Beckley Retreats Research - Presence and Connection

Do nature and meditation actually do anything?

Two practices woven through every Beckley program. Each has its own separate research base, and we are careful not to claim more than that.

The short answer

Yes, and independently of psychedelics. A meta-analysis covering 30 samples and 8,523 people found a small but consistent association between feeling connected to nature and being happier.¹ A systematic review of 47 trials with 3,515 participants found moderate evidence that mindfulness meditation programs improve anxiety and depression.²

What no one has established is that combining psilocybin, nature and meditation produces something greater than each part alone. That specific combination has not been rigorously tested, so we present these as three separate practices with three separate evidence bases.³

How this research relates to a Beckley retreat

The studies described here were run as clinical trials, in hospitals or research settings, using standardized synthetic compounds under medical supervision. Beckley is not a clinical program. Our retreats are non-clinical wellbeing experiences that use natural psilocybin and are built around preparation, a guided experience, and integration.

What the research found

Two well cited reviews, one for each practice. Note that both are honest about the size of the effect.

What the studies actually did

Capaldi and colleagues pooled 30 samples covering 8,523 people to test whether people who feel connected to nature report being happier. They found a small but significant effect, with vitality showing the strongest relationship (r = .24), followed by positive affect (r = .22) and life satisfaction (r = .17).¹

What the meditation research shows

Goyal and colleagues reviewed 47 randomised trials covering 3,515 participants. They found moderate evidence that mindfulness meditation programs improved anxiety, depression and pain, and low evidence of improvement in stress, distress and mental health related quality of life.²

The finding we think matters most is the one least often quoted. The same review found no evidence that meditation programs were better than any active treatment, namely medication, exercise and other behavioural therapies.² Meditation appears to help. It does not appear to be uniquely superior.

Why we keep these claims separate

It would be easy to imply that psilocybin, nature and meditation reinforce one another, and it is an appealing story. It is not currently an evidenced one. Until that combination is tested directly, each pillar on this page stands on its own literature.³

What this does not mean

The limitations here come from the reviews themselves.

The nature research is correlational. A meta-analysis of associations cannot establish that nature causes happiness. People who are happier may simply spend more time outdoors.¹

The effect sizes are small. An r of .19 is a real but modest relationship, not a dramatic one.¹

Meditation evidence is mixed by outcome. Moderate for anxiety, depression and pain, low for stress and quality of life, and no better than any active treatment tested.²

The combination is untested. Nothing here supports a claim that the three practices together produce a distinctive effect.³

This is not a treatment claim. Beckley programs are wellbeing experiences, not clinical treatment for any diagnosed condition.

References

Every figure and finding stated on this page traces to one of the sources below.

Capaldi, C.A., Dopko, R.L., Zelenski, J.M. The relationship between nature connectedness and happiness: a meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 2014. Read the full text

Goyal, M., et al. Meditation programs for psychological stress and well-being: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Internal Medicine, 2014. Read the full text

Beckley Retreats editorial assessment. A statement about the absence of published evidence, not a research finding.