01/09/2026
No…the results were not unexpected ❤️🩹🎯
Researchers gave magic mushrooms to 33 professional clergy, including priests, rabbis, imams, and Buddhist teachers.
These are people who'd spent decades in prayer and meditation. Over 90% said it was among the most sacred experiences of their lives.
Nearly half called it the most profound thing they'd ever experienced.
They lay on couches with eyeshades and music, taking doses big enough to reliably trigger mystical states.
They described unity, timelessness, awe, transcendence. The same stuff mystics have talked about for millennia.
But 46% also found it terrifying.
Sixteen months later, the effects held. Most said their religious practice deepened.
But remarkably, 71% became more open to other traditions.
The mushrooms seemed to loosen their grip on dogma, making them curious about truth in places they hadn't looked before.
Psychedelics have been part of sacred rituals throughout human history, possibly even in ancient Greece's Eleusinian Mysteries.
Mushrooms decompose dead matter in forests, cycling nutrients.
Maybe they do something similar in our minds: breaking down rigid structures, regenerating spiritual vitality, helping consciousness evolve.
Some of these clergy now advocate for psychedelics in religious contexts.
None ruled out doing it again.
If one session can shift perspective this dramatically for people trained in contemplation, what might it mean for how we approach other stuck systems like politics, economics, and society?
