Contents:
- Intro
- References
- The 100 SOCQ Questions about Psychedelic Effects
- The 7 Categories
- Categories for MEQ
- Notes
- Links
Intro
SOCQ includes Walter Pahnke’s Good Friday Experiment’s Mystical Experiences Questionnaire (MEQ).
References
Pahnke, W. N. Drugs and Mysticism.
International Journal of Parapsychology 8, 295–314 (1966).
Pahnke, W. N.
Drugs and mysticism: An analysis of the relationship between psychedelic drugs and the mystical consciousness.
Harvard University Press, 1963
MacLean, K. A., Leoutsakos, J.-M. S., Johnson, M. W. & Griffiths, R. R.
Factor Analysis of the Mystical Experience Questionnaire: A Study of Experiences Occasioned by the Hallucinogen Psilocybin.
J. Sci. Study Relig. 51, 721–737 (2012).
Search:
https://www.bing.com/search?q=%22Factor+Analysis+of+the+Mystical+Experience+Questionnaire%22
Copy of article at PubMed:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23316089/
Stocker (2023): PES/PEQ/SOCQ
Article:
The revival of the psychedelic experience scale: Revealing its extended-mystical, visual, and distressing experiential spectrum with LSD and psilocybin studies
Kurt Stocker, Matthias Hartmann, Laura Ley, Anna M. Becker, Friederike Holze, Matthias Liechti
Published 2023/10/31
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/375158331_The_revival_of_the_psychedelic_experience_scale_Revealing_its_extended-mystical_visual_and_distressing_experiential_spectrum_with_LSD_and_psilocybin_studies
Journal of Psychopharmacology 38(1)
DOI:10.1177/02698811231199112
The 100 SOCQ Questions about Psychedelic Effects
Sorted by number is available in “Supplement4_PES_English-and-German.docx”.
Complete, from Stocker “Supplement3_PES_Factors_Themes.xls“:
THE PSYCHEDELIC EXPERIENCE SCALE (PES100): OVERVIEW FACTORS AND THEMES
MYSTICAL — INTERNAL UNITY
12. Feeling that you experienced eternity or infinity.
35. Freedom from the limitations of your personal self and feeling a unity or bond with what was felt to be greater than your personal self.
41. Experience of pure being and pure awareness (beyond the world of sense impressions).
54. Experience of oneness in relation to an “inner world” within.
77. Experience of the fusion of your personal self into a larger whole.
83. Experience of unity with ultimate reality.
MYSTICAL — EXTERNAL UNITY
14. Experience of oneness or unity with objects and/or persons perceived in your surroundings.
47. Experience of the insight that “all is One”.
74. Awareness of the life or living presence in all things.
MYSTICAL — NOETIC QUALITY
9. Gain of insightful knowledge experienced at an intuitive level.
22. Certainty of encounter with ultimate reality (in the sense of being able to “know” and “see” what is really real) at some time during your experience.
69. You are convinced now, as you look back on your experience, that in it you encountered ultimate reality (i.e., that you “knew” and “saw” what was really real).
MYSTICAL — SACREDNESS
36. Sense of being at a spiritual height.
55. Sense of reverence.
73. Feeling that you experienced something profoundly sacred and holy.
POSITIVE MOOD
5. Experience of amazement.
18. Feelings of tenderness and gentleness.
30. Feelings of peace and tranquility.
43. Experience of ecstasy.
80. Sense of awe or awesomeness.
87. Feelings of joy.
TRANSCENDENCE OF TIME AND SPACE
2. Loss of your usual sense of time.
15. Loss of your usual sense of space.
29. Loss of usual awareness of where you were.
34. Sense of being “outside of” time, beyond past and future.
48. Being in a realm with no space boundaries.
65. Experience of timelessness.
INEFFABILITY
6. Sense that the experience cannot be described adequately in words.
23. Feeling that you could not do justice to your experience by describing it in words.
86. Feeling that it would be difficult to communicate your own experience to others who have not had similar experiences.
PARADOXICALITY
19. Experience of a paradoxical awareness that two apparently opposite principles or situations are both true.
26. Loss of your usual identity.
42. Feeling that you were “outside of” history in a realm where time does not exist.
51. Loss of feelings of difference between yourself and objects or persons in your surroundings.
59. Sense that in order to describe parts of your experience you would have to use statements that appear to be illogical, involving contradictions and paradoxes.
CONNECTEDNESS
58. Increase in the beauty and significance of music. [Connected to beauty]
60. Feelings of universal or infinite love. [Connected to spiritual principle]
62. Intuitive insight into the inner nature of objects and/or persons in your surroundings. [Connected to others and/or the world]
95. Experience of increased awareness of beauty. [Connected to beauty]
99. Increased awareness of the importance of interpersonal relationships. [Connected to others]
VISUAL EXPERIENCE
1. Visions of abstract geometric patterns of colored lines.
17. Visions of art objects (e.g. mosaics, statues, jewelry, buildings) that reflect expert craftsmanship.
38. With open eyes, seeing objects around you turn into great works of art.
DISTRESSING EXPERIENCE
13. Emotional and/or physical suffering.
16. Feelings of despair.
28. Sense of being trapped and helpless.
45. Experience of isolation and loneliness.
52. Experience of fear.
Personal/Transpersonal Transition
70. Profound experience of your own death.
84. Feeling of disintegration, falling apart.
85. Fear that you might lose your mind or go insane.
Personal/Transpersonal Post-Transition
25. Experience of radiant, golden light.
67. Visions of brilliant white light.
100. Feeling of being reborn.
MORE MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE: Nonordinary Consciousness More Real Than Ordinary Consciousness
3. Feeling that the consciousness experienced during part of the session was more real than your normal awareness of everyday reality.
MORE MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE: Humility
8. Sense of the limitations and smallness of your everyday personality in contrast to the Infinite.
31. Sense of profound humility before the majesty of what was felt to be sacred or holy.
MORE MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE: Dynamically Unfolding Extrovertive Mystical Experience
27. With eyes open, seeing something in your surroundings more and more intensely and then feeling as though you and it become one.
MORE VISUAL EXPERIENCE (at times possibly also only “sensed” rather than actually “seen”):
MORE VISUAL EXPERIENCE: Out-of-Body/Detached-Perspective-Point Experience
53. Sense of being outside your body.
68. Experience of exploring organs, tissues or cells of your own body.
MORE VISUAL EXPERIENCE: Archetypes/Entities
37. Visions of demons, devils or other wrathful deities.
49. Visions of angels, cherubim or seraphim.
56. Visions of blissful or compassionate deities.
71. Visions of beautiful jewels and precious stones.
82. Visions of events in the life of Christ (e.g. birth, crucifixion, resurrection, etc.).
96. Vision of a religious Personage (e.g. Moses, Christ, Buddha, etc.).
97. Visions of landscapes (e.g. oceans, mountains, deserts, etc.).
MORE VISUAL EXPERIENCE: Age Regression
20. Sense of decreasing in body size to infancy or early childhood.
33. Convincing feeling that you relived experiences that you had as an infant during your biological birth.
92. Reliving of sensations and feelings associated with past surgery, illness or accidents
98. Reliving of situations and events from your childhood.
MORE VISUAL EXPERIENCE: Travel or Contact With the Past
7. Sense of passing through stages in evolution.
75. Convincing feeling of contact with people who have died.
81. Convincing experiences of life in civilizations that existed in another time and/or place (e.g. Ancient Egypt or Rome, Renaissance France, Colonial America, etc.).
90. Convincing feelings of reliving part of another life prior to your birth (a previous incarnation).
MORE VISUAL EXPERIENCE: Transformation Into An Animal
94. Sense of becoming a specific animal and feeling like that animal.”
MORE VISUAL EXPERIENCE: Sexual Organs
11. Visions of sexual organs (genitals, breasts).
MORE VISUAL EXPERIENCE: Extrasensory Perception
46. Convincing feeling that you obtained information about people or events in an extrasensory manner (telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, etc.).
MORE VISUAL EXPERIENCE: Repulsive Material
39. Experience of repulsive biological material (urine, feces, pus, dead flesh, etc).
MORE DISTRESSING EXPERIENCE: Confrontation with Emotions
4. Feelings of anger or aggression.
57. Feeling of being rejected or unwanted.
88. Feelings of guilt.
91. Feelings of grief.”
MORE DISTRESSING EXPERIENCE: Paranoia
40. Feeling that people were plotting against you.
72. Experience of antagonism toward your guide or assistant guide.
MORE DISTRESSING EXPERIENCE: Separated From The World
76. Sense of being separated from the normal world, as though you were enclosed in a silent glass chamber with thick walls.
MORE DISTRESSING EXPERIENCE: Meaninglessness/Absurdity of Life
61. Experience of meaninglessness and absurdity of life.
MORE DISTRESSING EXPERIENCE: Physical distress
89. Experiences of intense pressures on various parts of your body.
93. Experience of physical distress (e.g. nausea, vomiting, sweating, rapid heartbeat, etc.).
TRIPARTITE MIND (COGNITION/AFFECT/CONATION) MISCELLANEOUS EXPERIENCE:
TRIPARTITE MIND: Cognition: Cognitive excellence
32. Feeling that you could think with an unusually high degree of sharpness and clarity.
79. Feeling of being extremely sensitive to fine nuances of meaning between different words.
TRIPARTITE MIND: Cognition: Rapid Thought
44. Thoughts and ideas flashing by very rapidly.
TRIPARTITE MIND: Cognition: Delusion of Grandeur
24. Feelings of being more important than other people and having a very important task to accomplish.
TRIPARTITE MIND: Cognition: Impaired Cognition
21. Experience of confusion, disorientation and/or chaos.
TRIPARTITE MIND: Affect: Exaltation
50. Feelings of exaltation.
TRIPARTITE MIND: Affect: Closeness With Guide
63. Feeling of emotional closeness with your guide or assistant guide.
TRIPARTITE MIND: Affect: Return Reluctance
64. Feeling of reluctance to return to normal consciousness.
TRIPARTITE MIND: Affect: Sexual Excitement [could be nonordinary, more “”‘spiritual’ rather than ‘erotic’ in nature”” (Pahnke & Richards, 1966, p. 180)]
78. Experience of sexual excitement.
TRIPARTITE MIND: Affect: Overflowing Energy
10. Experience of overflowing energy.
TRIPARTITE MIND: Conation: Impaired Volition
66. Frustrating attempt to control the experience.
The 100 SOCQ Questions about Psychedelic Effects [incomplete]
Keywords for the Egodeath theory highlighted by Cybermonk – key words about experiencing eternalism and its control aspects.
2. Loss of your usual sense of time.
3. Feeling that the consciousness experienced during part of the session was more real than your normal awareness of everyday reality.
4. Feelings of anger or aggression.
5. Experience of amazement.
6. Sense that the experience cannot be described adequately in words.
8. Sense of the limitations and smallness of your everyday personality in contrast to the Infinite.
9. Gain of insightful knowledge experienced at an intuitive level.
10. Experience of overflowing energy.
12. Feeling that you experienced eternity or infinity.
13. Emotional and/or physical suffering.
14. Experience of oneness or unity with objects and/or persons perceived in your surroundings.
15. Loss of your usual sense of space.
16. Feelings of despair.
18. Feelings of tenderness and gentleness.
19. Experience of a paradoxical awareness that two apparently opposite principles or situations are both true.
21. Experience of confusion, disorientation and/or chaos.
22. Certainty of encounter with ultimate reality (in the sense of being able to “know” and “see” what is really real ) at some time during your session.
23. Feeling that you could not do justice to your experience by describing it in words.
26. Loss of your usual identity.
27. With eyes open, seeing something in your surroundings more and more intensely and then feeling as though you and it become one.
28. Sense of being trapped and helpless.
29. Loss of usual awareness of where you were.
30. Feelings of peace and tranquility.
31. Sense of profound humility before the majesty of what was felt to be sacred or holy.
34. Sense of being “outside of” time, beyond past and future.
35. Freedom from the limitations of your personal self and feeling a unity or bond with what was felt to be greater than your personal self.
36. Sense of being at a spiritual height.
37. Visions of demons, devils or other wrathful deities.
39. Experience of repulsive biological material (urine, feces, pus, dead flesh, etc.)
40. Feeling that people were plotting against you.
41. Experience of pure Being and pure awareness (beyond the world of sense impressions).
42. Feeling that you have been “outside of” history in a realm where time does not exist.
43. Experience of ecstasy.
44. Thoughts and ideas flashing by very rapidly.
45. Experience of isolation and loneliness.
47. Experience of the insight that “all is One”.
48. Being in a realm with no space boundaries.
50. Feelings of exaltation.
51. Loss of feelings of difference between yourself and objects or persons in your surroundings.
52. Experience of fear.
54. Experience of oneness in relation to an “inner world” within.
55. Sense of reverence.
57. Feeling of being rejected or unwanted.
59. Sense that in order to describe parts of your experience you would have to use statements that appear to be illogical, involving contradictions and paradoxes.
60. Feelings of universal or infinite love.
61. Experience of meaninglessness and absurdity of life.
62. Intuitive insight into the inner nature of objects and/or persons in your surroundings.
65. Experience of timelessness.
66. Frustrating attempt to control the experience.
69. You are convinced now, as you look back on your experience, that in it you encountered ultimate reality (i.e. that you “knew” and “saw” what was really real).
70. Profound experience of your own death.
72. Experience of antagonism toward people around you.
73. Feeling that you experienced something profoundly sacred and holy.
74. Awareness of the life or living presence in all things.
75. Convincing feeling of contact with people who have died.
76. Sense of being separated from the normal world, as though you were enclosed in a thick, silent glass chamber.
77. Experience of the fusion of your personal self into a larger whole.
80. Sense of awe or awesomeness.
83. Experience of unity with ultimate reality.
84. Feeling of disintegration, falling apart.
85. Fear that you might lose your mind or go insane.
86. Feeling that it would be difficult to communicate your own experience to others who have not had similar experiences.
87. Feelings of joy.
88. Feelings of guilt.
89. Experiences of intense pressures on various parts of your body.
91. Feelings of grief.
93. Experience of physical distress (e.g. nausea, vomiting, sweating, rapid heartbeat, etc.).
The 7 Categories
I. Internal Unity
II. External Unity
III. Transcendence of Time and Space
IV. Ineffability and Paradoxicality
V. Sense of Sacredness
VI. Noetic Quality
VII. Deeply-Felt Positive Mood
Categories for MEQ
- Ineffability
- Mystical
- Positive mood
- Transcendence of time and space
Notes
33 of the distractor questions are not found yet. Why do they make it impossible to simply get the list of the 100 questions?
I moved headings to a separate list.
I sorted numerically mixing all of the MEQ questions with the distractor questions which were in CEQ initial pool.
I have separated the headings/categories into a separate list. I’m interested in words in questions, and in category labels, but not interested in their use of categories.
I was going to sort 1-100 in order, but they make it as hard as possible [IMPOSSIBLE] to just simply get the list of all 100 questions.
VIII. Feeling That a Dragon Is Going to Eat the Entire Clinic
🏥 🍽 🐉
Links
The Questionnaire
States of Consciousness Questionnaire [SOCQ] and Pahnke-Richards Mystical Experience Questionnaire [MEQ]
https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~jfkihlstrom/ConsciousnessWeb/Psychedelics/States-of-Consciousness-Questionnaire-and-Pahnke.pdf
Source: RR Griffiths, WA Richards, U McCann, R Jesse. 2006. “Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance.” Psychopharmacology (Berl). 187(3), 268-83, commentaries 284-292. Available on the Council of Spiritual Practices’ Psilocybin Research page (pdf).
http://csp.org/psilocybin/http://www.csp.org/psilocybin/Hopkins-CSP-Psilocybin2006.pdf
http://files.csp.org/Psilocybin/Hopkins-CSP-Psilocybin2006.pdf – bottom has the grouped questions – but only the 43 MEQ questions, no trace of the 57 distractor questions, of which CEQ initial pool selected 24, omitting 33 (which I haven’t found yet).
Search
search:
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22States+of+Consciousness+Questionnaire%22
Short page about SOCQ
url https://blossomanalysis.com/measures/states-of-consciousness-questionnaire/
“The States of Consciousness Questionnaire (SOCQ) was developed [1970] to assess the occurrence features of the change in consciousness induced by psilocybin [Pahnke’s Good Friday experiment]
“and includes the Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ).
“The SOCQ consists of 100 items, 43 of which are from the MEQ.”
“The remaining 57 items in the questionnaire served as distracter items.”
But a big problem in Stocker 2023 article is, the item count switches back and forth between “the 57 distractor items” and suddenly, mysteriously, “the 70 distractor items” – as if it doesn’t redefine the term.
Moving from MEQ43 to MEQ30 while the SOCQ superset remains fixed at 100 items, means that 13 “mystical items” from MEQ43 magically transformed into “distractor items” – need to EXPLAIN how that transformation (reclassification) makes sense.
“Mystical” is misconceived, producing indeterminate switching of classification.
The Egodeath theory 