Having spent the last three years tripping through the history of the psychedelic sixties, I couldn't help but laugh at the following paragraph in a recent front-page story in the New York Times:

Scientists are especially intrigued by the similarities between hallucinogenic experiences and the life-changing revelations reported throughout history by religious mystics and those who meditate. These similarities have been identified in neural imaging studies conduced by Swiss researchers and in experiments led by Roland Griffiths, a professor of behavioral biology at John Hopkins.

Keep those latest findings in mind as you travel back in time to an article titled "Mysticism in the Lab." That story, published in the September 23, 1966 edition of Time magazine, reported:

Most experiences of mystical consciousness have come only after hard work — spartan prayers, meditation, fasting, mortification of the flesh. Now it is possible, through the use of LSD and other psychedelic drugs, to induce something like mystical consciousness in a controlled laboratory environment. Such experimentation should be pushed forward, contend Psychiatrist Walter Pahnke, who holds a Harvard theology degree.

Such experimentation, however, did not push forward – at least not in the lab. There are lots of reasons for that, but high on the list are the excesses of Dr. Pahnke's faculty advisor at Harvard, Dr. Timothy Leary, one of four psychedelic pioneers I write about in my recent book, The Harvard Psychedelic Club – How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America.

Leary helped inspire President Richard Nixon's "war on drugs," which included a crackdown on serious scientific research into the potential medical – and, yes, spiritual – benefits that may come from the responsible use of psychedelic drugs, which some authorities, such as religion scholar Huston Smith, prefer to call "entheogens," referring to their ability to help users tune into "the God within us."

It has taken some four decades the government and media backlash against the psychedelic sixties to subside. Today, there's a new wave of a research into the therapeutic potential in such drugs as psilocybin (the active ingredient in "magic mushrooms"), MDMA (also known as "Ecstasy"), and even LSD, the most notorious and most misunderstood enemy of the drug war.

Media coverage has also shifted. Careful readers notice a new tone to the mainstream news coverage of the psychedelic drug movement, which never really went away.
Examples are the aforementioned Times piece, "Hallucinogens Have Doctors Tuning In Again," and several recent reports on CNN. The tone in actually reminiscent of some of the optimistic reports from the pre-Leary era, such as a glowing 1958 CBS News documentary about LSD that was broadcast as part of the network's "Focus on Sanity" series.

While it may seem still "far out" to many mainstream editors, this new wave of psychedelic drug research provides fertile ground for religion reporters interested in stories about brain chemistry, "the God gene,"  and the science of spirituality.

Turn on, tune in, and check it out. 

Don Lattin is a veteran religion reporter. He is the author of Jesus Freaks: A True Story of Murder and Madness on the Evangelical Edge and, most recently, The Harvard Pschedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age in America. He can be reached through his web site.