Sean Goldy is a postdoctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelics and Consciousness Research (CPCR). He completed his Ph.D. in Psychological Science at the University of California, Irvine, where he investigated the psychology of self-transcendent experiences (e.g., awe-inspiring ones) and their impacts on individuals and society, particularly those related to prosocial behavior and well-being. He has used a variety of methods and analytical techniques—including experiments, field studies, natural language processing, and large-scale surveys—to examine the antecedents, subjective effects, and consequences of powerful pharmacological and non-pharmacological experiences. His research focuses on examining and better capturing the subjective effects of psychedelics and the role they play in therapeutic outcomes, especially in rapid-acting psychedelics (e.g., DMT, 5-MeO-DMT).

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Minimal variance across session facilitators on psilocybin's acute subjective effects

As the therapeutic use of psychedelics gains attention, understanding the factors that shape psychedelics’ subjective experience is crucial for optimizing treatment protocols and interventions. An understudied factor is the role of the session facilitator, therapist, or facilitator in influencing participants' experiences. While work has focused on the pharmacological effects of psychedelics, their subjective experiences, and their therapeutic benefits, less is known about how different facilitators might impact the acute subjective effects of the experience. This question is particularly important given that session facilitators are typically present during dosing sessions to ensure safety, provide emotional support, and guide participants through challenging moments, potentially affecting the therapeutic outcomes. However, the extent to which some session facilitators more than others may influence participants' self-reported subjective effects—which have been linked to both short-and long-term therapeutic benefits—remains unclear.
To address this gap, we examined whether session facilitators play a role in shaping participants' self-reported acute effects measured at the end of psilocybin dosing session days. Data from 10 drug administration studies conducted at the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research (CPCR) were pooled, yielding a sample of 784 participants and 60 unique session facilitators. Each study utilized the Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ) to assess the intensity of mystical-type experiences. Using multilevel models, we explored the extent to which session facilitators accounted for variance in participants' MEQ scores.
Results indicated that, accounting for differences between studies and participants, session facilitators accounted for negligible variance in MEQ scores, suggesting that the acute subjective effects of psilocybin facilitator do not substantially differ between facilitators. These data provide some challenge to the assumptions that facilitators may have a substantial influence on the phenomenological content of the experience, suggesting that other factors may be more critical in determining the subjective effects of psychedelics.
These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the factors shaping psychedelic experiences and underscore the importance of focusing on participant- and substance-related variables when evaluating the determinants of acute subjective effects. Further research is needed to explore how facilitators may influence other outcomes, such as long-term therapeutic change or integration of the experience.