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By Matthew Fox

8/26/2025

In last week’s DMs (HERE and HERE), GG and I discussed how some clergy invited to participate in taking a guided LSD experience had positive responses.

I wrote of people I admire, including some former students and scientist Rupert Sheldrake, who profited from such trips. And how Rupert has written a substantive chapter on the topic in his excellent study, Ways To Go Beyond and Why They Work.

“Open wide.” Image by Tina Rice on Flickr.

I recall being at the memorial service of the great and creative Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. When they showed a video of him preaching away in a hot tub, his wife who was sitting next to me poked me in the ribs and said, “he was on LSD at the time.” He also wrote a pamphlet on LSD.

I regret that so many in our culture have found they have to go that way to experience transcendence, because frankly, rituals are supposed to do that for us. This is one reason I have been involved in the Cosmic Mass movement for 30 some years—I have seen results there that demonstrate the power and potential for awakening transcendence and community in a living and bodily liturgy.

Of course, meditation and arts as meditation can do the same.

Matthew Fox reflects on creation as an aspect of the likeness of God, and the role of ceremony in connecting us to the universe.

Doctor Michael Hunter has written an excellent article entitled “What One Dose of Psilocybin Does to the Brain — and the Self.”* Writing beautifully and artfully, he says that “when the brain unhooks, the self softens — and suffering, sometimes, dissolves.”

He reports how one patient told him that “mushrooms taught him how to die. He said it calmly…He wasn’t trying to shock me. He just wanted me to understand why he wasn’t afraid anymore.”

This 67-year-old patient, living with metastatic cancer, was very fearful “of nonexistence, of the end.” But he moved from terror to light and his fear “had gone quiet.” He said it was “the most real thing he’d ever experienced.”

Dr. Hunter explored more deeply “what the brain shows us when it lets go.” He learned that “as the ego dissolves, the mind expands, revealing hidden networks of consciousness once obscured by the self.” 

The fMRI studies show “in bursts of color and chaos, what happens to the brain on psilocybin, LSD, or DMT” and “the most mind-expanding thing isn’t what you see. It’s what you lose.”

The ego or default mode network “goes dark” under psychedelics and thoughts that are “neatly ordered” soften. “In that softening, the brain begins to light up in unfamiliar ways. Regions that don’t usually talk start whispering to each other. Or singing. Sometimes, it looks like jazz.”

fMRI images show brain activity during the hallucinogenic and ego-dissolution phases of an LSD experience. Wikimedia Commons.

The brain becomes something like a meadow. An “increased neural entropy” occurs under psychedelics and thoughts become “winding trails” or “secret paths you forgot existed.”

Scans show that when cancer patients with persistent depression received a single high-dose psilocybin session, a “radically altered connectivity” appeared in their brains. The depression lifted—sometimes for weeks or even months. “It wasn’t because somebody added something,” but because “something let go.”  I think of Meister Eckhart: “the soul grows by subtraction, not by addition.”

Dr. Hunter tells us he doesn’t prescribe psilocybin, but he listens. Nor does he romanticize magic mushrooms, and he has seen people misuse them. Addiction to escape and chasing transcendence does happen. 

What he has observed is that some patients report that “they came back with something they didn’t know they were missing.” They 

return “not with a cure, but with less fear.”

His conclusion? “Sometimes science reminds us of what mystics have whispered for centuries. That the self is not the whole story.”

*Michael Hunter, M.D. “What One Dose of Psilocybin Does to the Brain — and the Self,” Medium.com.

See Matthew Fox, Whee! We, wee All the Way Home: A Guide to a Sensual, Prophetic, Spirituality.

And Fox, Prayer: A Radical Response to Life (originally titled On Becoming a Musical, Mystical Bear: Spirituality American Style).

And Fox, Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations.

And Fox, Confessions: The Making of a Post-denominational Priest.

And Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance.

And Matthew Fox and Rupert Sheldrake, Natural Grace: Dialogues on Creation, Darkness, and the Soul in Spirituality and Science.

Banner Image: “Magic Mushrooms 2.0: Induced Synesthesia, with Spaceship Launches, and a Child-Like Mind” Image by Steve Jurvetson on Flickr.

Mystic-Warriors at the Roof of the World

In Monday's DM, we shared the story of Marianne Grosspietsch and the Shanti Leprosy Aid organization of Nepal: faced with the loss of food from USAID, her community is planting thousands of fruit trees to nourish the hungry in the region while mitigating the effects of climate change.
We invite you to consider supporting this work HERE (US$) or HERE (€ and other currencies).

Queries for Contemplation

Do you agree that the self is not the whole story? That there is a Self experience that mysticism offers where one connects with the Whole and the Holy? And that the mystic in us encounters that Self? In love and art and ritual?

Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, or read other comments and enter into dialogue, please click HERE to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field.

Recommended Reading

Whee! We, Wee All the Way Home: A Guide to Sensual Prophetic Spirituality

Years ahead of its time when first published in 1976, this book is still bold and relevant today. Perfect for anyone who thinks mysticism needs to get out of the head and into the body. Matthew Fox begins the Preface to this book by stating, “This is a practical book about waking up and returning to a biblical, justice-oriented spirituality. Such a spirituality is a way of passion that leads to compassion. Such a way is necessarily one of coming to our senses in every meaning of that phrase.” One of Matthew Fox’s earliest books, this title explores the importance of ecstasy in the spiritual life. Fox considers the distinction between “natural” ecstasies (including nature, sex, friendship, music, art) and “tactical” ecstasies (like meditation, fasting, chanting); he goes on to consider that a truly authentic mysticism must be sensuous in its orientation, so to cultivate the maximum amount of ecstasy for the maximum amount of people.

Prayer: A Radical Response to Life

How do prayer and mysticism relate to the struggle for social and ecological justice? Fox defines prayer as a radical response to life that includes our “Yes” to life (mysticism) and our “No” to forces that combat life (prophecy). How do we define adult prayer? And how—if at all—do prayer and mysticism relate to the struggle for social and ecological justice? One of Matthew Fox’s earliest books, originally published under the title On Becoming a Musical, Mystical Bear: Spirituality American Style, Prayer introduces a mystical/prophetic spirituality and a mature conception of how to pray. Called a “classic” when it first appeared, it lays out the difference between the creation spirituality tradition and the fall/redemption tradition that has so dominated Western theology since Augustine. A practical and theoretical book, it lays the groundwork for Fox’s later works. “One of the finest books I have read on contemporary spirituality.” – Rabbi Sholom A. Singer

Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations

As Matthew Fox notes, when an aging Albert Einstein was asked if he had any regrets, he replied, “I wish I had read more of the mystics earlier in my life.” The 365 writings in Christian Mystics represent a wide-ranging sampling of these readings for modern-day seekers of all faiths — or no faith. The visionaries quoted range from Julian of Norwich to Martin Luther King, Jr., from Thomas Merton to Dorothee Soelle and Thomas Berry.
“Our world is in crisis, and we need road maps that can ground us in wisdom, inspire us to action, and help us gather our talents in service of compassion and justice. This revolutionary book does just that. Matthew Fox takes some of the most profound spiritual teachings of the West and translates them into practical daily mediations. Study and practice these teachings. Take what’s in this book and teach it to the youth because the new generation cannot afford to suffer the spirit and ethical illiteracy of the past.” — Adam Bucko, spiritual activist and co-founder of the Reciprocity Foundation for Homeless Youth.

Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest (Revised/Updated Edition)

Matthew Fox’s stirring autobiography, Confessions, reveals his personal, intellectual, and spiritual journey from altar boy, to Dominican priest, to his eventual break with the Vatican. Five new chapters in this revised and updated edition bring added perspective in light of the author’s continued journey, and his reflections on the current changes taking place in church, society and the environment.
“The unfolding story of this irrepressible spiritual revolutionary enlivens the mind and emboldens the heart — must reading for anyone interested in courage, creativity, and the future of religion.”
—Joanna Macy, author of World as Lover, World as Self

The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance

In what may be considered the most comprehensive outline of the Christian paradigm shift of our Age, Matthew Fox eloquently foreshadows the manner in which the spirit of Christ resurrects in terms of the return to an earth-based mysticism, the expression of creativity, mystical sexuality, the respect due the young, the rebirth of effective forms of worship—all of these mirroring the ongoing blessings of Mother Earth and the recovery of Eros, the feminine aspect of the Divine.
“The eighth wonder of the world…convincing proof that our Western religious tradition does indeed have the depth of imagination to reinvent its faith.” — Brian Swimme, author of The Universe Story and Journey of the Universe.
 “This book is a classic.” Thomas Berry, author of The Great Work and The Dream of the Earth.

Natural Grace: Dialogues on Creation, Darkness, and the Soul in Spirituality and Science 
by Matthew Fox and Rupert Sheldrake

Natural Grace, a 208 page inspired dialogue between theologian Matthew Fox and scientist Rupert Sheldrake, unites wisdom and knowledge from unconventional angles. Considering themselves heretics in their own fields, Matthew and Rupert engage the conversation from postmodern and post-postmodern perspectives, deconstructing both religion and science—while setting the foundation for a new emerging worldview. Having outgrown the paradigms in which they were raised, both Fox and Sheldrake see it as part of their life missions to share the natural synthesis of spirituality and science rooted in a paradigm of evolutionary cosmology.

UPCOMING EVENTS

See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE

Join Matthew Fox in a new 6-month program of mystical wisdom for a new world. In this 6-month immersion program with Matthew, you’ll explore what it means to be a modern mystic and prophet, integrating this sacred knowledge into your life through the authentic teachings of Jesus and other wisdom keepers. This journey births what Matthew calls Christianity 2.0 — based not on dogma, but on a spirituality that recovers the sacred sense of original goodness. By Application only - apply HERE Register for a free information session HERE

MONTHLY: Join Matthew Fox and Skylar Wilson of the Order of the Sacred Earth in a free virtual meeting for connection and networking with other mystic warriors. Last Tuesday of every month, 4:00-5:00pm PT. 
Join Zoom Meeting HERE, Meeting ID: 886 6530 2478

Learn more at www.orderofthesacredearth.org  

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