{"id":80470,"date":"2022-09-27T05:41:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-27T09:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=80470"},"modified":"2022-10-10T13:25:54","modified_gmt":"2022-10-10T17:25:54","slug":"religious-use-of-psychedelics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/","title":{"rendered":"The Religious Use of Psychedelics: Accessing the Divine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Can psychedelics induce a direct experience of the Divine? How did ancient religions use psychedelics to induce spiritual states? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many religions have a history of performing rituals that involved the consumption of hallucinogenic beverages to induce mystical or transcendental experiences. The descriptions of these experiences feature themes of death, rebirth, and immortality, acting as a gateway to a direct experience of the Divine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading to learn about the religious use of psychedelics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-ancient-ritual-experience\">The Ancient Ritual Experience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In descriptions of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-eleusinian-mysteries\/\">the Eleusinian Mysteries<\/a>, it\u2019s said that the ancient secret was that one must die before dying. According to Muraresku\u2019s research, the most common description by initiates is that they underwent a transformative experience involving a metaphorical death and rebirth (through the religious use of psychedelics) and were given a sense of their own immortality.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In AD 364, the Christian emperor Valentinian attempted to shut down the Mysteries, but after substantial pushback, he eventually relented because the pagan high priest, Praetextatus, told him that <strong>outlawing<\/strong> <strong>the mysteries \u201cwould make the life of the Greeks unlivable\u201d<\/strong> and implied that <strong>the future of all humanity would suffer if these rites were lost. <\/strong>There was a belief that these rituals held the whole human race together. Likewise, Muraresku tells us, an inscription on St. Paul\u2019s Monastery (10th-11th century) in Attica, Greece says \u201cif you die before you die, you won\u2019t die when you die.\u201d And in Greek, the Catholic Eucharist is sometimes called the <em>pharmakon athanasius<\/em>, meaning the \u201cdrug of immortality.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additionally, ancient Greek sources refer to wine as a \u201cdrug against grief\u201d and a \u201ctreatment for misery,\u201d and Muraresku\u2019s investigation into modern-day psychiatric research shows that psychedelics are proving to be an effective treatment for mental health conditions such as PTSD and depression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>The Psychedelic Experience and the Art of Dying<\/strong><br><br>After a period of strict legal suppression, researchers in the US and Europe revived interest in psychedelic experimentation in the 1960s. One of the most well-known \u201cpsychonauts\u201d of this period was <a href=\"https:\/\/psychology.fas.harvard.edu\/people\/timothy-leary\">Harvard psychologist Timothy Leary<\/a>. Leary and his colleagues conducted experiments with <em>psilocybin<\/em> (the hallucinogenic compound found in \u201cmagic mushrooms\u201d) on college students, and often on themselves as well, as part of the Harvard Psilocybin Project. This project wasn\u2019t well received by the public or college administration and was suspended in 1963. However, Leary continued to research, use, and write about psychedelics, outside of the university, throughout the rest of his life.&nbsp;<br><br>In 1964, he published <a href=\"http:\/\/enlight.lib.ntu.edu.tw\/FULLTEXT\/JR-AN\/an141555.pdf\"><em>The Psychedelic Experience: a Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead<\/em><\/a>. This book, co-authored with Ralph Metzner and Richard Alpert, discusses the potential for psychedelic treatments of mental illness, and for mystical experiences. It specifically looks at the psychedelic experience as connected to the philosophy of <a href=\"https:\/\/press.princeton.edu\/books\/hardcover\/9780691134352\/the-tibetan-book-of-the-dead\">The Tibetan Book of the Dead<\/a>, exploring the themes of death, rebirth, and immortality.&nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can psychedelics induce a direct experience of the Divine? How did ancient religions use psychedelics to induce spiritual states? Many religions have a history of performing rituals that involved the consumption of hallucinogenic beverages to induce mystical or transcendental experiences. The descriptions of these experiences feature themes of death, rebirth, and immortality, acting as a gateway to a direct experience of the Divine. Keep reading to learn about the religious use of psychedelics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":55158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[761],"class_list":["post-80470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spiritual","tag-the-immortality-key","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Religious Use of Psychedelics: Accessing the Divine - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Many ancient religions have a history of consuming psychedelics to induce mystical experiences. Read about the religious use of psychedelics.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Religious Use of Psychedelics: Accessing the Divine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many ancient religions have a history of consuming psychedelics to induce mystical experiences. Read about the religious use of psychedelics.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-09-27T09:41:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-10-10T17:25:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/divine.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"The Religious Use of Psychedelics: Accessing the Divine\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-27T09:41:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-10-10T17:25:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/\"},\"wordCount\":481,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/divine.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The Immortality Key\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Spiritual\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/\",\"name\":\"The Religious Use of Psychedelics: Accessing the Divine - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/divine.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-27T09:41:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-10-10T17:25:54+00:00\",\"description\":\"Many ancient religions have a history of consuming psychedelics to induce mystical experiences. Read about the religious use of psychedelics.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/divine.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/divine.jpg\",\"width\":960,\"height\":640,\"caption\":\"Space Light Transcendental Meditation Mandala\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Religious Use of Psychedelics: Accessing the Divine\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\",\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png\",\"caption\":\"Darya Sinusoid\"},\"description\":\"Darya\u2019s love for reading started with fantasy novels (The LOTR trilogy is still her all-time-favorite). Growing up, however, she found herself transitioning to non-fiction, psychological, and self-help books. She has a degree in Psychology and a deep passion for the subject. She likes reading research-informed books that distill the workings of the human brain\/mind\/consciousness and thinking of ways to apply the insights to her own life. Some of her favorites include Thinking, Fast and Slow, How We Decide, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/darya\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Religious Use of Psychedelics: Accessing the Divine - Shortform Books","description":"Many ancient religions have a history of consuming psychedelics to induce mystical experiences. Read about the religious use of psychedelics.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Religious Use of Psychedelics: Accessing the Divine","og_description":"Many ancient religions have a history of consuming psychedelics to induce mystical experiences. Read about the religious use of psychedelics.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2022-09-27T09:41:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-10-10T17:25:54+00:00","og_image":[{"width":960,"height":640,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/divine.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Darya Sinusoid","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Darya Sinusoid","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/"},"author":{"name":"Darya Sinusoid","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46"},"headline":"The Religious Use of Psychedelics: Accessing the Divine","datePublished":"2022-09-27T09:41:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-10-10T17:25:54+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/"},"wordCount":481,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/divine.jpg","keywords":["The Immortality Key"],"articleSection":["Spiritual"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/","name":"The Religious Use of Psychedelics: Accessing the Divine - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/divine.jpg","datePublished":"2022-09-27T09:41:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-10-10T17:25:54+00:00","description":"Many ancient religions have a history of consuming psychedelics to induce mystical experiences. Read about the religious use of psychedelics.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/divine.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/divine.jpg","width":960,"height":640,"caption":"Space Light Transcendental Meditation Mandala"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/religious-use-of-psychedelics\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Religious Use of Psychedelics: Accessing the Divine"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46","name":"Darya Sinusoid","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png","caption":"Darya Sinusoid"},"description":"Darya\u2019s love for reading started with fantasy novels (The LOTR trilogy is still her all-time-favorite). Growing up, however, she found herself transitioning to non-fiction, psychological, and self-help books. She has a degree in Psychology and a deep passion for the subject. She likes reading research-informed books that distill the workings of the human brain\/mind\/consciousness and thinking of ways to apply the insights to her own life. Some of her favorites include Thinking, Fast and Slow, How We Decide, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram.","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/darya\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/divine.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80470"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80563,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80470\/revisions\/80563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}