Psychedelic Cults and Outlaw Churches

A comprehensive tour of North American spiritual groups that use psychoactive drugs in the search for higher consciousness.

For thousands of years, human beings around the world have used hallucinogenic plants and fungi to alter consciousness and connect with the Divine. Although such practices faded with the rise of organized religion, the last century has seen a revival of entheogen-based spirituality in North America.

From LSD-powered guru Timothy Leary to cannabis-sex cults to psychedelic outlaw churches, Mike Marinacci presents a comprehensive tour of North American religious sects and spiritual groups that use entheogens and psychoactive drugs in the search for higher consciousness, mystical insight, and spiritual enlightenment. Exploring prominent churches and cults in depth, he examines the lives of their colourful leaders, the origins of their unorthodox beliefs, the controversial practices of their congregants, and their many conflicts with both law enforcement and public opinion. He looks at the Native American Church and their legal battle over their peyote rituals, the cannabis-sex temple known as the Psychedelic Venus Church, the murderous end of the LSD-therapy cult known as the Church of Naturalism, and several other major groups and temples of psychedelic spirituality. He then offers an encyclopedic survey of dozens of minor organizations, many of which have never been documented in an authoritative source before.

Sharing personal interviews and anecdotes about the strange, outrageous adventures of religious psychonauts alongside rare photos and illustrations, this extensively researched study of underground psychedelic religious groups in the United States reveals their spiritual and cultural influence from the 1960s to the present day.