What happens when clergy take psilocybin

Article and study quality

• Many found the Nautilus piece content-light and clickbaity: mostly framing and study description, little narrative, data, or clergy testimony.
• Several preferred a longer magazine piece and especially the actual open-access paper, noting the article even misreported basics (e.g., exaggerating how many clergy were considering leaving ministry).
• Some criticized reliance on self-report: clergy describing profound change isn’t the same as independently observed behavioral change.

Historical and research context

• Commenters linked to earlier clergy–psilocybin work, especially the 1962 “Good Friday”/Marsh Chapel experiment, and to Alcoholics Anonymous’ co‑founder’s interest in LSD.
• Others noted the replication and broader “psychology reproducibility crisis,” and how psychedelics research sits within a field already struggling with small samples, bias, and stats.

What psychedelics feel like (and don’t)

• Experiences ranged widely: some described deep gratitude, ego “dissolution,” spiritual awe, or life-course changes; others reported “just visuals and fun,” with no spiritual content at all.
• A recurring theme was “set and setting”: mindset, expectation, prior drug use, and environment heavily shape whether a session feels mystical, therapeutic, banal, or terrifying.
• Some argued psychedelics mainly amplify what is already there—compassion or narcissism alike—rather than reliably producing wisdom.

Spirituality, religion, and theology

• One side sees psychedelics as modern “entheogens,” akin to historical religious technologies (fasting, prayer, chanting), giving direct access to states long described by mystics.
• Others insist visions under drugs are just distorted brain signaling—feedback in a noisy analog system—no more authoritative than dreams.
• Christian commenters invoked scripture and natural-law reasoning to argue that deliberately impairing rational perception (to “get high” or induce visions) is intrinsically wrong and not genuine spirituality.
• Some from Islamic perspectives stressed intoxicants are clearly proscribed, doubted any devout leader would participate, and rejected attempts to equate drug states with authentic faith.
• A separate thread argued that even if every spiritual experience has a neurochemical substrate, that doesn’t by itself refute its meaning or divine source.

Risks, contraindications, and uneven effects

• Multiple first‑person accounts described panic, months‑long anxiety, PTSD‑like aftermath, or persistent visual disturbances, sometimes from relatively low doses.
• Strong warnings recurred for people with personal or family histories of psychosis, bipolar disorder, or on certain psychiatric meds; interactions (e.g., SSRIs blunting or altering effects) came up repeatedly.
• Others emphasized that most experiences in their circles were positive, but agreed that “not for everyone” is an important corrective to current hype.

Ethics, meaning, and who “should” use them

• Debate ran between those who think most people would benefit from at least one carefully guided trip and those who say that is reckless given unknowns and vulnerability.
• Some framed psychedelics as potentially humbling and connective; others noted counterexamples—cult leaders, erratic public figures—who use them yet seem more grandiose.
• A few questioned whether chemically induced “sacredness” or clergy’s psilocybin-driven shifts in belief and loosened dogma should be celebrated, or seen as undermining their religious authority.