A psychedelic trip that offers to bring you closer to God?
Will a psychedelic trip bring you closer to God?
That is the question raised by a recent New Yorker feature on a clinical trial involving 30 pastors and spiritual leaders who took psilocybin, the hallucinogenic compound in “magic mushrooms,” to experience what the researchers called a “sacred experience.” One of the study’s participants, a minister at an Episcopal Church in Washington State, said, “I looked completely different,” adding, “I was like a new creation.” Even so, a Protestant minister in the study said, “There was nothing particularly Christian about it.”
The study found, “96% rated their first encounters with psilocybin as being among the top five most spiritually significant experiences of their lives.” The results are undeniably striking for those of us in the Church and should stir caution.
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Pastors and priests who turn to substances to feel closer to God risk leading their flock to confusion and counterfeit spirituality. The Bible clearly states that church leaders are held to a higher standard (Titus 1:8). What is at stake here is the integrity of the shepherds of Christ’s flock.
This is not just theological drift; it is spiritual danger.
If the Church legitimizes psilocybin as a pathway to God, it will create a new faith entirely — one not rooted in the cross but in a chemical, one not shaped by Scripture but by serotonin. If experience replaces truth, doctrine will erode, discernment will collapse, and the Church will become a mirror of the culture rather than a witness to it.
At a time when the 1970s fervor over the potential of psychedelics is re-emerging, the spiritual dynamics of using these drugs have once again presented difficult questions for Christians and Church leaders alike.
From a biblical perspective, the answer is clear: You cannot “drug” your way into the presence of God. The only way to the Father is through Jesus Christ (John 14:6). Peter goes further, urging believers to be “sober and alert” (1 Peter 5:8), which you can hardly be while on a 6–8-hour trip on psilocybin that inhibits your mental faculties.
The spiritual experience touted by psychedelics enthusiasts, or “psychonauts,” today is reminiscent of King Saul, who sought the help of a medium to find answers from God in 1 Samuel 28. Saul had rejected God and disobeyed his commands, which separated him from His presence. Rather than turning to God wholeheartedly, he sought a medium to reach God –– and the result was catastrophic.
Likewise, many today prefer to eschew the Bible’s gospel message for potent drugs in a doomed attempt to reach God. Like Saul, they will find only emptiness and even more confusion.
From a scientific perspective, the marketing of psilocybin and other psychedelics as harmless wonder drugs is deeply concerning. The funders of most of the research into psychedelics are wealthy investors. The ballot measure in Colorado to permit the “medical use” of psilocybin, which clearly violates federal law, was partly funded by the founder of TOMS shoes and other for-profit ventures.
The state of the research on the substances gives cause for alarm. Far from healing every ailment in society, there have been rising cases of extreme harm. Last year, an airline pilot used psilocybin, better known as “magic mushrooms,” and tried to crash an Alaska Airlines flight with 83 passengers. These prolonged episodes of psychosis are a known and desired effect of powerful psychedelics and are not uncommon.
Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder is another growing concern as experimentation with these mind-altering drugs increases. Sometimes, lasting for weeks or months after taking psychedelics, a sober individual may continue to experience the hallucinatory effects of the drug. The potential harm of hallucinating while driving or working long after someone has used the substance is enormous.
Regarding the purported medical benefits of psilocybin, the American Psychiatric Association has stated, “There is currently inadequate scientific evidence for endorsing the use of psychedelics to treat any psychiatric disorder.” The Food and Drug Administration, entrusted to regulate medicine, has not approved these substances for treating any disease or condition (i.e., it is not a medicine).
When God spoke to Moses, He commanded him to remove his sandals in reverence: “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5). Today’s priests are walking up to the burning bush with sneakers on, casual, uninvited, while boldly claiming the smoke is holy. The simple message for Christians is to look to the Bible, not mind-altering drugs, for a connection to God. You don’t have to pay for a psilocybin trip to find Him. Jesus’ death paid the price already.
Luke Niforatos is the Executive Vice President of the Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions and widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading drug policy experts.
