Cannabis Culture and Spirituality

A massage therapist named Jackson, bored with his practice, became interested in natural psychoactive substances for healing and spirituality after cannabis legalization. He used cannabis monthly and was enthusiastic about Johns Hopkins research on psilocybin's mental health benefits. Jackson recalled a spiritual awakening from LSD in his youth but also witnessed a friend experience a year-long paranoid panic from the drug.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Jackson was bored with his massage therapy practice and was looking for something more interesting to do. Cannabis legalization had reawakened his interest in the use of natural, psychoactive substances as healing and spiritual agents. A once-a-month user of cannabis, he was enthusiastic about Johns Hopkins University’s research on the potential mental health benefits of psilocybin, the psychedelic “magic mushroom.” Jackson fondly remembered experiencing a spiritual awakening when he took LSD as a young man, but he had also seen the powerful drug send a friend into paranoid panic that lasted over a year.