Beyond description: Developing a measure of the awe experience in psilocybin-assisted therapy

Scholars suggest awe, an experience characterized by vastness and a need for accommodation, mediates the positive effects of psilocybin-assisted therapy (PAT). We aim to develop a mechanism to identify moments of awe. We analyzed video data from a Phase 2 open-label study of psilocybin-assisted group therapy in patients with cancer and depression. We report on two cycles of codebook refinement to illustrate insights provided by each round. Our account claims that awe in PAT requires vastness, and may be ineffable or disrupt cognitive frameworks. This suggests awe is an identifiable feature of PAT and offers ways to measure its expression.