A team of scientists has asked for professional religious leaders “without psycho -psycho experience” to take psilocybin, the active ingredient in magical mushrooms. Most considered the experience “religiously significant, meaningful and globally beneficial.”
It seems the beginning of an anecdote, but it is a real scientific study: a rabbi, a pastor, a monk, and a priest ingested magical mushrooms – but they didn’t enter a bar.
Historically, several world religions incorporate Psychoadelical compounds in your practices.
This, published in late May in the magazine Psychedelic Medicinehowever, the first to examine the impact that these experiences would have In the professional work of leaders of Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism – Four of the main religions from the world.
The study, conducted by Roland Griffithsfrom Johns Hopkins University, and Stephen Ross e Anthony Bossisfrom the Grossman School of Medicine of the University of New York, analyzes the role of psychoadelical compounds as LSD, Psilocibina, Ayahuasca and Peiote in religious ceremonies.
Although the uses of these substances range between cultures and religions, researchers observe that can induce experiences who share similarities with “not triggered pharmacologically” experiences often described as “religious, spiritual or mystical“.
“Mystical experiences are characterized by a number of subjective characteristics, including a unity sense, ‘noetic’ quality (for example, an authoritarian sense of truth), transcendence of time and space, a sense of reverence or Sacrality, intense positive moodtransience that, however, seems timeless, presence in the consciousness of states or mutually exclusive concepts, and ineffability, ”explain the authors of the study.
Researchers observe that this type of experiences are also sometimes observed in states of consciousness “associated with experiences of Almost death, meditation, prayer, fastingrespiratory work and music ”.
Although psychoadélica continue to be used in indigenous religious contexts, “are usually not used in the main religions Worldwide – for example, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam.
Curious if these religious leaders would have similar experiences and how these experiences could affect their professional performancethe investigators recruited volunteers from the four main religions.
The study results showed that participants experienced various types of impact on their personal and professional livesincluding “lasting increases in well-being and spirituality“, Which lasted up to 16 months after taking magical mushrooms.
A rabbi, a monk, a pastor and a priest enter a laboratory…
According to, the team began by recruiting religious leaders who occupied a recognized leadership position In a “well -established” religious organization, and with formal formation, ordering, “or equivalent” in its religious tradition.
Volunteers should also have a position with professional activities that included “significant time to interact with those seeking religious/spiritual orientation or support. ”
“In the evaluation of the study team, a suitable candidate would have to be considered a Unmistakable representative of his religion By other members of this religion, ”explains the investigators.
A final selection Included 22 Christian Faca leaders (four episcopal, four Presbyterians, three united Methodists, two Lutherans, two from the United Church of Christ, one congregational, a Baptist, an oriental orthodox, one Pentecostal, one from the Reformed Church in America, a Roman Catholic and a universalist unit), five from Judaism (three orthodox, one reconstructure and one from one renewal), one of Islam (Sunni) and one of Zen Buddhism.
For the first session of Psilocibina, the 33 participants, who had been encouraged to bring any religious or personal items to the session, were placed in “Environments similar to being furnished with comfortable seats for both facilitators, a sofa, side tables and rugs“.
After taking what the authors of the study describe as a “moderately high” psilocybin 20mg/70kg, participants were encouraged to lie on the couch, use sales and headphonesand “focus your attention inward.” The same pre-selected song was played for each participant during each session.
24 two 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.
Psychoadelical experiences “deeply sacred”
As the study was mainly conceived to investigate how to ingest magical mushrooms could affect the activities of a religious leader in the context of his work, the researchers performed Two reviews to study participants at 6 and 16 months after the experience.
In these evaluations, the study participants were asked about changes in attitude, humor, social interactions or other personal behaviors “related to the religious/spiritual vocation of the participants”.
According to the study’s authors, the 6 -month evaluation showed that, compared to a control group that did not take magical mushrooms, the religious leaders who took the compound reported “positive changes significantly greater in their religious practices, attitudes about their religion and Effectiveness as a religious leaderas well as in their non -religious attitudes, moods and behavior. ”
One second questionnairedescribed by the investigators as “the most relevant secondary measure for the purpose of this study”, was held 4 and 16 months after the sessions. This questionnaire was completed only by the 24 participants who received a second dose of psilocybin.
According to the study, participants classified at least one of their experiences with psilocybin as “among the five most spiritually significant (96%), deeply sacred (92%), psychologically insightful (83%) and psychologically significant (79%) of their lives ”.
About 42% of participants classified one of their experiences as “ deeper of your life“.
When asked how their sessions affected their performance at work, 78% of participants “supported strongly” the idea that experiences transmitted “positive effects” on their religious practices like prayer or meditation, and in its daily sense of the sacred.
Additionally, 71% reported “positive changes in their appreciation of different religious traditions from their own.”
The authors of the study note that “there were no serious adverse events in this study.” However, 46% of participants classified their experience as “among the five most psychologically challenging of their lives ”.
