Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Can mushrooms enhance spirituality?

By Mary Jacobs of The United Methodist Reporter

Today I’m pondering this story from Religion News Service:

“Hallucinogenic mushrooms, long valued by Central American cultures for their mystical qualities, may enhance the spirituality of people of faith, according to a new study in the Journal of Psychopharmacology. Volunteer subjects reported conversing with God, experiencing "ultimate transcendence," and being suspended in a "tactile field of light." According to the study… subjects who took doses of psilocybin, a drug found in hallucinogenic mushrooms, reported sustained spiritual and religious benefits 14 months after ingestion. Sixty-seven percent of participants rated the experience as one of the five most spiritually significant events in their lives.”

Participants in the study came from a mix of predominantly Christian backgrounds. The article goes on to quote a United Church of Christ pastor who sees the mushrooms as “inductors into the spiritual world."

This raises some unsettling questions. If true spiritual experiences come from God, why would anyone need pharmacological enhancement to have them? Were the transcendent experiences described by the great saints of history actually sparked by naturally-occurring influxes of chemicals in their brains, rather than real encounters with God? Are attributes like a gentle spirit or a pure heart (or, in the negative column, hardheartedness and depression) all just manifestations of various combinations of chemistry in our brains? And given the research that links physical effects to traditional practices of spiritual formation – such as prayer, meditation and fasting – could these just represent natural ways of tinkering with our brain chemistry?

It all boils down to one question: Do I have a soul, or a chemistry set?

The question depresses me. Pass me the Zoloft.

Related stories

• Pegasus News Week in View: m.pegnews.com edition (July 10, 2008)

See more stories in:

• Christianity
• Drugs / Alcohol

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