Psychedelic churches in US pushing boundaries of religion - 41NBC News
Psychedelic churches in US pushing boundaries of religion from 41NBC News | WMGT-DT
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Psychedelic churches in US pushing boundaries of religion from 41NBC News | WMGT-DT
HILDALE, Utah (AP) — The tea tasted bitter and earthy, but Lorenzo Gonzales drank it anyway. On that frigid night in remote Utah, he was hoping for a life-changing experience, which is how he found himself inside a tent with two dozen others waiting for the psychedelic brew known as ayahuasca to kick in.
Ayahuasca is a psychedelic tea whose roots go back hundreds of years to ceremonial use by Indigenous groups in the Amazon region.
A church in a small Arizona-Utah border town is part of a growing global trend of people turning to ayahuasca in search of spiritual enlightenment and an experience they say brings them closer to God compared to traditional religious services.
The rising demand for ayahuasca has led to hundreds of psychedelic churches in the U.S., which advocates say are protected from prosecution by a 2006 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.