We seek counsel from the mushroom, to find direction and inspiration in our faith practice. “We believe that Sacred Mushrooms are a primary source of personal and divine revelation. Once everyone had eaten their cap, Courtney read the church’s statement of faith: | Photo by Carolyn BrownĮric distributed the mushroom caps, and, together, each group member popped theirs into their mouth in an instant. The group was a small fraction of the approximately 30 local members and the 120 or so internationally who make up the church - technically, the “non-denominational, international faith-based community.” Eric Osborne, the founder and minister of Sanctuary, holds a collection of psilocybin mushroom caps, which his church considers sacred. His wife Courtney McClure, Psanctuary’s secretary and co-founder, had already passed around a clipboard with a waiver, which all nine people in the circle (except me) had signed.
“Heaven’s right here,” he said, “if we allow it to be.” Inside it was a collection of small psilocybin mushroom caps, tiny things, each one 0.10 grams and barely bigger than a fingertip.Ī “sacred mushroom,” Eric told the group, “is just a gift of nature,” one you “don’t even have to grow” - “just got to pick ‘em and there they are.” Psanctuary’s founder and minister, 43-year-old Eric Osborne, pulled a small Pyrex container out of a tote bag. A young Psanctuary cleric in training, Tristan Harris, said he was looking forward to the chance to “connect with you all and with this” - he patted the earth - “big ball.”
This afternoon’s gathering, their fourth of its kind since the church’s inception in 2021, was, in their phrasing, a “subtle sacrament encounter” - less than a full trip experience (a “congregational communion”), but a communion with the world nonetheless, by way of mushrooms.įirst, though, the congregants shared their intentions for the day - “to be me,” “to find myself again,” to be a good representation for the church - as well as what they were grateful for. The “sacred mushrooms,” as the church often calls them, are a Schedule I controlled substance that can carry a punishment of up to three years for possession, but registered 508(c)(1)(a) churches like Psanctuary have certain legal protections they say allow them to use mushrooms in controlled worship contexts. Like in most of the country, psilocybin mushrooms are illegal in Kentucky. This church was Psanctuary: The Sacred Mushroom Church, a religious organization in Louisville that uses psilocybin mushrooms, which have psychedelic properties, in their religious practices and regards them as a tool for communing with a higher power and nature.
Nothing immediately gave away their purpose, though from a distance, onlookers would miss the hints - the neon mushroom-themed blanket on which two church founders sat, the references to “the mushroom space” dotting the conversation throughout the afternoon. In a field of yellow wildflowers at a large metropolitan park on a perfect spring Sunday afternoon, a small Louisville church congregation was sitting on blankets, about to microdose psilocybin mushrooms.Īnyone could have been forgiven for thinking that this group was one of the others that populated the area that day - the yoga class, perhaps, or the people playing fetch with their dogs.