Psychedelic Last Rites

This chapter compares the Catholic sacrament of extreme unction with modern psychedelic therapy for the dying. Extreme unction, a final ritual fortifying the soul for heaven, is embraced by Catholics but viewed by Protestants as fraudulent. Since the 1960s and recently, psychiatrists have used LSD and psilocybin to help terminal cancer patients with anxiety and depression. The chapter explores how this psychedelic therapy shares the high purposes of extreme unction and some of its surrounding problems.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This final chapter compares the Catholic sacrament of extreme unction with modern experiments in psychedelic therapy for the dying. Extreme unction has an unusual history within Christianity: Catholics embrace it as a last, crucial fortification of the soul that prepares someone for heaven, but Protestants, going back to Calvin, view it as a fraudulent mystification. Secular scientists have come up with something comparable to the old sacrament. Beginning in the 1960s, and resuming very recently, psychiatrists have experimented with LSD and psilocybin in an attempt to help patients with terminal cancer overcome anxiety and depression. This chapter explores all facets of the psychedelic “sacrament” as it entangles with extreme unction. The new therapy shares both the high purposes of the old last rites and some of the problems that have surrounded it.