After scientists asked “psychedelic-naïve” professional religious leaders to take psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, most found the experience “religiously significant, meaningful, and generally beneficial.”
Historically, several world religions incorporate psychedelic compounds in their practices. However, this is the first study to examine what impact these experiences would have on the professional work of leaders from Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism, four of the world’s major religions.
Magic Mushrooms and Mystical Experiences
In their published study, the late Roland Griffiths, of Johns Hopkins University, and Stephen Ross and Anthony Bossis, from New York University Grossman School of Medicine, discuss the role of psychedelic compounds like LSD, psilocybin, ayahuasca, and peyote in religious ceremonies. While uses of these substances vary among cultures and religions, the researchers note that they can induce experiences that share similarities to “non-pharmacologically triggered” experiences often described as “religious, spiritual, or mystical.”
“Mystical experiences are characterized by a range of subjective features including a sense of unity, “noetic” quality (e.g., an authoritative sense of truth), transcendence of time and space, a sense of awe or sacredness, intense positive mood, transiency that nevertheless feels timeless, presence in awareness of mutually exclusive states or concepts, and ineffability,” they explain.
The researchers note that such experiences are also sometimes observed in states of consciousness “associated with near-death experiences, meditation, prayer, fasting, breathwork, and music.” Although psychedelics continue to be used in some Indigenous religious contexts, the researchers note “they are generally not used within major world religions (e.g., Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam).”
Curious if these religious leaders would have similar experiences and how these experiences might affect their job performance, the team recruited volunteers from all four major religions. According to the results, the study participants experienced several impacts on their personal and professional lives, including “enduring increases in well-being and spirituality,” that lasted up to 16 months after taking magic mushrooms.
A Rabbi, a Monk, a Minister, and a Priest Walk into a Lab…
The team started their unorthodox study by recruiting religious leaders that hold a recognized leadership position in a “well-established” religious organization, and have formal training, ordination, “or equivalent” in their religious tradition. The volunteers were also required to have a position with professional activities that included “significant time interacting with those seeking religious/spiritual guidance or support.”
“In the judgment of the study team, a suitable applicant would have to be regarded as an unambiguous representative of their religion by other members of that religion,” the researchers explain.
The final selection included 22 leaders from Christina faiths (four Episcopalian, four Presbyterian, three United Methodist, two Lutheran, two United Church of Christ, one Congregational, one Baptist, one Eastern Orthodox, one Pentecostal, one Reformed Church in America, one Roman Catholic, and one Unitarian Universalist), five from Judaism (three Orthodox, one Reconstructionist, and one Renewal), one from Islam (Sunni) and one from Zen Buddhism.
For the first psilocybin session, all 33 participants were placed in “living-room-like settings furnished with comfortable seating for the two facilitators, a couch, end tables, and area rugs.” Participants were also encouraged to bring any religious or personal items with them to the session.
After taking what the researchers describe as a “moderately high” psilocybin dose of 20mg/70kg, the participants were encouraged to lie on the couch, wear eyeshades and headphones, and to “focus their attention inward.” The same pre-selected music was played for each participant during every session.
24 of the 33 participants received a second dose of psilocybin 1 month later. 6 of the 24 participants received the same dose, while the remaining 18 had their dosage increased to 30mg/70kg.
92% Find Psychedelic Experiences “Profoundly Sacred”
Because the study was primarily designed to investigate how taking magic mushrooms might affect a religious leader’s activities in the context of their job, the researchers performed two assessments on the study participants at 6 and 16 months after the experience. In these assessments, the study participants were asked about changes in attitude, mood, social interactions, or other personal behaviors “related to participants’ religious/spiritual vocation.”
According to the study authors, the 6-month screening showed that compared to a control group who did not take magic mushrooms, the religious leaders who took the compound reported “significantly greater positive changes in their religious practices, attitudes about their religion, and effectiveness as a religious leader, as well as in their non-religious attitudes, moods, and behavior.”
A second questionnaire, described by the researchers as “the secondary measure of most relevance to the purpose of this study,” was performed 4 and 16 months after the sessions. This questionnaire was only completed by the 24 participants who received a second dose of psilocybin.
According to the study, participants rated at least one of their psilocybin experiences to be “among the top five most spiritually significant (96%), profoundly sacred (92%), psychologically insightful (83%), and psychologically meaningful (79%) of their lives.” 42% of the participants rated one of their experiences to be “the single most profound of their lifetime.”
When asked how their sessions affected their job performance, 78% of the participants “strongly endorsed” the idea that the experiences conveyed “positive effects” on their religious practices like prayer or meditation, and their daily “sense of the sacred. An additional 71% reported “positive changes in their appreciation of religious traditions other than their own.”
The study authors note that “there were no serious adverse events in this study.” However, 46% of the participants rated their magic mushroom experience as “among the top five most psychologically challenging of their lives.”
Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.