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It traces how mysticism entered psychedelic research and therapy through the history of Betty Eisner, a pioneering LSD psychotherapist. Drawing on Eisner’s involvement since the late 1940s in a bible study group focused on the psychological basis of mystical experiences, the study shows how she carried those ideas into her 1950s psychology work and later LSD community discussions. After malpractice accusations in the 1970s led to loss of her clinical license, license revocation records are used to contextualize her mystically inspired therapy within broader professional attitudes.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-past-lives-of-betty-eisner-examining-the-spiritual-psyche-of-early-psychedelic-therapy-tal-davidson-master-of-arts-thesis/153227/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-past-lives-of-betty-eisner-examining-the-spiritual-psyche-of-early-psychedelic-therapy-tal-davidson-master-of-arts-thesis/153227.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Valentina","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-22","2026-08-27",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":44},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What central claim does the thesis make about early LSD research?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Early LSD research contained a sense of mysticism that was framed to fit with prevailing scientific epistemology.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How does Betty Eisner’s background relate to mysticism in psychedelic therapy?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"Eisner’s late-1940s bible study group emphasized psychological foundations of mystical experiences, and she carried this influence into her later psychology research and therapy.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What sources does the thesis use to examine Eisner after the 1970s?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"It uses records from Eisner’s license revocation hearings to situate her work within wider professional attitudes toward mystically inspired therapy.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},153227,1787872646,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":44,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":129,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},13056703020460,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/be000253dac470eee5d?_k=1778207105932848923","THE PAST LIVES OF BETTY EISNER: EXAMINING THE SPIRITUAL PSYCHE OF  \nEARLY PSYCHEDELIC THERAPY THROUGH THE STORY  \nOF AN OUTSIDER, A PIONEER, AND A VILLAIN  \nTAL DAVIDSON  \nA THESIS SUBMITTED TO  \nTHE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES  \nIN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS  \nFOR THE DEGREE OF  \nMASTER OF ARTS  \nGRADUATE PROGRAM IN PSYCHOLOGY  \nYORK UNIVERSITY  \nTORONTO, ONTARIO  \nSEPTEMBER 2017  \n© Tal Davidson, 2017  \nii  \nAbstract  \nIn this thesis, I argue that early LSD research was imbued with a sense of mysticism that was constructed to be commensurable with concurrent scientific epistemology. I demonstrate how mysticism entered psychedelic research and therapy through the history of a pioneer LSD psychotherapist named Betty Eisner . Since the late 1940s, Eisner was a key member of a bible study group that emphasized the psychological foundation of mystical experiences . When she entered psychology in the 1950s, she imported this influence into her research and therapy. As an active member of the small international LSD research community of the ‘50s and ‘60s, she participated in ongoing discussions about the place of mysticism in LSD psychotherapy. However, following malpractice accusations in the 1970s, Eisner lost her clinical license. Using records from her license revocation hearings, I will contextualize her work within the larger psychology profession’s attitudes toward mystically inspired therapy.  \niii  \nTABLE OF CONTENTS  \nAbstract………………………………………………………………………………….ii  \nTable of Contents……………………………………………………………………….iii  \nIntroduction………………………………………………………………………………1  \nChapter One: Modern Mysticism for the Working Scientist……………………….......27  \nChapter Two: The Association and Dissociation of Psycholytic Therapy...…………...55  \nChapter Three: Life After Past Life: Mysticism in Therapy After LSD’s Prohibition…82  \nConclusion……………………………………………………………………………..123  \nReferences……………………………………………………………………………..129  \n1  \nThe Past Lives of Betty Eisner: Examining the Spiritual Psyche of Early Psychedelic Therapy through the Story of an Outsider, a Pioneer , and a Villain  \nThe Journal of Psychopharmacology recently dedicated their entire December 2016 issue to psychedelic research and commentary. The novelty of the content notwithstanding, the issue was notable for featuring eminent authors that included past presidents from the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP), as well as medical scientists who have acted as national health advisors to various governments (Nutt, 2016). According to David Nutt, a British psychiatrist, past ECNP president, and former advisor to the United Kingdom Department of Health, the issue’s star power represents the consensus that the fields of psychiatry and pharmacology share regarding the clinical safety and therapeutic potential of psychedelic substances (Nutt, 2016) . The issue was not at all a dispassionate collection of recent work in a productive but arbitrary field; it was a proclamation, backed by the full weight of the medical science discipline, that the marginalization of psychedelic drugs is not based on scientific evidence. Nutt, who is also editor of the Journal of Psychopharmacology, opened the issue with the assertion that the lineup of authors alone “should reassure any waverers” that psychedelics have a role that is “well within the accepted scope of modern psychiatry,” and that psychiatrists “all agree we are now in an exciting phase of psychedelic psychopharmacology that needs to be encouraged and not impeded”(2016, p. 1163) .  \nThe issue also demonstrates psychedelic researchers’particular position as scientists: they are as concerned with changing society to accept the credibility of their discoveries as they are with making empirical discoveries themselves. Their discourses include the tight, operational descriptions of hypotheses, methods, results and rationales that satisfy the conventions of  \n2  \nscientific publishing. Ho","cbCaitPq4ZyA7Af0","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaitPq4ZyA7Af0","pdf",726344,157,"English","# Introduction\n# Chapter One: Modern Mysticism for the Working Scientist\n# Chapter Two: The Association and Dissociation of Psycholytic Therapy\n# Chapter Three: Life After Past Life: Mysticism in Therapy After LSD’s Prohibition\n# Conclusion\n# References","[{\"question\":\"What central claim does the thesis make about early LSD research?\",\"answer\":\"Early LSD research contained a sense of mysticism that was framed to fit with prevailing scientific epistemology.\"},{\"question\":\"How does Betty Eisner’s background relate to mysticism in psychedelic therapy?\",\"answer\":\"Eisner’s late-1940s bible study group emphasized psychological foundations of mystical experiences, and she carried this influence into her later psychology research and therapy.\"},{\"question\":\"What sources does the thesis use to examine Eisner after the 1970s?\",\"answer\":\"It uses records from Eisner’s license revocation hearings to situate her work within wider professional attitudes toward mystically inspired therapy.\"}]","The Past Lives of Betty Eisner - Examining the Spiritual Psyche of Early Psychedelic Therapy - Tal Davidson Master of Arts Thesis | PDF",396]