Sacred Journeys: Psychedelics and the Search for Meaning

Betty Brandt • August 8, 2025

Spirituality and Psychedelics

I spent several decades of my adult life as a practicing Marriage & Family Therapist. In all those years, I encountered a handful of people whose depressive symptoms had such a hold on them, they were immobilized. It seemed that no treatments were available to help them enjoy life again.

Today, the medical use of psychedelics is adding a powerful option. Much research is being done in this field, with quite astounding results. There are a growing number of places in Indianapolis where people suffering from depression can take psychedelics in the presence of trained therapeutic practitioners.

Now, research is expanding into the field of spirituality and psychedelics. The best-known study is a 2016 collaboration between Johns Hopkins and NYU Schools of Medicine, involving 22 religious leaders—Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran, United Church of Christ, Congregational, Baptist, Eastern Orthodox, Pentecostal, Reformed Church in America, Roman Catholic, Unitarian Universalist, Orthodox Jew, Reconstructionist Jew, Renewal Jew, Sunni Muslim, and Zen Buddhist.

The results, which were delayed for almost a decade, are now available. They reveal that 96% of the participants retroactively rated their psilocybin experience among the top five most spiritually significant, profoundly sacred, psychologically insightful, and meaningful experiences of their lives.

Some came to see all religions as part of one truth, while many felt more grounded in their personal traditions. Some attributed their psychedelic experiences entirely to God, while others credited chemical changes in their brains. They reported positive changes in their effectiveness as religious leaders, as well as in their non-religious attitudes, moods, and behaviors.

Are we on the cusp of a dramatic change in the acceptance of psychedelics beyond medical uses?

The American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 safeguards the use, possession, and transportation of peyote by Indigenous people for bona fide traditional ceremonial purposes. Now, a non-Indigenous group in Utah has sued—and won—their case.

On August 4, 2025, District Judge Jill Parrish of the U.S. District Court of Utah ruled in favor of a religious group called Singularism, which had sued for the right to use psychedelic mushrooms in their worship services as a conduit to profound spiritual experiences. Judge Parrish sided with the group.

Just two days later, on August 6, 2025, Rabbi Jay Michaelson spoke at a Spirit and Place event in Indianapolis. Rabbi Michaelson is a field scholar at the Emory Center for Psychedelics and Spirituality and a fellow at Harvard Law School’s Project on Psychedelic Use, Law, and Spiritual Experience (PULSE).

In March 2025, he co-organized the first-ever conference on the legal recognition of religious psychedelic use in Christian, Jewish, and Muslim communities. His colleague, Gary Laderman—a religion scholar at Emory University—has a book titled Sacred Drugs: How Psychoactive Substances Mix with Religious Life, coming out in September 2025. These two men are leaders in this emerging field of spirituality and psychedelics.

I have lots of questions. Maybe you do too.

Are we approaching a time when psychedelics will be welcomed into the spiritual practices of American faith traditions? If so, how long until that door opens?

Would I be willing to take part in a religious ceremony using psychedelics? Would you?

How would such an experience transform my spiritual life?

Could clergy take part in a psychedelic experience as part of their seminary training?

Do seminaries need to train religious leaders to provide care and guidance to those in their congregations who want to process their psychedelic experiences?

A whole new opportunity for spiritual growth is opening before us. Are we ready?

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Easter Sunday | Choose to Belong

By Rev. Dr. Carolyn Scanlan-Holmes • March 31, 2026

This Sunday we conclude our Lenten series with a heartfelt message, “Choose to Belong.” We’ll celebrate Easter—both as a remembrance of the resurrection and as a celebration of new beginnings, including welcoming new Gardner members into our inclusive community. Easter's beautiful expression of love and hope represents a tradition that calls us to notice the ways love rises again in our lives, dispelling darkness. Whether you interpret the resurrection story literally or embrace it as a metaphor of love overcoming despair, there is a place for you here. This weekend we’ll explore what it means to belong, and how our faith deepens through our connections with one another and with the sacred. Come experience the joy of community and discover how we can embody the transformative love of Christ together. Join us as we celebrate this meaningful day. Let’s embrace new beginnings and growth as one community. We can’t wait to see you.

Choose to Belong

By Matthew Vire • March 25, 2026

The experience of exclusion tempts us to blame ourselves, to think that we're falling short, that we are somehow wrong, damaged, unacceptable, or unworthy. To fix these perceived shortcomings, we may seek to fit in. There's nothing inherently wrong with fitting in — it can feel great — but it may come at the cost of our authenticity. In Letter to My Daughter , Maya Angelou writes, “You only are free when you realize you belong no place — you belong every place — no place at all.” She does not mean that we are rootless, but speaks of abandoning the chase for approval so we can be free to show up authentically. We do not need to change who we are to belong. Brené Brown eloquently unpacks Angelou's profound statement in this video. May it offer you reassurance, comfort, and courage as we continue exploring what belonging means.

The Labyrinth Called Life

By Rev. Dr. Carolyn Scanlan-Holmes • March 24, 2026

Have you noticed it? If you’ve been with us at The Garden over the past six weeks, you’ve likely walked right over it—the Labyrinth just outside the sanctuary doors. It’s easy to miss when we’re rushing in or out, but it’s there quietly inviting us to slow down, breathe, and pay attention to the path beneath our feet. As we move toward Easter, that invitation feels especially timely. This Sunday is Palm Sunday, the moment in the story when Jesus enters Jerusalem to cheers, branches waving, and a sense of possibility in the air. But that joyful procession is only the threshold of a much deeper journey. In the days that follow, Jesus moves through experiences that are profoundly human—sharing meals with friends, seeking quiet in a garden, wrestling with uncertainty, facing conflict, and ultimately walking a path that leads to the cross. The story does not shy away from suffering or loss, yet it also doesn’t end there. It moves through death into the promise of new life, renewal, and hope. Whether you connect with this story as history, metaphor, or a mirror for your own life, it offers a pattern many of us recognize: how celebration and struggle often sit side by side, how a single week can hold both joy and heaviness, and how transformation sometimes emerges from places we would never choose. As we enter this meaningful week, I invite you to consider your own path. What are you carrying right now? Where are you seeking connection, clarity, or courage? What parts of your journey are asking for attention, and what new life might be waiting just beyond what you can see? Let this be a week to walk with intention—to notice the twists and turns, the companions along the way, and the quiet hope that can rise even in uncertain places.

Be You. (What Does THAT Mean?)

By Matthew Vire • March 17, 2026

"Be you" is common advice. But what does it mean? The exhortation to "be you" is an invitation to relax into yourself and let go of worries that you don't measure up to someone else's idea of who you are or should be. "Be you" means be honest––to yourself first and then with the world––about your thoughts, feelings, insecurities, passions, interests, and inclinations. It means you're more than worthy. It means you are enough. It means you're worth knowing, seeing, and loving. Our resistance to be ourselves comes from fear, judgement, and insecurity. Fear tells us "hide." Judgment says, "you're not good enough, so you better pretend." Insecurity warns, "people won't like you if they really see you." But it can be easy to Be You. You don't have to do anything; you can just be. The only barrier is self-acceptance. Love can break through that. May this week give you space to breathe, to soften, and to trust that who you are is already held in love.

Paths to Belonging

By Rev. Dr. Carolyn Scanlan-Holmes • March 16, 2026

This Sunday, we continue our Lenten journey with the theme of belonging. The National Institutes of Health recognizes belonging as a fundamental human need that shapes our mental, physical, and social well-being. One of the insights from our Greenhouse Challenge was the recognition that many people in the U.S. are experiencing loneliness. In response, The Garden has been exploring what it means to belong—not just socially, but spiritually and communally. During worship, we’ll check in with Scott Semester to hear how our grant initiative may help us create spaces of sanctuary—places where people feel seen, safe, and truly at home. Our Scripture this week, Ecclesiastes 4:12, reminds us that “a cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” Belonging is not just about individual strength—it’s about the resilience we find in connection. When we walk together, support one another, and share our lives, we become stronger than we ever could be alone. May we continue to weave lives of compassion, curiosity, and courage—threads that bind us to one another and to the sacred truth that we belong.