Summary: The Choose Your Own Religion podcast interviews MAPS Founder Rick Doblin, Ph.D., about the Good Friday Experiment, a study in 1962 at Boston University’s Marsh Chapel investigating the influence of psilocybin on religious experiences. Doblin discusses his 25-year follow-up study, explores factors for studying mystical experiences, and shares participants’ reflections on the study later in life.
Originally appearing here.
Rick Doblin, Ph.D., founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), comes on to talk about the famous “Good Friday Experiment,” an experiment run at Boston University’s Marsh Chapel by Walter Pahnke while at Harvard Divinity School. Rick also tells the story of his follow-up study more than two decades later, sharing all the factors that went into Pahnke’s attempts to study mystical experiences afforded by psilocybin and how the study participants reflected back on their experiences later in life.
Please join the Center for the Study of World Religions on Wednesday, October 21st at 4pm for a panel featuring two psilocybin clinical trial participants in dialogue with the historian of religions Jeffrey J. Kripal (Rice University) exploring these contemporary psychedelic trials.
