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Author Erik Davis scrutinized the current state of “spiritual warfare” between new, evolving sects of Christianity and the pervasiveness of the “Psychedelic Jesus” figure at a Harvard Divinity School talk on Monday.
During the talk, Davis — a visiting scholar at the HDS Center for Studies of World Religion — spoke at length about the battle for integration between traditional, Protestant Christianity, and a new psychedelic Christianity rooted in drug culture. Davis’ research focuses on a rubric to define the “Psychedelic Jesus,” a spiritual figure that has appeared as an alternative to the Christian Jesus in psychedelic and counterculture spaces.
According to Davis, the “Psychedelic Jesus” exists in the “occultural milieu” of hippie spirituality, individual acid trip reports, and the collective imagination of the “Jesus freaks,” a movement of fervent young Christians in the late 1960s and 1970s. Davis explained that the “Jesus freaks’” belief in the religious figure is rooted in drug culture.
“These are people who have hippie lives, hippie identities, hippie understanding, and then convert to a form of Christianity that becomes extremely well known, very influential,” Davis said. “It’s a strange theory because it’s not really clear: Are they hippies? Are they not? Are they psychedelic? Are they not?”
Davis explained his research was especially critical now, suggesting that there was a growing overlap between liberal and conservative spaces on the topic of psychedelics. He said there is an increase in conservatives’ inclination towards psychedelic substances — despite disapproval from conservative media figures and Christian fundamentalists.
“If you listen to Alex Jones, if you listen to Steve Bannon, there’s kind of like this fear and suspicion of the whole psychedelic world,” he said. “At the same time, psychedelics are being recuperated by other mainline Christians, not just liberal Christians who want to use it as a healing substance.”
The discussion repeatedly referenced the art of Rick Griffin, a psychedelic artist who frequently depicted the “Psychedelic Jesus” throughout his comics and posters. Davis said he expected the “Psychedelic Jesus” and associated movements to move into mainstream conversation.
“I do think we’re just seeing the beginning of stuff that’s going to become quite strange, but the psychedelic religion zone, I think, will continue to be an unusually interesting and valid, valuable one as we try to navigate this stuff,” Davis said.
Chase Bourbon ’27, a co-president of the Harvard Undergraduate Psychedelics Club — at which Davis gave a talk last week — said Davis’ talk revealed to him how other people integrate their spiritual frameworks in different ways.
“I live my life envious of people who have faith and envious of people who have this ability to accept Christ,” Bourbon said.
“The weird thing is, I don’t even think it’s like that. I think you can follow these paths in many different ways. And Erik’s talk was just another one of those ways people integrate their spiritual frameworks,” he added.
