When Psychedelia Meets Trauma: Insights from Phenomenological Research with Survivors of the Nova Festival Terror Attack

📖 What’s This Paper About?

This groundbreaking paper explores the intersection of psychedelic experiences and trauma in survivors of the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack at the Nova music festival in Israel. Based on phenomenological research with approximately 45 survivors, the study reveals how psychedelic substances affected the processing of traumatic experiences both during and after the attack.

Why This Matters

The Nova festival attack created an unprecedented situation where hundreds of people experienced extreme trauma while under the influence of psychedelic substances. This unique circumstance provides valuable insights into how consciousness-altering drugs may influence trauma formation, survival mechanisms, and recovery pathways.

• The research challenges simplistic views about psychedelics being either harmful or beneficial during traumatic events
• Survivors report complex relationships between drug effects, dissociative protective mechanisms, and subsequent trauma processing
• The findings inform emerging psychedelic-informed therapy models for trauma survivors

Top 5 Takeaways

2. Consciousness flexibility during crisis

The research suggests psychedelics may have functioned as an “epistemological container” during the attack, providing survivors a cognitive framework through which they could interpret, contain, and organize the traumatic reality while maintaining functional continuity.

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The Bigger Picture

This research emerges from the horrific Nova festival attack but offers profound insights that extend beyond this specific trauma. The findings are transforming how clinicians understand the relationship between altered states of consciousness and trauma processing. While Western medical models have historically separated psychedelic experiences from trauma treatment, this study suggests that integrating understanding of both phenomena may lead to more effective therapeutic approaches. The research also emphasizes the critical importance of recognizing cultural and community contexts in trauma recovery, particularly when working with populations where psychedelic use forms part of their cultural identity.

Final Thought

Through unprecedented tragedy, this research offers a window into the complex interplay of consciousness, trauma, and community that may ultimately advance our understanding of human resilience and healing pathways.

WHEN PSYCHEDELIA MEETS TRAUMA: INSIGHTS FROM PHENOMENOLOGICAL RESEARCH WITH SURVIVORS OF THE TERROR ATTACK AT THE NOVA FESTIVAL

Guy Simon

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Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Bar-Ilan University

Co-founder and board member of “Safe Heart” Association

Keywords: psychedelics, trauma, war and terror, post-traumatic stress, psychotherapy, drugs, community healing

Introduction

On October 7, 2023, just before dawn, Hamas terrorists brutally attacked thousands of civilians celebrating at the “Nova” festival. Neither the perpetrators nor the victims knew how profoundly this horrific event would impact clinical and research engagement with the relationship between consciousness-expanding substances—psychedelics—and mental health, especially in the context of traumatic experiences.

For many survivors of the Nova attack, the use of psychedelic substances during the Hamas assault added a complex layer to their traumatic experience. Psychedelic substances are known for their ability to alter self-perception, space and time perception, and enhance sensory activity, potentially deeply influencing how traumatic events are processed or responded to (Lyon, 2024).

This article examines the relationship between Nova survivors’ trauma and their use of psychedelic substances during the event, and as a cultural characteristic of many survivors. The article is based on preliminary findings from an extensive phenomenological study I am conducting with other researchers at Bar-Ilan University’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology, in collaboration with the “Safe Heart” Association, where I am a co-founder and board member. The research includes thematic-analytical and narrative analysis of semi-structured in-depth interviews with approximately 45 Nova festival survivors.

I will open the article with a brief review of the connection between psychedelic culture and the therapeutic world, and then present preliminary findings on the experiences of Nova survivors. I will address feelings of shame and guilt that arise partly from stigma and social criticism about psychedelic use, and their impact on the healing process and ability to process feelings of shame and guilt arising in other contexts related to the traumatic event. I will particularly emphasize the communal and social aspects of Nova survivors’ experiences, and the importance of integrating community-family support with therapeutic interventions, along with efforts to reduce social stigma. In conclusion, I will briefly describe the change occurring in the therapeutic field following the accumulated experience from working with Nova survivors, which the research findings contribute to. This accumulated experience is improving therapists’ ability to offer adapted therapeutic approaches.

Background: When Psychedelic Culture Meets the Therapeutic World

The “psychedelic experience” is often described as an experience where ordinary reality is immersed in a deep sense of sacredness, spirituality, and transcendence (Eliade, 1959, 2014; Otto, 2016). But no less, the literature refers to it as a social event, in terms of mutual connection between participants and a sense of ritual partnership—what anthropologist Victor Turner called “communitas” (Communitas; Turner et al., 2017).

Many traditional societies perceive the “self” as deeply connected to the environment and therefore aim to embed psychedelic experiences in collective contexts that emphasize connecting the self to community and spirituality. Indeed, studies from various societies have described how healing rituals using psychedelic substances enhance social solidarity, provide a supportive environment, and resolve interpersonal tensions (Rodríguez Arce & Winkelman, 2021; Tramacchi, 2000).

In certain cultures studied in the past, psychedelic substances served as a central means in establishing and consolidating the community. The importance of the social-spiritual dimension of using these substances emerges from classic anthropological studies spanning many decades (Aaronson & Osmond,1970; de Rios, 1975; Metzner, 1998; Winkelman, 1991).

Today, there is increasing use of psychedelic substances among Western communities. For example, a U.S. government report published in 2020 noted that about 48.5 million people (nearly 15% of the population) had used a psychedelic substance in their lifetime, with 8.5 million during the year preceding the survey (SAMHSA, 2020). Psychedelic use occurs both in social circumstances—at nature parties, “ayahuasca” ceremonies and psilocybin mushroom ceremonies—and for personal purposes during leisure time (Kettner et al., 2021). However, while in non-Western cultures the use of psychedelic substances was primarily intended to connect the person to a religious and transcendent experience of release and human unity, in Western culture the practice of using psychedelics is mainly aimed at personal self-improvement, increasing functionality, and optimization of personal abilities, within frameworks of self-exploration or treatment (Hadar et al., 2023).

Many nature party attendees see the party as a kind of sacred space that, with the help of consciousness-expanding substances, allows deep and quick access to independent or shared consciousness exploration (St John, 2015; Papadimitropoulos, 2009). Indeed, studies show that psychedelic experiences can significantly influence self-perception, interpersonal relationships, and the spiritual aspects of human existence (Carhart-Harris et al., 2018; Nour et al., 2016).

Another connection between the use of consciousness-altering substances and self-improvement processes is expressed in the growing interest in psychedelic substances in therapeutic work—both in the regulated field, which scientifically examines the contribution of psychedelic substances such as LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA to treating mental disorders, and in the unregulated and often illegal field of therapeutic processes accompanied by the use of consciousness-altering substances. The increasing research-clinical interest in psychedelic substances, and the media’s engagement with their potential to treat mental disorders, has been termed the “psychedelic renaissance” (Hadar et al., 2023). Indeed, findings from numerous studies demonstrate the broad therapeutic potential of psychedelic substances for various conditions that do not receive adequate response in conventional medicine today (Griffiths et al., 2016; Mitchell et al., 2023), including trauma treatment (Nichols et al., 2017).

Alongside this, the literature also reveals the existence of underground models for psychotherapy using psychedelic substances (Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy), such as ayahuasca ceremonies, mushroom retreats, and MDMA treatments. The use of the psychedelic component in these underground frameworks is mostly based on the assumption that the psychedelic journey allows access to repressed memories or primary memories that emerge through non-verbal symbolic images, working with which enables treating difficulties supposedly originating in childhood (Fischman, 2019; Smith et al., 2024).

Influenced by psychoanalytical foundations, this approach suggests that using psychedelic substances allows weakening defense mechanisms. The primary site for healing, according to this approach, is in the individual’s consciousness, which in the West is perceived primarily as located in the brain.

Psychedelic-Informed Therapy

Unlike the models of psychedelic therapy, which emphasize the importance of set and setting during the use of psychedelic substances during therapy itself, and aim for the use of consciousness-altering substances to recover memories, the psychedelic-informed therapy approach does not require substance use. However, it assumes that naturalistic experiences of using consciousness expanders—meaning for pleasure and entertainment rather than in clinical contexts—are routine among certain communities, not in the context of addiction.

Given this assumption, the psychedelic-informed therapy approach relies on principles of harm reduction, psycho-education, and psychological flexibility. It focuses on building a non-judgmental and compassionate space that empowers the autonomy and cognitive and practical freedom of the client in everyday life. Psychedelic-informed therapy aims to provide a safe therapeutic framework that allows clients to derive maximum meaning from the unique states of consciousness obtained from the psychedelic experience (whether it occurred in an independent naturalistic setting or as a shared experience), while reducing the possibility of harm.

The therapeutic approach is based on a deep understanding of the unique phenomenology of psychedelic experiences—such as ego dissolution and changes in time and space perception—and their extensive implications for self-perception, interpersonal relationships, reality conceptualization, and spiritual aspects of human existence. Simultaneously, it addresses the complex therapeutic needs these experiences can create, as well as the psychopathology that may be associated with them. The goal is to integrate psychedelic experiences through a process of processing insights from the experience and applying them in everyday life, contributing to feelings of meaning and life satisfaction.

Preliminary Findings on the Experiences of Survivors

The interviews conducted so far with Nova survivors and survivors who focused on the connection between the trauma they experienced and the experience of using psychedelic substances do not allow us to determine precisely how psychedelic substances affected the formation of trauma itself. We cannot know, and probably will never know, which of the factors had the greatest impact on the trauma experience of each survivor—the acid, ketamine, adrenaline, or the paralyzing fear itself. However, from interviews with many Nova survivors emerges the subjective attribution to how psychedelic substances affected emotional coping during the event.

Some survivors reported experiences of severe confusion and emotional paralysis, and an acute sense of uncertainty in the face of the sudden and jarring transition from happiness to terror. For example, one participant who had taken ketamine (a dissociative drug) said she felt trapped in a nightmare: “I felt like I was drowning in a sea of terror without being able to move or react. It’s lucky they took me away; I wouldn’t have been able to escape on my own.”

Additional testimonies from survivors point to an interesting phenomenon, as for some of them the direct influence of the substances during the events themselves was not dominant: they did not clearly experience the full effect of the substances during the escape, and it appears their influence decreased during the event. Some interviewees reported that they only began to feel the effects of the substance again when they reached their homes.

These findings can be linked to hypotheses about two parallel mechanisms of action: one related to the placebo effect (Wager & Atlas, 2015), where subjective expectations and contextual framing play a central role in creating the psychological experience, and perhaps even physical. The second relates to the psychoneurological complexity of severe trauma states: it is possible that when a person is in immediate life danger, the body activates the “fight or flight” response, releasing large amounts of stress hormones, primarily adrenaline. In these situations, the brain prioritizes basic survival mechanisms over other psychoactive influences. The fact that the substances resumed their effect when survivors reached a safe place strengthens the hypothesis that there is a dynamic hierarchy in neuro-chemical systems, where immediate survival mechanisms take precedence during acute danger. However, to better understand this phenomenon, which appears to have been very significant for quite a few survivors, in-depth neuro-psychopharmacological research is needed.

Most interviewees indicated that the substances created a dissociative protective layer—positive, in their perception—that prevented them from feeling threatened, frightened, or helpless during the event and allowed them to respond quickly and decisively. Some reported that during the traumatic experience, the psychoactive substances gave them a sense of clarity and decisiveness that was unexpected and helped them navigate through the chaos and make decisions that proved life-saving.

An additional significant aspect emerged from survivors’ testimonies: some survivors testified that during the events themselves, they were aware of the specific effects of the substances they had taken, and even channeled these effects for practical coping. Some described being aware of how the substance they had taken detached them from the situation or helped them cope with it in a way that prevented or mitigated the experience of threat, fear, or helplessness, thereby seemingly allowing them to respond quickly and accurately. For example, one survivor who had taken LSD before the attack described a deep spiritual experience that he said saved his life: “During the chaos, I felt a sense of calmness and deep clarity,” he recalled. “It was as if I could see the right path to escape.” Another person attributed to ecstasy (a party drug containing MDMA) the physical and emotional strength that allowed him to carry his paralyzed friend to a safe place, despite the fear and terror that surrounded them.

This means the substances did not act through direct psychopharmacological mechanisms alone, but through complex processes of meaning-making and subjective support, which were perceived as meaningful for their coping in real-time. In other words, it can be said that psychedelic substances served as an “epistemological container” during the event, that is, as a cognitive framework through which survivors not only experienced the effects of the substances but also interpreted and understood them in a way that allowed containment, mitigation, and organization of the traumatic reality during the event. What helped with coping was not just knowing about the effects of the substances, but also the ability to use this knowledge as a survival tool.

The epistemological container allowed survivors to remain in a state of “adaptive dissociation”—an effective defense mechanism in the short term, contributing to coping by creating emotional and cognitive distance from the experience (Lynn, 2005). From the interviewees’ accounts, it appears that the adaptive dissociation was supported by the empathogenic effect of MDMA or the psycho-spiritual effect of LSD.

In addition to adaptive dissociation, some interviewees attribute to the substances they took a contribution to cognitive flexibility, which helped them adapt their responses to the changing emergency conditions during the event. This can be described as a “paradoxical placebo”—a state where awareness of the minimal effect of the substance actually enhances coping mechanisms. Unlike a regular placebo effect, where belief in the drug’s effect creates the effect, here the awareness of the limited effect allows the recruitment of additional internal resources. It seems that perception of the situation they were in as a survival situation developed mechanisms of coping that go beyond the binary distinction between real and imagined influence, as the substance functioned as a symbolic anchor only and allowed recruitment of internal resources. Consciousness-altering substances were perceived in interviews with these survivors as responsible for creating a consciousness space that mediates between the traumatic reality and consciousness. This space functioned during the event as a dynamic meaning system that allowed maintaining a functional continuum.

Some survivors also testified in interviews that during the events, the experience of time changed, in a way characteristic of the psychedelic experience: the general time (clock time) lost its meaning in the subjective experience, and the trauma was experienced in a trans-temporal manner, outside the regular linear time, without attributing meaning to the long time that had passed. This experience allowed reduction of the immediate emotional burden, while maintaining function in the emergency situation. However, in the long term, the emotional and cognitive distance from the event may make it difficult to cope with post-traumatic persistence, as it may make it difficult to integrate the experience into the overall mental structure. Indeed, follow-up on the condition of survivors in the period after the event reveals a fundamental paradox: while in real-time the substances were perceived as a protective and enabling factor, in a long-term perspective it turns out that the “euphoric” dissociation experienced was not necessarily beneficial for processing the traumatic experience, and was sometimes perceived as hindering the healing processes.

These findings challenge the reductionistic perspective that attributes the protective or therapeutic effects to biochemical mechanisms alone. Instead, a complex system of psycho-pharmacological interactions between consciousness, substance, and trauma is revealed, where the immediate effectiveness of survival mechanisms stands in constant tension with their long-term implications for processing and healing. These insights emphasize the need to develop therapeutic approaches that address both the immediate aspects of survival and the long-term processes of processing and healing.

In addition to feelings related to the psychedelic experience, some interviewees expressed additional feelings typical of trauma survivors, such as feelings of shame about the experience of helplessness and about the feeling of inability to cope with the situation they felt during the attack. Others report feelings of shame and guilt about having survived, while their friends were murdered or are being held captive in Gaza. As one survivor described: “I won’t recover, I can’t relax until they return. Why am I here and they’re there? I can’t bear this.”

Indeed, in trauma literature, it is accepted that at the core of the struggle of trauma survivors are feelings of shame and guilt, which play a central role in the development of trauma into post-traumatic stress disorder (Lee et al., 2001; Leskela et al., 2002; Saraiya & Lopez-Castro, 2016). The literature suggests that appropriate processing of trauma can lead to future post-traumatic growth, meaning positive psychological change following struggle with particularly challenging life circumstances, and even following a cruel, shocking, and inconceivable event like the Hamas attack at the Nova festival. However, without appropriate processing, shame and guilt among post-traumatic survivors tend to persist, hinder such growth, and manifest in ruminative thoughts that don’t allow releasing the narrative that has become fixed (Moulds et al., 2020).

Importance of the Community and Social Aspects in Therapeutic Intervention with Nova Survivors

Another important aspect that emerges from the literature on trauma is the exacerbation of shame in trauma survivors in light of social expectations and cultural norms that value bravery and resistance to pressure, especially when survivors feel they did not meet those expectations.

In the context of Nova survivors, from the interviews emerged an additional dimension of shame in relation to social expectations, and it became clear that experiences of guilt and shame were sometimes aroused in encounters with family members who need to support recovery, from whom they tried to hide their use of psychedelic substances, for fear of critical and unsupportive response. Indeed, for the parents of survivors, this was sometimes the first time they learned about their children’s use of psychedelic substances and the meaning of the psychedelic community for them. This revelation created an additional emotional coping arena, requiring an appropriate cultural and social response.

From the interviews, it emerges that in addition to the self-judgment characteristic of trauma survivors, Nova festival survivors are exposed to social stigmas and feel that the environment judges them for their way of entertainment, for their participation in nature parties, and for the use of consciousness-expanding or stimulant substances. From their words, it appears that this sense of social judgment makes it even more difficult for them to cope with the trauma.

It seems, therefore, that the source of the feelings of guilt and shame from which survivors suffer in this case is twofold: they stem not only from the personal experiences of each one of them but also from the social pressure to conform to defined social norms that reject the cultural-social-community practices that are an important part of the identity of many of them. The social-normative expectations prevent them from expressing their deep needs for psycho-spiritual and transcendent experiences, for tribal, unitary, and unifying closeness, or for self-improvement and reflection. Israeli society, which sometimes rejects transcendent experiences in a secular context and the use of psychedelic substances, struggles to accept the cultural-social uniqueness of the survivors.

The lack of recognition by society of the social-cultural characteristics of the survivors and the difficulty in accepting the basic needs that are expressed in the psychedelic practice, limits the ability of the survivors to authentically connect to the experience they went through, to be free from guilt and shame, to achieve self-realization, and to find renewed meaning in their lives after the trauma (Viña, 2024). Indeed, the thwarting of personal growth due to cultural non-acceptance is recognized in the literature from Maslow’s writings, who argued that the innate drive of the individual for self-realization and return to an essential human core is blocked by Western rational-modern culture, which seeks to dictate a “normality” that actually expresses inauthenticity, illusion, and fear (Maslow, 1968).

Initial Recommendations for the Trauma Healing Process of Nova Festival Survivors

From the interviews, it emerges as mentioned that the psychedelic experience and the traumatic experience became linked for the survivors. Therefore, the healing process must address both the psychedelic characteristics of the experience and its traumatic characteristics. As described above, in the therapeutic field, there are approaches that connect psychedelic experience to therapy, and some seek to offer therapy directed at trauma victims. But the question arises: Is the healing process proposed by them sufficiently adapted to Nova festival survivors?

On the surface, there is an established connection between trauma treatment and psychedelic therapy: studies show that consciousness-expanding substances offer unique mechanisms for treating trauma, and they have the ability to induce chemical changes in the brain, primarily through the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor, and allow processing of traumatic memories through entering a simulated arousal state, which, according to an emerging paradigm today, is more effective than trauma treatment conducted through conversation (Levine, 1997; Nichols et al., 2017).

However, examination of psychedelic psychotherapy, and ayahuasca culture in particular, in the context of trauma treatment points to significant ethical difficulties. In many cases, psychedelic psychotherapy sees trauma survivors as potential patients needing healing through therapeutic relationships with a strong suggestive component (the substance alters consciousness) and a regressive approach to treatment (Brennan, 2022). But research shows that memories recovered with the help of psychedelic substances after a long period of amnesia may be incorrect, and represent events that didn’t occur in reality (Healy, 2021). When they are mistakenly interpreted as repressed memories, they are prone to many implications for the close environment, whose stability is critical to the healing process from post-trauma (Evans et al., 2023; Wood et al., 2024; Robinson et al., 2024; Argyri et al., 2024). Furthermore, there seems to be room for criticism of the view that reprocessing memories through consciousness experiences is a universal ‘healing path’ (Rose, 2024).

Therefore, contrary to the approach advocating the creation of new psychedelic experiences in a therapeutic context, to provide a complete and holistic response to survivors, we should allow deep processing of real-life experiences that are close to consciousness, including psychedelic experiences from a naturalistic context, so that these become, over time, complete, healing, and meaningful experiences. We should recognize and normalize psychedelic experiences and build a new body of knowledge that will connect them to the severe implications of exposure to traumatic events.

The interventions of the psychedelic-informed therapy approach are usually directed towards these goals and are carried out by therapists with proper training and more rigorous ethical commitment. However, even this approach is not necessarily suitable for working with Nova survivors, especially when it is done in an egocentric therapeutic framework, self-oriented, reflecting egocentric concepts of the self, which don’t fully align with the social-community component of most psychedelic experiences. A psychotherapeutic-psychedelic space centered on individuals and not communities doesn’t match the experiences of party survivors in the south, which were fundamentally communal-social.

As the interviews teach us, the October 7 attack not only damaged the physical security of the survivors and deeply hurt their emotional confidence and security, but also undermined the sense of community and collective identity of the participants. Therefore, the broad cultural context is critical in the healing process of the survivors, since community healing is essential for personal healing. To encourage healthier adaptation of the survivors and promote personal and communal growth, it’s not enough to seek to overcome personal trauma, but also to learn how to implement transcendent experiences—so important to their identity—within existing social contexts.

It therefore seems that the most suitable treatment for the survivors of the atrocity in the south is psychedelic and trauma-informed therapy that also takes place in a community space: therapy that integrates the ritual and interpersonal dimension at the heart of working with survivors. The therapists working with survivors have the obligation to recognize their broad community needs and allow shared therapeutic encounters that strengthen community ties weakened by the trauma. Shared therapeutic encounters can assist in rebuilding the collective story of the event, and help survivors reconstruct their experiences within a supportive community. The community gatherings can be in retreats, nature parties, or any community-ritual gathering that is held and contained by a professional who has been trained for this and is psychedelic-informed.

In addition, in order to help reduce shame and guilt, therapists should promote social and family literacy and provide psycho-educational information to the survivors’ environment regarding the characteristics of psychedelic culture and the meaning of psychedelic experiences for the survivors. The importance of understanding the context is similar to the importance of therapists’ understanding of sexual violence, who are expected to recognize the broad cultural context and social expectations the victim is subject to. Reducing the stigma around the use of consciousness-altering substances can reduce shame and guilt—a process that is vital for personal healing and strengthening the communal resilience of the survivors (Gorman et al., 2021; Luoma, 2008; Rüsch et al., 2005).

Conclusion: Changes in the Therapeutic Field Following October 7

Until the events of October 7, 2023, very few certified therapists in Israel were familiar with the effects of psychedelic substances on the psyche and body. Following the difficult events, hundreds of therapists across the country suddenly needed to work with clients who had access to diverse drug experiences in their scope and impact.

As a result, training frameworks providing knowledge to therapists about therapeutic approaches relevant to dealing with trauma and with the effects of psychedelic substances on it have multiplied, and these therapeutic interventions became the oxygen supply for thousands of party survivors in the south. Indeed, to soothe their feelings of guilt and shame, these survivors need therapists who will recognize their inner world, the values, and the cultural framework in which the psychedelic experience takes place.

The insights accumulating today in research and treatment of survivors can lead to the development of focused interventions adapted to the unique needs of survivors of traumatic events who used psychedelic substances. Improving our understanding of these experiences can also help in promoting safer use of substances in the future and a deeper understanding of their social and psychological effects.

The preliminary findings from interviews with Nova survivors, as presented in this article, as well as the accumulated experience from working with survivors, point to the vulnerability of the communal spaces of members of the psychedelic community in Israel. At the same time, from the findings, we can also infer about the resilience that can be built through wise therapeutic practices and empathy. This article sought to suggest that integrative therapy, which recognizes the importance of the psychedelic experience alongside the traumatic one, and respects the client and their inner and cultural world, can provide an essential framework for dealing with the complex dynamics of experiencing trauma during psychedelic experiences, as required in treating the festival survivors in the south.

Acknowledgements

Deep thanks to the survivors of the terror attack at the parties in the south, who share with us honestly and courageously their experiences and needs, allowing us to deepen our understanding in order to improve treatment and assistance. Thanks to my research colleagues: Maya Gal, Dr. Damian Halperin, Nir Tadmor, Dr. Michal Pagis, and Dr. Shlomo Guzman, and to Bar-Ilan University for supporting the research. Special thanks to the “Safe Heart” Association—to my colleagues in the founding team, the management, and hundreds of dedicated therapists who have been working tirelessly for more than a year for the survivors, with deep commitment not to leave any man or woman alone in their struggle.

Notes

1. It is interesting to think in this context about the use of psychedelics in light of sociological insights of researcher Michal Pagis about meditation practitioners (Pagis, 2019). Pagis describes meditation as a technique for self-exploration that penetrated the West from Eastern cultures, against the dominance of language as the main channel through which people used to explore their psyche and treat themselves. She places meditation alongside other techniques originating from the East and indigenous cultures from America and Africa, which explore the self in a reflexive way through the body: yoga, meditation, entering trance states, fasting—and use of psychedelic substances. These practices were in the past religious practices or part of counter-culture, and today they are secular practices that do not carry an attempt at social rebellion, but rather: they help individuals integrate more comfortably into society.

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