Taking psychedelics at raves and ceremonies may help heal childhood trauma

A recent study published in the journal Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry suggests that adults with a history of childhood abuse or neglect who take psychedelics in group settings may experience lasting mental health improvements. The research indicates that taking these substances at organized ceremonies or electronic dance music events with a therapeutic mindset tends to reduce trauma symptoms and feelings of shame while increasing a sense of connection to others.

Childhood maltreatment includes physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, as well as physical and emotional neglect. These adverse experiences often lead to lasting psychological challenges later in life. When trauma occurs during early developmental periods, it tends to cause deep disruptions in a person’s sense of self, emotional regulation, and relationships with other people.

This cluster of symptoms is often recognized as complex posttraumatic stress disorder. People with this condition frequently experience intense internalized shame, which is a persistent feeling of being fundamentally flawed or inadequate. They also tend to struggle with emotional numbness or volatility and experience a profound sense of disconnection from society and themselves.

Psychedelic drugs have shown potential in easing some of these deeply rooted psychological issues. Substances like psilocybin mushrooms, LSD, and MDMA reliably alter a person’s perception of reality. They often dissolve the normal boundaries of the self, allowing people to experience intense emotional release and feel an unusual sense of closeness to others.

Most clinical research focuses on people taking psychedelics in highly controlled laboratory or clinical environments. Yet many people use these substances in natural group settings, such as guided spiritual ceremonies or electronic dance music events known as raves.

“Organized group ceremonies and raves, festivals, and other electronic dance music events are two common group settings of naturalistic psychedelic use,” said lead author CJ Healy, a clinical psychologist in private practice in New York City who specializes in childhood trauma. “Ceremonies and raves, moreover, share certain intentional psychosocial, cultural, and environmental features, such as typically taking place overnight, involving rhythmic, trance-inducing music, having a prosocial atmosphere encouraging bonding, emotional vulnerability, and connection, involving collective experiences of altered states of consciousness, and having other elements of ritual.”

The similarities between these seemingly different environments prompted the scientists to investigate their healing potential. “That ceremonies and raves are not just common settings of psychedelic use but also unique and distinctive in a number of ways led us to wonder whether they might be serving, for the people choosing to use psychedelics in these settings, as semi-structured, naturalistic containers for socially mediated therapeutic experiences with psychedelics,” Healy explained.

Both environments promote radical acceptance and shared vulnerability, which might complement the psychological effects of psychedelic drugs. “Group psychedelic experiences, especially in settings where social attitudes of acceptance, openness, connectedness, vulnerability, and authenticity are implicitly or explicitly promoted, could be particularly therapeutic for people who have histories of childhood maltreatment given that maltreatment is an inherently relational form of trauma that impacts a person’s development of their sense of self and the way they experience and engage in relationships with others,” Healy added.

To explore these questions, the authors developed a prospective, longitudinal study, which means they followed the same group of participants over a period of time to observe changes. They recruited adults who had a history of childhood maltreatment and were already planning to use a psychedelic drug at an upcoming ceremony or rave. All participants had to report a therapeutic intention, meaning they explicitly planned to use the drug for psychological healing or personal growth.

The final sample included 85 participants, with an average age of about 36 years old. Most identified as white and heterosexual, though a significant portion identified as LGBTQ. About 36 percent of the participants attended an organized ceremony, while the remaining 64 percent attended a rave or dance music festival.

The scientists asked the participants to complete three separate online surveys. The first survey was completed in the month leading up to the planned psychedelic experience. This baseline assessment measured the participants’ history of childhood trauma, current trauma symptoms, internalized shame, and feelings of social and general connectedness.

The participants completed the second survey within two days after their psychedelic experience. This questionnaire asked about the physical setting, the type of drug used, and the estimated dose. The most common substances reported were psilocybin mushrooms, ayahuasca, MDMA, and LSD.

During this second survey, the participants also answered questions about their acute subjective experiences while under the influence of the drug. The researchers measured several specific psychological states. These included ego dissolution, which is the feeling of losing one’s sense of separate identity, and oceanic boundlessness, which refers to a blissful feeling of unity with the broader world.

The researchers also measured emotional breakthrough, or the experience of releasing difficult emotions, as well as the occurrence of sudden psychological insights. Finally, they assessed interpersonal closeness and a concept known as communitas. Communitas refers to a profound feeling of shared humanity, togetherness, and bonding among a group of people.

The third and final survey was sent out approximately two months after the psychedelic experience. This follow-up survey once again measured the participants’ trauma symptoms, internalized shame, and feelings of connectedness. The scientists compared these final scores to the baseline scores to look for lasting psychological changes.

The data showed substantial improvements across all measured areas at the two-month mark. Participants reported lower symptoms of standard posttraumatic stress disorder and complex posttraumatic stress disorder. They also experienced major reductions in internalized shame and reported feeling much more connected to themselves, other people, and the world.

Healy noted that the magnitude of these improvements was highly encouraging. “The effect sizes of the therapeutic benefits participants reported, reductions in symptoms of PTSD and complex PTSD (CPTSD) and internalized shame and increases in feelings of connectedness to self, others, and the world, were all statistically in the large range, suggesting people tended to experience quite meaningful improvements in these areas,” he said.

These psychological improvements were observed equally among participants who attended ceremonies and those who attended raves. The specific setting did not seem to change the overall positive outcomes. Both types of communal environments appeared to support the participants’ psychological recovery.

The researchers also found that the intensity of the participants’ acute subjective experiences strongly predicted their long-term improvements. Participants who reported higher levels of emotional breakthrough, psychological insight, ego dissolution, oceanic boundlessness, and communitas tended to experience the greatest reductions in trauma symptoms and shame.

“Our study had two main findings,” Healy summarized. “First, people with childhood maltreatment histories, on average, report lower levels of PTSD symptoms, complex PTSD (CPTSD) symptoms, and internalized shame and higher levels of connectedness to themselves, others, and the world after using psychedelics with therapeutic intent at organized group ceremonies or at raves or other electronic dance music events.”

“And second, the amount or degree of these therapeutic benefits that people experience is directly associated with the strength and quality of various subjective dimensions of the psychedelic experience, both personal and social, experiences of oceanic boundlessness, ego dissolution, psychological insight, emotional breakthrough, group togetherness/bonding, and interpersonal closeness,” Healy said.

Interestingly, the estimated dose of the psychedelic drug predicted the intensity of the acute subjective experience, but the dose alone did not directly predict long-term mental health improvements. This pattern suggests that the physical effects of the drug simply open the door for a profound psychological experience. “These findings not only provide evidence that psychedelics can be therapeutic for childhood trauma but also help us understand how psychedelics work therapeutically,” Healy added.

While these findings are promising, the study has a few limitations that warrant consideration. The most significant limitation is the lack of a control group. Because everyone in the study took a psychedelic drug, the researchers cannot definitively prove that the substance itself caused the improvements.

The improvements might be partially explained by the placebo effect, where people feel better simply because they expect a treatment to work. The benefits could also stem from simply attending a supportive, communal event like a rave or ceremony, even without the use of mind-altering substances. Future studies could address this by including participants who attend the same events but do not consume psychedelics.

Another limitation is that the study relied entirely on self-reported data. Participants answered questionnaires about their own symptoms, which can sometimes introduce bias. They also self-reported the type and dose of the drug they used, which can be inaccurate in natural settings where drugs are not strictly regulated.

Future research might benefit from incorporating biological markers or behavioral tasks to measure psychological changes more objectively. Scientists could also use anonymous drug testing to verify the exact substances and doses involved in these naturalistic experiences. Tracking participants over a longer period, such as six months or a year, could also help determine if these mental health benefits are permanent.

The study, “Acute subjective effects of psychedelics in naturalistic group settings prospectively predict longitudinal improvements in trauma symptoms, trait shame, and connectedness among adults with childhood maltreatment histories,” was authored by C.J. Healy, Aaron Frazier, Stephen Kirsch, Anna Sanford, Albert Garcia-Romeu, McWelling Todman, Jeremy Varon, and Wendy D’Andrea.