Psychedelic Cults and Outlaw Churches
 | |
| Author | Mike Marinacci |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Psychedelic churches |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Publisher | Park Street Press (Simon and Schuster) |
| Publication date | July, 4 2023 |
| Publication place | Rochester, Vermont |
| Pages | 384 |
| ISBN | 978-1644117071 |
| OCLC | 1345215557 |
| Website | simonandschuster |
Psychedelic Cults and Outlaw Churches: LSD, Cannabis, and Spiritual Sacraments in Underground America is a 2023 book about psychedelic churches and cults by independent researcher and writer Mike Marinacci.[1][2][3][4] It is a comprehensive history of the previously largely unreviewed psychedelic church movement in North America in the 20th century.[3][2]
The book covers 66 psychedelic churches that have operated in the United States, Canada, and Jamaica, including 18 main churches and 48 secondary smaller and less-well-known churches.[2][3] Some examples of the churches covered include the Native American Church (NAC), the Peyote Way Church of God (PWCG), the League for Spiritual Discovery (LSD), the Neo-American Church (OKNeoAC), the Brotherhood of Eternal Love, the Church of the Tree of Life (TOLC), the Temple of the True Inner Light (TTIL), and the Psychedelic Venus Church (PVC), among many others.[1][3][2][5] The book doesn't cover psychedelic churches in other parts of the world, for instance the Santo Daime church of Brazil.[3]
The foreword of the book was written by the religious scholar and historian J. Christian Greer, who is notable for his work in the area of psychedelic religion and in coining the term "psychedelicism".[6][3]
Book reviews of Psychedelic Cults and Outlaw Churches have been published.[2][3]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- 1 2 Stoddard, Brad (31 July 2024). The Production of Entheogenic Communities in the United States. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009429412. ISBN 978-1-009-42941-2. Retrieved 28 August 2026.
As independent historian Mike Marinacci (2023) documented, in the wake of prohibition, many people formed psychedelic religions like The Church of the Awakening, The Peyote Way Church of God, The Neo-American Church, and The Shiva Fellowship, to name just a few. [...]
- 1 2 3 4 5 Psychedelic Press (18 July 2024). "Psychedelic Legacies of American Religion: Review of 'Psychedelic Cults and Outlaw Churches' (2023) by Mike Marinacci". Psychedelic Press. Retrieved 28 August 2026.
In Psychedelic Cults and Outlaw Churches: LSD, Cannabis, and Spiritual Sacraments in Underground America (2023), Marinacci has written a well overdue book detailing over 60 cults, sects and spiritual groups with various psychoactive plants and substances as their sacraments. [...] The first part of Psychedelic Cults is dedicated to 18 prominent organisations; beginning with peyote churches, followed by LSD, legally ambiguous substances, cannabis and finally ayahuasca ones. The second part is an alphabetical list of 'minor' organisations with short descriptions—a fascinating but necessarily limited (due to sources) excursion into the furthest fringes of this extraordinary religious landscape. [...]
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Petrukhin, S. S. (2024). "Рецензия на книгу: Marinacci M. Psychedelic Cults and Outlaw Churches: LSD, Cannabis, and Spiritual Sacraments in Underground America. Rochester, Vermont: Park Street Press, 2023. 540 p." [Book review: Marinacci M. Psychedelic Cults and Outlaw Churches: LSD, Cannabis, and Spiritual Sacraments in Underground America. Rochester, Vermont: Park Street Press, 2023. 540 p.]. Aliter (in Russian) (21): 100–106. Retrieved 28 August 2026.
Mike Marinacci's book "Psychedelic Cults and Outlaw Churches: LSD, Cannabis, and Spiritual Sacraments in Underground America", published in late 2023, sheds light on the previously unknown history of the psychedelic (in the author's terminology) church movement in the twentieth century. Based on a significant amount of primary sources, including small-circulation pamphlets, periodical interviews, fanzines, and Internet archives, the book tells the story of 66 psychedelic churches that existed throughout the United States, Canada, and Jamaica. Marinacci's book represents an important point in the study of entheogenic religion.
- ↑ Marinacci, Mike (4 July 2023). Psychedelic Cults and Outlaw Churches: LSD, Cannabis, and Spiritual Sacraments in Underground America. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781644117088.
- ↑ Greer, J. Christian (1 April 2025). "Historians on Drugs: Toward an Empirical Historiography of Global Psychedelic Cultures". South Atlantic Quarterly. 124 (2): 263–293. doi:10.1215/00382876-11626593. ISSN 0038-2876. Retrieved 28 August 2026.
- ↑ Winkelman, Michael J.; Barnard, G. William; Blainey, Marc G.; Brown, Jerry B.; Roberts, Thomas B.; Lorenz, Joseph; Clark-Soles, Jaime; Richards, William A.; Hunt, Harry T.; Gabrielli, Timothy R.; Odorisio, David M.; Trothen, Tracy j.; Stoddard, Brad; Ungerland ii, Paul Jonathan; Lake, George G.; Graves, J. Kaleb; McCarthy, Bryan; Priest, Hunt (19 July 2024). "Psychedelic Christianity: Commentary and reply: Commentaries on: McCarthy & Priest (2024). Psychedelic Christianity: From Evangelical hippies and Roman Catholic intellectuals in the sixties to clergy in a Johns Hopkins clinical trial". Journal of Psychedelic Studies. doi:10.1556/2054.2024.01356. ISSN 2559-9283. Retrieved 28 August 2026.
As J. Christian Greer points out in his insightful "Foreword" to Mike Marinacci's book on Psychedelic Cults and Outlaw Churches: LSD, Cannabis, and Spiritual Sacraments in Underground America, "Over the past seven decades, hundreds of psychedelic sects have collectively reshaped America's cultural landscape." (Marinacci, 2023, xiii). [...]