In the midst of our current mental health crisis, the Christian church, its leadership and members should be deeply curious about the renewal of widespread cultural interest in psychedelic healing and the possibility for ministry within it. While the so‑called…
The comedown: The Psychedelic Renaissance in sober light
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…
Religious freedom for psychedelic users? Not without Indigenous truth.
The recent controversy over an Episcopal priest who was dismissed for promoting psychedelics for spiritual awakening raises urgent questions about how organized religion in America relates to psychedelics. The debate has focused on the safety of these drugs and church authority and…
Why religious groups are pushing for psychedelics as sacrament
Texas passed a landmark law in June 2025, supported by former Gov. Rick Perry, that allocates US$50 million to support research on ibogaine, one of the most powerful psychedelics, for treating opioid addiction and treatment-resistant PTSD.
Episcopal Church removes priest who founded Christian psychedelic society
In 2016, a priest in the Episcopal Church had what he described as a profound, “very Christian” encounter with psychedelics in a study on religious professionals and psilocybin. Five years later, Hunt Priest said his experience inspired him to pivot…
Seminary professor describes deep spiritual experience of participating in psychedelics study
Seminary professor and Baptist minister Jaime Clark-Soles underwent a deep spiritual transformation during a clinical trial with psychedelics that drew her closer to Christ, enhanced her understanding of Scripture and inspired her to write and speak widely about the experience….
BNG webinar with Jaime Clark-Soles will explore psychedelics and faith
BNG’s next “change-making conversations” webinar will feature an interview with Jaime Clark-Soles, professor of New Testament at Perkins School of Theology and Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor at Southern Methodist University. The free webinar will be Tuesday, June 4, at noon…
Baptist scholar speaking and writing about her experience in psychedelics trials
When Baptist scholar Jaime Clark-Soles agreed to participate in a 2017 Johns Hopkins University study on the effects of psychedelics on spirituality, her friends and colleagues didn’t have the same vision she did. “I got, ‘Don’t do it,’ ‘It’s terrible,’…
The Psychedelic Renaissance needs a Christian counterculture
The Psychedelic Renaissance has arrived. From Blue states like Oregon and Colorado to conservative stalwarts including Utah and Texas, bills to make psychedelics legally accessible are spreading quickly. Stereotypical drugs from 1960s and 1970s counterculture like magic mushrooms, mescaline and…
Is your church ready for the spiritual revolution of LSD, DMT and magic mushrooms?
At the end of my first year of divinity school in 2021, I took advantage of recent decriminalization laws and ingested between four and five grams of the Psilocybe cubensis, a naturally occurring psychedelic mushroom. For six hours, I clutched…
‘God’s plant’ has cured kids, now the new frontier is psychedelics
The six Stanley brothers were taught that marijuana was bad news, both at church and at Colorado Springs Christian School. But after pot helped their cancer-stricken cousin Ron, the brothers entered the medical marijuana business to work with “God’s plant.”…
What an experiment with psychedelics 60 years ago might teach us about faith today
Sixty years ago, on Good Friday 1962, Civil Rights leader and minister Howard Thurman preached in Marsh Chapel on Boston University’s campus. Full of striking verbal imagery about Jesus’ suffering and God’s glory, his 85-minute sermon shook the otherwise silent…