Thanks to reader CN for sending along this short article- a small introduction to the study of brain chemistry, religious and mystical experience, and psychedelics:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104240746&sc=fb&cc=fp

While it’s always good to see this oft suppressed line of scientific inquiry reported on, I should point out a few minor problems with the article.  The Good Friday Experiment at Harvard in 1962 was not conducted with LSD but rather with Psilocybin capsules from Sandoz Labs.  When the article states “it did” induce mystical experiences in the subjects a few things should be noted:  firstly the subjects were persons who already conceived of themselves as religious or believers.  Secondly the experiement involved listening to the audio of the Good Friday Mass occurring upstairs in the chapel (the Good Friday Mass is thought to be the most moving and intense of all Catholic services).  Thirdly half the group was given a placebo and their annoyed response at getting only itchy skin instead of a revelatory mystical experience threatened the “rigorousness” of the experiment.  But the effect on the rest of the group was quite clear, although not without a few mishaps- one dude, convinced he was the messiah, disrobed and made a bolt for the exit to proclaim…something to the waiting outside world.

The article also mentions that after this experiment psychedelics began to be studied at other prestigious universities.   Again, not quite true, for psychedelics were at that time already being studied widely in the field of Psychology.  Psychedelics- because of the easily induced dramatic effect on consciousness they bring about- became the single most studied subject within the field in the late 50s to late 60s.  Then due to hysterical fears of mass drug addiction and LSD induced revolution, that field of inquiry was abruptly boarded up and shut down, an entire field of study within psychology suddenly deemed illegal.

One last bone to pick- Griffiths is not the first to again take up the mantle of psychedelic research with regards to spirituality.  Rick Strassman, MD was the first researcher granted permission to research psychedelics in the US after a period of 20 years of intellectual prohibition in the mid to late 90s.  He documented his studies of psilocybin and DMT (nature’s most powerful known plant psychedelic, which also happens to occur naturally in the human brain [for what purpose?  no one yet knows]) at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine in the very interesting book DMT: The Spirit Molecule.