“To be shaken out of the ruts of ordinary perception, to be shown for a few timeless hours, the outer and inner world, not as they appear to an animal obsessed with survival or to a human being obsessed with words and notions, but as they are apprehended directly and unconditionally by Mind at Large– this is an experience of inestimable value to everyone and especially to the intellectual.”
This quote, borrowed from the seminal work “The Doors of Perception”, published in 1954 by Aldous Huxley, marked a turning point in both the public’s understanding of psychedelic substances and the course of psychedelic research.
It’s difficult to think of a more radical divergence from the psychotomimetic paradigm than the one Huxley advocates in his book. In contrast to research studies of the time that referred to psychedelic effects as “distortions” and “disorders”, Huxley used psychedelic experiences as a vehicle for philosophical inquiry.
His perspectives even went on to inspire the 1965 LA-based rock band, “The Doors”, and today, his style of psychedelic exploration more closely aligns with ongoing research studies on the therapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs like LSD and ‘magic’ mushrooms.
We went down a rabbit hole of research to understand how the psychological and neurological effects of a psychedelic experience can alter the human personality system.
The information we’ve found heavily supports psychedelic experiences as a new frontier of therapeutic possibilities, not just for individuals suffering from anxiety, depression, or addiction, but also for the person who is already happy with their current internal environment.
In our analysis, we raise and answer a question that, to the best of our knowledge, has never been asked– How and why do psychedelic experiences increase Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and decrease Neuroticism, while having seemingly no effect on Agreeableness?
Before concluding, we’ll review anecdotal reports submitted by Psychedelic Passage survey respondents who have used psychedelics and noticed changes in their personality and in their relationship to the Divine. First, what are the basics of psychedelic-induced personality changes?
Background on How Psychedelic Experiences Relate to Personality
The science behind how psychedelics work is complex, but at its core lies a fundamental shift in the way our brains process information. These substances activate parts of the brain that are normally suppressed, allowing us to experience a heightened state of consciousness and a deeper connection to the world around us.
For any human being on earth, experiencing profound insights and revelations about our humanity and our place in the universe can be as restorative as it is upending. Psychedelics evoke a sense of oneness with the universe, a true becoming of One with the eternal and ever-permeating fabric of existence itself.
Inevitably, an experience of this type and size will change a person. More specifically, it will change an individual’s personality. It’s one thing to read textbooks, religious scriptures, and even self-help books, but it’s a completely separate experience to absorb their teachings from a full-sensory perspective.
Of course, the use of psychedelics is not without its risks, and it is important to approach these substances with caution and respect. But for those who are willing to explore the unknown, the potential rewards can be profound.
Factors That Influence The Effects of Psychedelics on Personality
There are several factors that can influence the effects of psychedelic drugs on personality. One of the most important factors is set and setting. ‘Set’ refers to the mindset and expectations of the individual taking the drug, while setting refers to the physical and social environment in which the drug is taken.
A grounded and intentional mindset and setting is often much more comfortable and fluid than a tense and incautious one. The latter often results in a more forceful and confusing internal struggle. Individual differences in how people respond to psychedelics also play a role in its effects. Some may be more sensitive to the effects of these medicines than others.
They may require lower doses to achieve their threshold psychedelic dose and thus, to experience noticeable changes in perspective and personality. This also applies to microdosing with psychedelics, or taking sub-threshold doses. This can lead to subtle changes in personality that build overtime, without causing hallucinations or physical incapacity.
How Your Current Personality Can Predict Psychedelic Changes
Before we dive into the effects of psychedelic drugs on the brain and on personality, we want to note that the type of change you see in your individual personality will likely be reflective of your current personality traits.
If you are normally an angry person, you may feel wary of how the psychedelic trip could trigger the source of your anger. The same goes for people with any trait or behavior that’s not authentic or self-serving– be that denial, introversion, a fear of letting go, or a disposition to neuroticism.
Many people can acknowledge the areas of lack that exist in their life, whether consciously or subconsciously. Deep down, all of us have at least an inkling of what our next or even first psychedelic trip will surface. That can be distressing and sometimes discouraging.
However, we hope that above all potential fears, if you choose to confront your Truth, that you do so not in defense, with your shield and your sword in hand, but rather with your arms open and attention directed inward. Acknowledge that opposite to every fear is the presence of love.
If your intention is to heal and transcend internal conflicts, we empower you to nurture the dissolution of those limiting beliefs, but to do so in a way that allows space for grieving and while honoring the protective role that these traits once served.
The Effects of Psychedelic Drugs on The Brain
Before we can understand how psychedelic drugs affect the human personality, we need to understand how psychedelics act in the brain. Psychedelics such as LSD, psilocybin, and DMT are known to activate certain receptors in the brain, particularly the serotonin 2A receptor.
This activation leads to changes in brain chemistry and neurobiology, resulting in altered perception, mood, and consciousness. Studies have shown that psychedelics can alter brain connectivity and create new neural pathways. This can explain why individuals who take psychedelics often report a sense of expanded consciousness and interconnectedness.
Additionally, psychedelic drugs have been shown to increase neuroplasticity, which makes individuals better able to adapt to certain types of situations and feel more at ease amidst change and in the face of disillusionment.
The Effects of Psychedelic Trips on The Big 5 Personality Traits
Psychedelic-Induced Changes: Openness
One of the most significant changes that can occur following psychedelic use is an increase in Openness to experience. This trait, which is associated with creativity, imagination, and curiosity, has been shown to be positively correlated with the use of psychedelics.
Research suggests that this change is likely due to alterations in the brain’s default mode network (DMN), which is responsible for self-referential thinking and is often associated with a sense of ego. Reductions in the DMN are a likely cause of the common ‘ego death’ phenomenon.
Back in 2011, Johns Hopkins University published a study in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, titled “Mystical Experiences Occasioned by the Hallucinogen Psilocybin Lead to Increases in the Personality Domain of Openness”.
Participants were 52 hallucinogen-naive individuals recruited from the local community who completed 2 to 5 eight-hour drug administration sessions. Participants received either a high dose of psilocybin or a placebo.
Researchers evaluated the participants’ personality changes using the NEO Personality Inventory, which measures five factors of personality and the six facets that define each factor. Participants received extensive preparation sessions and met with session monitors for at least eight hours on several different occasions prior to their first drug session.
Those who received the high dose of psilocybin showed a significant increase in Openness, while those who received a placebo did not. The study also looked at the relationship between the experience of a mystical-type effect and changes in Openness. Results showed that the more intense the mystical experience, the greater the increase in Openness.
They also found that participants who had a complete mystical experience during the psilocybin session had a significantly greater increase in Openness than those who did not. This suggests that mystical experience is a key factor in the increase in Openness.
The increase in Openness seen in this study has significant implications as high Openness is associated with fluid intelligence and cognitive ability. The potential for improvements in aesthetic and cognitive domains indicates how psilocybin can have benefits beyond personality change.
These findings are significant because very few controlled studies have attempted to characterize the effects of classic hallucinogens on aesthetic and creative outcomes. Almost all participants in the present study regularly engaged in activities such as religious services, prayer, and meditation.
Researchers now think individuals who partake in these types of mindfulness practices may be “particularly sensitive” to psilocybin’s mystical-type effects, which served as a predictive marker for increases in Openness.
Psychedelic-Induced Changes: Conscientiousness, Extraversion, & Neuroticism
In a 2018 study conducted by David Erritzoe and colleagues, researchers aimed to investigate the effects of psilocybin therapy on personality structure, as well as feasibility and efficacy of using psilocybin as a treatment for treatment-resistant depression.
Twenty participants underwent a screening visit and baseline assessments, including personality assessments using the NEO-PI-R instrument, before attending two dosing sessions with psilocybin. The second dosing session, with a higher dose of 25mg, was predicted to induce lasting therapeutic effects.
The study’s findings revealed that the NEO-PI-R ‘Big Five’ score of Neuroticism significantly decreased following psilocybin therapy. Neuroticism is a tendency to experience negative emotions, such as anxiety, fear, and sadness.
In contrast, the scores for Extraversion and Openness to Experience significantly increased, with Conscientiousness showing a trend-level increase. Conscientiousness refers to an individual’s tendency to be organized, responsible, dependable, and goal-oriented.
People who score high on the conscientiousness dimension are typically efficient, reliable, and self-disciplined, while those who score low tend to be more laid-back, spontaneous, and less reliable.
Extraversion is characterized by outgoingness, sociability, and a tendency to seek out and enjoy social interactions. People who score high on the extraversion dimension are typically assertive, talkative, and confident in social situations, while those who score low are often reserved, introspective, and prefer solitary activities.
The changes in Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness observed in the study were similar to those observed in patients treated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).
The correlation between these changes and the reduction in depression severity supports the notion that psilocybin therapy may be a valuable addition, not only to our arsenal of depression treatments, but also to our toolbox of natural healing medicines.
Psychedelic-Induced Changes: Agreeableness, Empathy, Morality, & Self-Care
In our research, we hit a bit of a crossroad when researching the effect of psychedelics on agreeableness. Erritzoe and colleagues’ 2018 study found that although psychedelics increased openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, and decreased neuroticism, there was no change in Agreeableness.
This was very curious to us, especially considering the massive amount of psychedelic journeyers who report significant increases in their level of empathy and perspective-taking– traits that have strong associations with Agreeableness.
According to the NEO Personality Inventory, Agreeableness manifests in characteristics like trust in others, straightforwardness/ morality, altruism, and compliance/cooperation.
Knowing this, how could agreeableness not experience any type of change if other personality traits like assertiveness, dutifulness, and even emotional empathy and moral decision-making, see significant increases across most studies?
We pondered this conflict by attempting to understand the self-reporting process from the perspective of a self-reporter in this study. How would we approach the question of whether or not changes in agreeableness were detected following psychedelic therapy?
We came to several conclusions. The first is that asking someone to rate themselves on agreeableness allows much space for self bias and too little space for the long-term nuances that characterize this personality trait.
For example, within a few days of having a psychedelic experience, it’s often very easy to detect changes in anxiety, social relationships, and mindfulness, thus neurosis, extraversion, and conscientiousness. While agreeableness feels more consistent with a repertoire that’s built within ourselves and reflected unto others overtime and through action.
So, although we acknowledge that no changes in agreeableness were found in this 2018 study, we also empower readers to consider that personality traits like openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and neuroticism are more directly evident in our human self perception.
While we often make conscious choices to be open, extroverted, and conscientious, we don’t necessarily make the choice to agree with people or to cooperate more. It also seems that at the very core of these conflicting findings is an inconsistency between how the NEO Personality Inventory defines “Agreeableness” and how the typical person interprets the term.
Where the NEO definition of agreeableness leans more towards altruism and being trusting of others, the layman’s definition generally has different, less socially-acceptable connotations, such as people-pleasing, codependency, and a lack of adherence to one’s own needs– also known as self-erasure.
Understanding this helps to simplify our question on why self-reports indicated no change in agreeableness. Though agreeableness scores didn’t see a decrease– consistent with psychedelic-related decreases in antisocial and pro-conflict behavior, they also didn’t see an increase– consistent with positive changes in self-care practices.
Therefore, we believe that the NEO Personality Inventory’s measure of Agreeableness opens the door for several confounding variables. Not only is agreeableness less intentional and less apparent to the individual, measured more so through second and third person perspectives of an individual’s long-term actions, but there also exists more variation in how “agreeableness” is defined and connotated.
Unless the journeyer has a predisposition to self-erasure and people-pleasing tendencies, or conversely, to distrust and noncooperation, a psychedelic experience will generally not cause a direct change in our level of trust towards others, but rather an increase in our openness to others and conscientiousness over the effects of our actions and inactions.
Because psychedelics increase people’s ability to prioritize their own needs while decreasing combative behavior, these almost counteracting effects are a likely source of the stagnant agreeableness scores noted in Erritzoe and colleagues’ study.
Anecdotal Reports on Psychedelic-Induced Changes
Evidently, psychedelic medicine has the power to catalyze large changes to personality, but we understand that it’s often much easier to put these truths in perspective by reading the anecdotal reports of survey respondents. We asked a community of psychedelic users to share if and how psychedelics have changed their personality.
“Not sure if it’s the shrooms or me maturing over time but before I started shrooms I was a very closed off and sad person who couldn’t accept myself. However, after I started with shrooms I started to accept myself which led me to being more outgoing, happy, and kind than ever before. -Anonymous
“In the moment that I lost my ego, I felt unconditional love for myself and that ego. From that feeling of self-love I was able to start working on/or accepting those things I used to hate about myself.” -Anonymous
“I was a very shy person. I still think about that change (20 years ago) and I cannot give it an explanation yet. I think because of the things I saw or I thought [I saw] during one particular experience (1st one).
It put my mind in the idea that it’s ok if I f**ked something up by giving my opinion, expressing myself or even asking a girl for a date I will lose more things if I don’t try than if I try and it fails. A failure is a lesson itself, so it’s all a win while trying.” -Anonymous
“I was just sad, closed off and quiet. I’m now kinda happy, pretty talkative and able to express what’s bothering me. I kinda did an entire 180 as a person. Everything from my view on life to how I approach relationships with others.” -Anonymous
“Made me a more accepting and loving person. I was able to identify my flaws and work on them, it also gave me mathematical and scientific insights on how everything is connected.
This in turn gave me the perspective that nothing really matters and you gotta find your own values in life and not take everything as seriously.” -Anonymous
“It resets my serotonin. After my trips I have two choices, go down the same paths and get stuck in the same cycles where I run through my serotonin and every task feels like lifting heavy weights.
Or I practice discipline and I grow the seed that psychedelics have the ability to return to you. It’s up to you, grow the seed or indulge in it prematurely.” -Anonymous
“Every time I do psychedelics I believe I am committing to something so significant that I’m bound to act differently. It doesn’t change your personality magically.
It allows you to realize something personality-changing, whether it be the realization that you shouldn’t be shy or maybe you get a spiritual answer you’ve been looking for and feel freed.Or maybe you realize something upsetting about the world and feel depressed at its state or maybe you remember how beautiful it is and you decide it’s not so bad. It’s all logical and based on your experience.” -Anonymous
“I was a judgmental, rude, self centered, bigoted jehovah witness. I no longer believe I have all the answers for everyone, nor am I a believer still. I believe in acceptance NOT repentance.
Mushrooms helped me love myself. MDMA helped me love others. LSD helped me love everything.” -Anonymous
“Anecdotally, I’m aware that I do return to baseline once I’m back in the real world and faced with everyday problems again. But in a space with psychedelics, I feel a greater sense of spirituality and mindfulness that I try to take with me back to the everyday.
I believe those shifts last longer if you approach the trip with the premise of learning, whether it be about yourself, your inner world, or the nature of realityAlso, if you learn from experiences, as I do, you can take those lessons back and not have to keep doing the drugs to find the change you need.” -Anonymous
“They have made me even more creative. I’m an artist, have been for a long time. But when I was 21, I tried MDMA for the first time. (Not everyone considers it a psychedelic, but I do), and I painted for hours while I was at a friend’s house.
The party evolved around me, and I was just immersed into this whole world inside myself that I could suddenly translate onto the paper in a way I couldn’t before. I still, almost 5 years later, consider some of those paintings I made that day to belong to my best works.
I actually put them into my portfolio that got me into graphic design. I have dabbled in various other psychedelics since then and found that they all enhance my abilities differently.
My perception of color and how I work with it has never been the same since I took LSD. And I am very, very grateful for it. And I could write a whole book about how they affected me in all aspects.” -Anonymous
Explore How it Feels to Be Connected
Psychedelic therapy has caused seismic shifts in perspective and sense of purpose for many people. But it’s important to approach the experience with intention, preparation, and a commitment to personal responsibility and accountability.
If you’re considering embarking on a therapeutic psychedelic experience, it’s important to do your research and seek out qualified and experienced facilitators who can guide you through the process.
Speaking of facilitators– our network has a whole team of them. Our psychedelic concierge service can help you get connected to pre-vetted facilitators located around the country. Some facilitators even offer microdosing coaching.
So, if you’d like to get connected to a facilitator, or want to speak with someone regarding all-things-psychedelic, we empower you to book a consultation with our knowledgeable concierges.
If, however, you’d like to learn some more about the world of psychedelic medicine, we encourage you to head on over to our resources page. There, you’ll find an extensive bibliotheca of informative articles like this one. As always, safe and mindful journeying!