Psychedelic Theology

This episode includes graphic material. Listener discretion is advised.

Just as psychedelic trips can show us unfathomable beauty, they can also show us unfathomable horror that rival any horror movie. In this episode, the latter half of a Halloween Double Feature, we'll explore the story of three horror trips, how they affected the people who experienced them, and why we need to discuss horror trips more often in psychedelic research and subculture.

What if psychedelics could allow us to speak with deceased loved ones or receive messages from beyond the grave? According to some psychedelic researchers and recreational users alike, it is possible. In this festive Halloween double-feature episode, you'll hear a fascinating narrative of mid-century psychedelic ghost stories and premonitions, followed by an analysis of what Christians should think about ghost stories in general, psychedelic or not.

This weekend, I was blessed to lead a workshop and a presentation at The Wild Goose Festival! During my time there, I met my online friend Kassidy Beane, known online as The HippieCatholic, and heard her talk on burnout, mysticism, and activism. In this bonus episode, The HippieCatholic and I explore how Christian ethics intersected with radical counterculture and psychedelic subculture in the 60s and 70s.

Recorded just two hours before the attempted assassination of former President Trump, this episode has eerily relevant insights on how psychedelics, Christianity, and counterculture can be guided away from needless violence and towards peace and justice.

Some podcasters and psychonauts have claimed that Jesus never existed. Instead, he was a metaphor for magic mushrooms. How did this idea become so popular? Does it have any validity? Join Rev. Kaleb to explore the origins of this theory and why it became so popular in psychedelic subculture.

What if we could stay in the Spirit Molecule realm for hours, even days? What could we learn about the human mind? Learn more about DMT, the most common naturally occurring but a difficult-to-ingest psychedelic.

2C-B is a liminal psychedelic. Somewhere between the effects of LSD and MDMA, this substance possesses fantastic opportunities for exploration that are only beginning to unfold.

In this mini-episode, learn about the lesser-known psychedelic MDA and its legacy in an Episcopal church in NYC

In this podcast episode, listeners will learn about the potential and limitations of psychedelics for addressing world conflict and injustice. Through the stories of Palestinians and Israelis who took ayahuasca together, particularly an IDF elite force veteran and a formerly self-hating Palestinian raised in Israel, we will dive deeper into this topic and how insights may affect the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Host Kaleb Graves staunchly condemns antisemitism in all its forms, particularly conflation between Jews or Judaism with the authoritarian Israeli regime. Hamas is not representative of the Palestinian people, its actions on October 7th were abhorrent, and its government should be overthrown by the Gazan people. Pro-Palestinian activism which targets synagogues and other Jewish institutions because of their ethnic or religious affiliation should be rejected wholeheartedly. Following the stance of the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, a free Palestine is a necessary step toward a world safe for Jews and free of antisemitism. 

Solidarity Fast for Palestine is an interfaith movement of ministers, seminarians, and young people of faith and conscience. We will be going on hunger strike from March 18-22 to help pressure religious leaders and politicians to bring an end to the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the occupation of Palestine as a whole. Support us @Solidarity.Fast.For.Palestine on Instagram or Facebook.

Sources used for this podcast include:

“The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” by Ilan Pappe.

“Except for Palestine” by Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Phitnick.

“All That Remains” by Walid Khalidi.

“A Palestinian Theology of Liberation” by Naim Ateek.

“The Wall and the Gate” by Michael Sfard.

“Relational Processes in Ayahuasca Groups of Palestinians and Israelis,” published in Frontiers in Pharmacology and written by Leor Roseman et al, 2021.

“On Revelations and Revolutions: Drinking Ayahuasca Among Palestinians Under Israeli Occupation,” published in Frontiers in Psychology and written by Leor Roseman and Nadeem Karkabi, 2021.

“The UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2018 Gaza protests,” United Nations, 2019. ( https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/co-iopt/report2018-opt )

B’Tselem - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories 

( https://www.btselem.org/ ).

In this live recording from The Advocate Episcopal Church in Chapel Hill North Carolina, Kaleb Graves guides participants through an introduction to the Psychedelic Renaissance and the Christian church's place in it. 

Psychedelics can induce cognitive and sensory changes similar to those described by prophets, visionaries, and mystics, and as psychedelics enter the mainstream, those who partake are talking about their experiences. How should the church respond? How should a minister provide pastoral counseling to a veteran who was treated with DMT for PTSD, now claiming to have met Jesus? How should a campus pastor respond if a sophomore asks to give their testimony about converting to Christianity after an LSD trip?

What should lay leaders and trusted friends say if someone asks them to be a “trip sitter” during a psychedelic treatment for depression? Learn what psychedelic substances are, the kinds of experiences they can induce, and what these experiences may mean. Journey through church tradition and the scriptures to learn how ministers, lay leaders, parents, and peers can be equipped to provide spiritual and interpersonal care to someone participating in the Psychedelic Renaissance.

Come hear the greatest story rarely told: the 1970 Christmas Happening.

On Christmas Day 1970, around 20,000 hippies descended on Laguna Beach, CA for a three-day “riotous birthday party for Jesus.” Music flowed on a stage decorated with a multi-colored cross, yin-yang, Christmas trees, and a statue of Jesus. Journalists described the heavy smell of hash in the air as “frankincense and myrrh.” Mutual aid tents were set up for free food and medical care. The Brotherhood of Eternal Love airdropped over thousands LSD tabs on the crowd. The event was eventually shut down with hundreds of cops in riot gear singing “Here Comes Santa Claus.” It was a Christmas celebration like no other, a West Coast Woodstock.

The Virgin Mary. Theotokos. Mother of God. Shower of the Way. Gate of the Dawn. Bearer of our Salvation. Star of the Sea. Refuge of Sinners. Known by many titles, the mother of Jesus Christ has a long history of veneration in both the mainstream Christian church and psychedelic-infused faith.

Come on a journey through indigenous Christian culture, recreational visions, and modern medicine to see how Mary as the Undoer of Knots may have things to teach us about entheogen use and integration.

(Episode Art by Charlie Potesky, @charliepotesky, trippycharlie.com)

What awaits us beyond death? In this two-part episode, Kaleb explores the ideas of mystical unification with God and universal salvation in Christianity, as well as how they are paralleled by the psychedelic experience.

What awaits us beyond death? In this two-part episode, We explore the ideas of mystical unification with God and universal salvation in Christianity, as well as how they are paralleled by the psychedelic experience.

Can psychedelics give us a glimpse of the afterlife? Is it time to leave the binaries of heaven and hell behind? Hear more about DMT cosmic space, lesser-known divine realms, dancing with God's Arcadian nymphs, and playing tuba with Machine Elves!

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Psychedelics have a reputation for causing "ego death," a powerful experience that resembles physical death. Could psychedelic ego death help us overcome our fear of death? Could Christian ethics and rituals also help us prepare for death using psychedelics?

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