Suggestibility is the inclination to uncritically adopt the ideas, beliefs, attitudes, or actions of others.

As substances can increase suggestibility, managing it is critical to psychedelic-assisted therapy, or PAT.

Research identifies distinct strategies to protect against harmful suggestibility over the course of PAT.

Enhanced informed consent, specialized training, and regular supervision are key components of ethical PAT.

Suggestibility is “the propensity to respond to suggested communication” (Schumaker, 2026, p. 3). This entails a tendency to adopt others’ ideas, beliefs, attitudes, or actions uncritically (APA, n.d.)—thus leaving people feeling vulnerable by bypassing their critical thinking, as their capacity to separate fact from fiction is compromised.

Suggestibility is particularly relevant in psychedelic-assisted therapy, or PAT. What has been called the “psychedelic renaissance”—the resurgence of research on psychedelic substances for mental health conditions after decades of inactivity—requires greater critical thinking to prevent the field from “going off the rails” due to commercial pressures, unintended consequences of medical harm, and the conflation of science with broader cultural agendas.

Why Suggestibility Matters in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy

PAT uses substances like psilocybin, ketamine, LSD, or MDMA, which have been found to reduce rigid neural activity and cognitive rigidity while promoting neuroplasticity and fostering an open and highly associative mental state (Kishon & Cycowicz, 2025). On the other hand, by diminishing decision-making capacity, reducing controllability, and limiting resistance to external influences (Villiger, 2024), this altered state of consciousness can significantly amplify an individual’s responsiveness to environmental sensitivity, psychological framing, and suggestibility (Dupuis, 2021).

In addition to the above, there is a paradoxical effect of suggestibility in PAT. While the effects of suggestibility can improve psychotherapy outcomes, it can also “act as a significant confound in research in therapeutic interventions” (Stein & Terhune, 2025, p. 449) by shaping people’s responses in ways unrelated to the substance and making its impact appear larger than it is.

Hence,........

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