SWAT teams and helicopters descended on a ranch in Joshua Tree, California, following reports of a bloodcurdling scream.
When they arrived, the lights were out, smoke was coming out of the door, and a row of bodies lay strewn across the cabin floor, seemingly lifeless.
Agents thought it was the scene of a mass homicide.
To their great relief, it was merely one of America’s rapidly proliferating psychedelic churches, caught in the midst of a particularly intense Ayahuasca ceremony.
‘The officers just looked at us like we were a bunch of hippies stuffing crystals up our asses,’ says Colette Close, co-founder of the church, Hummingbird, who regales the story.
‘They came in, did a wellness check and took off…Most cops have better things to do.’
Hummingbird is part of a global boom in people turning to hallucinogenic drugs in search of spiritual enlightenment, including NFL star Aaron Rodgers, actor Will Smith and Prince Harry.
Taking these substances – even for therapeutic purposes – remains illegal in most of the US, despite clamor for decriminalization.
But tens of thousands of Americans now say it is a sacrament that brings them closer to God – and that this religious freedom is protected in law.
It is thought anywhere between 200 to 2,000 psychedelic churches now exist across the US, from states with liberal drug laws such as California and Oregon, to resolutely conservative ones including Utah and Alabama.
Most are informal, underground networks, but some have public profiles and charge membership fees in exchange for drugs.
The majority are nomadic, hiring out retreats or Airbnbs in remote areas to avoid scrutiny, but some occupy permanent buildings in the mode of traditional churches.
Psychedelic preachers include a queer ‘Mushroom Pope’ in San Francisco and a former Mormon and Republican senator in Utah, while worshippers range from QAnon conspiracists to west coast hippies.
Some believe in a God, some do not.
But they all have one thing in common: they pray to a higher power.
Hellbound and Down 