famous study of the role of psilocybin in spiritu-
ality. Conducted in 1962 by Walter Pahnke, the
experiment gathered 20 Protestant Harvard Divin-
ity School students outside the Marsh Chapel at
Boston University to receive a capsule of white
powder right before a Good Friday service. Ten of
the pills contained psilocybin, and 10 contained
nicotinic acid, an active placebo that causes flush-
ing in the face. Of the 10 students who received the
psilocybin, eight said they had a mystical experi-
ence, wandering around Marsh Chapel while
saying things like, “God is everywhere.” Their
behavior convinced Pahnke that a psilocybin high
shared many aspects with a full-fledged mystical
experience.Persuasive as psilocybin is, recent scholars — such
as Rick Doblin, the founder and executive director
of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic
Studies (MAPS) in Santa Cruz, California — have
found methodological flaws in Pahnke’s study. From
1986 to 1989, Doblin did a follow-up of the Good
Friday Experiment, identifying all but one of the
divinity students who took part in the 1962 study
and interviewing the 16 who agreed to participate,
including seven of the 10 who had taken psilocybin.
All seven of these subjects told Doblin that
“the experience had shaped their lives and work
in profound and enduring ways.” Doblin found,
however, that the study failed to mention that some
of the students had struggled with fear during the
experiment. One of them even charged from the
chapel and raced down the street, filled with the
conviction that he was meant to announce the next
Messiah, after which he had to be restrained and
administered a tranquilizing shot of Thorazine to
bring him back inside the chapel.THE DRUG WAR, FINALLY FADING
Although researchers are bringing psychedelics
back into their various fields of study these days,
it is difficult for us to imagine, given the paucity of
psychedelics in a post–War on Drugs world, how
freely available they were in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s.
The drugs became part of protests and alternative
lifestyles, eventually causing the Nixon adminis-
tration, in October 1970, to sign the Controlled
Substances Act, making all psychedelics illegal.
The Drug Enforcement Administration put themon Schedule 1, reserved for the highest-risk drugs
with the most severe penalties attached, effectively
erasing these substances not only from the culture
but also from science. Indeed, Richard Nixon once
famously called Leary “the most dangerous man in
America.” By the mid-1970s, all research had come
to a halt.
It is only in recent years, with the War on Drugs
finally fading, that a new group of scientists is lift-
ing the lid and peering at past work. Research is
now taking place at several universities, but permis-
sion remains hard to obtain because psychedelics
are stained by the excesses of the 1960s, a fact that
makes both the scientists and their respective gov-
ernments extremely cautious.Charles Grob of the University of California,
Los Angeles, along with Griffiths of Johns Hop-
kins, John Halpern of McLean Hospital and
Stephen Ross of New York University, make up
a group of researchers unearthing the studies of
yesteryear, dusting them off and putting them
back into practice. “It is enormously exciting to
find what is, in essence, a treasure-trove of infor-
mation from the past,” Grob says. “At the same
time, we want to be very careful. We don’t want
to be associated with flower power. We want to be
seen as serious scientists.”
The goal of these recent end-of-life psilocybin
experiments is to determine whether it is possible
to reduce or even remove the fear of dying in end-
stage cancer patients and perhaps, in future years, in
healthy subjects as well. Grob, who calls psilocybin
“existential medicine,” envisions treatment centers
where the dying could go to get psilocybin admin-
istered safely and therapeutically. Doblin, however,
finds that use of the drug too limiting. “Why con-
fine this to just the dying?” he asks. “This powerful
intervention could be used with young adults who
could then reap the benefits of it much earlier.”
He’s referring to the fact that subjects who
have undergone psilocybin treatment report an
increased appreciation for the time they have left, a
deeper awareness of their roles in the cycle of life,
and an increased motivation to invest their days
with meaning. “Imagine allowing young adults,
who have their whole lives in front of them, access
to this kind of therapy,” Doblin says. “Imagine the
kind of lives they could then create.”Vincent clasped the goblet coolly. She swallowed
the pill. Eventually, she felt faint. One of her guides
suggested that she lie on the couch, then put
headphones and an eye mask on her.
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