The PULSE of Psychedelics, Law, and Spirituality
This symposium, The PULSE of Psychedelics, Law, and Spirituality, highlights the work of the Petrie-Flom Center’s Psychedelic Use, Law, and Spiritual Experience (PULSE) Project.
We invited this year’s cohort of affiliated legal and religious scholars and practitioners to explore an idea from their own work.
These PULSE researchers, who meet monthly, come from a range of backgrounds and perspectives. In their writing, common themes include the meaning(s) of religion or spirituality, seeking relief under state or federal versions of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and other legal pathways, and why and how people seek and find psychedelics.
Victoria Litman considers whether the commonly accepted rigid three classifications of medical use, spiritual or religious use, and recreational use of psychedelics actually make sense, and she calls for an approach that makes room for all three at once.
Jay Michaelson reports out on a Harvard Law School symposium on Psychedelics and Monotheistic Traditions, and highlights the way Christian, Jewish, and Muslim traditions might pursue legal recognition for religious psychedelics use.
Jaime Clark-Soles argues that the traditional Christian church needs to take a stance on the use of psychedelics, by clarifying categories of substances, stances on intoxication, and views on altered states of consciousness.
Jeffrey Breau analyzes the closely-watched recent case of the “Singularism” church and its members’ use of psychedelics. He notes the irony of trying to prove “religion:” the church’s efforts to avoid cultish behavior may be used against their claims of religious sincerity in consideration of whether they meet the definition of a church under the law.
Deepak Sarma argues the Euro-Christian concept of “religion” as a legal construct needs a paradigm shift, particularly given how “psychedelic spiritualities” continue to evolve. They suggest a new approach that starts with the concept of Darśana, derived from Sanskrit, meaning “sight” or “vision.”
Paul Gillis-Smith shares some history: a fresh take on psychedelics in the 1960s through the unpublished memoir of a little-known figure in Harvard psychedelics history, including stories of her work and her encounters with law enforcement.
Note: This work was supported by a grant from the Mahindra Humanities Center’s Study of Psychedelics in Society and Culture, the Project on Psychedelics Law and Regulation (POPLAR) at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School and the Gracias Family Foundation.
(Links to the posts below will become active as they are published.)