Psychedelic Mysticism and Christian Spirituality: From Science to Love

Psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin are claimed to reliably trigger mystical experiences, a claim justified using the Mystical Experiences Questionnaire (MEQ), which was developed from W.T. Stace's philosophy of mysticism. Scholars of Christian mysticism argue that Stace's framework inadequately represents Western theistic traditions. Stace, following William James, emphasizes intense, unusual moments of mystical union or fusion with the absolute, reflecting non-Western traditions. Christian mysticism, however, centers on a sense of loving presence and intimate closeness with the divine, not absorption or fusion. Love of God, central to Christianity, is absent from Stace and the MEQ30. For Christianity, mysticism involves lifelong interpretation and transformation, not momentary experience.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The scientific claim that psychedelic drugs like psilocybin reliably occasion mystical experiences was justified using the Mystical Experiences Questionnaire (the MEQ), a survey first developed in the 1960s by Walter Pahnke using W.T. Stace’s Mysticism and Philosophy. Scholars in Christian mysticism reject the adequacy of Stace’s work for Western theistic mysticism, especially Christianity. One objection is that Stace follows William James in focusing on intense and unusual moments of mystical experience rather than the somewhat more ordinary mystical life. A greater concern is that Stace more adequately reflects non-Western traditions than Western theistic traditions like Christianity. For Stace, mysticism centers on the concept of union with external reality or with the absolute, a union in which the human creature is absorbed or fused. Christian mysticism, by contrast, involves a sense of presence rather than union, experienced in a most intimate relationship as a felt loving closeness with the divine, but not as fusion or absorption into the divine. While love of God is central to the Christian view, it is ignored in Stace and the MEQ30. Finally for Christianity, mysticism is not found in the momentary experience, but in the lifelong interpretation that leads to transformation.