Psychedelic Churches Need Philosophy of Religion

Abstract

Many new psychedelic religious organizations have recently emerged in the United States. These psychedelic churches operate in a legal gray area, which provides job opportunities not just for lawyers but also for philosophers of religion. To gain legal permission to use psychedelics, these churches need philosophically well-developed doctrines. Philosophers of religion can help develop these psychedelic doctrines. Looking at the law from a philosophical perspective, I derive six criteria which these psychedelic doctrines should satisfy. As an illustration, I show how a modernized Platonism can satisfy these criteria. Just as bioethicists can help in the practice of medicine, so philosophers of religion can help with the legal proceedings of new psychedelic churches.

1. New Psychedelic Churches in the US

Many new psychedelic religious organizations are emerging in the United States (Levy 2016; Lutkajtis 2020; Cole-Turner 2022; Stoddard 2023). They use psychedelics like DMT (in ayahuasca) and psilocybin in their ceremonies. Following legal convention in the US, I refer to these organizations as “churches”. This legal term does not entail that they are Christian. Here, I focus on new psychedelic churches, that is, psychedelic churches which have not yet gained legal permission to use psychedelics.

These new psychedelic churches face a challenging legal environment in the US (Agresti 2016; Litman 2024; Stoddard 2024). On the one hand, the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) makes it generally illegal to possess and use psychedelics. On the other hand, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) permits psychedelic churches to seek religious exemptions from the CSA.1 The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has been tasked with issuing religious exemptions.2 So far, it has issued exemptions for three churches.3 Churches that do not have these exemptions would greatly benefit from them. And they would be greatly helped in their movements to receive those benefits if they had both a good legal compass and a philosophically sound religious roadmap.

Hence, this legal situation provides job opportunities not just for lawyers but also for philosophers of religion.4 When a new psychedelic church seeks a religious exemption to use psychedelics in its ceremonies, it needs to do complex legal work. This legal work includes both a logistical side and a philosophical side.5 I do not discuss logistics here. On the philosophical side, it is essential for new psychedelic churches to show that their use of psychedelic substances is, in fact, religious. The legal structures that define religiosity explicitly refer to philosophical topics. To help new psychedelic churches obtain religious exemptions, lawyers and philosophers of religion should work together.

Since new psychedelic churches face challenges that require philosophically informed thinking, they may benefit from philosophers of religion.6 Here, there is an analogy with bioethics. Bioethicists who are not doctors nevertheless make essential contributions to medical practice. Likewise, philosophers of religion who are not lawyers can make essential contributions to the legal proceedings of new psychedelic churches. Speaking strictly as a philosopher of religion (I am not a lawyer), I will show how philosophers of religion can help serve new psychedelic churches. Specifically, a new psychedelic church needs a psychedelic doctrine, that is, a creed or statement of faith, ideally stated in written documents, which shows that their use of psychedelics is legitimately religious and so deserves a religious exemption under the RFRA.7 Looking at case law with a philosophical eye, I will derive six criteria for the religious legitimacy of a psychedelic doctrine. I will then illustrate these criteria using a modernized Platonism. I stress that there are other sources, besides Platonism, for psychedelic doctrines. My goal is to inspire philosophers of religion to get to work building such doctrines.

2. Psychedelic Churches Need Metaphysical Doctrines

US courts have developed guides for deciding whether or not groups are religious. The most widely used guide is the Meyers Test.8 The DEA uses the Meyers Test in deciding whether to grant exemptions for the religious uses of psychedelics (Feeney et al. 2018). The courts have also used Meyers to decide whether to grant such exemptions (US v. Quaintance).9 In discussing RFRA exemptions for psychedelic churches, the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines and Hoots (2021) also uses Meyers. So I will focus on Meyers here.

The Meyers Test has five factors.10 Here are the first three: “Ultimate Ideas: Religious beliefs often address fundamental questions about life, purpose, and death”; “Metaphysical Beliefs: Religious beliefs often are ‘metaphysical’, that is, they address a reality which transcends the physical and immediately apparent world”; “Comprehensiveness of Beliefs: Another hallmark of ‘religious’ ideas is that they are comprehensive”. Since most metaphysical systems include ultimacy and comprehensiveness, I will just say any belief system that satisfies these three factors is metaphysical. However, these three factors are probably not sufficient to make a metaphysical belief system religious.

Meyers draws an unclear contrast between “religious beliefs” and beliefs that merely specify “a philosophy or way of life”.11 Groups that sincerely hold religious beliefs deserve religious exemptions, but those that sincerely hold non-religious philosophies or ways of life do not. All these points can be summarized in the first criterion for religious legitimacy: (1) a psychedelic doctrine should include a metaphysical belief system that is also religious (and not merely a philosophy or way of life). But what determines whether a metaphysical belief system is religious or not? I propose three sub-criteria for determining the religiosity of a metaphysical belief system.

Both Meyers, and the case law behind it, in part, use an analogical method to define religion.12 Something is a religion if it is already legally accepted or recognized as such or if it is sufficiently analogous to some already legally accepted or recognized religion. Thus, the first sub-criterion states (1a) If a metaphysical belief system is developed in some accepted religion or is sufficiently analogous to such an accepted belief system, then it is religious. Ancient Greek and Roman Paganisms pass the Meyers Test (at 1504). And modern Paganisms based on ancient Paganisms pass it too (at 1503–1504).

For the second sub-criterion, I turn to the thesis that religious concerns are ultimate concerns.13 Speaking abstractly, your ultimate concern is your ultimate purpose for living, your ultimate goal or end.14 More precisely, the concept of ultimate concern originates with Tillich but departs from him as it is operationalized by case law.15 As operationalized, an ultimate idea becomes an ultimate concern when you are willing to make serious sacrifices in the pursuit of that concern, that is, you are willing to “disregard elementary self-interest” for that concern. People who religiously take psychedelics clearly do take them in the pursuit of some ultimate concern.16 The task for a psychedelic doctrine is to philosophically define that concern. So (1b) any religious metaphysics must define an ultimate concern. But if you have an ultimate concern or purpose, then you are religiously obligated to work towards achieving it. So, any religious metaphysics is obligated to tell you what to do to achieve your end. It has to specify the means to that end. It has to specify the religious practices that will help you achieve your goal. A religious metaphysics does what it is religiously obligated to do. Hence, (1c) any religious metaphysics specifies the religious practices that will help you achieve your ultimate concern.

3. Psychedelic Churches Need Ethical Doctrines

Another Meyers factor links religion with ethics: “Moral or Ethical System: Religious beliefs often prescribe a particular manner of acting, or way of life, that is ‘moral’ or ‘ethical’”. Hence, the second criterion for religious legitimacy states that (2) a psychedelic doctrine should include a moral system. As a general point, psychedelic churches should have ethical guidelines for regulating their community activities and their ceremonies. Yet, two specific ethical objections have been raised against using psychedelics.

The first is that psychedelics only lead to comforting delusions. Psychedelically induced beliefs often conflict with modern science (Letheby 2021, 2022). But such beliefs are likely to be false. Moreover, psychedelic doctrines include religiously metaphysical belief systems. But such belief systems often seem irrational and are generally not verifiable. Again, they risk falsity. Davis and colleagues say psychedelics may lead to “the epistemic harm of taking the individual further away from the truth about reality” (Davis et al. 2020, p. 1018). But it is ethically harmful to lead people into false beliefs.

The second objection is that taking psychedelics leads to ontological shock. Ontological shock occurs when a psychedelic experience radically disrupts a person’s pre-psychedelic metaphysical worldview. Again, these shocks typically involve conflicts between psychedelically induced beliefs and modern scientific worldviews like physicalism or naturalism (Timmermann et al. 2021; Nayak et al. 2023; Argyri et al. 2025; Jylkkä 2024a). Such shock causes intense existential distress (Carhart-Harris and Friston 2019; Davis et al. 2020; Letheby 2021, sct. 7.8 and 8.6; Evans et al. 2023; Argyri et al. 2025). In a survey of 608 people with long-term distress after taking psychedelics, half reported ontological distress (Evans et al. 2023, pp. 9–15). Ontological shock may lead to serious psychological and even physical harms (Davis et al. 2020; Gorman et al. 2021). Of course, people change worldviews all the time, and it is ethical when a person freely, rationally, and voluntarily changes from a harmful to a beneficial worldview. Using a drug that can cause ontological shock is unethical because that shock is experienced as involuntary, as irrational, and as being coerced by the drug.

The objections from comforting delusions and ontological shocks both involve an alleged irrationality of psychedelically induced beliefs. Hence, they can be mitigated by requiring psychedelic doctrines to use metaphysical belief systems that are rationally justified, that is, justified by evidence, reasons, and logical arguments. And these two objections both involve conflicts with modern science. Hence, they can be mitigated by requiring metaphysical belief systems whose rational justifications include rational replies to objections from science. To mitigate these ethical objections, I add the third criterion that (3) the psychedelic doctrine should both support psychedelic religiosity and be rationally justified. By working out psychedelic doctrines that satisfy this third criterion, philosophers of religion can reduce worldview conflicts and mitigate the ethical dangers of psychedelics (Sjöstedt-Hughes 2023; Quasti and Sisti 2025; Jylkkä 2024b).

4. Psychedelic Churches Need Philosophically Supported Practices

The last Meyers factor is “Accoutrements of Religion”, a long list of social and practical factors, such as priests, rituals, temples, holidays, diets, clothing, and so on. This last factor deals with religious practices. If the metaphysical belief system does not endorse any religious practices, then it fails to support the religious use of psychedelics. Likewise, if the only practices the metaphysical belief system endorses are purely contemplative (e.g., meditation) and do not support taking psychedelics into the body, then that belief system does not support the religious use of psychedelics. And if the endorsed practices are merely psycho-therapeutic or medicinal, then the belief system does not support the religious use of psychedelics.17 For example, when the Soul Quest Church petitioned the DEA for permission to use ayahuasca via the RFRA, their petition, including their church literature, mainly focused on the therapeutic uses of ayahuasca, referring to it as a medicine.18 Since therapeutic and medicinal uses of substances are not religious, their petition was denied.19 So the fourth criterion for religious legitimacy is that (4) the psychedelic doctrine must endorse practices that support taking psychedelics for religious purposes.

Psychedelic churches need religious doctrines that explain the religious efficacy of psychedelics as part of their comprehensive system of metaphysical beliefs. Otherwise, the beliefs are likely to be evaluated as ad hoc and thus not sincerely held (Feeney et al. 2018, pp. 100–1).20 For example, the psilocybin church known as The Divine Assembly (TDA) states on its website that “The Divine Assembly believes psilocybin mushrooms are an active sacrament. Our sacrament helps us commune directly with the Divine.”21 To satisfy Meyers, and to avoid the insincerity of ad hoc beliefs, TDA needs to explain how “the Divine” fits into a comprehensive system of metaphysical beliefs. And that system needs to explain why taking psilocybin offers direct communion with the Divine. Thus, the fifth criterion is that (5) the psychedelic doctrine must use its system of religiously metaphysical beliefs to explain why specifically taking psychedelics is a religious practice.

Theists have often objected that psychedelics do not induce genuine religious experiences and, thus, that taking them is not an authentic religious practice.22 They offer two main objections against psychedelics. The coercion objection is that psychedelics appear to compel the gods to reveal themselves to humans or to allow humans to merge with them. Ancient polytheists argued that humans cannot compel the gods, and monotheists later argued that “God can’t be summoned at will” (Carroll 2025; Slatter 2024). The shortcut objection is that psychedelics are not sound religious practices. Sound practices include only prayer, meditation, contemplation, and so on. Meeting these objections is crucial for securing the religious legitimacy of using psychedelics. Therefore, the fifth criterion also requires that the psychedelic doctrine must meet these objections.

However, when it comes to the use of psychoactive substances, regulatory agencies have often gone beyond Meyers. They are interested in whether a substance is used for religious purposes in some way that is essential to the religion (Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines and Hoots 2021, p. 18). At the very least, the use of psychedelics must be systematically integrated into the religion. Again, psychedelic practices cannot be ad hoc, that is, included in a religion solely as an excuse for taking drugs. If the psychedelic doctrine of some church cannot provide metaphysical interpretations of the main features of psychedelic experiences, then its psychedelic practices are not systematically integrated into that church. But if they are not systematically integrated, then they are ad hoc. Consequently, the sixth criterion for religious legitimacy is that (6) the psychedelic doctrine must provide a religiously metaphysical interpretation of all the main features of psychedelic experiences.

5. Modernized Platonism Serves New Psychedelic Churches

Interpretations of psychedelic experiences and practices often turn to Platonism (e.g., Pahnke and Richards 1966; Luck 2000; Shipley 2015; Sjöstedt-Hughes 2023; van der Braak 2023).23 Shanon indicates that the worldview inspired by taking ayahuasca closely resembles the Neoplatonic metaphysics of Plotinus (Shanon 2010, p. 269). And Richards shows how psychedelics can lead to immersive experiences of Platonic metaphysics (Richards 2015, chap. 4, 14). To avoid needless conflicts, I will use a suitably modernized form of Platonism.24 Modernized Platonisms have been developed by Leslie (1993, 1997, 2001) and by Steinhart (2022). I aim to show here that Platonism, in some modernized form, can satisfy the six criteria for religious legitimacy.25 Hence, a modernized Platonism can support a psychedelic doctrine that satisfies the Meyers Test and related case law.

My only intention here is to use Platonism to show you one way to satisfy the six criteria. I am merely offering an example, whose purpose is to inspire others to think about how to satisfy the legal demands on religions. I strongly encourage people to use my work here as a template for developing their own psychedelic doctrines. Obviously, Platonism is not the only metaphysical position that is rationally justified. Other rationally justified metaphysical positions can be fitted into this template. It would be interesting to use the six criteria to develop a Spinozistic psychedelic doctrine (see Sjöstedt-Hughes 2022) or to develop a Whiteheadian psychedelic doctrine (see Buchanan 2022).

The first criterion for religious legitimacy states that a psychedelic doctrine should include a metaphysical belief system that is religious. As metaphysical, it must also be ultimate and comprehensive. Platonism clearly satisfies these requirements. But is Platonism religiously metaphysical? It is if it satisfies the three sub-criteria for religiosity. The first sub-criterion says that if a metaphysical belief system is developed in some accepted religion or is sufficiently analogous to such an accepted belief system, then it is religious. Ancient Platonism served ancient Greek and Roman Paganism. Steinhart (2022) shows how to modernize old Platonic beliefs and practices in ways that preserve religiosity. So modernized Platonism satisfies the first sub-criterion.

The second sub-criterion says that a metaphysical system is religious if it defines some ultimate concern. Let us look at this. According to Plato, you are like a prisoner in a cave (Republic, 509d–520a). Your goal is to climb up out of this cave. To climb out of the cave is to ascend the Platonic divided line (Republic, 509d–511e). You start at some low level of the line, and the purpose of your life is to climb the divided line to the top. To climb up the divided line is to ascend from earth to heaven. As you climb up, you become more divine, eventually changing into some god or goddess. Your purpose in life is to become as divine as possible (Theaetetus, 176a5–b2). Plotinus affirms that your goal is to become a god or goddess (Enneads (E), 1.2.6). The sun is at the top of the divided line. If you complete your ascent, then you will become unified with the sun; hence, your ultimate goal is to become unified with the sun. But the sun in the divided line is merely a symbol for the Platonic Good. Hence, your ultimate purpose in life is to become unified with the Good. To use religious language from Tillich and Meyers, what ultimately concerns the Platonist is union with the Good.26 Thus, Platonism satisfies the second sub-criterion.

The third sub-criterion says a religious metaphysics specifies the religious practices that will help you achieve your ultimate concern. Here, I turn to the Platonic theory of rebirth. You will probably need many lifetimes to ascend to the Good. If you live well, you will be reborn at a higher level on the divided line. Living well requires that you live both morally well and religiously well. Living morally well requires that you behave according to a positive moral code. Living religiously well requires that you perform your religious duties. Here, the Platonist affirms that religious concerns are ultimate concerns. So, your religious duties aim at your ultimate concern. You are religiously obligated to pursue your ultimate concern. The ultimate concern for the Platonist is to ascend the divided line to union with the Good. Hence, Platonists have a religious duty to ascend and unite. Since ultimate concerns are religious, any rituals that facilitate the achievement of your ultimate concern are religious practices. And the ancient Platonists specified many religious practices to facilitate their ascent and union. Some of these practices were theurgical, and modern Platonists argue that theurgical practices involve psychedelics (see Section 7 and Section 8). Hence, Platonism satisfies the third sub-criterion.

Platonism has already been used in a religious context; it defines a concern that is ultimate for human life, and it offers a system of practices to facilitate the achievement of that concern. Therefore, Platonism satisfies all three sub-criteria for being religious. Since Platonism satisfies all three sub-criteria, it follows that Platonism includes a metaphysical belief system that is religious (and not merely a way of life). It therefore satisfies the first criterion for being a religiously legitimate psychedelic doctrine.

6. The Religious Ethics of Ascent

The second criterion for the religious legitimacy of a psychedelic doctrine states that it should include a moral system. Platonism includes a complex moral system (mostly virtue ethics). So, it satisfies the second criterion. The third criterion states that the metaphysical belief system should both support psychedelic religiosity and be rationally justified. Given the centrality of Platonism to Western philosophy for twenty-four centuries, it is fair to say that Platonism is extremely rationally justified. Here, rational justification includes sufficient compatibility with modern science to rationally respond to scientific objections. It is probably impossible to reconcile ancient Platonism with modern science. However, both Leslie and Steinhart intend their modernized Platonisms to be harmonious with modern science. Since Leslie’s Platonism does not discuss religious practices, but Steinhart’s does, it is easier to use Steinhart’s version here. Again, I must stress that this is only an example, and I encourage others to work out their own examples.

In his modernized Platonism, Steinhart (2022) argues for the existence of a great world tree. The world tree starts with a simple initial universe at the bottom of the divided line. It is a law of nature that every universe in the world tree surpasses itself into many greater successor universes at some higher level on the divided line. Every successor universe is an improved version of its predecessor. It is more intrinsically valuable than its predecessor. It is also a law of nature that every infinite progression of universes surpasses itself into many greater limit universes at infinitely higher levels. Every limit universe is more intrinsically valuable than every universe in its progression. Level by level, through absolutely many infinities, the world tree climbs up the divided line to the Good.

Universes are wholes composed of parts. Physical things like planets, ecosystems, and lives are parts of universes. Since improved wholes require improved parts, the laws for the world tree entail that all things in all universes get improved as their universes get improved. Your current life is the root of your vital tree. Every life in your vital tree surpasses itself into many greater successor lives in greater successor universes. Successor lives are more intrinsically valuable versions of their predecessors. Every infinite progression of lives in your vital tree surpasses itself into many greater limit lives. Any linear progression of lives in your vital tree grows closer and closer to the Good. At absolute infinity, each progression of lives finally merges with the Good.

Modernized Platonism says you are reborn into your greater successor and limit lives (Steinhart 2022, chap. 9). You are reborn at higher levels on the divided line. Although the divided line is an eternal structure, modern Platonism is happy to treat it as an abstract timeline rising upwards into the future. Hence, your greater successor and limit lives are in your future, so you will be reborn into your successors, then into further successors, eventually into limits, and so on up the divided line. Your successor lives inherit most of their structure from your current life. Aristotle said your soul is just the structure of your body (De Anima, 412a5–414a33). Here, your soul is the structure of your life. Your life is an algorithmically generated process. So, your soul is an algorithm.

During improvement, your soul is algorithmically modified to generate a superior life. The algorithm that modifies your soul is karmic. The laws of karma are progressive rather than retributive (Steinhart 2022, chap. 9.6). Although the laws for your vital tree entail that you steadily ascend the divided line, they do not specify how fast you rise. Karmic laws entail that your speed depends on the axiological qualities of your lives. If you live poorly, you will ascend slowly. If you live well, doing both your moral and religious duties, then your future lives will ascend the divided line more rapidly.

Ancient Pagans often thought of their deities as superhuman animals. They were not disembodied minds but living physical bodies. They ate and drank; they made love, and they made war. Divine bodies have greater physical natures. They may be bodies of holographic light, bodies of pure information, or infinitely complex fractal bodies. They may be woven into the very fabric of space and time. Nevertheless, they are bodies. Modern Platonism affirms that the deities are superhuman animals in higher future universes. Earthly bodies will eventually be reborn into divine bodies in such universes.

The world tree is a multiverse generated by an optimization algorithm, an optimization algorithm that is powered by the One. Since the One is the root of the world tree, the One originally dwells in the Platonic cave, that is, in the abyss of nothingness. Today, many logicians treat nothingness as an object studied by formal logic (e.g., Priest 2014; Moss 2022; Steinhart 2022, chap. 2). They argue that nothingness negates itself, and the self-negation of nothingness is the One. For modern Platonists (as for Speusippus), the One is not the Good. On the contrary, the One is that absolutely positive productive power that drives all things from the cave, up the divided line, to the Good. The One is being itself. Being itself is also a logical object, represented by the existential quantifier. As such, it is wholly present in the ontological core of every being.

Many scientific cosmologies recognize multiverses. And optimization algorithms are scientific. As a logical object, the One is consistent with science. Modern Platonism can provide rational responses to objections from modern science. It both supports psychedelic religiosity and is rationally justified. It helps to minimize ontological shock. It therefore satisfies the third criterion for the religious legitimacy of a psychedelic doctrine.

7. Platonic Practices Support Taking Psychedelics

The fourth criterion for the religious legitimacy of a psychedelic doctrine states that it must endorse practices that support taking psychedelics for religious purposes. In his modernized Platonism, Steinhart (2022, chap. 8) describes such practices, thus satisfying this fourth criterion. To flesh out the Platonic psychedelic practices described by Steinhart, I will add many details from Plotinus, Iamblichus, and Proclus.

Detachment Practices. Platonic religious practices aim to facilitate the rebirth of the body into superior bodies at higher levels of the divided line. Since the soul is the form of the body, this rebirth of the body is equivalent to the reincarnation of the soul. The practices that facilitate this rebirth include detachment practices to help you shed your attachment to your current embodiment (E 6.7.36.5–10). Through these practices, you will learn not to fear death but to see it as a process of self-surpassing towards the Good.

Plotinus describes the ascent to the Good in terms of a ritual ascent into a temple (E 1.6.7.1–14). You climb the temple stairs, proceed through its outer courts, past the statues of the gods, and then into the inner sanctum (E 1.6.8, 5.1.6.10–15, 6.9.11.17–25). During this ascent, you must take off your clothes, meaning you must lose your attachments to your current life (E 1.6.7.1–14; 6.9.9.50–55). Since death and rebirth are like an actor changing clothes for a new role (E 3.2.15.20–30), removing your clothes during the ascent prepares you for death and rebirth. Stróżyński (2021, 2022) and Mazur (2003, 2004, 2009) discuss Plotinian practices for facilitating this ascent. These practices involve the loss and recreation of the self. Since psychedelic experiences often involve such loss and recreation, these Platonic detachment practices align with the use of psychedelics.

Plotinus urges his students to perform visualization exercises (Mazur 2004). He offers many visualization exercises (E 3.3.7.10–25, 3.8.10.10–20, 4.3.9, 5.1.2.1–23, 5.1.4; 5.1.6, 5.8.9, 5.8.11–12, 6.4.7.22–47, 6.5.7, 6.7.15.25–33). He presents exercises in which you visualize your self-transformation (E 1.6.9, 5.5.7–8, 5.8.11, 6.9.9.56–60). Iamblichus advocated visualization exercises to facilitate ascent (Shaw 2014, chap. 19), as did Proclus (Commentary on Euclid, def. 14). Since psychedelic experiences often involve intense visions, these ancient Platonic visualization practices support the use of psychedelics.

Psychedelic therapy usually involves three phases: the preparatory phase, the psychedelic experience, and the integration phase (Sloshower et al. 2020; Thal et al. 2022). These phases are also used in religious psychedelic retreats (McAlpine et al. 2024; Morley 2023).27 Integrating the detachment practices of ancient Platonists into modern preparatory practices can ensure that they serve religious purposes.

Transformational Practices. Ancient Platonists advocated for transformational practices. Plotinus thought of the soul as a statue. He said, “never cease chiseling your statue, until there shall shine out on you from it the godlike splendor of virtue” (E 1.6.9). To work on your statue, you need to use tools. Psychedelics are tools that facilitate the growth of virtue. Psychedelics can help in overcoming self-destructive behaviors (like addictions). For the Platonist, depression is like a weight that drags us down the divided line back into the cave. Psychedelics can treat depression. Platonism says we often suffer from illusions which prevent us from increasing our virtues and ascending to the Good. But psychedelics can dispel those harmful illusions (Letheby 2015). Psilocybin increases empathy (Pokorny et al. 2017). It increases connectedness and acceptance (Watts et al. 2017). Psychedelics can be used for moral self-improvement (Tennison 2012; Letheby 2015, 2017; Earp 2018). For the Platonist, virtue enhancement facilitates your ascent to the Good and is therefore religious. Since Platonism supports the religious use of virtue-enhancing tools, it supports the religious use of psychedelics.

Mystical Practices. Ancient Platonists (especially Plotinus) endorsed practices that induced mystical union with the One-Good (e.g., E 1.6.7.1–14; 4.8.1; 5.3.17.15–38; 5.5.8.9–24; 6.7.34.8–38; 6.7.36.10–22; 6.9.9.44–60). These experiences involve ego dissolution and reconstitution. They are analogous to the processes that will happen to the soul as it passes from life to life. Just as the ego during mystical experience dissolves into the ground of awareness and is then reconstituted from that ground, so the soul during reincarnation will dissolve into its ontological core, into the One, and be reconstituted from the One. During mystical experiences, you rehearse death and rebirth. Since this rehearsal prepares you for death and rebirth, it provides you with a better being-towards-death. But a better being-towards-death helps you live more virtuously so that you will be reborn on some higher level of the divided line. This rehearsal is a religious practice.

The Platonists endorsed practices that induce mystical experiences, and taking psychedelics induces mystical experiences. Plotinus said that the One works like a drug (E 5.4.1.30–35). These points justify the thesis that Platonism supports taking psychedelics for religious purposes. Consequently, a psychedelic doctrine based on modernized Platonism satisfies the fourth criterion for religious legitimacy.

8. Psychedelic Theurgy

The fifth criterion for the religious legitimacy of a psychedelic doctrine states that it must use its system of religiously metaphysical beliefs to explain why specifically taking psychedelics is a religious practice. And it should address the coercion and shortcut objections. To show how Platonism satisfies this criterion, I turn to theurgy. Steinhart (2022, chap. 8.12) discusses how theurgy can use psychedelics. Besides taking inspiration from his modernized Platonism, I turn here to many ancient Platonists.

Some ancient Platonists (like Plotinus and Porphyry) thought that purely contemplative practices were sufficient for ascent to the deities. However, Iamblichus argued that humans are not strong enough to ascend to the divine just by using their minds (On the Mysteries (M), 2.11). Mental practices (prayer, meditation, contemplation, visualization, and so on) do not suffice to raise us to the deities. To ascend to the divine, we need physical ladders. Importantly, it is necessary to use these ladders. Fortunately, such ladders do exist. Our universe contains ladders of physical things that increasingly symbolize the deities and thereby symbolically ascend to them (M 1.11, 1.15, 3.17, 5.23). Proclus also wrote about ladders that ascend to the Good (On the Hieratic Art; Elements of Theology, prop. 145), and he gave this example: sunflowers, lions, roosters, the sun, Apollo, the Good.

The art of using physical symbols in rituals, as ladders to ascend to the deities (and ultimately to the Good), was known as theurgy. Theurgic rituals were not mental exercises but involved physical actions by and on bodies. Iamblichus says theurgy uses herbs and “aromatic substances” (M 5.23). He mentions theurgists who “ingest certain potions” to induce visions (M 3.14). And he says that theurgical rituals induce hallucinatory visions (M 2.3-10). Of course, while these points suggest the ancient theurgical usage of plant hallucinogens, they are not conclusive. Nevertheless, Luck (2000) argues that the modern psychedelic practices are highly similar to ancient theurgical practices. Hanegraaff (2011) argues that modern ayahuasca rituals are theurgical. And van der Braak (2023, chap. 5) uses Iamblichus to give a highly detailed argument that Santo Daime ayahuasca rituals are theurgical. So, whether or not ancient theurgists used psychedelics, these scholars affirm that modern psychedelic practices are theurgical. Accordingly, modern Platonism includes the religious use of plant psychedelics in theurgical rituals.

These plant psychedelics include DMT, mescaline, and psilocybin. Yet theurgists also used animal substances (M 5.23). Thus, theurgists can use substances like 5-Meo-DMT, taken from animals like Colorado River toads. Importantly, it is the substance itself, not its source, that is the physical symbol in the theurgical ladder. Hence, modern theurgists can also make use of synthetic versions of these biological substances. Since Platonists are interested in the abstract forms of things, a modern theurgist can argue that the divine symbols are not particular molecules but the shapes of those molecules. The divine symbol is the pharmacophore that activates certain receptors. Hence, it is not insincere for a psychedelic church to use many sacraments with the same pharmacophore.

Nevertheless, this historical reasoning fails to explain why psychedelics are symbols of the deities. An argument is needed. The argument for the symbolic powers of psychedelics goes like this: Psychedelics reliably induce hallucinations that experientially reveal the existence of divine universes and deities. And psychedelics reliably induce mystical experiences in which the theurgist is united with the Good. The best explanation for these reliabilities is that psychedelics are theurgical symbols of the deities. So, by inference to the best explanation, psychedelics are theurgical symbols of the deities.

Shaw writes that the purpose of theurgy “is not to escape from the body but to overcome the confusions of embodiment and allow the divine to take its seat in one’s own body” (Shaw 2015, p. 158). The theurgists reasoned like this: The deities dwell above us on much higher levels of the divided line. Nevertheless, just as the sun illuminates the earth with light, so the deities illuminate the lower levels of the divided line with light (M 1.8, 1.9, 1.12). However, in our ordinary lives, we are often turned away from that divine light (M 1.13). For the sake of survival, our brains act as “reducing valves” that filter out that light (Webb 2023). But our universe contains natural symbols of the deities. When we use their symbols in theurgical rituals, our bodies turn towards that light and receive it (M 1.15, 2.11). By using these divine symbols, we neither coerce nor summon the deities. We are producing a change in our own bodies, which opens us to the divine light.

When our bodies receive that light, we become transfigured. By using the symbols of the deities in theurgical rituals, we are “raised up to union with the higher powers” (M 4.2) so that the transfigured theurgist wears “the mantle of the gods” (M 4.2). The theurgist becomes an avatar of some god (M 1.12). Again, it is necessary to use the physical symbols of the gods to become transfigured. It is not possible to ascend the divided line merely through the use of our own mental powers in contemplative exercises. Many theurgical ladders are available for us to use to ascend to the deities. Since theurgy requires the use of some ladder, none of these ladders are illegitimate shortcuts. Psychedelics are symbols of the deities. Hence, one of the theurgical ladders includes the use of psychedelics. Since no ladder is an illegitimate shortcut, psychedelics are not illegitimate shortcuts.

Nevertheless, it might be objected that if many non-psychedelic ladders are available, then Platonists do not need to use psychedelics. I reply by giving an argument for the religious necessity of psychedelics in Platonism: Platonists are religiously obligated to ascend to and unite with the Good. If you are religiously obligated to achieve some end, then you are religiously obligated to use the most reliable means to that end. Psychedelics are the most reliable ways to ascend and unite. Therefore, Platonists are religiously obligated to take psychedelics. Obligation is a kind of necessity. Thus, it is religiously necessary for Platonists to use psychedelics.28

Modern Platonism easily incorporates these theurgical points, so it supports specifically taking psychedelics for religious purposes. Merely contemplative practices do not suffice to raise our souls to the deities and to facilitate our ascent up the divided line. The use of some theurgical ladder is religiously required. Since ritually using psychedelics provides one such ladder, it satisfies that requirement. The theurgical use does not coerce the deities, and it is not a shortcut. Consequently, a psychedelic doctrine based on modernized Platonism satisfies the fifth criterion for religious legitimacy.

9. Psychedelic Experiences Interpreted via Modern Platonism

The sixth criterion for the religious legitimacy of a psychedelic doctrine states that it must provide a metaphysical interpretation of the main features of psychedelic experiences (PEs). Although no list of these features will satisfy everybody, I have extracted eight main features from the literature: enchantment, divine creative energy, connection, journeys through other universes, anomalous agents, a divine mind, ultimate unity, and death transcendence. Here, I sketch how modern Platonism interprets them.

Enchantment. PEs often involve enchantments of ordinary things. They are seen as intensely beautiful or are seen as saturated with profound value and meaning (Huxley [1954] 2009; Ballesteros 2024; Hartogsohn 2018). All things seem to shine with internal light (Huxley [1954] 2009). Modern Platonism says the One animates and enchants all things. And all things shine with the light of the deities and reflect the light of the Good.

Divine Creative Energy. PEs suggest the existence of divine creative energy. Shanon reports that ayahuasca reveals that there exists a cosmic energy that permeates, animates, and sustains all things (Shanon 2002, pp. 61, 150). This energy is “the ground of all Being” and “the source and fountain of all Existence” (Shanon 2002, pp. 164, 280). Ayahuasca users report that “a divine force is working for us, that it’s a great joy to love and to serve” (Harris and Gurel 2012, p. 213). Iamblichus says a divine fire-energy energizes all things (M 1.8–9, 1.12, 2.4, 3.20, 4.3, 5.11–12). Modern Platonists say the divine fire-energy is the positive productive power of the One, which flows through all things.

Connection. PEs suggest that all things are interconnected (Watts et al. 2017; Carhart-Harris et al. 2018; Kaluzna et al. 2022). Many ayahuasca users report seeing threads or strings binding all things into a web (Shanon 2010, p. 274). They report that “everything is connected and alive,” and that “we are all one and interconnected through an energetic web” (Harris and Gurel 2012, p. 213). Plotinus often says all things are mutually entangled via relations of sympathy and antipathy (E 2.3.5–7, 4.4.26–41, 4.5.1–8, etc.). Iamblichus also affirms universal entanglement (M 4.8–10, 5.7, 5.10, etc.). Modern Platonism agrees that all existing things are connected to each other.

Journeys through Other Universes. PEs include hallucinatory journeys through other universes in the world tree. These journeys are immersive experiences. Since these hallucinations are not voluntary but have the authority of perception, they are experienced as revelations. Since they reveal to you the existence of other and often greater universes in the great world tree, they facilitate your ascent into those universes.

Anomalous Agents. PEs often include apparent encounters with unusual or anomalous agents. These are more-than-human or other-than-human agents, such as aliens, elves, spirits, angels, and gods (Luke 2011; Davis et al. 2020). These are typically encountered in visions. Iamblichus talked about visions of anomalous entities during theurgical rituals (M 2.3–10). Modern Platonism says these agents dwell in other universes in the world tree.

Divine Mind. PEs suggest the existence of a Divine Mind or Anima Mundi (Grof 1972; Barnard 2014). Huxley talked about “Mind at Large” (Webb 2023). PEs appear to shift metaphysical beliefs away from materialism towards idealism (Timmermann et al. 2021; Letheby 2022; Nayak et al. 2023; Jylkkä et al. 2024). Ancient Platonists posited a divine mind. Modern Platonists, like ancient Platonists, affirm that the One generates the totality of mathematical structures. This totality is rationally organized and animated by the divine energy of the One. Hence, it can be construed as a Divine Mind.

Ultimate Unity. PEs often include awareness that “All is One”, or the experience of dissolving into an ultimate unity (Pahnke and Richards 1966, pp. 177–78; Shanon 2010, p. 269; Griffiths et al. 2006, 2011; Letheby 2021, chap. 3.3; Kaluzna et al. 2022). Modern Platonism begins with the One, the creative root of all things. All things are unified by the One; they coincide in the One. PEs also often suggest that the ultimate unity is positively valenced (goodness, love). Modern Platonists say the productive power of the One is positive and directs itself towards the Good. Modern Platonists say that mystical union with the One occurs in the transition from death to rebirth. Mystical experiences induced by psychedelics symbolically replicate this transition.

Death Transcendence. When people have psychedelic mystical experiences, they report significant increases in death transcendence (Griffiths et al. 2011). They come to believe more strongly in some form of life after death (e.g., “Death is a transition to something even greater than this life; Death is never just an ending, but a part of a process”). Ayahuasca often produces profound beliefs in reincarnation (Shanon 2002, pp. 223–25). Ancient Platonists endorsed reincarnation. Modern Platonists update ancient reincarnation theories using computational theories of souls and universes.

I listed eight main features of psychedelic experiences from the literature: enchantment, divine creative energy, connection, journeys through other universes, anomalous agents, a divine mind, ultimate unity, and death transcendence. And I outlined how modern Platonism interprets them. Thus, Platonism satisfies the sixth criterion.

10. Conclusions

As new psychedelic churches seek legal recognition, it is extremely likely that they will need to present psychedelic doctrines that satisfy the demands of the Meyers Test for religiosity. On the basis of the Meyers Test, I derived six criteria that any psychedelic doctrine must satisfy for religious legitimacy. I argued that a modernized Platonism can provide a psychedelic doctrine that satisfies all six criteria. Any psychedelic church that uses this modern Platonism as its psychedelic doctrine should be able to satisfy the Meyers Test and, therefore, to satisfy the philosophical–religious side of the DEA requirements for a religious exemption to the CSA in the US. (Of course, the logistical side of the DEA requirements must be satisfied as well). Importantly, I do not claim that modernized Platonism is the only way to satisfy these six criteria. It is highly likely that other religious philosophies can be developed in ways that satisfy these six criteria, and I strongly encourage philosophers of religion to carry out those developments. When it comes to helping new psychedelic churches gain legal recognition, philosophers of religion can contribute in many essential ways.