Full Description
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.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword by J. Christian Greer, Ph.D.
Introduction
PART ONE
Major Sects
Superstars of the Entheogenic Spiritual Underground
ONE
The Native American Church
Trouble and Triumph on the Long Peyote Road
TWO
The Church of the Awakening
Heartland Explorations in Mescaline Awareness
THREE
The Peyote Way Church of God
Outlaw Stewards of the Magic Cactus
FOUR
The Oklevueha Native American Church
Bringing Many Medicines to the White Man
FIVE
The League for Spiritual Discovery
Turning On and Tuning In with Timothy Leary
SIX
The Neo-American Church
The Chief Boo Hoo Presents Massive Doses of Acid Absurdity
SEVEN
The Brotherhood of Eternal Love
The Orange Sunshine Conspiracy
EIGHT
Shivalila
The Wandering Entheogenic Tribe
NINE
The Church of Naturalism
From LSD Rescues to L.A. Murders
TEN
The Church of the Tree of Life
The Sacramental Garden of Legal Highs
ELEVEN
Temple of the True Inner Light
A DPT Eucharist on the Lower East Side
TWELVE
The Shiva Fellowship
Cannabis Communion on Hippie Hill
THIRTEEN
The Psychedelic Venus Church
Sex, Drugs, and the Goddess of Ecstasy
FOURTEEN
The Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church
Burning Down Babylon with Jah's Ganja
FIFTEEN
The Church of the Universe
Eden in the Great Green North
SIXTEEN
The Hawai'i Cannabis (THC) Ministry
Holy Smoke in Paradise
SEVENTEEN
The International Church of Cannabis
A Gothic Church, Urban Murals, and Elevationism
EIGHTEEN
Ayahuasca Healings
Plant Shamanism in the Internet Age
PART TWO
Minor Sects
An A-Z Guide from Ambrosia to Zide
CONCLUSION
Psychedelic Sects
From Prehistory into the Third Millennium
APPENDIX
Psychedelic Substances and Their Associated Sects
Notes
Bibliography
Index
