Shawn Ryan, Exorcism & Psychedelics: Can Altered States Open the Door to Spiritual Experiences?
When a psychedelic experience feels more real than ordinary reality, how do we distinguish spiritual encounter, subconscious material, trauma, archetypal imagery, or something we do not yet understand?
When former Navy SEAL and podcaster Shawn Ryan described an altered-state experience that he believes took him to hell, one part of his story stood out to me as a Quantum Hypnosis practitioner.
It wasn't simply what he saw.
In fact, Ryan said he saw almost nothing.
He described profound emptiness, extraordinary fear and anxiety, the perceived absence of God and Christ, unusual bodily movements, and the sensation that something might have been trying to leave him. He said the experience felt like eternity and was more real to him than ordinary waking reality.
In the period that followed, Ryan described nightmares, unusual coincidences and events he interpreted as supernatural. He eventually sought guidance from Catholic priests and underwent multiple exorcisms. According to Ryan, the priests he consulted believed he was experiencing what they called spiritual oppression rather than possession.
His account raises a fascinating and difficult question:
What exactly happens when someone enters an altered state of consciousness and encounters something that feels completely real, intelligent, frightening or spiritually significant?
Was Ryan experiencing spiritual oppression?
A psychedelic crisis?
Trauma or fear emerging through an altered state?
An encounter with subconscious material?
Something archetypal?
An entity-like experience?
Or something for which we simply don't yet have an adequate framework?
I don't think a responsible practitioner can diagnose what happened to Shawn Ryan from an interview.
But I do believe experiences like his deserve to be explored without immediately ridiculing the spiritual interpretation or automatically assuming that the experience must have been literally demonic.
That middle ground is important.
It is also very similar to the approach I take when unusual or entity-like experiences arise in Quantum Hypnosis.
Watch the original conversation: Shawn Ryan discusses his psychedelic experiences, spiritual warfare, Christianity and the exorcisms he underwent during his appearance on The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett.
Quick Answer: Can Psychedelics Cause Spiritual or Entity-Like Experiences?
Yes, psychedelic experiences can include vivid perceptions of entities, presences, spiritual beings, frightening environments, religious imagery and experiences that feel profoundly real. What cannot automatically be determined is what those experiences objectively represent.
One person may understand the experience spiritually. Another may interpret it psychologically or neurologically. Someone else may understand it as subconscious symbolism, trauma, an archetypal experience or an encounter with a reality beyond ordinary perception.
The intensity of an experience does not by itself establish which explanation is correct.
This distinction matters enormously.
The experience is real as an experience. Its interpretation remains open.
What Shawn Ryan Says Happened
Ryan's experience didn't occur in isolation.
In the interview, he discusses having previously used several psychedelics, including ibogaine, psilocybin and 5-MeO-DMT. He describes some earlier experiences as extremely useful, saying they seemed to give him clarity about complicated business decisions, relationships and other areas of his life.
At the same time, he says he had increasingly become concerned that psychedelics might expose a person to a spiritual realm humans don't fully understand.
Ryan described it as potentially “lifting the veil.”
But he raised an interesting question about that metaphor:
What if the veil exists for a reason?
He believes his later experience may have exposed him to something spiritually dangerous, although he also carefully acknowledged that he could not definitively say psychedelics caused everything that followed.
During the experience itself, Ryan reported overwhelming fear and anxiety.
He described:
profound emptiness
feeling separated from God and Christ
a distorted sense of time
unusual involuntary-looking bodily movements
the sensation that something might have been trying to leave him
an experience he compared to an extremely intense exorcism
A friend reportedly witnessed some of his unusual physical behavior.
Ryan later described the experience as a turning point in his spiritual life.
Whatever explanation one ultimately gives it, the experience clearly carried enormous meaning for him.
Why Did Shawn Ryan Describe His Experience as Hell?
Interestingly, Ryan's description doesn't resemble the stereotypical imagery of hell.
He didn't describe lakes of fire, demons with horns or the elaborate imagery people might expect from religious art or movies.
He described absence.
Emptiness.
Fear.
Anxiety.
Separation from God.
And what felt like eternity.
That is important because profound altered states do not necessarily unfold as visual movies.
People may experience them through emotion, bodily sensation, intuitive knowing, changes in identity, altered perceptions of time or an overwhelming feeling that they have entered another reality.
I see a related principle in hypnosis.
People sometimes arrive expecting a cinematic experience. They believe they need to “see” another world as clearly as they're watching television.
But altered states can communicate through many channels.
Someone might experience:
a sensation,
a thought,
a memory,
an emotion,
a presence,
an internal voice,
a symbolic image,
or simply an inexplicable sense of knowing.
The absence of visual imagery doesn't necessarily make the subjective experience less powerful.
Possession vs Spiritual Oppression: What's the Difference?
During the interview, Ryan makes an important distinction based on conversations he says he had with priests.
He describes possession as a condition in which a person may lose control over aspects of mind or body.
By contrast, he describes spiritual oppression as perceived spiritual interference occurring while the person remains fundamentally in control.
Ryan says the priests he consulted believed his situation was closer to oppression than possession. He also describes the exorcism process he underwent as involving repeated prayers in English and Latin while the priests watched for reactions to particular prayers.
These concepts belong primarily to religious and spiritual frameworks. They should not be confused with established medical diagnoses.
And different traditions describe unusual spiritual experiences very differently.
A Christian might use the language of demons or spiritual warfare.
Another spiritual tradition might speak about attachments, intrusive energies or entities.
A psychologist might consider trauma, dissociation, expectation, anxiety or subconscious processes.
A neuroscientist might examine what happens to perception, identity and sensory processing during an altered state.
These frameworks aren't automatically interchangeable.
That is precisely why discernment matters.
Could Shawn Ryan's Experience Have Been Psychological Rather Than Demonic?
Yes.
And the opposite question can also be asked by someone working within a spiritual worldview.
A frightening experience doesn't automatically prove the existence of an external entity.
Psychedelic states can radically change perception, emotion, identity, time and a person's sense of what is real. Experiences can become so immersive that they feel more convincing than ordinary waking consciousness.
Trauma can also emerge through unusual imagery and bodily sensations.
Fear can become personified.
Unconscious material can appear autonomous.
Religious expectations can influence how extraordinary experiences are interpreted.
But acknowledging those possibilities does not require mocking someone who interprets the experience spiritually.
There is another intellectually responsible answer:
We may not know.
That is an answer I think consciousness researchers and spiritual practitioners should become more comfortable giving.
Six Ways an Entity-Like Experience Could Be Understood
When someone tells me that they encountered an entity, darkness, presence or intelligence during an altered state, I don't believe the first question should be:
“Was it real?”
A better starting question is:
“What happened?”
From there, several interpretive frameworks are possible.
1. Spiritual interpretation
The person may believe they encountered an external consciousness, entity, attachment or spiritual presence.
Within this worldview, consciousness may extend beyond the individual brain and other forms of intelligence may exist outside ordinary physical perception.
2. Subconscious interpretation
What appears to be another being could represent subconscious material given personality and form.
The mind does this naturally.
Dreams are an obvious example. A dream character may surprise us, argue with us and apparently possess information that our waking conscious mind wasn't actively thinking about.
3. Trauma or dissociative interpretation
Parts of a person's experience can sometimes feel disconnected from their ordinary identity.
Under altered conditions, unresolved fear, memories or emotional material might emerge as something perceived as separate from the self.
4. Archetypal interpretation
Human beings have been encountering gods, demons, ancestors, guides, monsters and supernatural beings for thousands of years.
These figures may sometimes represent deep archetypal patterns through which human consciousness organizes powerful experiences.
5. Religious interpretation
A person's religious tradition may provide a very specific framework.
For some Christians, that could include spiritual warfare, demonic oppression or possession.
Other religions and cultures have their own explanations.
6. The unknown
I believe we should leave room for this category.
Human consciousness remains deeply mysterious.
We should be careful about claiming certainty in either direction when the evidence doesn't justify it.
Psychedelic Experiences vs Hypnotic States
This distinction is especially important.
Psychedelics and hypnosis are not the same thing.
Psychedelic substances chemically alter brain function and perception.
Hypnosis is generally a cooperative state involving focused attention, relaxation, imagination, suggestion and altered awareness. A person undergoing hypnosis does not need to ingest a psychoactive substance.
In the Quantum Hypnosis work I practice, the intention isn't to overwhelm the conscious mind with a chemical experience.
Instead, we gradually guide attention inward.
The client remains the central participant in the process.
That doesn't mean unusual experiences can't arise.
They can.
Clients may describe past lives, symbolic environments, spiritual beings, deceased loved ones, guides, unfamiliar identities, unusual energies or experiences that don't fit neatly into conventional categories.
But I don't believe a practitioner should decide beforehand what those experiences are supposed to mean.
Can Altered States Make Us Spiritually Vulnerable?
This is one of the most interesting questions raised by Ryan's story.
Ryan believes psychedelics may expose people to a realm that humans ordinarily cannot perceive and may not understand. He described people in such states as potentially vulnerable to things they don't comprehend.
That is a spiritual interpretation.
Science has not established that psychedelics literally open portals to external spiritual realms.
But there is a broader point worth considering.
Altered states can make people psychologically and emotionally vulnerable.
Normal boundaries can temporarily change.
Identity may feel less stable.
Previously suppressed material may emerge.
Emotions can become enormously amplified.
Ordinary assumptions about reality can temporarily disappear.
That means context matters.
Preparation matters.
The person's mental and emotional state matters.
The facilitator matters.
Integration afterward matters.
And perhaps most importantly, suggestion matters.
If a frightened person in a highly suggestible state says, “Something is here,” immediately telling them, “Yes, that's a demon attached to you,” may dramatically shape their subsequent experience.
That's one reason I believe practitioners working with spiritually intense experiences carry a serious responsibility.
What Are Entity-Like Experiences in Quantum Hypnosis?
Occasionally during spiritual or Quantum Hypnosis, something emerges that the client experiences as “not me.”
That might involve:
sensing an outside presence
hearing or expressing an unfamiliar voice or identity
feeling pressure, heaviness or darkness
describing something as attached to the body or energy field
feeling that an energy doesn't belong to them
encountering a deceased person
perceiving symbolic beings
encountering religious or spiritual figures
experiencing unexpected fear or physical sensations
describing another consciousness or intelligence
Those experiences can be extraordinarily convincing to the person having them.
But there is an important distinction between describing an experience and diagnosing its cause.
If someone experiences an apparently separate consciousness during hypnosis, I don't automatically conclude:
“This person is possessed.”
That conclusion goes beyond what the experience alone can establish.
At the same time, I don't think the appropriate response is automatically:
“That's imaginary. Ignore it.”
There is another way.
Explore it.
How I Approach Entity-Like Experiences During Quantum Hypnosis
My philosophy is simple:
I don't tell a client, “You have a demon.”I also don't automatically tell someone that what they're experiencing is imaginary.I ask questions.
This is where good hypnosis becomes less about imposing beliefs and more about careful exploration.
If something appears to identify itself as separate from the client, I might explore questions such as:
What are you?
Why are you here?
When did this experience begin?
What does this represent to the client?
Is there something the client needs to understand?
What purpose has this experience served?
Does the client want this presence or experience to remain?
What happens when the client establishes a boundary or asks for separation?
What does the client's subconscious or Higher Self reveal about what is happening?
The exact questions depend upon the situation.
And I am particularly careful about leading questions.
There is an enormous difference between asking:
“What are you aware of?”
and declaring:
“There's a demon inside you. What's its name?”
The second question has already supplied an explanation.
That can contaminate the exploration.
My role isn't to create the client's experience for them.
My role is to help them explore what is already arising.
Spiritual Discernment Without Fear
One reason I think this subject deserves better discussion is that fear can quickly take over.
Words like:
demon
possession
attachment
entity
curse
can carry enormous psychological weight.
Once someone believes something malevolent has control over them, fear itself can become reinforcing.
That is why my approach to unusual spiritual experiences emphasizes agency rather than fear.
Whatever framework ultimately makes sense to the client, I want them to remember:
They can observe.
They can ask questions.
They can establish boundaries.
They can seek appropriate support.
They do not need to surrender their agency to a frightening interpretation.
What Shawn Ryan's Experience Can Teach Us About Consciousness
The most interesting part of Ryan's story may not ultimately be whether he literally visited hell.
We may never be able to answer that question objectively.
The more interesting question is:
How can an altered state produce an experience so profound that it permanently changes someone's understanding of reality?
Ryan says the aftermath ultimately drew him much closer to Christ and back toward Catholicism.
That is significant.
Across cultures and throughout history, extraordinary states of consciousness have sometimes radically changed people's spiritual beliefs.
Near-death experiences do it.
Mystical experiences do it.
Meditation can do it.
Dreams occasionally do it.
Psychedelic experiences can do it.
And profound hypnotic experiences sometimes do it.
Whether every extraordinary experience reveals an external spiritual reality is a different question.
But human consciousness clearly appears capable of producing experiences that can transform a person's entire understanding of life.
That deserves investigation rather than ridicule.
When Spiritual Experiences Require Mental-Health or Medical Support
There is also an important boundary.
Quantum Hypnosis is not emergency medicine, psychiatric treatment or a replacement for qualified mental-health care.
If someone is experiencing persistent hallucinations while awake, severe paranoia, inability to function, dangerous behavior, suicidal thoughts, extreme confusion, inability to sleep for prolonged periods, or fear that they may harm themselves or someone else, the priority should be appropriate medical or mental-health evaluation.
Seeking professional care does not require someone to abandon their spiritual beliefs.
A person can take their spiritual interpretation seriously while also addressing their physical and psychological wellbeing.
These approaches do not necessarily have to be enemies.
So, Did Shawn Ryan Experience Hell, Spiritual Oppression or a Psychedelic Crisis?
The most responsible answer is:
I don't know.
Neither a podcast interview nor someone's subjective experience can establish that a supernatural entity was objectively present.
But dismissing the experience simply because it doesn't fit our worldview isn't especially scientific either.
Ryan experienced something that he regarded as profoundly real.
He interpreted it spiritually.
The priests he consulted apparently interpreted what was happening through the framework of spiritual oppression.
A psychologist or psychedelic researcher might propose very different explanations.
A consciousness researcher might leave the question more open.
My approach as a Quantum Hypnosis practitioner would be to investigate the experience before deciding what it means.
Because when we encounter the unexplained, perhaps the most useful position isn't immediate belief or immediate disbelief.
It's curiosity combined with discernment.
The Experience Can Be Real Even When the Explanation Is Uncertain
This is ultimately what I believe Shawn Ryan's story illustrates.
Human consciousness is capable of extraordinary experiences.
Some feel heavenly.
Some feel terrifying.
Some seem deeply personal.
Others appear to involve something completely outside ourselves.
Quantum Hypnosis gives us one method of carefully exploring those experiences.
It doesn't require me to tell someone what they must believe.
I don't need to label every darkness a demon.
I don't need to label every spiritual experience a hallucination.
And I don't need to pretend that consciousness science has answered questions it hasn't answered.
Instead, we can investigate.
Ask better questions.
Remain grounded.
Preserve the client's agency.
And allow the meaning of the experience to emerge rather than forcing an explanation onto it.
Because sometimes the most meaningful question isn't:
“Was it real?”
It may be:
“What is this experience trying to show us?”
Frequently Asked Questions
Can psychedelics cause demonic or entity experiences?
People using psychedelics sometimes report demons, entities, presences, spiritual beings and other apparently autonomous intelligences. These reports establish that entity-like experiences occur, but not whether the perceived beings exist independently of the experiencer.
Did Shawn Ryan say he was possessed?
Ryan discussed the possibility of possession, but in the interview he said priests he consulted believed his experience was better characterized as spiritual oppression rather than possession.
Did Shawn Ryan undergo exorcisms?
Yes. In the podcast, Ryan says he underwent multiple exorcisms with two priests and at one point refers to having completed his fifth exorcism.
Can hypnosis reveal spiritual entities?
People in hypnosis can report presences, beings, voices, unusual identities or other entity-like experiences. Hypnosis alone cannot establish whether those experiences represent external entities, subconscious material, symbolic experiences or another phenomenon.
Can Quantum Hypnosis remove a spiritual attachment?
During Quantum Hypnosis, a client may experience something they interpret as an attachment and may also experience a sense of separation, release or resolution. That subjective experience should not be treated as scientific proof that a literal external entity was present or removed.
Can hypnosis cause possession?
There is no established scientific evidence that hypnosis causes demonic possession. Hypnosis can, however, involve heightened imagination, emotion, suggestibility and unusual subjective experiences, which is why responsible facilitation and non-leading language are important.
What's the difference between possession and spiritual oppression?
Within some Christian traditions, possession refers to a perceived degree of direct demonic influence or control, while oppression describes perceived external spiritual interference without the same loss of personal control. These are religious concepts rather than medical diagnoses.
About Ali Christos
Ali Christos is a certified QHHT and BQH practitioner and founder of the Conscious Practitioner Network. His work explores the subconscious, Higher Self, past-life and symbolic experiences, consciousness, and spiritually unusual phenomena through Quantum Hypnosis.
Ali's approach emphasizes curiosity, client agency, careful questioning and discernment rather than imposing predetermined interpretations on what emerges during hypnosis.
Quantum Hypnosis is intended for personal exploration, spiritual reflection and self-discovery. It is not a substitute for medical care, psychiatric care, psychotherapy, crisis intervention or religious exorcism.
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Really balanced perspective. What a strange experience he had.! and makes me think of Robert Monroe and out of body experiences … and it sounds like lower astral realms. I’m no expert but I believe that Monroe would say in these states you just need to ask for guidance to take you out of it and to bring you into a higher dimensional realm and it will happen immediately. OBE-era sometimes get stuck here.