I never will forget my first psychedelic trip. Visions of Christ, my childhood and forgotten dreams flooded through my mind.
When that river of thought slowed to a trickle, I sat on the edge of my bed and knew I had to commit myself to be a better Christian, a better spouse and a better person.
Soon after, I launched Psychedelic Theology, a resource to bridge psychedelics and the way of Jesus. I have passed out harm-reduction kits at festivals and clubs, assisted people with their trip integration and given lectures at churches. At one local Baptist church, I predicted one of their members could be part of a psychedelics research trial within five years. Just three years later, I met the research participant I imagined.
Despite this ministerial success, I also have sobered up to the full spectrum of risks that come with the Psychedelic Renaissance, pushing me to emphasize harm-reduction education in churches. There are many reasons to have a more critical view of the Psychedelic Renaissance. Some of them have been reported in mainstream media, and others are anecdotal to my own experience.
“Despite this ministerial success, I also have sobered up to the full spectrum of risks that come with the Psychedelic Renaissance.”
The public missteps in psychedelic research have been well-documented. The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelics Studies’ effort to make MDMA an FDA-approved treatment was plagued by a substantiated allegation of sexual abuse, allegations of methodological flaws that failed to report suicidal ideation in the data and an allegation of elder abuse of a wealthy early donor.
Studies at the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Studies have likewise been dogged by ethics complaints, including that lead researcher Roland Griffiths mixed perennialist theology with science by treating the center like a “New Age retreat center.” During a study in which clergy were given the psychedelic drug psilocybin, one donor to the center participated as an unapproved researcher. A second donor, T. Cody Swift, also worked directly with study participants but was not listed as a funder.
Swift then provided seed money to religious psychedelic advocacy groups Shefa and Ligare, founded by the clergy study participants. This created a conflict of interest loop in which participants in a study paid for and personally observed by Swift were then financially supported by him to speak in favor of psychedelics because of the study.
(123rf.com)
In the spirit of ethical disclosure, I must note that I personally know and deeply respect participants in the clergy study, and they have been professionally supportive of my own work. This should be known, given my own opinion that blame for the conflict of interest lies solely with the researchers responsible for designing the study.
These failures have had tangible casualties. The Johns Hopkins Internal Review Board declared there was “serious non-compliance” with standards of research in the clergy and psilocybin study. Hunt Priest, who participated in that study and founded Ligare, is no longer ordained within the Episcopal Church. Three MAPS studies were retracted due to ethics violations. The FDA rejected MDMA therapy. The utopian podcast predictions of panaceas and world peace have been replaced with more modest expectations.
Individual disasters in my own ministry also have emerged. After each experience, my unease has grown. I became an impromptu tripsitter after a young woman on a high dose of LSD almost started a physical fight with a street preacher at a music festival. A clergyperson came looking for help after their life was turned upside down by psychedelics. A man emailed me begging for help after a traumatic psilocybin shamanic experience. I had to guide grown men to safety after they took too much ketamine at a club and became almost completely sedated.
“I also have noted a disturbing trend of groupthink.”
I also have noted a disturbing trend of groupthink. Research that identifies psychedelics as panaceas is held to a much lower standard of evidence than those that link psychedelics to structural heart disease, question their efficacy for people experiencing marginalization or find no benefit to microdosing. Professional doors closed, and previously cordial relationships turned confrontational when I questioned the utopian gospel of salvation through a psychedelics-fueled “healing journey.”
Then, of course, there is the embrace of psychedelics by the far right, which I previously mentioned in Baptist News Global in 2023. This trend has only accelerated in the years since, involving Christian nationalists as well.
Last year, I was shocked to receive a LinkedIn request from a doctoral student researching psychedelics at my evangelical alma mater, the Christian nationalism-aligned Colorado Christian University.
MAPS founder Rick Doblin has even cited far-right psychedelic advocates to convince the military establishment that psychedelics will not turn soldiers into peace-loving hippies. This promise that psychedelics will not make soldiers into liberals is paired with an evolution of application within the Military Industrial Complex.
What once was a narrative about treating veterans for PTSD became a story about active duty treatment to prevent retirement. In yet another military reinvention, Doblin has suggested MDMA treatment should be performed on new recruits to mold better soldiers.
I recount all this as someone who still remains very optimistic about psychedelics as medical treatments and tools of spiritual exploration. I have heard far more positive anecdotes in my ministry than negative ones. Classical psychedelics are still not addictive substances, virtually impossible to overdose lethally and have a strong potential to treat mental and physical ailments.
By comparison, alcohol-related deaths topped 178,000 in 2024. I have seen the effects of alcoholism on ministers and Christians. Yet I enjoy my craft beers and bourbon. Most people like me recognize that as an alternative to ineffective prohibition, accurate harm-reduction education about alcohol is and should be better integrated into schools, families, media and faith communities.
Like alcohol, harm-reduction education for psychedelics must be integrated into faith communities. Since psychedelics also are likely to induce powerful spiritual experiences in people who use them, faith communities must also recognize we will be an increasingly likely stop before, during or after psychedelic trips. We must be prepared to provide care and support.
Churches that reject militarism, nationalism and high-control faith must also be prepared to construct an alternative ethical view of the Psychedelic Renaissance’s future. If we do not, we leave these powerful substances that induce spiritual experiences in the hands of the Department of War, Christian nationalists and underground cults.
We cannot afford to once again be irrelevant in a moment of cultural crisis.
Kaleb Graves
Kaleb Graves is a CBF minister and educator living in North Carolina. He earned a master of divinity degree from Duke Divinity School in 2023 and is currently pursuing a master of arts degree in psychology.