The psychedelic revival is in full swing. My fellow Wheaton College alumnus Rob Bell counsels young seekers to try everything—the “whole buffet.” Episcopal priests are all over it (even if the studies they were a part of have drawn very serious criticism from those involved). Without necessarily endorsing the movement, The Christian Century ran a prominent story on the “psychedelic renaissance.” Even traditional Catholics like Sohrab Amari have given psychedelics a riveting, if ultimately debunking, whirl. Promoters describe these drugs as a “cure for atheism.”
For a column titled Material Mysticism, this claim to achieve the “mystical” through such “material” ends had to be addressed. Fortunately, Ashley Lande, author of the engrossing memoir The Thing That Would Make Everything Okay Forever (Lexham Press, 2024), agreed to an interview. Having engaged psychedelic writers like Daniel Pinchbeck and Michael Pollan, I can easily say that Lande’s is the most beautifully written of such accounts. Moreover, as far as I can tell, she laps both of these writers in regard to “trippable hours.” The difference is she promotes the drugs not as gateways to enlightenment but as roadblocks to it.
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