--- title: Taking Psychedelics May Reduce Anxiety About Death description: New research found that psychedelics and near-death experiences both reduced anxiety about death. canonical: https://time.com/6208900/psychedelics-less-afraid-death/ author: Tara Law article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-08-26T17:24:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-14T09:38:57.073Z article:section: Health og:title: Taking Psychedelics Could Make People Less Afraid of Dying og:description: New research found that psychedelics and near-death experiences both reduced anxiety about death og:url: https://time.com/6208900/psychedelics-less-afraid-death/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4644aceac7806e0a/698a34f086f68e9d926f18cc/Ayahuasca-Preparation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2121 og:image:height: 1193 og:image:alt: Ayahuasca preparation og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Taking Psychedelics Could Make People Less Afraid of Dying twitter:description: New research found that psychedelics and near-death experiences both reduced anxiety about death twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4644aceac7806e0a/698a34f086f68e9d926f18cc/Ayahuasca-Preparation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Taking Psychedelics Could Make People Less Afraid of Dying > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=be008fa0-906c-4086-81ba-3d882ea18267&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Michael Pollan on the Healing Power of Psychedelics [Watch (HLS stream): Michael Pollan on the Healing Power of Psychedelics](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Z7yskoOT.m3u8) (4:20)  _Published 2018-05-16. Author Michael Pollan explored the therapeutic properties of psychedelics for his latest book, "How to Change Your Mind." His research includes firsthand experiences with the drugs._  by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/)  ## Tara Law Aug 26, 2022 5:24 PM UTC Author Michael Pollan explored the therapeutic properties of psychedelics for his latest book, "How to Change Your Mind." His research includes firsthand experiences with the drugs.  by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/)  ## Tara Law Aug 26, 2022 5:24 PM UTC [Out-of-body](http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1655632,00.html) and other mystical experiences can be life-changing, and [research](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13576275.2015.1043252?cookieSet=1) suggests they can even make people less afraid of dying. But such experiences are rare, and tend to occur accidentally and in the most extreme circumstances—such as at the brink of death. There might be another way to mimic the [near-death experience:](https://time.com/4446877/near-death-experience/) scientists have identified striking parallels between these experiences and the [effects of psychedelic drugs](https://time.com/6196310/michael-pollan-interview-how-to-change-your-mind/). According to a new [survey](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0271926) conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine, published Aug. 24 in the journal _PLOS ONE,_ people’s attitudes about death change after both a psychedelic drug experience and a non-drug-related out-of-body experience. The researchers split more than 3,000 participants into two groups: those who had previously had an extraordinary non-drug experience, and those who had used a psychedelic drug: psilocybin (found in magic mushrooms), lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), ayahuasca, or _N_,_N-_dimethyltryptamine (DMT). They found that about 90% of people in both groups were less afraid of death than they had been before their experiences. These findings build upon previous research showing that [psychedelics](https://time.com/5278036/michael-pollan-psychedelic-drugs/), especially when combined with therapy, can [relieve anxiety about the end of life](https://time.com/6208079/psychedelics-psilocybin-access-end-of-life/). That includes a [2016 randomized clinical trial that ](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27909165/)found that psilocybin lessened depression and anxiety among 51 patients with life-threatening cancer. Co-author Roland Griffiths, a professor in the departments of psychiatry and neurosciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, is hopeful that psychedelics could one day be used to help anyone who’s struggling with the fear of death. Treatment “could significantly reduce suffering in individuals with or without a life-threatening illness,” he says, including by lessening the emotional pain some people feel at the end of their lives, such as depression, anxiety, and isolation. Evidence suggests that psychedelics can affect the brain, including by promoting neuroplasticity, which refers to its ability to modify, change, and adapt. It’s harder to determine how near-death experiences impact the brain. However, both experiences—nearly dying and taking psychedelics—can be profound. About half of each group in the new study said that they’d encountered something they might call “God”—48% among the non-drug group, and 56% among people who’d used psychedelics. In the non-drug group, 85% said the experience was in the top five most meaningful of their lives, compared to 75% of the psychedelic group. The study isn’t a perfect representation of the range of what happens when people take psychedelics or have an unusual non-drug experience. For instance, the study authors point out that the participants were mostly white and American. They also opted to join the survey, which means they might have been especially motivated to share their experiences. Plus, there are signs that at least some people could be negatively affected by these experiences; about 1 in 20 people in each group said that they were more afraid of death afterwards. The next step is additional scientific research, says Griffiths, including broad surveys of the general population. For now, however, the new findings add hope that while death will always be inevitable, suffering at the end [doesn’t need to be](https://time.com/6208079/psychedelics-psilocybin-access-end-of-life/). ## Transcript [00:00] I guess the biggest misconception people have about [00:02] psychedelics is that these are drugs that make you [00:04] crazy. And we now have evidence that that does [00:07] happen sometimes, but in many more cases, these are [00:11] drugs that can make you sane, or more sane. [ MUSIC ] [00:17] If you ask people about what psychedelics, or LSD, [00:20] they're gonna think about the Timothy Leary, this [00:24] flamboyant psychology professor. Studying psilocybin [00:26] and LSD and then telling everybody they should take it. [00:29] I'm very glad to be discredited, I don't want credibility. [00:31] I want incredibility. [ LAUGH ] The drugs kind of [00:35] escape laboratory and were embraced by the counter [00:39] culture and proved to be very disruptive to society [00:42] [ MUSIC ] So you had this full scale moral panic that [00:46] eventually doomed the research but what people don't [00:50] know is that that's 60s episode was really one small [00:54] chapter in a much longer story. Psycho drugs are one [00:58] kind of another have been used by different societies [01:01] for thousands of years. If you compare mental health [01:04] care with any other branch of medicine infectious [01:07] disease, cardiology, oncology there have been very few [01:10] achievements. Mental health treatment has not [01:13] lengthened the human life span. So we need some new [01:17] thinking, we need some new ideas and psychedelics [01:20] may well be that new idea. There's a really exciting [01:24] field of research underway, right now, looking at [01:27] psychedelics. Especially psilocybin, the ingredient in [01:29] magic mushrooms, to help people deal with mental [01:32] illness of various kinds. Addiction, depression, [01:36] obsession, and the fear and anxiety that surrounds a [01:39] terminal diagnosis. And the feeling among the [01:43] scientist is that these chemicals allow us to essentially [01:46] reboot the brain. All those kind of deep grooves [01:51] that lock us into patterns of both thought and behavior [01:54] are dissolved and temporarily suspended in [01:58] a way that allows us to break those patterns. We're [02:01] now in a different world. The adults now, many of [02:05] them have experience of psychedelics, they're not [02:07] gonna react in such a panicky way, I don't think. Many [02:11] of the people in charge of our institutions, probably [02:14] regulators at the FDA, people at the American [02:17] Psychiatric Association, they have personal experience [02:19] of psychedelics. And they're, I think, gonna bring a [02:22] more rational, Attitude toward them. I learned that [02:25] there is a thriving underground of psychedelic [02:28] therapists. These are serious professionals but they're [02:31] doing something illegal. And I was able to find my way [02:35] into this. Community and after interviewing several of [02:39] them I found a couple people I felt comfortable enough [02:42] to entrust my mind to. This isn't doctors giving you a [02:45] pill and sending you out into the world. You are, for a [02:49] period of four or five hours, in a room that's decorated [02:52] like a kind of cozy den or study, you're lying down on a [02:56] couch, you have eye shades on. And headphones, [03:00] which are playing a very carefully curated playlist, to [03:03] make you go inside, to have an internal experience. [03:07] And you're with two guides at all times. Some people [03:09] are put in touch with childhood trauma. Some people [03:12] have encounters with death and I mean, it can be very [03:16] dark. But with the help of the guides, you use that [03:19] material and try to understand it. So after the session, [03:23] you always come back the next day and have what's [03:25] called a period of integration. Where the guides, who [03:28] are trained therapists, help you interpret what [03:31] happened and figure out ways to put it to good use in [03:34] changing your life. My best journey was this fairly high [03:38] dose [ INAUDIBLE ] journey. I had with a guide. What [03:41] was stunning about it was I did have an experience [03:45] of ego disillusion. I reached a point [03:50] where myself kind of fell apart [03:54] into these paper post its. That just got scattered into [03:58] the wind. I saw myself. And I know that sounds weird. [04:00] Who's the I that saw myself, but there is this split in [04:03] consciousness that happens. But I saw myself scattered [04:06] to the wind, but I was all right with it and I learned a [04:09] really important lesson in that moment, which is that [04:12] I'm not identical to my ego. 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