Sacred Mushrooms: How Hunt Priest is Bridging Christianity and Psychedelics
A better way to alter our consciousness
Hunt Priest, the founder of Ligare: A Christian Psychedelic Society, was a participant in a Johns Hopkins/NYU psilocybin study for religious leaders in 2016. At the time, he was rector (senior pastor) of Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Mercer Island, Washington. His encounters with psilocybin opened him to the healing and consciousness-raising power of sacred plants and fungi and their connection to his own Christian practice and ministry. The epiphanies forever changed the trajectory of his work and led him to start Ligare: A Christian Psychedelic Society in 2021. Although he currently lives in Savannah, Hunt lived in metro Atlanta (Midtown, Little Five Points, Decatur, and Newnan) from 1988-2005.
This episode is interesting for anyone curious about how traditional religious values square with psychedelic experiences. Some of what the episode covers:
Hunt shares his transformative experiences with psilocybin (mushrooms) during the Johns Hopkins study and how they deepened rather than diminished his Christian faith
We explore what an ideal church model incorporating psychedelics might look like
Hunt addresses common misconceptions Christians have about psychedelics
We discuss how psychedelic experiences can complement existing spiritual practices
Listen to the full episode here:
My Reflections
We Need to Take a Long Look at Psychedelics
As Hunt and I discussed, there's so much anecdotal evidence suggesting that psychedelics, specifically psilocybin, could be transformative tools for peace and deeper connection with God that it really merits our finding out more about them. We owe it to ourselves to really understand, to the best extent we can, their anecdotal and scientific benefits and risks.
AI and Psychedelics: Two Transformative “Technologies”
I believe AI and psychedelics are the two most compelling frontiers being explored in our modern era. They're the areas with the most possibility to help transform how we function, how we see the world, and how we experience our connection to one another.
At this point, we've mapped most territories of the human experience—we understand the tenets of health, relationships, even the mechanics of destruction and war.
But psychedelics and AI represent rare uncharted territories with genuine potential to transform our experience in ways few other discoveries could. Rather than incremental improvements, they might actually help us change the game on how it feels to live as a human.
Churches Should Be Leading This Exploration
It's only logical that churches and religious institutions – those tasked with meaning-making, the caretaking of souls, and the cultivation of consciousness and compassion – should be on the forefront of figuring out if these tools could help their members and clergy advance their aims of building relationships with the divine.
It’s already beginning to happen in Atlanta. This week, Emory University’s Center for Psychedelics and Spirituality hosted a ‘Science on Spiritual Health Symposium,’ an interfaith conference on psychedelics and religion that brought together diverse spiritual leaders to explore these possibilities.
Still, I understand that religious institutions are relatively conservative by nature, and there likely will be a lag where the church will be a late mover rather than leading the way. That's why Hunt's work with Ligare is so important – helping religious communities move forward in this space more thoughtfully.
Spiritual Bypassing or Spiritual Accelerant?
Hunt and I discussed a common critique that psychedelics may represent a form of "spiritual bypassing" – skipping the work to have a ‘God encounter’ without first cultivating a relationship through traditional practices.
Hunt suggests psychedelics are perhaps most potent when they're one tool among many in someone's spiritual toolkit. If you already have a prayer practice, a church home, meditation practice, or scripture study, psychedelics can be another meaningful tool – perhaps even one that accelerates your encounter with the divine.
Hunt points out that psychedelics reliably produce consciousness-altering experiences that many relate to divine encounters, while you might meditate daily for years without experiencing transcendence.
Rather than "spiritual bypassing," perhaps "spiritual accelerant" is a better way to phrase it.
Ending with Hope
I'm relatively news-sober right now – the current cycle is full of doom and gloom that I can’t control. But amid the modern challenges, the longer-arc promising potential of both AI and psychedelics gives me cause for hope. If good people with good intentions figure out how to use these tools effectively, we might actually move the needle addressing some of our deepest human challenges.
What about you?
What do you think? Would you be interested in seeing your church or religious institution explore psychedelics in a thoughtful, communal context? What excitement or reservations would you have? I'm curious to hear your reflections in the comments, or reply to this email!