EP24: Revelation and Return — Religious Professionals Share Their Stories From the Hopkins Trial The NYU–Johns Hopkins Religious Professionals Study

Podcast Episode: Revelation and Return — Religious Professionals Share Their Stories From the Hopkins Trial

The NYU–Johns Hopkins Religious Professionals Study explored the effects of psilocybin on clergy from diverse faith backgrounds, including rabbis, ministers, and imams. Participants reported profound spiritual experiences, with many describing a deepened sense of vocation and connection to the divine. Since its release, the study has become a landmark in understanding how psychedelics may intersect with spiritual leadership, receiving significant media coverage—from Michael Pollan’s New Yorker piece to Jay Michaelson’s thoughtful response.

In this episode, recorded live on September 16, 2025, we hear firsthand accounts from study participants about how these experiences impacted their spiritual lives and trajectories.
 Rev. Dr. Seth Jones and Dr. Jaime Clark-Soles share moving reflections on how psilocybin deepened their understanding of the sacred and shaped their vocations, in a conversation moderated by Rabbi Zac Kamenetz. While Sughra Ahmed was unable to join us live, her voice and perspective are part of a broader conversation still unfolding.

The Q+A portion brought out some of the richest reflections of the event, with thoughtful questions from attendees and generous responses from our speakers.This program was a collaboration between Shefa: Jewish Psychedelic Support, Ligare: A Christian Psychedelic Society, and Ruhani, an organization focused on the intersections of Islam, Muslim cultures, and psychedelics.

https://www.shefaflow.org/
https://www.ruhanispirit.org/
https://www.ligare.org/

Featured Guests
Dr. Jaime Clark-Soles
 Professor of New Testament at Perkins School of Theology (SMU) and Director of the Baptist House of Studies.
 She is the author of six books, including Reading John for Dear Life and 1 Corinthians: Searching the Depths of God, and is currently writing Psychedelics and Soul Care: What Christians Need to Know (Eerdmans). Dr. Clark-Soles is also certified in Psychedelic Assisted Therapies and serves as a Field Scholar with the Emory Center for Psychedelics and Spirituality. jaimeclarksoles.com

Rev. Dr. Seth Jones is an ordained minister, writer, and spiritual scholar whose work explores the intersection of beauty, mysticism, and extraordinary spiritual experiences. With a Doctorate of Ministry in Semiotics, Church, and Culture from Portland Seminary, his career has spanned ministry, finance, and communal living—reflecting a lifelong commitment to reinvention and spiritual inquiry. He has served diverse church communities from Yellowstone National Park to coastal Maine, and is currently based in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where he works as a Spiritual and Grief Counselor for a hospice organization and is completing a book on the meaning-making of peak experiences. Seth is passionate about preserving beauty and spiritual depth in a rapidly changing world.

Moderator Rabbi Zac Kamenetz is a rabbi and community leader based in Berkeley, CA. As the founder and CEO of Shefa, Zac is leading a movement to integrate safe and supported psychedelic use into the Jewish spiritual tradition, advocating for the healing of individual and inherited traumas, and inspiring a Jewish religious and creative renaissance in the 21st century. He is a qualified instructor ofMBSR and is trained in ketamine-assisted care through Inbodied Life. Zac is certified in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy by the Hakomi Institute of Northern California.