Charting Novel Psychedelic Spiritual Communities

Edited by Aaron Michael Ullrey.

The following Research Reflection, by Jeffrey Breau, Program Lead, Psychedelics and Spirituality, is part of an ongoing series spotlighting the academic study of religions.

Throughout history, psychedelic substances have catalyzed the formation of religious movements. My research investigates contemporary psychedelic churches that I label “novel psychedelic spiritual communities,” or NPSCs. I use ethnographic methods, including extended participant observation and in-depth interviews, to study how NPSCs are organized, their theologies and rituals, their approaches to safety and the law, and what these communities suggest for the future of religion in America.

NPSCs are novel in the sense of the Latin word novellus, meaning both “of a new kind” and/or “belonging to recent times.” They are psychedelic churches not affiliated with Indigenous plant medicine traditions nor any major world religions. A directory compiled by J. Gordon Melton and John Rapp in 2025, “Entheogenic Churches and Religious Bodies in the United States,” identifies over 250 psychedelic churches operating in the United States. Most of the psychedelic churches in the directory are affiliated with Indigenous traditions or Abrahamic religions, making NPSCs particularly novel. 

NPSCs are often radically inclusive spiritual communities that do not require members to have the same beliefs. They set forth pluralistic, non-binding doctrines, whose common belief is the possibility that psychedelics can produce sacred experiences. Members include atheists who describe sacred experiences as a feeling produced when psychedelics bind to certain receptors in the brain. Others view sacred experiences as revealing nondual reality or astral realms. Others maintain that psychedelics produce sacred experiences because the substances themselves are spirits or deities. 

I refer to NPSCs as spiritual communities rather than churches or religions for two reasons. First, the label “spiritual” is an emic term my interlocutors generally (though not universally) prefer over “religious.” Religion, for many of them, suggests dogmatism and a top-down hierarchy. Second, the word “community” reflects NPSC’s varied organizational structures better than “church.” One NPSC that I research is a diffuse group of psychedelic users that practice in so-called recreational settings like Burning Man. The rest are incorporated or operating as nonprofit religious organizations. Some NPSCs do refer to themselves as “churches,” but in many cases this label signals the desire to be legible to legal systems that look favorably on Christian organizations. 

NPSCs are what scholars call new religious movements. But what constitutes a “new” movement? Scholars classify Theosophy as a new religious movement, though the Theosophical Society formed in the nineteenth century. The communities I study were formed in the last two decades, but many do not consider their practices to be “new.” Many view psychedelic use as an ancient, if not the most ancient, form of religion. As one community founder wrote to me, “Seeking presence and guidance from the divine with the assistance of sacred (‘sacramental’) materials and practices is NOT a new thing.” Some NPSCs even trace their practices back more than one hundred thousand years, citing Terence McKenna’s “stoned ape theory” that claims our ancient ancestors used Psilocybe mushrooms. 

NPSCs, like all religions, adopt and adapt elements from other traditions and from the cultures out of which they emerge. Founders in my study cite influences as diverse as Western Esotericism, the New Age, Methodism, and Mormonism. One NPSC founder explained that her Mormon upbringing was a major influence on how she approaches experiences of revelation in her community. Another founder adapted his community’s ritual practices from Thelema, an esoteric tradition associated with Aleister Crowley. 

NPSCs are also not limited to groups founded in the twenty-first century. The 1960s and 1970s saw a proliferation of such communities. This includes well-known groups like Timothy Leary’s League of Spiritual Discovery and lesser-known churches like The Church of the Tree of Life. As with contemporary NPSCs, these communities typically articulated non-dogmatic theologies and emphasized sacred experience over belief. And they, too, emerged following a wave of psychedelic research and in a culture that (increasingly) criminalized psychedelics. 

Since the NPSCs I study practice with federally illegal substances, they are often influenced by that prohibition. One group used a template provided by a lawyer to design an official statement of beliefs, for having a statement of beliefs is considered essential for the government to recognize these communities as sincere religions. Another group introduced holidays to align itself with a legal definition of religion that includes shared holidays.

To date, only four psychedelic churches have the legal right to ritually practice with psychedelics. None of these four are NPSCs. All of them are affiliated with mestizo or Indigenous plant medicine traditions, and three of them also have ties to Christianity. Although their paths to legal protection are uncertain, my research suggests that NPSCs represent sincere religious organizations and are an increasingly prominent way Americans are seeking transcendence, community, and meaning.