Mind Body Health & Politics

As a clinical psychologist for over 50 years, I’ve heard and witnessed many stories of transformation. Few are as remarkable as that of Hunt Priest, an Episcopal priest I interviewed for my series on psychedelic-assisted therapy for end of life distress.“My mother’s maiden name was Bishop,” Priest told me with a wry smile.Between that and his last name, it seems God may have been trying to tell him something about his vocation.However, Priest found his priestly calling relatively late, entering seminary in his late 30s. It was not until his 50s that he experienced a radical transformation of mind, body, and spirit through psychedelics.In 2016, at age 52, Priest volunteered for a Johns Hopkins study exploring the effects of psilocybin on religious professionals.“I was psychedelically naive,” he admitted, noting that he had been scared of LSD as a youth. “The 60s passed me by.”Lying on a couch, staring at an egg-shell colored ceiling, Priest felt first discomfort, then a familiar “electrical current” in his thi