Psychedelic Priest Deposed by the Episcopal Church

As of this week, Hunt Priest has been removed from ministry by the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia, a district in The Episcopal Church. Priest was a public participant in the Johns Hopkins/NYU psilocybin clergy study, recently profiled in The New Yorker, and founded the non-profit Ligare, “a Christian psychedelic society.”

Below is the formal “Notice of Accord and Deposition” issued by the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia. The notice specifies that the offenses which are the subject of the Accord are found in Canon IV.4.1.h.6, which is “Conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation,” and Canon IV.4.1.h.9, which is “Conduct Unbecoming a Member of the Clergy,” of the Canons of the Episcopal Church. According to the notice from Bishop Frank S. Logue, Priest has agreed to a sentence of Deposition, meaning he is “deprived of the right to exercise the gifts and spiritual authority of ministry conferred upon him by ordination.” Agreement to the Accord means a trial of the case will be avoided.

While the specific details of the 13-month investigative process remain confidential at this time, this notice is the culmination of concerns that began over three years ago when I was interning for Ligare, when I became concerned that Priest and Ligare’s conduct was jeopardizing the health and safety of members of the public. For a variety of reasons, I avoided entering a formal process with the Diocese until Priest and Ligare attempted to censor and legally bully me through a defamatory cease and desist letter. My complaint raised several additional concerns which were subsequently investigated. The Accord released this week is the outcome of that process. I am grateful for the Diocese’s resolution and am relieved that the long process has concluded.

Ultimately, this outcome is also a sad and direct consequence of an unethical psychedelic study that experimented on human beings for a non-scientific spiritual mission with drugs that make one open to suggestion and undue influence, even well after the drug’s effects have subsided. The Hopkins/NYU study was found by Johns Hopkins’ Institutional Review Board (IRB) to have multiple counts of “serious non-compliance” with federal regulations. The IRB concluded that these ethical breaches “significantly compromised the integrity of the Organization's human research protection program” and “significantly compromised the rights and welfare of the participants.” As it pertains to this case, an undisclosed donor acting as a researcher then funded Priest with seed money to start Ligare.

Thus, the issues here extend beyond just one case of clergy misconduct. This is a result of years of enabling behavior from the psychedelic movement, including by Hopkins researchers and other psychedelic leaders prioritizing their spiritual movement over public safety. For years, members of the public have been put at risk of significant harm with psychedelic drug use by clergy who have no clinical backgrounds to justify promotion of the use of any drug, even if such drugs were legal, much less drugs with poorly understood long-term safety profiles. Curious laypeople and naive Christian leaders have continued to turn to Ligare with the false impression they could learn about psychedelic drugs from trustworthy religious leaders, who have subsequently sought to monetize their interest.

I thank the Diocese of Georgia for seeking justice with compassion, reaching accountability that will prevent harm to the vulnerable.