Some join Indians in peyote rituals. And then there are the wandering seekers who take spiritual adventure tours to Peru, Ecuador and Brazil, where they drink ayahuasca , a mixture of two Amazonian plants, in rituals led by shamans. And that includes progressive clergy. How one interprets the psychedelic experience theologically depends partly on religious orientation. Buddhists typically talk about the possibilities for enlightenment rather than getting closer to God, and of integrating the psychedelic experience in ongoing meditative practice.
Christians think more in terms of holy communion.
Playing Indian' McKenna is skeptical of anyone in his 20s who calls himself a shaman. But he appreciates youthful audacity and admits to his own share of chutzpah in talking about mushrooms as the missing link in human evolution, and about his faith in an alien intelligence. Jeremy Bigwood, who guesses he matched McKenna drug for drug in the '60s and '70s, says he has yet to see an alien. But his experience with psychedelics changed forever the way he sees himself in the world. It has been 20 years since he ingested a hallucinogen, he says.