modelled associations between aesthetic experiences and emotional breakthroughs, psychological insight, mystical experiences, and general outcomes, while weak negative associations were observed between aesthetic quality and challenging experiences such as fear and paranoia. These findings suggest that aesthetic enhancements during psychedelic sessions are associated with positive emotional engagement and cognitive shifts, which contribute to lasting psychological benefits.The inverse relationship between aesthetic quality and challenging experiences highlights the potential of optimizing the aesthetic environment during psychedelic therapy to improve therapeutic outcomes.
Keywords: 1890 N Revere Ct, aurora, CO 80045 Room: P12-5136 aesthetic, psychedelic, Insight, Perception, emotion
Received: 23 Nov 2024; Accepted: 18 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hooper, Gyongyosi, Hutchison and Mueller. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jake Ferro Hooper, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, United States
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