Fringe Files Column

This article was published exclusively online in the Christian Research Journal, Volume 49, number 03 (2026).

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“[The mushroom] was in fact, God himself, manifest on earth. To the mystic it was the divinely given means of entering heaven; God had come down in the flesh to show the way to himself, by himself.”

—John Marco Allegro, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross¹

“The New Testament Sermon on the Mount is an eloquent manifestation of Christ consciousness, which is similar in many ways to the higher consciousness and wisdom achieved by modern mind explorers through entheogens and by spiritual sages throughout the ages through meditation.”

—Jerry and Julie Brown, The Psychedelic Gospels²

According to a 2025 survey released by the research organization RAND, almost 3.5 million U.S. adults said that in the past year they microdosed³ Amanita muscaria, a hallucinogenic mushroom featuring a red top and white warts.⁴ This is the type of mushroom that is often portrayed in art. It’s not technically a psychedelic, but one draw for users of these mushrooms is the potential for a spiritual experience; in fact, some religious rituals include using them to enhance such experiences.⁵ Several people on sharing sites including Reddit say they used mushrooms to get closer to God and even claimed they encountered Jesus when they were on the drug.⁶

Psychedelics and mushrooms are experiencing a resurgence decades after the psychedelic boom of the 1970s. Use among young adults increased from five percent in 2018 to nine percent in 2023,⁷ but it’s not just members of Gen Z getting in on the action. NPR recently reported that microdosing mushrooms is popular among moms hoping to find some stress release via the fungus.⁸ Because of this revival, it’s a good idea to have some basic information about these drugs, and also to understand some of the claims made regarding mind-altering mushrooms and Christianity. For example, some people claim that mushrooms in and of themselves are divine. Others claim that Christ used mushrooms as part of the Last Supper with His disciples and taught about it in His famous Sermon on the Mount. And what of those who claim they get closer to God through their use of mushrooms?

Psychedelics, Deliriants, and Entheogens. Not all mushrooms are created equal. Roughly two hundred species are psychedelic, “hallucinogenic drugs that affect a person’s mental state and can temporarily change their perceptions, sensory experiences, mood, and thought processes.”⁹ These kinds of mushrooms contain psilocybin or psilocin and are often referred to as “magic” mushrooms. Some mushroom species, like Amanita muscaria mentioned above, are not psychedelics but deliriants, which cause dreamlike states. They are known for producing mind-altering effects. Finally, entheogens is a term used to describe psychoactive substances to induce mind-altering states, especially in religious and spiritual contexts. Derived from Greek roots that roughly mean “god-generated within,”¹⁰ the term reflects the belief that such substances can facilitate an encounter or experience with the divine. Entheogens include psychedelics as well as deliriants. Amanita muscaria is used in some Buddhist¹¹ and shamanistic rites. Peyote is used in some Native American religious rituals.¹² As I’ll address below, some people claim that Christians have used entheogens in practices such as communion.

Theories About Mushrooms and Christianity. Are mushrooms or entheogens featured in the Bible? The answer is no. Although the Genesis creation account describes God’s creation of vegetation and plant life (Genesis 1:11–13), neither fungi nor mushrooms are specifically mentioned. While there may be references to mold or fungal growths elsewhere in the Bible (e.g., Leviticus 13:47–59; 14:33–57), there are none to mushrooms. As for entheogens, there are no explicit references to those kinds of substances. Despite this, a few scholars believe entheogens have played a larger role in biblical history than is generally recognized.

The Sacred Mushroom and The Cross. If you’re one of the eleven million people who watch The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, you might have heard his discussions about John Marco Allegro, a Dead Sea Scrolls scholar who gained popularity in the early 1970s with his book, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross (Doubleday, 1970).¹³ Rogan frequently brings up Allegro, claiming that Allegro’s work proves that psychedelic mushrooms were behind the origins of Christianity. In The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, Allegro claims that Christianity was a cover for a Near Eastern fertility cult. Some of Allegro’s more disturbing ideas include his claim that Scripture, especially the New Testament, contains secret references to divine semen and that Jesus Christ was not a historical person but a metaphorical representation of a divine mushroom.¹⁴

Although Rogan and other lay influencers seem to find Allegro’s claims worth considering, his theories have been overwhelmingly rejected by scholars as lacking historical and philological support. In fact, the original publisher stopped printing the book after other academic scholars refuted Allegro’s theories.¹⁵ Although minority views shouldn’t be dismissed because they are believed by only a few, we should look at other academic perspectives on any given issue because scholarly consensus, while not infallible, is typically built on verifiable methodology and, as is often the case with theological and scientific issues, rigorous debate.¹⁶ Perhaps most importantly, as New Testament scholar Wes Huff points out, Allegro’s claims about Sumerian languages have been rebuffed by Sumerian scholars and experts. Further, Huff explains, Allegro’s claims about language rely on an etymological fallacy, which is a version of the genetic fallacy. Essentially, the etymological fallacy accepts only the oldest meaning of a word, disregarding any changes in culture or context. Allegro said that various words in Scripture pointed to the mushroom, but contextually, that doesn’t make sense, and scholars have dismissed the idea.¹⁷ One such academic, Philip Jenkins, described The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross as “possibly the single most ludicrous book on Jesus scholarship by a qualified academic.”¹⁸ In other words, Allegro’s minority view is worth noting but not worth adopting. That said, there are some modern-day academics who continue to be influenced by at least some of Allegro’s claims.

The Psychedelic Gospels. Authors and researchers Jerry and Julie Brown accidentally found their life’s work and purpose while on a trip to Scotland. Although they disagree with Allegro’s claim that Jesus wasn’t a historical figure and aren’t convinced by his arguments regarding language, they do find alignment with his theory that entheogens played a significant role in early Christianity. Their evidence is based on what they call “the plausible identification of entheogenic images,” namely ancient art.¹⁹

The Browns were inspired by The Da Vinci Code (Doubleday, 2003) to visit Rosslyn Chapel, the place Dan Brown’s novel alleged was connected with the Holy Grail. While visiting the chapel, Jerry and Julie purchased an object that would alter their minds regarding Christianity and entheogens. The souvenir, a replica of the Green Man in Rosslyn, caught Jerry’s eye when he noticed something on its forehead that resembled a mushroom. This discovery led Jerry and Julie down a path toward finding various ancient artwork that alluded to the use of mushrooms in early Christianity and ancient rites. In their book, The Psychedelic Gospels (Park Street Press, 2016), the Browns share various images of artwork that they believe contain mushrooms, including mosaics, frescos, and paintings. Most of their book is presented as an argument that images of mushrooms have been kept secret from Christians — in plain sight in places such as France, England, and Germany. Artwork is what propelled their research forward, and it led them to make several interesting (albeit unreliable and unattested) claims about Jesus, the early Christians, and entheogens.

The Gnostic Gospels and Entheogens. Much of what Jerry and Julie claim about entheogens and Christianity are grounded not in the Gospels of the New Testament, but in the Gnostic gospels, a collection of early heretical texts that present alternative, mystical views of Jesus and His teachings. These manuscripts were discovered in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in late 1945.

I first learned about these writings in high school when I purchased my copy of The Lost Books of the Bible and the Forgotten Books of Eden (Thomas Nelson, 1974). I was intrigued by the stories told of Jesus’s lost years not featured in canonical Scripture. For example, included among these lost books is the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, which contains stories about Jesus’s childhood, including an incident in which Jesus allegedly kills another child who accidentally bumps into him. Although stories like these might be interesting, the problem is with their historical value. As philosopher Douglas Groothuis explains, “We do not know who wrote most of [the Gnostic gospels] and their historical veracity concerning Jesus seems slim.”²⁰ Groothuis argues that these gospels date too late to provide eyewitness testimony, lack credible apostolic authorship, and reflect Gnostic theological ideas that arose after the apostolic era. Their narratives about Jesus also create a character that is not aligned with what we see in the historically attested Gospels of the New Testament.²¹ All that to say, though, Jerry and Julie Brown derive their theories from these lost documents. And what do the Gnostic gospels say about entheogens? According to the Browns, both the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Philip included allusions to Christ using entheogens, specifically Amanita muscaria.²² Jerry and Julie suggest that Jesus included the mushroom in drinks He gave to His disciples. With regard to communion and the Last Supper,²³ they state that “‘bread’ and ‘wine’ are code words for ‘flesh’ and ‘blood,’ not the physical body of Christ, but the sacred substance consumed as food and drink, and also applied as an ointment, during initiation.”²⁴ Keep in mind that the Gnostic gospels were rejected by the early church as heretical and were never received as part of Christian canonical Scripture; moreover, as noted, there are compelling historical reasons to doubt their reliability as sources for the life and teachings of Jesus. What the Browns suggest finds no support among the vast majority of scholars.

Jesus and Entheogens. In addition to their assertions about the Gnostic gospels, the Browns suggest that the Gospels of the New Testament “explore the expanded state of consciousness generated by these entheogens.”²⁵ They claim that the “Sermon on the Mount is an eloquent manifestation of Christ consciousness, which is similar in many ways to the higher consciousness and wisdom achieved by modern mind explorers through entheogens and by spiritual sages throughout the ages through meditation.”²⁶ Ultimately, they claim that “Jesus and his disciples achieved an experience of divinity through the use of sacred entheogens.”²⁷ Again, there is no historical evidence for their claims, and the Bible makes no mention of mushrooms or entheogens, much less of their use by Jesus and His disciples.

Ultimately, I believe that the Browns were led down this path by their desire to support their own use of entheogens for spiritual experiences. They claim they had their “first and only authentic experiences of the divine and of cosmic consciousness through entheogens.”²⁸ Does this bias necessarily discount their claims? No, not in itself, but there just is no historical or archaeological support for their arguments. Nor should the intensity of an experience produced by a psychoactive substance be mistaken for evidence of an authentic encounter with God.²⁹ Our merciful Lord can certainly reach a person in any circumstance, but this does not mean that intoxication itself provides access to God or that drug-induced experiences should ever be trusted as genuine revelations of the divine.³⁰ In fact, there is good biblical reason to regard such drug-induced experiences not as pathways to God but as pathways to occult demonic deception. The late Elliot Miller, founding Editor-in-Chief of the Christian Research Journal, explains:

Decades of research have led me to the conclusion that trancelike states of consciousness, whether produced by drugs, meditation, yoga, chanting, ecstatic dancing, or other methods, are the breeding ground for all spiritual experience outside of the biblical God and Christ. This is why it is necessary for mediums to achieve a trance state before they can make contact with the spirit world. Practitioners of divination and magic also typically induce an altered state in order to make contact with familiar spirits that help them perform their crafts. And the degree of trance needed for mediumship, divination, and magic is generally lighter than the degree of trance achieved through smoking marijuana, so when the Bible condemns these occult practices (Deut. 18:9–14), we can rightly assume it would condemn any other practice that would open our minds to greater demonic influence.

Miller goes on to observe that “when the New Testament condemns sorcery [e.g., Galatians 5:19–21; Revelation 9:21, 18:23], the Greek word is pharmakeia, from which we get our English word pharmacy. The practice referred to using drugs to open the mind to spirits for the purpose of enlisting their aid in casting spells. This does not properly apply to all drugs but to drugs that facilitate visionary states; that is, psychedelic or hallucinogenic drugs”³¹ (emphasis in original). By Miller’s reasoning, the same concern would apply to intoxication from Amanita muscaria and other entheogens.

The Biblical Response to Hallucinogens. Two Christian rejoinders to hallucinogenic mushrooms might be cut-and-dry, perhaps something along the lines of, “Don’t use mind-altering illegal drugs,” and “No, mushrooms aren’t part of Christian history.” Both responses are well-founded, and I’ve addressed some of the basic arguments above. But those lines of thought don’t really address one of the core questions: Why would one turn to mushrooms in seeking a profound spiritual encounter with God?

This inquiry points to a grander discussion about our culture’s need for something bigger than ourselves. We find ourselves unsatisfied with material wealth and social media status. We strive to find connection in a deeply disconnected world, and yet we don’t seek community with other believers. We want to be closer to God, but we’re pulled away by other priorities, idols, and things that take away our time, money, and talents from the One who deserves it all. Instead of praying and opening the Bible, we actually move further and further away from God. Is the encounter with God what we truly yearn for, or are we simply idolizing a temporary high and a disconnect from worldly troubles?

Scripture tells us how to have a close encounter with God: “Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded” (James 4:8). Repent, and draw closer to God. Pray, and draw closer to God. Indeed, we are to seek Him with a pure heart and with our whole heart (Jeremiah 29:14). The Bible consistently directs us toward a renewed, sober, and vigilant mind for discerning God’s will and encountering Him (see, e.g., Romans 12:2; Ephesians 5:17–18; 1 Peter 5:8). Hallucinogens take us away from our own awareness, not into the presence of God, but into an altered state not grounded in reality. When the buzz dies, the mystical experience ends. The troubles we were hoping to leave behind remain.

However, hope prevails. Our Savior is eternal. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). He is truth (John 14:6). He is reality (John 1:1–14). He is present in the good times and the bad (Psalm 23). He is worthy of our whole selves in our unaltered states. You do not need a drug to meet Christ, nor should you look to one as a pathway to Him. He will meet you in your darkest moments, bring you out of the pit of despair (Psalm 43:5), and show you that He is the light of the world (John 8:12) who wants to welcome you into His loving arms. All you must do is choose to accept His invitation (John 3:16).

—Lindsey Medenwaldt

Lindsey Medenwaldt is an assistant professor of business and economics at Northwestern College and the author of Bridge-Building Apologetics (Harvest Apologetics, 2024) and co-author with Douglas Groothuis of What If Jesus Is Right? (Tyndale Elevate, 2026). She holds a master’s in apologetics and ethics from Denver Seminary, a JD from St. Mary’s University School of Law, and a master’s in public administration from Midwestern State University.

NOTES

1. John Marco Allegro, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross: Fertility Cults and the Origins of Judaism and Christianity (Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1970), xv.
2. Jerry B. Brown and Julie M. Brown, The Psychedelic Gospels: The Secret History of Hallucinogens in Christianity (Park Street Press, 2016), 206.
3. Microdosing is taking a fraction of a full dose.
4. Michelle Priest et al., “U.S. Psychedelic Use and Microdosing in 2025,” RAND, January 21, 2026, https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA4334-1.html#fn1.
5. See “Psilocybin (Magic Mushrooms),” National Institute on Drug Abuse, last updated January 2024, https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/psilocybin-magic-mushrooms#is-psilocybin-safe.
6. See, for example, “I Had a Spiritual Encounter with Jesus on Psychedelic Mushrooms,” r/Soulnexus, n.d., https://www.reddit.com/r/Soulnexus/comments/1gh8zr5/i_had_a_spiritual_encounter_with_jesus_on/.
7. Mark S. Gold, “Magic Mushrooms, Teens, and Young Adults,” Psychology Today, January 22, 2026, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/addiction-outlook/202410/magic-mushrooms-teens-and-young-adults.
8. Allison Sherry, “Thousands of Moms are Microdosing with Mushrooms to Ease the Stress of Parenting,” All Things Considered, NPR, September 13, 2022, https://www.npr.org/2022/09/13/1121599369/thousands-of-moms-are-microdosing-with-mushrooms-to-ease-the-stress-of-parenting.
9. Although recent research indicates such drugs may help with particular brain disorders and mental health issues (when used strictly under the care of qualified physicians), use of psychedelics for health reasons comes with many warnings and potential side effects such as hallucinations and psychotic episodes. See American Brain Foundation, “How Psychedelics Affect the Brain,” October 29, 2024, https://www.americanbrainfoundation.org/how-psychedelics-affect-the-brain/; “Psilocybin,” U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, accessed July 10, 2026, https://www.dea.gov/factsheets/psilocybin; and Anne K. Schlag, Jacob Aday, David J. Nutt et al., “Adverse Effects of Psychedelics: From Anecdotes and Misinformation to Systematic Science,” Journal of Pharmacology 36, no. 03 (2022), https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02698811211069100.
10. Brown and Brown, The Psychedelic Gospels, 5.
11. See Colin H. Simonds, “Intersections with Indigeneity in Psychedelic Buddhism,” October 22, 2024, Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School, https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2024/10/intersections-indigeneity-psychedelic-buddhism.
12. Brown and Brown, The Psychedelic Gospels, 88–89.
13.  See, for example, “The Connection Psychedelics Have to Early Christianity, Christmas,” JRE Clips, YouTube, September 30, 2020, 10:20, https://youtu.be/XS5qjEXS6oM?si=–OYZCEIwj0kUZzX.
14. Geoffrey Smith, “From Messiah to Mushroom: A Brief History of John Marco Allegro’s The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross,” in Psychedelic Intersections: 2024 Conference Anthology, ed. Jeffrey Breau and Paul Gillis-Smith (Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School, 2025), https://doi.org/10.70423/0001.06; and Matthew J. Goff, “Odd Conspiracies: John Allegro, Sacred Mushrooms, and the Dead Sea Scrolls,” Religions 16, no. 8 (2025): article 946, https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16080946.
15. Interestingly, Rogan and others claim that the Roman Catholic church actually suppressed Allegro’s work, but that claim has been discredited. Goff, “Odd Conspiracies.”
16. Wes Huff, “Magic Mushrooms Origin of Christianity Say Dead Sea Scrolls Scholar & Joe Rogan,” YouTube, July 23, 2021, beginning at 4:06, https://youtu.be/L-ZeRnaAzYY?si=HwN1DG_ukxFDFZe8.
17. Huff, “Magic Mushrooms Origin of Christianity.”
18. Philip Jenkins, Hidden Gospels: How the Search for Jesus Lost Its Way (Oxford University Pres, 2001), 180.
19. Brown and Brown, The Psychedelic Gospels, 217.
20. Douglas Groothuis, “The Gnostic Gospels: Are They Authentic?” Christian Research Journal 13, no. 03 (1991), https://www.equip.org/articles/the-gnostic-gospels-are-they-authentic/.
21. Groothuis, “The Gnostic Gospels”; see also Craig L. Blomberg, The Historical Reliability of the New Testament (B&H Academic, 2016), 10, 567–68, 570–79.
22. Brown and Brown, The Psychedelic Gospels, 200–206.
23. The Browns believe that artwork of the Last Supper proves that entheogens were present for the event. See Brown and Brown, The Psychedelic Gospels, 112–14.
24. Brown and Brown, The Psychedelic Gospels, 205.
25. Brown and Brown, The Psychedelic Gospels, 206.
26. Brown and Brown, The Psychedelic Gospels, 206.
27. Brown and Brown, The Psychedelic Gospels, 212.
28. Brown and Brown, The Psychedelic Gospels, 215.
29. Elliot Miller, “From New Age ‘Christ’ to Born-Again Christian: How Searching for Truth Can Be Stranger Than Fiction,” Christian Research Journal 11, no. 01 (1988), https://www.equip.org/PDF/JAM111.pdf.
30. Psychoactive substances induced in Elliot Miller a profound experience of what he interpreted as undifferentiated divine consciousness that was devoid of any duality between subject and object. He recounts, “The drugs themselves led me to pantheism because on them I experienced a loss of ego or self‐image boundaries. I began to feel intrinsically connected to the universe as my larger and more real self — an infinite consciousness into which my finite consciousness was merging. Thus, if I was the universe and the universe was God, I was God! With very little outside help I’d seemingly gone through all the classic mystical experiences and come to all the standard pantheistic conclusions.” But he eventually came to realize that drug-induced experiences of the divine provided, as his friend put it, only “a false sense of security” — the sense that “you’re on the road to God when you’re actually on the road to hell.” He reflects that what he had actually experienced was demonic deception: “I could finally understand why drug use, or, for that matter, Eastern meditation or any method of inducing altered states of consciousness, was not the way to reach God. It was possible to have a spiritual experience — to even feel blissfully enlightened and serene — without really experiencing God. Spiritual evil can and does masquerade as spiritual good (2 Cor. 11:14), and trancelike states of consciousness tend to open one up to such influences.” Miller, “From New Age ‘Christ’ to Born-Again Christian.”
31. Elliot Miller, “What Should Christians Do as America Goes to Pot?,” Christian Research Journal 37, no. 05 (2014), https://www.equip.org/articles/christians-america-goes-pot/.