SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
An Episcopal priest found a Christian psychedelic society after he had what he described as a deeply spiritual experience while using psilocybin. Now he has lost his ordination over concerns that he may have crossed a line by endorsing the use of illegal drugs. This has all raised some big questions, like whether it's risky to frame psychedelic experiences as spiritual and also what happens when someone seeks religious healing through psychedelics but has a bad trip. Kathryn Post from Religion News Service has more.
KATHRYN POST: In 2016, Hunt Priest, who was ordained in the Episcopal Church, had never tried psychedelics, but then he became part of a study through Johns Hopkins in NYU, which gave psilocybin to religious professionals, and it had a huge impact on him.
HUNT PRIEST: I had two profound experiences, very Christian and very beautiful and very lifegiving.
POST: The experience was so profound that in 2021, priest left his parish job and started Ligare. It's a nonprofit for Christians to process their psychedelic encounters. Priest believes psychedelics can unlock spiritual healing and says he wants to create a community around that. But within months of founding Ligare, an intern resigned.
JOE WELKER: The long and short of it is that I felt there was a really reckless disregard for public safety and for considering the risks of psychedelic usage.
POST: That's the Reverend Joe Welker, Ligare's former intern, who is now a Presbyterian pastor. Welker says Ligare didn't do a good job of explaining the risks of psychedelics, and he worries that if someone had a bad trip, it could be really damaging spiritually.
Welker reported this to Priest's church diocese, which launched an investigation. That investigation found that Priest engaged in, quote, "conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy," and they cited evidence that he was using his priesthood to endorse the illegal use of psychedelics. Priest, who's been ordained for 20 years, disagrees.
PRIEST: We're not offering psychedelics. We are neutral on using them, but we just want to provide spiritual support and pastoral support for people that are thinking about it or have used it or want to use it in the future.
POST: But given the choice between his psychedelic society and his clergy role, priest chose Ligare and was stripped of his ordination. For now, the Episcopal Church doesn't have an official policy on psychedelics, but more denominations are starting to weigh in on whether psychedelics are compatible with Christianity. For NPR News, I'm Kathryn Post.
DETROW: This story was produced through a collaboration between NPR and Religion News Service.
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