Quantitative and qualitative influences of spiritual connection and natural imagery on perception of art in clinical psychedelic dosing settings

Abstract

Psychedelic clinical study environments are frequently visually manipulated, such as art; however, there has been little study of how the art selected for display impacts individual responses to the overall setting. To examine how individual self-identities shape perceptions of art used in a clinical psychedelic dosing environment, this study used a community-engaged mixed-methods approach. Psychedelic society members were recruited to complete an online survey that measured overall reactions and perceived connections of age, gender, racial/ethnic, and religious/spiritual self-identities to 15 art objects. A multivariate-linear regression model of these responses identified religious/spiritual identity as the dominant connectivity factor influencing art reaction among these participants. Selected survey participants then completed focus groups, from which nine qualitative themes related to art preferences were identified, including preference for natural elements and images. Finally, members of a non-psychedelically oriented community interest group completed the survey and provided preference scores for an expanded art library to assess generalizability of qualitative and quantitative findings. Spiritual/religious connectivity was found to be less associated with art preferences for the non-psychedelically affiliated group members, while the presence of natural elements still corresponded with positive responses to art. These results suggest that while religious/spiritual self-identity has a strong impact in predicting variance in dosing environment reactions among individuals with prior psychedelic interests, the inclusion of art focused on natural themes may be a meaningful future approach to facilitate positive receptions among broader populations.

Keywords: Art; Nature; Psychedelic; Set and setting; Spirituality.

Fig. 1

Study Phases and Demographic Shifts. (A) Flowchart describing phases and sub-phases of the research project with associated sample size (B) Maximal proportion of non-Hispanic White participants (NHW) for each phase. *Varies by survey object. a, b,c, d – participant number and demographic data correspondences for each stage across panels A and B.

Fig. 2

Example Art Items and Question Battery for Survey. (A) Numbered images 01–16 showing the pictures of the art objects and the dosing room image presented in the final survey used in Phase 2 and 3. Object 00 was removed from the dosing room after Phase 1, which was then replaced by Object 01 for Phase 2. (B) Example five-question battery as presented in the finalized survey. This battery was repeated for each object, for a total of 16 presentations. For the actual participant survey, [X] was replaced by the appropriate object number for each presentation and ‘Image Shown Here” was replaced by individual objects from panel A.

Fig. 3

Local psychedelic society members’ overall reactions and perceived self-identity connection to art objects and dosing room. (A) Object responses are ordered from highest to lowest reaction from left to right with total sample size below. One-sample t-test vs. 50. For (B), the distribution of perceived self-identity average art responses rate. RM one-way ANOVA. Tukey’s post-hoc analysis. Distribution of perceived self-identity connection in psychedelic society cohort #1 in (C) dosing room and (D) art objects. (A, C, D) all use a 101-point visual analogue scale ranging from 0 to 100, with scale labels shown directly on the figure axes. * - p < 0.05. ** - p < 0.01. *** - p < 0.001. **** - p < 0.0001. Data shown as mean ± SEM.

Fig. 4

Remote psychedelic society members’ overall reactions and perceived self-identity connection to art objects and dosing room. (A) Object responses from psychedelic societies are ordered from the highest to lowest reaction from left to right with total sample size below. One-sample t-test. For (B), the proportion of participants endorsing a perceived self-identity connection (> 0) for each art object. RM one-way ANOVA. Tukey’s post-hoc analysis. Distribution of perceived self-identity connection in Phase 2 for (C) dosing room and (D) art objects. (E) Coded map of dominance analysis of multivariate linear regression model for Phase 2. (A, C, D) all use a 101-point visual analogue scale ranging from 0 to 100, with scale labels shown directly on the figure axes. Columns indicate object ID and rows indicate factor analysis, where each colored square indicates the type of dominance of factor i over factor j. *p < 0.05. **p < 0.01. ***p < 0.001. ****p < 0.0001. Data shown as mean ± SEM.

Fig. 5

Triangulation of findings and themes to a non-psychedelic community interest group. Comparison between participants from Phase 2 and Phase 3 of averaged (A) overall reaction (Unpaired t-test) and (B) self-identity connection across art objects in survey. Two-way ANOVA. Sidak’s posthoc analysis. (C) Contribution of elements in art to overall art reaction. 2 (Love it), 1 (Like it), 0 (Neutral), −1 (Dislike), −2 (Offensive). Two-way ANOVA. Sidak’s posthoc analysis. (A, B) all use a 101-point visual analogue scale ranging from 0 to 100, with scale labels shown directly on the figure axes. * - p < 0.05, **** - p < 0.0001. Data presented as mean ± SEM.