Long-term ayahuasca users report less fear of death, but brain markers of denial persist

The question

Do people who use ayahuasca over the long term actually process the idea of their own death differently, not just in what they say, but in automatic brain responses?

What they did

Researchers tested 50 long-term ayahuasca users using magnetoencephalography (MEG), a technique that records the brain’s magnetic activity. The task measured the visual mismatch response, an automatic brain reaction that does not require the person to report anything. The paradigm paired images of the self with death-related words to see how the brain handled that combination. Results were compared with previously published data from healthy controls and from experienced meditators, and participants also completed self-report and behavioural measures of fear of death.

What they found

The brain data showed that ayahuasca users’ automatic responses to pairing death with the self looked like denial rather than acceptance, similar in direction to what the researchers describe as the usual pattern. On questionnaires and behavioural tasks, however, the ayahuasca group showed less implicit fear of death than the general population sample, and less explicit fear of death than both the general population and the meditator samples. The brain marker of death denial was linked to lower self-reported death acceptance and to death-related thoughts being less accessible. That same marker was also associated with greater life satisfaction, which the authors read as a sign it may play a protective role.

The fine print

This is a cross-sectional comparison, so it cannot show that ayahuasca caused any of the differences; people who choose long-term ayahuasca use may differ from others to begin with. The comparison groups came from previously published data rather than being recruited alongside this sample, and there was no placebo or randomization. The sample of 50 is modest for group comparisons, and the authors themselves call the findings preliminary. This summary is based on the abstract alone.

What it means

Long-term ayahuasca users said they feared death less, yet their automatic brain responses to death still looked like avoidance, suggesting that conscious attitudes and unconscious processing may not shift together.

Evidence grade: Low. Cross-sectional observational study of a self-selected group of 50 users compared with previously published control data, with no randomization or blinding.

This summary is based on the study’s published abstract.