Psychedelic Christianity: From evangelical hippies and Roman Catholic intellectuals in the sixties to clergy in a Johns Hopkins clinical trial

Abstract As the wider culture is experiencing what some call a “psychedelic renaissance,” various Christian voices are beginning to comment on this cultural moment in the press and social media. Some are curious, even open minded, about the developments; others are expressing concern about what they see as the inauthenticity and danger of psychedelics as a spiritual practice. In the academic literature, most work on the intersection of Christianity and psychedelic medicine treat either the historical question of psychedelics' possible role in the foundations of the religion or on the practical question of “should we or shouldn't we?” Absent, however, is discussion of how a Christian psychedelic practice might look. This article seeks to address this shortfall by showcasing three extant examples of what we term “psychedelic Christianity”: 1) hippies who converted to Christianity while still using psychedelic substances during the “Jesus movement”; 2) mid-twentieth-century Catholic intellectuals experimenting with the compounds for spiritual and therapeutic reasons; and 3) contemporary clergy who participated in the Johns Hopkins and NYU study with psychedelics and religious professionals. In all of this, we give special attention to the healing experienced by these Christians who undertook a psychedelic Christianity in their recourse to these substances.