"The horrific October 7, 2023, attack at the Nova Music Festival in Israel represents a tragic but important moment in the history of trauma research. For the first time, a major mass-casualty terror event occurred when most victims were under the influence of psychoactive substances. This convergence of psychedelic intoxication and extreme trauma generated a rare opportunity to retrospectively analyze how altered states of consciousness affected real-life responses to life-threatening situations."
"I reviewed the data from the 343 festival attendees aged 18-64 (189 women, 154 men): Fifty-seven had used classic psychedelics (psilocybin, LSD, or mescaline), 133 had used cannabis, 147 had consumed alcohol, and 124 had taken MDMA (Ecstasy) one to five hours before the attack. Those who took psychedelics such as LSD or psilocybin experienced lower rates of PTSD and anxiety. The first new study, published in November 2025, by Simon et al., examined experiences of survivors through a neurophenomenological lens, identifying how psychedelic intoxication influenced survival responses, emotional processing"
The October 7, 2023 Nova Music Festival attack involved many attendees who were intoxicated with psychoactive substances, enabling analysis of altered-state effects during extreme trauma. Data from 343 attendees aged 18–64 (189 women, 154 men) showed 57 used classic psychedelics, 133 used cannabis, 147 consumed alcohol, and 124 took MDMA one to five hours before the attack. Those who took classic psychedelics such as psilocybin or LSD experienced lower rates of PTSD and anxiety. Survivor reports identified adaptive psychedelic dissociation, a combination of traumatic and psychedelic dissociative features—emotional detachment, derealization, depersonalization, automatic behaviors, and preserved functionality. Survivors reported that psychedelic subjective effects were suppressed during acute trauma exposure and resurfaced afterward.
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