&gt; When I say &quot;as if&quot; true, what I mean is: don&#x27;t approach the study with the assumption that it&#x27;s merely a psychological phenomena derived from culture or experience (typical approach)<p>Which is literally saying don&#x27;t use science.  Because that is what any scientists would use as the null hypothesis in these scenarios because it is the most likely explanation.<p>&gt; Collect the data first, find the commonalities between each participant, and then begin discussing the possibilities that emerge from the open minded exploration of a phenomena that has been studied far less than it should.<p>That&#x27;s called religion.  Science requires evidence, and personal experiences while on drugs are evidence of nothing more than psychological phenomena.  There is no reason at all to think they&#x27;re anything more than that.