Some Religious Leaders Take Magic Mushrooms

Cheri Walsh
Jul 28, 2017 · 3 min read

Scientists from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore have recruited 24 religious leaders from different religions to take part in a study in which they will receive two powerful doses of psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms.

This is the first religion-centered research about magic mushrooms involving people from different religions.

Dr. Williams Richards, a psychologist from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, leads this study. The experiments are still ongoing and aim to find out whether the clergymen will call the experience as transcendental and if it will make the leaders more confident in their work and how it may change their spiritual thinking.

Leaders from the Catholic, Orthodox, Presbyterian, Buddhist, and Jewish faith were enlisted despite their religious views discouraging the use of illegal substances. The study doesn’t include a Muslim or Hindu priest but Dr. Richards believes “just about all the other bases are covered.”

The first part of the study will include a medical and psychological test. Afterwards, the participants will receive two powerful doses of psilocybin in two separate sessions, one month apart.

These sessions will be conducted in a living room-like environment at New York University and Johns Hopkins in Baltimore with two guides present. After receiving psilocybin, the participants will lie on a couch, wearing eye shades, and listening to religious music on headphones to help enhance their spiritual journey.

Dr. Richards instructed these religious leaders to go into the trip and recollect their experiences. “So far everyone incredibly values their experience. No one has been confused or upset or regrets doing it,” he said.

According to Dr. Richards, it’s still too early to talk about results. An analysis of the results will take place after a one-year follow-up with the participants whose identities will stay anonymous.

He also went on to say the participants have gained deeper perspective of their religious heritage and a greater appreciation for other religions. This suggests their views may shift from their sectarian confines towards something more universal. “In these transcendental states of consciousness, people seem to get to levels of consciousness that seem universal,” adds Dr. Richards. “So a good rabbi can encounter the Buddha within him,”

It was already postulated by the famous “Good Friday Experiment” from Harvard University that hallucinogenic drugs can cause a spiritual experience. The experiment involved a group of seminary scholars who were given psilocybin during the Easter season to see how their experience of the liturgy were changed.

By the end of this series of studies, it won’t be long before a Catholic priest, a rabbi, and a Buddhist monk would walk into a bar. Not as a set up for a joke but to actually order magic mushrooms.

Psilocybin is the psychoactive substance that comes from hallucinogenic mushrooms such as golden teacher mushrooms. Golden teacher received its name due to its golden appearance and the way it “teaches” people through psychedelic experiences.

Cheri Walsh

Cheri Walsh is a small business owner living in the United States. She’s a fan of blogging, writing and painting.

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