NEW BOOKLET: Psychedelic Seduction: Drugging the World and the Church

Psychedelic Seduction: Drugging the World and the Church by Richard and Linda Nathan is our newest Lighthouse Trails Booklet. The booklet is 18 pages long and sells for $1.95 for single copies. Quantity discounts are available. Our Booklets are designed to give away to others or for your own personal use. Below is the content of this new booklet. To order copies of Psychedelic Seduction: Drugging the World and the Church, click here.

Psychedelic Seduction: Drugging the World and the Church

By Richard and Linda Nathan

Introduction

I am a youth pastor at a large church, and I smoke weed everyday [sic] that I am not at service (Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday). My lord still loves me.1

A real youth pastor posted this quote on the Internet not long ago.

And it’s not so unusual.

That quote reveals a bizarre phenomenon that couldn’t have existed even thirty or forty years ago—a “Christian” drug culture. Today, this drug culture not only exists, but it extends far beyond marijuana. That’s partly because, unlike any other drug, a broad social movement already promotes and glorifies marijuana.2 Unfortunately, many Christians seem to join in it.

Weed is so normalized in America that it’s hardly cool anymore.3

If you think marijuana is rare or couldn’t be in your Christian community, think again. Pot communities and pot churches are on the rise nationwide, spreading bizarre forms of spirituality and taking advantage of religious freedom laws to act as medical dispensaries and avoid tax laws. Big Weed’s deceptive campaign promotes pot as harmless and medicinal, and the big profits entice Christian businesspeople. Furthermore, pastors generally don’t understand marijuana’s negative spiritual effects.4

Sad to say, the drug culture is everywhere, and it’s here to stay. As one youth said,

All you have to do is listen to a lot of popular music to hear about marijuana. All you have to do is watch TV or movies to see marijuana. And just attend a concert if you want to stand around inhaling it secondhand. It’s everywhere.5,6

Opening Pandora’s Box

The Psychedelic Renaissance

This booklet’s purpose is not to focus upon marijuana alone, though, but upon all those drugs with hallucinogenic properties. They’re the most subtly deceptive and dangerous, the most profoundly effective in twisting minds and poisoning souls. And they’re not only a logical extension of the marijuana movement, but they’re rapidly becoming popular themselves.

A “psychedelic renaissance” is exploding across America.

What are psychedelics? The term psychedelic normally includes LSD, Mescaline, Peyote, and high-THC concentrate marijuana and its imitations, such as Spice, K2, and Kratom (often more dangerous than marijuana).7 There are also “magic mushrooms” (psilocybin), Ayahuasca/DMT, and designer drugs like MDT and RAVE.

Psychedelics manipulate ordinary consciousness by affecting the senses, altering thinking, time sense, and emotions, and changing perception, mood, and cognition.8 They’re known to produce hallucinations and psychotic states9 and open users to deception, which we examine later. Unfortunately, such drugs are also among those most often deemed beneficial.

A little history. The original Greek word for psychedelic meant “soul-manifesting,” but philosopher Aldous Huxley believed a more fitting term is “phanerothymic, which was Green for visible and spiritual.”10

After LSD’s discovery by a Swiss chemist in 1938 and its popularization by Harvard psychologist Timothy Leary in the sixties, the Federal Drug Administration labeled it a dangerous Schedule I drug in 1970. This means it has “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”11 Other Schedule I drugs are heroin, marijuana, Ecstasy, methaqualone, and peyote.12 However, now that the “War on Drugs” is fading and marijuana legalization is opening the way, decades of underground efforts to legalize LSD and other psychedelics are bearing fruit. All of these drugs are becoming popular and likely will be reclassified soon.13

So how is this happening, what are the dangers, and what do Christians need to know?

The Culture of Rebellion

The drug culture traditionally consists of social rebellion, ungodly worldviews, philosophies, and social connections, and crime. To understand the “Christian” drug culture, we need to understand the culture of rebellion where drugs flourish.

Christian culture, or at least a Christianized one, typically has a worldview with biblical principles strongly present. People generally know and acknowledge right from wrong. On the other hand, “the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” dominates the culture of lawlessness (Ephesians 2:2) where a strong connection exists between marijuana, rebellion, and lawlessness.14

Pied pipers. Minimizing the biblical teachings about holiness and sanctification can invite lawlessness and drug use by Christians. Furthermore, some popular pastors and leaders encourage the culture of rebellion (e.g., John Piper’s philosophy of “Christian hedonism”). The words “Christian” and “hedonism” are opposites because hedonism is the ethical theory that pleasure is the highest good.

Richard (Nathan), who was raised a Marxist in San Francisco, found that Marxism fits seamlessly into the drug culture because it promotes rebellion against God. While many Marxists/Leftists have mystical inclinations, they’re often mixed with a hatred of Christians akin to Satanism.15 Marxist heresies are infiltrating Christendom nationwide.16

Thus, the drug culture is an open doorway into the culture of rebellion and vice-versa, which is where we are today. But psychedelics not only can harm, they also can exert a strange power to deceive. We’ll examine that later.

There is good news though. While the general population increasingly approves of marijuana, and its popularity spreads through the “Christian” underground (especially youth groups), a recent study found that only 18% of U.S. Protestant pastors wanted to see marijuana legalized throughout the country for any purpose.17

Evangelical pastors are almost twice as likely as mainline pastors to see smoking marijuana to get high as morally wrong (89 percent [vs.] 47 percent). Denominationally, Pentecostals (97 percent) and Baptists (92 percent) are more likely to see it as immoral than Restorationist movement (74 percent), Methodist (66 percent), Lutheran (63 percent) and Presbyterian/Reformed pastors (57 percent).18

Let us thank God for this protection and pray for those in such positions, for one of a pastor’s most vital roles is protecting the flock from deception.

For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. (Acts 20:29–30)

Who Are We?

We entered the psychedelic drug culture in San Francisco in 1962 and spent fourteen years in its deceptions, including serving in a New Age spiritualist church. In 1976, Christ mercifully saved us both. Since then, we’ve spent almost half a century assessing those experiences while observing the drug culture’s rapid infiltration of American life. Richard has a B.S. in Biology and an M.A. in Christian History. Since 1992, he has observed massive derangement due to drugs in his work with thousands of psychiatric patients—including many in the Christian culture. Linda has a B.A. in Psychology. Praise to Jesus Christ, who delivered us from that dark, fallen realm and brought us into His glorious light.

It’s past time for the church to wake up to the battle.

Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. (2 Corinthians 2:11)

 
Marijuana Update

It’s time we realize and act on the knowledge that marijuana addiction is leading to the use of other drugs. The more marijuana use is normalized the more addiction, suicides, and overdoses we will have.19—Scott Chipman, Vice President, Americans Against Legalizing Marijuana

Marijuana is not benign. It is not safe. It is addictive. . . . It is the most self-delusional drug of all.20—Bertha Madras, Harvard Professor & Member, Commission on Combating Drug Addiction & the Opioid Crisis

Our booklet The Cross and the Marijuana Leaf warns about the burgeoning marijuana movement in 2017.21 By 2021, 18 states and Washington, DC, had legalized recreational marijuana, and 36 states had legalized medical marijuana.22 Now, more than a third of Americans live where marijuana is legal, and it’s becoming part of mainstream American culture.

Marijuana’s dangerous THC content (tetrahydrocannabinol) has skyrocketed from around 3% in the 1970s to as high as 99% available in a huge variety of products today. And more teenagers are smoking pot and all its derivatives than cigarettes.

Overall, 60% of U.S. adults say both medical and recreational marijuana use should be legal, according to Pew Research Center. An additional 31% are OK with legalizing just medical use. “From 2009 to 2019, the share of Americans saying marijuana should be legal more than doubled,” Pew reported.23

The “Green Rush”

Marijuana Legalization is being aggressively pushed across the country by a motivated, well-funded, and politically sophisticated industry.24

Most of us have heard about the opioid crisis. “From 1999 to 2016, more than 350,000 people died from an overdose involving any opioid, including prescription and illicit opioids.”25 Now, over 150 Americans are dying daily from an opioid overdose.26

These deaths occurred in three distinct waves. In 1999, medical prescriptions, illegal activities, and big business combined to create the crisis. Currently, these same sources, including billionaire George Soros, Big Tobacco and Alcohol, cartels and dealers, and famous politicians, are promoting pot. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calls it a “proven” therapy.27 It’s the “Green Rush.”

[As of March 2021], U.S. marijuana sales eclipsed $17.5 billion, up from $12.1 billion in 2019. Worldwide, cannabis sales grew 48%, to nearly $21.3 billion.28

Follow the endnote link to see if your state’s politicians promote marijuana.29

Medical vs. Recreational: A Trojan Horse

Legalizing medical marijuana is the doorway to legalizing recreational use, for although they appear to be two separate areas, the boundary between them is actually very porous.

Furthermore, there’s a lot of regulatory confusion because marijuana remains a Schedule I drug “without medical value.” The FDA is blocking ways to study it, and though it’s banned on a federal level, the government mostly looks the other way as states do what they want. This stance began in 2013 under an Obama Administration directive. Though marijuana remained federally illegal, they left it up to states to regulate illegal markets, youth use, drugged driving, and other disasters.30

In December 2020, the Democrat House passed the MORE Act that would “decriminalize marijuana nationally, lead to expunged records for federal cannabis offenses, and set aside money for underrepresented communities in cannabis industry.”31 So far, it hasn’t reached the Senate. The Biden Administration supports it.

A regulatory mess. Cannabis culture “has become in essence a parallel medical system,” and it’s one that’s poorly regulated, if at all.32 Today’s weed is more radically potent than ever and far more dangerous so disastrous consequences are widespread. But they aren’t widely known or reported. State regulatory agencies frequently fail to do their job, and in fact, regulations differ widely among states. Products are often falsely labeled, contaminants are widespread and overlooked, and the pot industry is taking over the legalization movement.33, 34

A few known social consequences include faster rising crime rates and black markets in states with legalized marijuana,35 negative environmental impact on communities and ecosystems near pot growing,36 and increased mental illness and homelessness.37 Don’t look for federal regulation or standardization of the drug any time soon, though. Instead, we must educate and protect ourselves and our families. Arm yourself at https://learnaboutsam.org and www.AALM.info.

Any effort to impose logic is doomed because the American scene vis-a-vis cannabis is seemingly irretrievably illogical.38 —J. Michael Bostwick, MD, Professor of Psychiatry, Mayo Clinic

Trending

• Disappearing marijuana prohibitions.
• Incremental attempts to change drug laws.39
• Pot legalization disguised as a social justice issue.40
• Nano-pot: unnaturally enhanced THC.41
• Pot-infused beer and wine.42
• Pot delivery in e-cigarettes.43
• Psychedelic-laced marijuana products.44
• Other dangerous forms of laced weed.45
• Genetically modified marijuana with higher THC.46
• High THC dabs, waxes, edibles, etc. disguised as foods.47

So, where is all this going? We’ll see. But first, what about CBD? Surely, there are no problems there—right?

 
CBD: Panacea or Problem?

One-third of all CBD oil products have THC in them.48—Anne Hassel, corporate marijuana industry expert and former bud-tender

CBD or cannabidiol is one of around 400 derivatives of the marijuana plant. Because it contains little to none of the dangerous psychedelic element THC, promoters insist it’s safe. Numerous CBD products are now in stores in everything from oils, tinctures, capsules and powders, gummies, vape liquids, water, and other beverages to conventional foods like coffee, candy, juice, soups, and salves, balms and gels, cosmetic products, vape cartridges, and pet products.

People take CBD for pain relief, heart disease, anxiety, depression, cancer-related symptoms, acne, epilepsy, arthritis, Parkinson’s, inflammation, Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, drug addiction, diabetes, and multiple sclerosis. Studies show some possible benefits for some of these.49

But should you use CBD? To date, the adverse effects of CBD products are not widely known. There is too little research and many unanswered questions. The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) has seen only limited data about CBD safety, which point to a wide variety of adverse reactions and real risks, such as intoxication, drowsiness, eye harm, increased suicidal thoughts and behavior, impaired kidney function, male fertility damage, and possible danger to pregnancies and the elderly.50 Some CBD products are marketed with unproven medical claims and are of unknown quality.

Furthermore, medical fraud, mislabeling, and contamination with pesticides, heavy metals, bacteria, fungi, and high THC are common in CBD products.51 Two days after taking a commercial, non-FDA regulated CBD product for chronic pain, a woman developed blistering skin lesions and died a month later.52

Synthetic CBD appears just as bad. “Synthetic CBD use has caused adverse reactions, including altered mental status, seizures, confusion, and loss of consciousness.”53

Only one approved CBD product. As a result, the FDA has approved only one CBD product, a prescription drug for two rare, severe forms of epilepsy.

A door-opener. Finally, and in our view, a very great problem is that the acceptance of CBD is a door-opener to the acceptance and legalization of recreational marijuana, which is a gateway drug to even more severe problems. We discuss these next.

For more details about CBD, see the article in the link54 and read the excellent position paper at Americans Against Legalizing Marijuana (www.AALM.info.)

In conclusion, we believe there are still too many problems and unanswered questions to experiment with CBD.

 
The Psychedelic Renaissance

Psychedelic drugs are integrating into our society at breakneck speed. This section will explore three highly influential areas of breakthrough: medicine, psychiatry, and politics.

Turning Psychedelics Into Medicines

“There’s just been an explosion of research in psychedelics,” says Dr. Belser. “Now it’s become a torrent of clinical research studies being initiated and papers being published, demonstrating very promising results for a variety of psychedelic medicines for any number of psychiatric conditions. It’s incredible.”55

Psychedelics are a huge rising star in the drug therapy industry, and “there’s almost no mental health condition right now that’s not being looked at.”56 That’s because mental health issues currently are costing the global economy $1 trillion per year.57 Consequently, numerous large organizations, schools, and companies are studying the use of psychedelics for such conditions as mood and substance use disorders, PTSD, opioid addiction, alcohol and cancer issues, Alzheimer’s, end-of-life fears, anorexia nervosa, and major depression, among other areas.58

In 2019, Johns Hopkins University opened the first-of-its-kind Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research. They also have published “groundbreaking studies in more than 60 peer-reviewed articles in respected scientific journals. This makes Johns Hopkins the leading psychedelic research institution in the U.S., and among the few leading groups worldwide.”59

The Center’s opening fortuitously corresponded with the FDA’s “breakthrough therapy” classification for psilocybin. This new classification helps fast-track the approval of promising pharmaceuticals, of which psilocybin is major.60 The Center’s researchers hope to create psychedelic medicines specific to individual patients.

The psychedelic pharma market is currently a little over $2 billion and is expected to be valued at more than $6.8 billion by 2027.61

The Psychiatric Paradigm Shift

Psychedelic therapy is sweeping the world.62

I believe that the future of psychiatry will find psychedelic medicine at its heart.63—Alex Belser, Ph.D.

Following the academic research explosion, a huge worldview shift is occurring in psychiatric research, development, and practice. Some psychedelics are being promoted as “mental health” therapy for everything from depression, addiction (yes, really), anxiety, and fear of death to “integration,” wholeness, and spiritual growth.

Not your grandmother’s therapy. While psychedelic “therapy” focuses on non-directive support of a patient’s inner experience and is wrapped in psychological jargon,64 it’s the same method shamans and sorcerers use to contact spirits and gain supernatural power.65

Politically Mainstreaming Psychedelics

Enormous interests are steamrolling the politics of the acceptance of psychedelics. In the same manner as pot, activists are pushing these drugs through nationwide legalization and decriminalization efforts. Incremental attempts may appear as steps to social justice, but they frequently obscure the true goal—the complete legalization of all drugs.66

Santa Cruz, CA and Denver, CO have decriminalized psychedelic mushrooms; Oakland, CA has decriminalized all psychedelic plants and fungi; and Oregon recently decriminalized small amounts of all drugs, including heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine.67 The California Senate passed a reform bill (SB 519) that decriminalizes the personal use and possession of psychedelic substances.68 And there are two thrusts in Washington State.69 The Biden Administration supports the movement.70 One website tracking psychedelic decriminalization efforts reports nearly a hundred cities considering it.71 You can follow an up-to-date list of nationwide activities at the endnote link.72

The law and psychedelics. Legally, psychedelics may enter the marketplace soon because they appear more straightforward to market than marijuana. That’s because researchers seeking regulatory approvals drive the marketing efforts instead of grassroots activists trying to change laws.73

Harvard Law School just announced it is launching a center to study psychedelic law and policy, as well as “equity in emerging psychedelics industries.” The “Project on Psychedelics Law and Regulation” (POPLAR) will promote “safety, innovation, and equity in psychedelics research, commerce, and therapeutics.”74
The door is opening wide.

What’s next?

Trending

• Increasing popularity of psychedelics.
• Psychedelics promoted as therapy / medicine.75
• Micro-dosing LSD and psilocybin for “creativity.”76
• Pot-laced psychedelics.77
• Psychedelic mushroom-laced foods.78
• Psychedelics as doorway to “healing” and mystical/spiritual experiences.79, 80

 
Psychedelic Seduction

The new drug culture has become an important part of alternative spiritual movements. . . . [T]he rise of psychedelics [is] a cultural, medicinal, spiritual movement.81—Carl Teichrib, author of Game of Gods: The Temple of Man in the Age of Re-enchantment

The promotion of psychedelic drugs is happening under a pseudo-scientific veil that focuses on their supposed benefits while minimizing or ignoring their dangers. This movement is actually part of an overall social/spiritual conditioning process, and it has three phases:

1. Acceptance of CBD is a gateway to the acceptance and legalization of—
2. Marijuana, which is a gateway to the acceptance and legalization of—
3. All drugs, and particularly the hallucinogens psilocybin, LSD, and ayahuasca/DMT.

God’s Word vs. Pagan Idolatry

Creativity is a tremendous God-given gift. It opens us to worlds we could normally never know, utilizing imagination, allowing profound revelations of beauty and order, and providing pleasure. God can use the image-making faculty He created to bring us wisdom, guidance, and refreshment. However, such events are God-given, and, although they may be an answer to prayer, they are not created by or under the recipient’s control. Like all aspects of our lives, though, the imagination can be used in ways God never intended and bring great harm.

Drug-Augmented Fantasy and the Pagan Mind

After we become Christians, God begins transforming us from a pagan (rebellious, anti-God) mind to a Bible-based, Holy Spirit-led mind (Romans 1–14, 12:2). Psychedelics can corrupt this sanctification process and create terrible turmoil. One of their main functions is unleashing powerful imagery that can blur or erase the lines between fantasy and reality, and imagination and biblical spirituality.

Thus, although the psychedelic experience can seem like a captivating realm full of spiritual beauty and mythological visions, it’s a gateway to deception. Psychedelics can destabilize our minds, create strong delusions, and lead to madness. They are depth charges to the soul that can amplify the imagination in ungodly ways and catalyze lawlessness. Such drugs are especially dangerous for Christians because they inflame or ignite the fallen (pagan) mind, increasing vulnerability to vain imaginations and doctrines of demons (Colossians 2:8, 1 Timothy 4:1).

The underlying spiritual nature and foundation of the psychedelic experience is paganism, which rejects the Divine creator God and rather deifies creation. Romans 1:21-23 describes a pagan idolater as one who willingly rejects the true God and suppresses truth for corrupt images:

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

Images aren’t bad, of course, unless they’re deceptive or idolatrous. The paintings of two psychedelic artists, Pablo Amaringo82 and Luke Brown,83 express such imagery well. Amaringo says, “The spirits don’t talk, but express themselves through images.” (Exactly!) God destroyed most of the world because of evil imaginations, so facing the issue is critical (Genesis 6:5).

A long history exists in both the East and the West of occult practitioners who consciously attempt to control physical and spiritual realms by using hallucinogenic drugs to manipulate the imagination. An attempt to use the imagination to control reality directly is fundamentally witchcraft. This battle between God’s Word and paganism is both ancient and ongoing.

A Spiritual Seduction Process

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils. (1 Timothy 4:1)

And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie. (2 Thessalonians 2:11)

“Aliens and god-like entities.” Another dangerous aspect of psychedelics involves the encounters users frequently have with what psychedelic therapist Daniel McQueen calls “aliens and god-like entities.”84 He says:

Your nervous system [on psychedelics] is super activated. It isn’t just floating around the earth—it’s having direct encounters with entities.85

A major review of the “entity encounters” literature by the Journal of Psychedelic Studies reveals that a “mystical-type experience” is considered part of the “therapeutic effects of psychedelics.” Such “therapeutic effects” include “meetings with seemingly autonomous entities.”86

There’s a lot of speculation about these beings that show up in many hallucinatory drug experiences, but basically, three main theories exist. They are: (1) manifestations of ourselves, (2) drug-induced hallucinations, or (3) real beings.87 Hallucinatory drugs can certainly create hallucinations, but as mentioned earlier, shamans and witches have been using them for centuries to contact spirits the Bible calls demons.88 This is sorcery, which God calls detestable.89 The New Testament word for “sorceries” found in Revelation 9:21 and 18:23 is the Greek term pharmakeia, which is the root of our word pharmacy—a dispensary of drugs.

Countless tales exist on the Internet of encounters with these “entities,” which range from prankish elves, ultra-dimensional teachers and guardians, reptiles, bees, robots, and extraterrestrials, to entities appearing as Buddha, Jesus Christ, Krishna, deceased loved ones, and ascended masters, as well as “sci-fi aliens fitting descriptions of greys, blues, reptilians, Pleidans [sic], Arcturians and more, employing the use of probes, implants, or surgeries usually for ‘research’ or ‘healing purposes.’”90

They frequently give advice, instruct, or point out problems, including providing supposed insight into the “nature of reality” and the belief that there’s nothing to fear after death. They may instruct the “psychonauts” that we are all gods or God. Some view these encounters as among their most meaningful, while others are terrorized by such things as alien abduction scenarios and visions of an eternity in Hell. Here are a few examples:

. . . emotionless entities with a mechanical quality . . . began . . . “deconstructing” my reality.91

. . . a giant mantis-like entity descended from the ceiling . . .92

I was shown a frightening entity and within its tentacles was my human self. Not only me but many others as well. . . . It was as if it were feeding on our souls.93

A demon had invaded me, had taken possession of my body, mind and soul. I jumped up and screamed, trying to free myself from him, but then sank down again and lay helpless on the sofa. The substance, with which I had wanted to experiment, had vanquished me. It was the demon that scornfully triumphed over my will.94—Albert Hofmann, chemist founder of LSD, wrote this about his LSD experience.

Psychiatrist Rick Strassman studied DMT research subjects extensively and found at least half had encountered an entity after taking DMT. He reports:

I was neither intellectually nor emotionally prepared for the frequency with which contact with beings occurred in our studies, nor the often utterly bizarre nature of these experiences. . . . [One patient stated]: “It’s more like being possessed. During the experience there is a sense of someone or something else there taking control. It’s like you have to defend yourself against them, whoever they are, but they certainly are there. I’m aware of them, and they’re aware of me. It’s like they have an agenda.” . . . Their business appeared to be testing, examining, probing, and even modifying the volunteer’s mind and body.95

Their agenda: a false spiritual revival. But as T.A. McMahon points out, “for the most part they’re not realizing that they’re dealing with demons.”96

Ye shall know them by their fruits. (Matthew 7:16)

Demons have an agenda all right: they hate Christ and want to deceive us. They teach there is no sin, no need for a Savior, no judgment after death.97 We are all “god,” part of an evolution of consciousness entering into a counterfeit universal “Oneness” (1 John 4:1–3).98 McMahon sums up the purpose of these demonic entities: “They recognize that human evolution can only take place through a spiritual reawakening via the psychedelic substance.”99

And author Carl Teichrib perfectly sums up their counterfeit message:

We can become as gods. It’s the same messaging all the way through, isn’t it? Doesn’t matter if you read the writings of channeled UFO entities, if you take a look at what the New Age teaches, what Eastern spirituality gives us, or what the messages that come through the psychedelic experience show us. It always points back to Genesis 3 [when the devil spoke to Eve], “We will be as gods.” This is a gateway . . . a form of forbidden fruit.100

Conclusion

While psychedelics may at times seem to provide captivating mystical experiences or some mental or physical improvement, at the bottom, they are a portal to great instability and to spiritual deception where demons can freely deceive and harass. Expecting a hallucinogen ultimately to heal is like expecting a poisonous snake not to bite. And because psychedelics have the ability to provide seemingly spiritual experiences wherein the participant “feels” like he is getting close to God and truth, psychedelics are, in essence, a pseudo Holy Spirit (i.e., an imitation, a spirit that is pretending). Thus, the psychedelic experience can lead one right to the edge of what feels like all truth and all knowing, but it can never deliver and will only cause a yearning for another drug experience.

Look to Christ and His Word, not to drugs. He is mighty to save.101

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12)

And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. (1 John 4:3)

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To order copies of Psychedelic Seduction: Drugging the World and the Church, click here.

(cover design by Lighthouse Trails; photo from alamy.com; used with permission)

Endnotes:

1. https://bit.ly/2SxTsho.
2. https://bit.ly/3hd4EIF; marijuana not only primes the brain for more of the same, it can open the door spiritually to deceptive mystical experiences.
3. https://bit.ly/3iBFT9D.
4. See Muddy Waters: An Insider’s View of North American Native Spirituality by Nanci de Gerlaise (Lighthouse Trails Publishing); also https://bit.ly/3qw1lk9.
5. https://tinyurl.com/3yhsp8rv.
6. Watch a “weed documentary” a student filmed in his high school in 2016 at .
7. https://bit.ly/2UD6bjX.
8. .
9. https://www.britannica.com/topic/drug-use/Hallucinogenic-drugs.
10. https://psychedelics.com/psychedelics-definition.
11. https://bit.ly/3ByCMIc.
12. Ibid.
13. For a full history of LSD, see .
14. Alex Berenson, Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence (New York, NY: Free Press, 2019); see also .
15. Read Marx & Satan by Richard Wurmbrand, available on Amazon.
16. See a documentary about Critical Race Theory within the SBC: .
17. https://bit.ly/3xYYMdd.
18. https://bit.ly/3qvAqoy.
19. 12/17/21 AALM e-mail to the Nathans titled “The Other Epidemic: Pot, Opiates, and Overdoses.”
20. https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/politics/2019/10/15/marijuana-not-benign-harvard-expert-tells-florida-lawmakers-amid-recreational-movement/3983763002.
21. Lighthouse Trails Publishing at .
22. You can see a full list of all the states that have legalized marijuana at .
23. https://bit.ly/3hYvpSB.
24. https://everybrainmatters.org/parents-movement-2-0.
25. http://integratedwellnessandrecovery.com/understanding-the-opioid-epidemic.
26. https://bit.ly/36XjWfM.
27. https://bit.ly/3wWODfB.
28. https://thcnet.com/news/bdsa-legal-us-cannabis-sales-surpassed-175-billion-in-2020.
29. https://learnaboutsam.org.
30. Kevin A. Sabet, Smokescreen (Forefront Books, 2021), p. 95.
31. https://bit.ly/371JKr3.
32. From “Cannabis in Medicine: An Evidence-Based Approach” edited by Kenneth Finn, MD, reviewed by J. Michael Bostwick, MD, Prof. of Psychiatry, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, NY., https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7723137.
33. Smokescreen, op. cit., pp. 43–44.
34. https://learnaboutsam.org/industry-profiles-2.
35. Smokescreen, op. cit., pp. 245–246.
36. Ibid., p. 251.
37. Ibid., p. 241.
38. From “Cannabis in Medicine: An Evidence-Based Approach,” op. cit.
39. Smokescreen, op. cit., p. 116.
40. Ibid., pp. 24, 116.
41. https://bit.ly/3x08fQe.
42. John C. Hagan III, MD, “No Legal Recreational Marijuana in Missouri,” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7723140.
43. Smokescreen, op. cit. p. 49.
44. https://bit.ly/3hU3jbb.
45. https://bit.ly/3iB77xf.
46. Smokescreen, op. cit. p. 226.
47. https://bit.ly/3y4J4NG.
48. Personal conversation with authors.
49. https://bit.ly/3xYS8na.
50. http://www.aalm.info.
51. David G. Evans, JD, “Medical Fraud, Mislabeling, Contamination: All Common in CBD Products” (National Cannabis Review, Sept/Oct 2020, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7723146/).
52. https://bit.ly/3wUsG0J.
53. http://www.aalm.info.
54. .
55. “Psychedelics Could Be the Future of Psychotherapy” (Discover Magazine, June 10, 2021, https://bit.ly/3jtHdO6).
56. https://cnb.cx/3ix1Kz6.
57. https://bit.ly/3xZSPg6.
58. “Psychedelics Could Be the Future of Psychotherapy,” op. cit.
59. https://hopkinspsychedelic.org.
60. Ibid.
61. https://smallcapsdaily.com/silo-pharma-a-rising-star-in-the-psychedelic-drug-therapy-industry.
62. 7/5/21 e-mail newsletter to authors from Psychedelics Today.
63. “Psychedelics Could Be the Future of Psychotherapy,” op. cit.
64. https://bit.ly/3zHbvl1.
65. Read article on shamanism and drug use at: https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=33919.
66. Smokescreen, op. cit., p. 24.
67. https://bit.ly/2UDJoEE.
68. https://bit.ly/3y8kGdK.
69. https://bit.ly/3rBABiI.
70. https://tinyurl.com/2kd66xvv.
71. https://bit.ly/3ruSj7x.
72. https://bit.ly/3Br2VZD.
73. https://bit.ly/2UDJJHq.
74. https://bit.ly/3rrZaP1.
75. https://bit.ly/3ruKKgV.
76. https://bit.ly/3eM4Y0E.
77. https://bit.ly/36SFcU7.
78. https://bit.ly/3eMFZtW.
79. https://bit.ly/3zpX5FV.
80. https://bit.ly/3rrKcIA.
81. https://bit.ly/3x2nCHI.
82. https://bit.ly/2TsEMR4.
83. https://bit.ly/2Tx4Dre.
84. Deana Morton, “Can Psychedelics Actually Help Us Communicate With Aliens?” (https://bit.ly/2V48NHA).
85. Ibid.
86. https://bit.ly/36SdsyH.
87. https://bit.ly/2UvIEl3; for a long, fantastic list of other considerations, visit https://bit.ly/3zGq6gW.
88. https://bit.ly/2UBZvT2.
89. Deuteronomy 18:9–12.
90. https://bit.ly/3zGq6gW.
91. https://bit.ly/2UwdWs3.
92. “Are We Becoming a Drug Culture?” (The Berean Call, 11/6/2020, https://www.thebereancall.org/content/are-we-becoming-drug-culture?).
93. https://bit.ly/2UwdWs3.
94. https://bit.ly/3iQuHWR.
95. Rick Strassman, DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor’s Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences (Rochester, VT: Park Street Press, 2001), pp. 187, 199.
96. “Are We Becoming a Drug Culture?, op. cit.
97. Hebrews 9:27.
98. Read Warren B. Smith’s article on “oneness”: https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=28156.
99. “Are We Becoming a Drug Culture?, op. cit.
100. Ibid.
101. You can read a fictionalized version of our rescue in our novel The Glittering Web, Book 1 of the Omega Point Series available at https://bit.ly/3Iv3aFB. Listen to the prequel free at https://ltmurl.com/prequel.

To order copies of Psychedelic Seduction: Drugging the World and the Church, click here.

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Richard and Linda have taught and spoken at conferences, seminars, churches, and on the radio for many years and are available for interviews and speaking. Linda has managed Logos Word Designs since 1992 (www.logosword.com). You may visit their book site at: https://www.richardandlindanathan.com and e-mail them at: authors@richardandlindanathan.com.