A trip to the magic mushroom megachurch
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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What is the Zide Door Church of Entheogenic Plants?
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Just as every market has its first movers, every religion has its martyrs. The people willing to risk everything for what they believe. You know, Joan of Arc, Joseph Smith, Jesus. And when I recently found out about a church with a leader who might be a little bit of both, I knew I had to make a pilgrimage. So I hopped on a plane to Oakland, California to visit a place called the Zyde Door Church. Hey. You looking for Zyde Door? I'm looking for Zyde Door. Is this it? Oh, this is Zyde Door. From the street, you might not even know the church was there. It's sort of hidden inside a nondescript warehouse surrounded by auto shops and row houses. As soon as you walk in, you're greeted by a friendly armed security guard and ushered through a metal detector.
You won't find any pews inside of Zyde Door these days, but there are two ATMs on the premises. And it's next to one of them where I meet the man who founded and runs the church, a guy named Dave Hodges. Hey, Pastor Dave, I presume.
Yeah, good to meet you. Good to meet you too, in the flesh.
Pastor Dave is a big guy with a long ponytail, salt and pepper goatee, wire-framed glasses. Looks a bit like Benjamin Franklin, if he got a job in a corporate IT department.
Give you a little tour of the place.
It doesn't really look like any church I've been inside of before.
Probably not.
Instead of stained glass depictions of saints performing miracles, the walls are covered in a series of trippy technicolor murals. There's a psychedelic whale pod. There are contemplative apes stroking their chins. It feels more like a galactic bowling alley than a sanctuary. And almost everywhere you look, there are giant images of mushrooms. That is because Zydor Church is not a Christian church. It's not Jewish or Hindu. Zydor is a mushroom church. It is organized around the belief that psychedelic psilocybin mushrooms offer direct access to the divine.
Generally, I say I run the largest mushroom church in the world. That's, you know, if we're going simple.
That's the elevator pitch. That's the log line.
Yeah, yeah.
Zydor is one of a growing number of new psychedelic churches around the country, predicated on the idea that the principle of religious freedom gives them the right to produce, distribute, and consume substances that might otherwise send you to federal prison. Here, instead of taking communion wafers or wine, parishioners are offered some of the most powerful, mind-altering substances ever known to take home and do with as they please. To join the church is pretty simple. You have to fill out an application pledging your sincere religiosity.
We ask you a few questions of whether or not you accept this as part of your religion, who referred you, what you do for a living.
Is there an are you a cop checkbox?
There is. There is. We definitely ask if you work with law enforcement. There's even a special piece of paper we have everybody sign that says if you're a cop or working with the cops, we're going to sue you for $100,000. And once we review that and approve you, then you're given a membership card and you're allowed to come in.
Once you are in, you can check in at the front desk before making your way to the place where the church distributes the drugs, all of which the church calls sacrament.
This is the sacrament room where people contribute cash and we give them the sacrament.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:23
2
What is the Zide Door Church of Entheogenic Plants?
0:23–7:19
3
How does Pastor Dave Hodges define his role within the church?
7:19–17:07
4
What legal challenges do psychedelic churches face?
17:07–22:33
5
How does the sacrament room operate in the Zydor Church?
22:33–31:51