Christianity & Psychedelics: The Psychedelic Renaissance and Future of Christianity

A Conversation with Hunt Priest, Marie Louise Dutilh, Joe Welker and Anne Philippi

As more and more people in the United States and Canada become aware and accepting of the healing potential of plant medicines, will Christians also embrace the possibilities for spiritual growth and physical and mental health? After all, healing the sick and the transformation of people was at the core of Jesus’ ministry.

Join us for a discussion featuring three Christian leaders working at the intersection of Christianity and psychedelics. Among the topics we will explore: Using existing ritual and sacramental theology to facilitate the transformation that is possible, incorporating psychedelics as a trusted modality used by laypeople and clergy in their own healing and the healing of others, gathering Christian community that encourages and values mystical experiences, including but not limited to those occasioned by psychedelics.

📷Hunt Priest is an Episcopal priest and the founding Executive Director of Ligare, a non-profit network of Christian leaders educating themselves and those they lead about the intersection of open-hearted Christianity and the Psychedelic Renaissance.  A participant in the Johns Hopkins/NYU Religious Leaders Psilocybin Study in early 2016, he had two life-changing mystical experiences under the care of the Hopkins team. His encounters with psilocybin opened him to the healing and consciousness-raising power of psychedelic medicines and changed the landscape of his work. Hunt believes the healing power of psychedelics should be in the toolkits of all who are healers of bodies, minds and souls and can’t wait to provide access for legal, safe and guided experiences in a Christian setting. This past April Hunt took an extended break from full-time parish ministry to expand his priesthood out into the emerging psychedelic landscape.

📷Marie Louise Dutilh is a counselor, spiritual care giver, and an ordained minister in the Remonstrant Church, a Protestant denomination in the Netherlands founded in 1619. Based in The Hague, Marie Louise has extensive experience working as a chaplain in healthcare, non-profit organizations and penal systems in The Netherlands and several countries in South America. Utilizing her extensive training, she works with individuals for spiritual development, spiritual care, healing and bereavement processing. She believes that the use of psychedelics can contribute significantly to this work. She assisted in several legal psychedelic retreats in the Netherlands. Marie Louise has served in pastoral positions in both Remonstrant and Unitarian congregations and has degrees from the Leiden University, the University of Utrecht in The Netherlands and Princeton University in the United States. In addition, she has 12 months of Clinical Pastoral Education working with patients, families, and hospital staff at Philadelphia Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia Medical Center in New York.

📷Joe Welker is a Master of Divinity candidate and Ministry Fellow at Harvard Divinity School, having received his Bachelor’s from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Religious Studies. Joe is the project manager for the Sacred Plant Alliance, as well as creator and former host of the podcast Choose Your Own Religion, a conversational and confessional storytelling docuseries. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church (USA), where he is discerning a call to ordained ministry. His studies at Harvard include interreligious and process theology, psychedelic chaplaincy, and issues facing indigenous peoples. He is also passionate about homeless ministries, ceremonial healing, and supporting religious rights for sacred plant communities. 📷

Anne Philippi was an author and journalist, worked for Vanity Fair, Frankfurter Allgemeine and GQ, lived in LA and wrote a novel. Fed up with classic talk therapy that never worked for her, she read How to change your mind by Michael Pollan about the psychedelic renaissance. She started her own psychedelic journey and went on a guided, safe and legal psilocybin experience in the Netherlands. She knew she would be able to work on topics very differently now with the support of psychedelics. And she wanted to be part of this incredible psychedelic ecosystem, so she founded “The New Health Club” and started with the podcast and the YouTube Show. Anne then met her Co-Founder Christoph Haberbauer, and they now are building a consumer portal  and referral system for psychedelics and a marketplace for legal, safe and vetted psychedelic experiences and treatments. They want to promote and create a place where consumers and patients can get accustomed to the new world of psychedelics and feel safe and informed in doing so.

This talk will be recorded and immediately available for rewatch for all attendees.

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