William A Richards

Johns Hopkins Medicine | JHUSOM · Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) is a burgeoning treatment with growing interest across a variety of settings and disciplines. Empirical evidence supports PAT as a novel therapeutic approach that provides safe and effective treatment for people suffering from a variety of diagnoses, including treatment-resistant depression, substance use disorder...

Background: With support from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, we convened researchers representing palliative care, psychosocial oncology, spiritual care, oncology, and psychedelic-assisted therapies. We aimed to define priorities and envision an agenda for future research on psychedelic-assisted therapies in patie...

Introduction: Psychological support throughout psilocybin therapy is mandated by regulators as an essential part of ensuring participants' physical and psychological safety. There is an increased need for specially trained therapists who can provide high-quality care to participants in clinical studies. This paper describes the development and prac...

Humans have used serotonergic hallucinogens (i.e. psychedelics) for spiritual, ceremonial, and recreational purposes for thousands of years, but their administration as part of a structured therapeutic intervention is still a relatively novel practice within Western medical and psychological frameworks. In the mid-20th century, considerable advance...

Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences with participant-attributed increases in well-being. However, little research has examined enduring changes in traits. This study administered psilocybin to participants who undertook a program of meditation/spiritual practices. Healthy participants were randomized to three groups (25 each): (1) ver...

Cancer patients often develop chronic, clinically significant symptoms of depression and anxiety. Previous studies suggest that psilocybin may decrease depression and anxiety in cancer patients. The effects of psilocybin were studied in 51 cancer patients with life-threatening diagnoses and symptoms of depression and/or anxiety. This randomized, do...

Presented at a conference titled “Psychedelic Science 2013,” highlighting the resumption of investigations with psychedelic substances (i.e., psilocybin, DMT, LSD, MMDA, etc.) in the United States and Europe after a dormant period of more than two decades, the author presents insights and perspectives gleaned from his 25 years of clinical research...

In this brief tribute to Abraham Maslow, a founder of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology, his interests in psychedelic research are described by the author who served as his research assistant from 1966 to 1967.

Sacred Knowledge is the first well-documented, sophisticated account of the effect of psychedelics on biological processes, human consciousness, and revelatory religious experiences. Based on nearly three decades of legal research with volunteers, William A. Richards argues that, if used responsibly and legally, psychedelics have the potential to a...

Renewed research with entheogens (psychedelic sub- stances) has been able to facilitate the occurrence of mystical forms of consciousness in healthy volunteers with a high degree of reliability. This article explores the potential significance of this development for religious scholars, especially those interested in the study of mysticism. The def...

This dose-effect study extends previous observations showing that psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having persisting positive effects on attitudes, mood, and behavior. This double-blind study evaluated psilocybin (0, 5, 10, 20, 30 mg/70 kg, p.o.) administered under supportive conditions. Participants were 18 adults (17 hallucinogen...

Accompanying the resumption of human research with the entheogen (psychedelic drug), psilocybin, the range of states of consciousness reported during its action, including both nonmystical and mystical forms of experience, is surveyed and defined. The science and art of facilitating mystical experiences is discussed on the basis of research experie...

There has recently been a renewal of human research with classical hallucinogens (psychedelics). This paper first briefly discusses the unique history of human hallucinogen research, and then reviews the risks of hallucinogen administration and safeguards for minimizing these risks. Although hallucinogens are relatively safe physiologically and are...

Psilocybin has been used for centuries for religious purposes; however, little is known scientifically about its long-term effects. We previously reported the effects of a double-blind study evaluating the psychological effects of a high psilocybin dose. This report presents the 14-month follow-up and examines the relationship of the follow-up resu...

Although psilocybin has been used for centuries for religious purposes, little is known scientifically about its acute and persisting effects. This double-blind study evaluated the acute and longer-term psychological effects of a high dose of psilocybin relative to a comparison compound administered under comfortable, supportive conditions. The par...

States of Consciousness Questionnaire and Pahnke–Richards Mystical Experience Questionnaire

Items in the Persisting Effects Questionnaire used to assess eight categories of possible change in attitudes, mood, social effects, and behavior: I, positive attitudes about life and/or self (17 items); II, negative attitudes about life and/or self (17 items); III, positive mood changes (four items); IV, negative mood changes (four items); V, altr...

This article addresses the potential significance of archetypal and mystical experiences sometimes reported when entheogens are employed in supportive, legal research contexts. This area of research, which has been difficult to pursue in recent decades due to Federal legislation and concerns about drug-abuse, is presented as a frontier in the psych...

An overview of an experimental program of psychedelic drug-assisted psychotherapy for terminal cancer patients suffering from psychological distress is presented. Therapeutic procedures are described in detail. Discussion focuses on the categories of altered states of consciousness reported by patients and their respective import for psychotherapy.

Thirty cancer patients suffering from psychological distress participated in a pilot project of individual psychotherapy that offered – over a four week period of time – approximately twelve hours of conventional verbal interaction and a single intensive drug-assisted therapy session that employed dipropyltryptamine (DPT), a short-acting psychedeli...

Examined the effect of dipropyltryptamine (DPT) on the effectiveness of psychotherapy in 103 male adult alcoholic patients after they had been treated for withdrawal symptoms. DPT is a synthetic substance with subjective effects similar to those of LSD but lasting for a shorter time. Ss were given 15–45 mg DPT (lasted 1–2 hrs) during psychotherapy...

Studied the effectiveness of having a "peak experience" in the process of psychotherapy with 34 terminal cancer patients. The peak experience, a radically altered form of consciousness involving profoundly positive feelings, was produced by administering 75–227.5 mg of dipropyltryptamine (DPT). Assessment with 2 sets of questionnaires indicated tha...

Ten neurotic patients (five males and five females) were treated over a period of 2 to 6 months (mean, 4.1) as outpatients. The study allowed for a maximum of 75 hours of psychotherapy (mean, 51.55 hours). During the course of treatment, two to four (mean, 3.5) administrations of MDA (3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine) were employed as adjunctive aids...

The paper describes the results of a clinical study exploring the potential of a complex psychotherapeutic program utilizing psychedilic compounds to alleviate the emotional and physical suffering of cancer patients. A total of 60 cancer patients participated in this experimental study. In 44 of these patients, LSD (200-500 μg per os) was administe...

31 patients diagnosed at various stages of cancer progression were referred for therapy consisting of drug-free preparatory interviews totalling 6-12 over 2-3 wks, an all-day LSD session, and postsession interviews used to facilitate integration of the LSD experience. Assessment of LSD dosage was based on body weight and emotional defenses. Patient...

Describes an LSD-assisted therapeutic intervention with a highly articulate patient who entered psychotherapy to resolve guilt and depression that appeared to inhibit her creativity as a writer. The report illustrates the entelechy of the interpersonally grounded psyche and also an interrelationship between personal-psychodynamic and transpersonal-...