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Log in * facebook-icon * twitter-icon * Subscribe Communication The Octopus Propaganda Hidden in Modern Maps Environment If Oaks and Orchids Could Talk Zoology Humpback Whales Are Way Cooler Than You Math When Monsters Came for Mathematics Technology AI Has Already Run Us Over the Cliff Microbiology Hunting For the Grandma of All Eukaryotes Environment Giant Plankton Snacks Could Keep Coral Resilient Arts Making Art Out of Heartbeats Geoscience The Ancient Paths of an Iconic River Zoology Anchors Away from Antarctica Health Worm-Inspired Treatments Inch Toward the Clinic Environment The Power of the Prairie ADVERTISEMENT Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . * Psychology Clergy Blown Away by Psilocybin A 10-year-old study finally comes into the light * By Kristen French * June 12, 2025 * [comment-pl] Add a comment * [share] Share img Facebook img Twitter img Pocket img Reddit imgEmail Article Lead Image Thought-provoking science stories. No-brainer intro price. Thought-provoking science stories. No-brainer intro price. The full Nautilus archive * eBooks & Special Editions * Ad-free reading * The full Nautilus archive * eBooks & Special Editions * Ad-free reading Upgrade for only $1 Join [VVcT4Zdm-T] Explore Almost a decade ago, a Baptist Biblical scholar, a Catholic priest, several rabbis, an Islamic leader, a Zen Buddhist roshi, and more than a dozen other religious leaders walked into a lab--and took high doses of magic mushrooms. Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . All of them said it was their first time taking the drug. The mind-altering details of these guided trips were recorded at the time and over the following 16 months, but it wasn't until recently that the results of the controversial experiment came to light. One might wonder how a single psilocybin trip could compare to the catalog of rich transcendent experiences that might accumulate over a lifetime of religious devotion. But according to the findings, which were published in the peer-reviewed journal Psychedelic Medicine, the vast majority of the 33 clergy who participated in the study--more than 90 percent--said taking psilocybin was one of the most spiritually meaningful and deeply sacred experiences of their lives. Almost half said it was the most profound thing they had ever experienced, period. Many of them also said it made them better religious leaders. Now, years later, some of these clergy have become evangelists for psychedelics, incorporating them into their own religious teachings. For some of them, the experience led to a release from attachment to dogmas and greater openness to other forms of religious experience. For at least one participant, it was a dark, empty, terrifying trip. Still, none of them ruled out using psilocybin again in the future. Publication of the study took so long in part due to charges of ethical lapses, including potential conflicts of interest related to funding sources, as well as the direct involvement of a funder in the research itself. But these conflicts were eventually resolved through disclosure, which the authors say they always intended. Questions also swirled around certain flaws in the study's execution, which even the authors, scientists at Johns Hopkins University and New York University, admit. One issue was bias: Participants may have been primed to see their experiences as sacred by language used in recruitment ads and by the expectations of those running the experiment. (Many of those who chose to participate were also considering leaving the profession at the outset and so could have been seeking a way to reconnect with the divine.) The sample was also small, heavily white, male, and Christian; and representation of a number of major world religions, including Indigenous religious traditions, Hinduism, Taoism, and Confucianism, was absent. ADVERTISEMENT Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . Still the results raise questions about the relationship between hallucinogens and religious experience. Most of the major world religions today (Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam) do not advocate the use of mind-altering substances. But psychedelic plants and mushrooms have been employed in sacred ceremonies by Indigenous cultures in the Americas for millennia, and many psychedelic researchers suspect they drove pagan mystical experiences in ancient Greece that may have served as the foundations for some religions, including Christianity. William James, considered the father of American psychology and author of The Varieties of Religious Experience, is said to have to come to many of his own most central ideas at least in part through hallucinatory experiences with nitrous oxide: the value of religion, the importance of mystical experience, the universe as pluralistic. But transcendence is not an unequivocal good: As one religious scholar found, you can have too much of it. [nautilus-f] Lead image: New Africa / Shutterstock * Kristen French Posted on June 12, 2025 Kristen French is an associate editor at Nautilus. Article Sidebar Image Health How To Tell If You're Dead Article Sidebar Image Environment We Are the Ocean Article Sidebar Image Communication The Octopus Propaganda Hidden in Modern Maps ADVERTISEMENT [comment-pl] View / Add Comments Fuel your wonder. Feed your curiosity. Expand your mind. Access the entire Nautilus archive, ad-free on any device. Explore Subscriptions [Print_2up_] * [VVcT4Zdm-T] Explore Article Recirculation Lead Image The Octopus Propaganda Hidden in Modern Maps + By Molly Glick + June 16, 2025 + Communication An old visual trick may promote conspiratorial thinking about global power * [VVcT4Zdm-T] Explore Article Recirculation Lead Image If Oaks and Orchids Could Talk + By Vittoria Traverso + June 16, 2025 + Environment Lucas Gutierrez wants to turn plant frequencies into a language humans can understand * [VVcT4Zdm-T] Explore Article Recirculation Lead Image Humpback Whales Are Way Cooler Than You + By Bob Grant + June 13, 2025 + Zoology Just take a look at these smoke rings * [VVcT4Zdm-T] Explore Article Recirculation Lead Image When Monsters Came for Mathematics + By Adam Kucharski + June 13, 2025 + Math Adam Kucharski's 3 greatest revelations while writing Proof: The Art and Science of Certainty * [VVcT4Zdm-T] Explore Article Recirculation Lead Image AI Has Already Run Us Over the Cliff + By Nick Hilden + June 12, 2025 + Technology Cognitive neuroscientist Chris Summerfield argues that we don't understand the technology we're so eager to deploy logo NAUTILUS: SCIENCE CONNECTED Nautilus is a different kind of science magazine. 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