Last night, I had the privilege of attending a gathering of the Psychedelic Society of Texas in Dallas. I left feeling deeply grateful—grateful to connect with like-minded individuals who are called to help educate, honor, and protect the integrity of this important work. The evening sparked profound reflection, and two themes stood out above all else.
It became clear that the colonial mindset—rooted in domination, extraction, and erasure—is still very much alive in the emerging psychedelic landscape. Much like the European explorers of the 1400s and 1500s who claimed to have “discovered” lands that were already home to thriving civilizations, the modern scientific and corporate communities are approaching psychedelic medicines as if they’ve stumbled upon something entirely new. This is not a discovery. These sacred medicines have been held, honored, and used ceremonially by indigenous cultures for thousands of years.
What was once done to land, people, languages, and spiritual traditions is now being mirrored in the commodification of these ancient healing tools. The drive for profit, control, and intellectual ownership threatens to strip these medicines of their sacredness, reducing them to mere clinical interventions or commercial opportunities. This is the exact opposite energy of what is truly needed in this space. Psychedelic work, at its core, is about respect, reverence, reciprocity, and the restoration of right relationship—with oneself, with others, and with the earth.
The second key insight was the recognition that spiritual communities—churches, ministries, and intentional spiritual centers—are better positioned to steward this work responsibly. Unlike corporate models driven by profit, these communities already operate with a focus on service, community, and spiritual transformation.
In past experiences with my own clients, including integration sessions, it is evident that approaching this work within a spiritual context made it more accessible, meaningful, and effective. For many, the sacred container of a spiritual community allows for deeper healing than traditional therapy alone ever could. It invites people into a journey of the soul, not just a clinical intervention for symptoms.
This aligns with the growing belief shared at the meeting that church-based or nonprofit models may be the only ethical and sustainable way forward. Such models remove the profit motive, anchor the work in service, and create space for indigenous wisdom, spiritual practices, and community support—elements largely absent from the current clinical and corporate approaches.
Study: Psilocybin Elevates Spiritual Awareness
Key Facts:
Subjects: 24 Clergy and religious leaders from various faith traditions.
Long-Term Impact: Positive changes were sustained up to 16 months after the second session.
Spiritual Significance: 96% of participants ranked at least one experience among the top 5 most spiritually significant of their lives.
Vocational Benefits: Clergy reported improved effectiveness as religious leaders following psilocybin use.
The discussions last night illuminated several key limitations of the current clinical and corporate approach to psychedelic healing:
Commercialization and the Rise of “Soul-less” Psychedelics: The current wave of psychedelic capitalism is disproportionately focused on synthetic versions of these medicines—such as ketamine and other lab-derived analogs—often ignoring the rich plant-based traditions and deep indigenous roots from which true healing emerges. In this model, the medicines risk becoming hollow commodities, stripped of the sacredness that gives them meaning.
Disconnection from Lineage and Wisdom: Too often, clinical settings operate in isolation from the cultural, spiritual, and ceremonial frameworks that have safely guided the use of these medicines for thousands of years. Without this connection to lineage, the depth and integrity of the healing process are diminished.
The Absence of Heart-Centered Guidance: Perhaps most importantly, the clinical model fails to recognize that this work is not simply about technique, credentials, or scientific knowledge—it is fundamentally about the transmission of wisdom from heart to heart. Psychedelic guides, facilitators, and therapists must embody a particular spiritual disposition, much like a chaplain, minister, or shaman. It is not a matter of having a license on paper, but of having the right heart, the right presence, and the right relationship to the sacred.
No amount of clinical training alone can substitute for the depth of integrity, humility, compassion, and reverence required to hold space for others in these profoundly vulnerable states. This work must be approached not as a clinical transaction but as a sacred duty—one that honors the spiritual dimension of healing and recognizes that transformation flows not just through protocols, but through the quality of presence, the purity of intention, and the capacity to meet another human being, heart to heart.
The challenge—and opportunity—is to bridge these worlds. There is value in the scientific understanding of the brain, the therapeutic models of psychology, and the rigorous safety protocols that modern medicine can provide. But for this work to truly heal, it must be rooted in the heart, in community, and in the timeless spiritual traditions that have always understood these medicines not just as tools for symptom relief, but as sacred sacraments.
The ideal path forward may lie in community-based, nonprofit spiritual centers that integrate scientific knowledge while honoring the spiritual and ceremonial dimensions of the work. This model ensures accessibility, protects the sanctity of the medicine, and fosters the kind of personal and collective transformation that this movement was born to serve.
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