"Drugs & Mysticism: An Analysis of the Relationship between Psychedelic Drugs and Mystical Consciousness"
By Walter M Pahkne, Harvard University, 1963

Pahkne's thesis is better known as the "Good Friday Experiment," which evaluated the potential of psilocybin to catalyze religious experiences. Rick Doblin's undergraduate thesis (New College of Florida), " Pahnke's ’Good Friday Experiment‘: A Long-Term Follow-Up and Methodological Critique," consisted of interviews and questionnaires administered to most of the subjects in the original study twenty-five plus years after the original experiment. This article was published in The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 1991, Vol. 23, No.1.

Tape recordings of Rev. Howard Thurman's actual 1962 Good Friday service are available in 2 parts:

• Part 1 [1hr, 12min, 42sec]
• Part 2 [12min, 20sec]

An Interview with Huston Smith by Thomas B. Roberts and Robert N. Jesse from the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 1997, Vol. 29, No.2, entitled ’Recollections of the Good Friday Experiment‘ is also available here as a single PDF file.

Two papers by Roland Griffiths, Bill Richards, and associates about their landmark study on Psilocybin and Mystical Experience at John Hopkins (sponsored by the Council on Spiritual Practices) are also available here. This research is the first attempt at replicating the Good Friday experiment in over 45 years. However, the design of this research differed from the original because subjects received psilocybin individually rather than in a group context and in a hospital clinical research setting rather than a religious setting.

1. Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance [2006]
2. Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance 14 months later [2008]