Responding to a psychedelic priest's cease and desist letter

A year ago, he preached accountability. Now he's trying to censor discussion of the story he told.

Jun 12, 2024

Two weeks ago, I was copied on a cease and desist letter to Substack sent on behalf of Rev. Hunt Priest. The letter (below) is attempting to censor my posts about him.

I considered not sharing this letter. However, I think it is important for the public interest, which is why I became a whistleblower in the first place. This letter confirmed my deeper concerns about the Rev. Priest’s patterns of deceptive and manipulative behavior. I’m posting the letter along with my response so people are warned.

Another reason is that every time I have written something about Rev. Priest or his organization, Ligare, in the past two years, I have received an email from someone different about Ligare’s negative impact on their life or a loved one’s life. If you are reading this, you are not alone, and you are not crazy.

Last August, I published a whistleblowing series on a psychedelic clergy study at Johns Hopkins University and a psychedelic Christian non-profit related to it. I wrote an update about it last month (which gives a tl;dr for the unfamiliar). Since the update, I have recently learned that two figures related to the study, study guide Dr. Bill Richards and one of the study’s funders Bob Jesse, are no longer with Hopkins, and their profiles are no longer on the Hopkins psychedelic center’s website.1 I do not have more information at this time.

But for the point at hand: why did I receive this letter? Here’s the brief version.

Why are we here?

The Rev. Hunt Priest is a priest in the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Georgia. Over two years ago now, I quit my internship at his non-profit Ligare: A Christian Psychedelic Society. They give plenty of disclaimers saying that they don’t promote illegal use, they only offer educational information, they give disclaimers that you should ask a doctor, etc. But they “are a home for Christians exploring psychedelics,” and given the state of legality in the United States, it is obvious that a great deal of Ligare affiliates, audience, and friends are people who personally use psychedelics outside of legal use. That is not a moral judgment in itself, and I once believed in this exploration. For a time, I worked for Ligare as an intern while pursuing my MDiv.

But I quit this organization two years ago because they were acting recklessly, because their reaction to stories of sexual abuse in psychedelic trials deeply offended me, and they did not prioritize discussion of the risks of psychedelic usage. Overall, my experiences with Ligare and their affiliates greatly contributed to reconsidering my previous beliefs about synthesizing psychedelics and Christianity.

I unilaterally came to the decision to end my internship early. This was well-documented. The Rev. Priest expressed disappointment. I talked with my field education office before, during, and after, and many friends. I quit another psychedelic organization and distanced myself from the field I once was very passionate about.

Over time, I felt compelled to speak out on Ligare as I also came to take a closer examination at the Johns Hopkins study that Rev. Priest participated in. He introduced himself to me with a story he would then describe in public multiple times, a story about experiencing a kind of ordination at the hands of Dr. Bill Richards:

According to an Esquire article released after this series in October 2023, before Priest’s treatment, “Dr. Richards said with a smile, ‘You’re about to meet God.’”
The Rev. Priest wrote the following of his trial experience both privately and published in a book, in which he was under the influence of high-suggestibility drugs: “After asking permission, Bill placed his hands on the top of my head as I sometimes do when offering healing prayers and anointing a parishioner (the sacrament of Unction) and Darrick sat at my feet and allowed me to press my legs against him as I had done for my wife when she was in labor with our son.”
While potentially still under the influence of suggestibility in the “afterglow” effect, Rev. Priest described: “In our conversation afterwards I asked them what all that energy was about. Bill smiled and said, ‘In Christian language, I think we call that the Holy Spirit.’”
Later, the Rev. Priest would describe this experience as evoking his ordination, along with “a desire to make the experience available to all who need and desire it.”

If this had happened in a psychedelic trial, especially at the hands of Dr. Richards, it would have been an egregious boundary violation that led to more unethical entanglements with Hopkins. I called for an investigation into it.

But based on multiple accounts, it now appears the Rev. Priest’s story didn’t happen. At all. And the Rev. Priest has yet to publicly share what did happen. Whether it was just a false memory, fabrication, or something else, only Rev. Priest or Hopkins would be able to tell, and only an investigation could reveal when people might have discovered it didn’t happen. Hopkins has remained silent on the study, and Rev. Priest has refused to speak on it publicly. Instead, the Rev. Priest has now chosen attempted censorship.

I made ad nauseum offerings to people to offer fact checks and comments. Before and within my series, I invited everyone involved to offer fact corrections and any comments they would like reproduced. Only in the most recent email before the C&D, the Rev. Priest shared for the first time that he has never facilitated a psychedelic session, and I have added this as a footnote to the relevant post. Prior to last month, I had received one fact check and zero comments.

Rev. Priest avoided publicly discussing my series while he recruited new audience members for Ligare. He then announced an upcoming conference for spiritual directors (scheduled for this weekend) featuring Dr. Richards, along with a talk by Dr. Richards for $35/ticket. Again, this was without either man publicly addressing what happened in the room. One could only speculate as to why. It remains to be seen if they will address it this weekend.

Last month, nine months after the first whistleblowing series, I began working on an update. After a back and forth with Rev. Priest in which he attempted to involve my church leadership, a few weeks went by. I then received the following C&D letter.

The Letter

Here is the letter, with redacted information of the attorney and others copied on it:

My Response

To be clear, I’m not worried about Substack taking down these posts. Free speech is kind of their thing, and I didn’t violate any laws in what I shared. My writing was protected by whistleblower laws in the United States, and what was was shared was shared with multiple clear public interests, most importantly the public’s health.

These public interests have since been verified. My work has since been attributed and corroborated by the New York Times in March of this year. Multiple individuals have since reached out to me with substantiating concerns about Ligare and the negative health consequences on their lives and the lives of others.

The letter’s opening framing is so deceptive that it is clear Rev. Priest has lost all benefit of a doubt from being simply mistaken about events. While I believe he is still a victim of an unethical study that put him in this position, he has now chosen to lie and bully in a disgrace to his office.

Many of the allegations contained in the letter are easily shown to be erroneous in what they reference, some are demonstrated as false with a paper trail, some are matters of opinion falsely framed as unfactual, and some simply deny sources for my reporting that I stand by.

I did not violate the law in procuring or sharing this information, and my writing is given whistleblower protections in the United States. Rev. Priest has long been aware of his opportunity to offer corrections, and was invited to share comments that I offered to reproduce. In lieu of those comments, I have reproduced his letter.

I will now address the letter with a point-by-point rebuttal, starting with its extremely misleading framing.

Point by Point Rebuttals

“During his tenure as a student at Harvard Divinity School, Mr. Welker worked at Ligare under a Federal work study program where he was privy to privileged employer information. Mr. Welker’s internship was terminated after less than six months employment. Disgruntled by his termination…”

The phrasing of this letter is misleading, and appears to be phrased intentionally misleading. In fact, the exact opposite of what it implies is true–I was the sole person who initiated termination of my internship early. Rev. Priest did not wish for me to end it early. Was I “disgruntled”? Certainly not by my termination. That brought me much relief. The Rev. Priest and Ligare’s disturbing behavior caused me to terminate it. This was documented in multiple ways.
In my final evaluation submitted to the Harvard Divinity School field education office, dated April 2, 2022, I wrote:
- “There is some pain that I felt I needed to end this placement site early, however, my conscience told me that I needed to in light of my growing public health concerns, disillusionment with psychedelic spiritual organizations and leaders, and growing differences with the organization. While I did not feel the situation was tenable for me finishing my term…”
In a letter to Ligare's board of directors on April 7th, 2022, I expressed extensively detailed concern over their recklessness, including in the following:
- "I believe that rather than rushing into conducting retreats and encouraging experiences, Ligare needs to adopt this more conservative approach and use this time in its organizational life as a space to foster deep contemplation rather than action.”
Rev. Priest shared this letter with Ligare’s board in an email on April 7, 2022, including the following note: “Joe has discerned that it was time for him to end his professional/internship relationship with Ligare.”

Again, to emphasize, it is my opinion that this cease and desist letter is intended to mislead Substack about the nature of who ended my internship and why.

“Falsely and maliciously claims that Rev. Priest is somehow the victim of a “boundary violation,” “suggestive touch” and/or other “unethical behavior” by researchers at John Hopkins University (May 7, 2024, August 17, 2023);”

As detailed in the referenced posts, this point is referencing an event based on Rev. Priest’s own public words. He is claiming I “falsely and maliciously claimed” something by believing his repeated public story.

In other words, the Rev. Priest seems to believe I should be held more accountable for his words than he should.

Further:

The assertion that the alleged action was tantamount to a boundary violation was based on the public statements of Hopkins researcher Sandeep Nayak, also referenced in the post.
I used conditional statements such as “allegedly” and “if” throughout each post in conscious attention to precision, in the event that it didn’t happen.
It is, in a word, preposterous to blame me for claiming what Rev. Priest’s described repeatedly in public and private forums.

“Falsely and maliciously claims that Rev. Priest’s alleged victimhood is the subject of an “ongoing” or forthcoming investigation by John Hopkins University as well as a coverup for which Ligare was “financially rewarded” (May 7, 2024, August 17, 2023)”

As for the existence of an investigation, I stand by my sources. If Johns Hopkins would like to clarify the status of any investigations and correct any misunderstandings on my part, I would love them to; I have yet to receive any official message from them since this all began.

As for the rest of this point, the letter conflates multiple issues and falsely asserts something I never said.

I never asserted Ligare was financially rewarded for a “coverup.”
- On the August 17, 2023 piece, I wrote, “It seems that the Rev. Priest has been financially rewarded for telling the public about this experience,” that is, his trial experience that he publicly related multiple times.
The use of “seems” demonstrates an opinion, which is also legally protected speech. The detailed reasons for why it “seems” that way are included in the referenced piece.
The opinion about this perception was based on publicly available records of donations Rev. Priest received from the RiverStyx Foundation, whose co-director was the simultaneous Hopkins donor and study team member T. Cody Swift, both in 2021 and in 2023. Again, this was publicly available information from RiverStyx’s website, as referenced in the piece.

“Falsely and maliciously claims that Ligare and Rev. Priest “acted as psychedelic ‘ambassadors,’ engaging in illegal activity with the knowledge of some Hopkins and Riverstyx researchers” which generated “concerns around the Rev. Priest’s behavior” (May 7, 2024);”

The “ambassadors” language was taken right from Ligare’s wording and phrasing, both in their website and in internal documents, as referenced in the piece and can be seen in this archived snapshot of their website.
I fully and unequivocally stand by the assertion that Rev. Priest and Ligare engaged in illegal activity with the knowledge of some Hopkins and Riverstyx researchers, and that this generated concerns around his behavior.
- Rev. Priest personally disclosed some of his illegal activity to me, which I disclosed to a Hopkins and Riverstyx researcher who was on Ligare’s board of directors. The Rev. Priest’s concerning behavior was a focus of discussion.

“Falsely and maliciously claims that Ligare held retreats in which illegal activity occurred and “directed people to unregulated psychedelic practitioners” (August 16, 2023);”

In addition to other reports I personally received, I referenced this in my May 7, 2024 piece: “In the [2023] progressive Christian book Discovering Fire, in which Rev. Priest has a foreword, the author says that he attended one Ligare-sponsored retreat in Colorado in 2022. This would be, at minimum, federally illegal.”
While a Ligare employee, I personally directed people to unregulated practitioners, and attempted to connect them to Rev Priest. Please see the attached screenshot of a conversation on Facebook Messenger from January 8, 2022, while I was an intern at Ligare:
This was followed by a call. I later regretted this interaction, called this person back, and reinforced that I could not personally vouch for this unregulated practitioner being safe or ethical.

“Falsely and maliciously claims Mr. Welker aided individuals in the commission of illegal activity while employed at Ligare (August 16, 2023);”

While I appreciate the author speaking in my defense, the August 16th piece does not exactly assert this. I will plead the fifth, but this is, still, a strange claim. How would the letter author know all that I did and did not do while at Ligare?

“Falsely and maliciously claims Ligare’s participation in clinical trials led by John Hopkins University was marred by “sexual abuse” perpetrated by clinical researchers at John Hopkins University (August 16, 2023);”

This is an example of egregiously poor reading of the referenced article to the point of negligence. The article in question only references sexual abuse in trials by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), not by Hopkins, nor by their researchers.
There is absolutely no statement that could possibly be construed as connecting sexual abuse to Johns Hopkins. It makes me wonder if the letter author even read the referenced posts (the letter author also mistitles the referenced post).
Notably, however, Rev. Priest has not denied Ligare’s atrocious reaction to hearing about this abuse, nor their subsequent silence. Meanwhile, Rev. Priest was a featured speaker at MAPS’ Psychedelic Science conference in June 2023.

“Falsely and maliciously claims without factual support that the relationship between Ligare and John Hopkins University was “extensive,” “highly unusual” and “unethical” (May 7, 2024);”

These words are examples of opinion, which do not fall under defamation or otherwise false claims. I stand by the assertion of these opinions.
At any rate, there was extensive factual support, as the post references in the original post, including this image. This does not even show the full extent of the ties:

“Falsely and maliciously claims that termination of Mr. Welker’s internship was “because of [Ligare and Rev. Priest’s] recklessness” (May 7, 2024);”

This is another example that is not just deceptive, but easily disproved with documentation. To reassert, I terminated my internship by my initiation and decision. In addition to the multiple documents of this referenced in point one, I had many extemporaneous conversations at the time with witnesses who can verify my reasons that included recklessness.

“Maliciously and impermissively publishes internal business information obtained while an employee of Ligare including confidential donor information, meeting agendas, corporate governance documents and internal communications (May 7, 2024, August 15, 2023, August 16, 2023, August 17, 2023)”

No confidential donor information was shared. The only donor information that was shared was information that was publicly available on RiverStyx’s website, as referenced.
As for Ligare, I defer to earlier comments on protected whistleblower disclosures.

Additional Comments on Substack Guidelines

I understand that it is in Substack’s sole discretion as to whether content violates their guidelines. That said, the letter does not appear to demonstrate familiarity with Substack’s policies. For example, it claims I committed “impersonation in a way that misleads others (e.g. pretending to speak for Rev. Priest as alleged victim).” This, as I understand from the common sense reading of Substack’s policies, is not what Substack defines as impersonation. Impersonation is something like using someone’s name and likeness to pretend to speak as them. It’s weird for the letter to claim that. That said, even in the letter’s misunderstanding of this policy, here is what I actually wrote about the Rev. Priest, emphasis added:

“The Rev. Priest is entitled to continue to interpret his experience however he wants…But however he wants to interpret it, behavior is behavior, and the alleged behavior can’t be a precedent. It can’t be something a Hopkins research subject touts as the clinical standard. The Rev. Priest can interpret the alleged behavior however he wants. But the alleged behavior he described is a boundary violation.”

I never once spoke for him as an alleged victim, though it was my opinion that he was (and is) one. It is bizarre to construe this as “impersonation,” whether pertaining to Substack’s guidelines or otherwise.

Conclusion

Last year, the Rev. Priest espoused the virtues of accountability at the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) conference in June 2023:

“I think Christianity is pretty immature in a lot of ways, because we’ve not held people accountable to the teachings of Jesus. We’ve made it about ‘how do I feel?’ And ‘how do I get political power in some corners?’ But it’s all about, ‘How do I feel?’ And so holding people accountable in the Christian context to the teachings of Jesus after you’ve had an experience of transformation would be, that’s, yeah, so immature spirituality, that’s a problem.” (applause break)

Almost exactly a year later, his response to being held accountable is sending a cease and desist letter.

It is very sad to me Rev. Priest chose this route. I now publicly urge his church leadership and colleagues in the Episcopal Church to consider whether his actions are representative of the Episcopal Church. This is not even to speak of the baseline appropriateness of a non-profit ministry that “educates” on the use of any drugs with no apparent formal medical training among its leadership (when asked about this last month, Rev. Priest declined to comment).

This attempted letter of intimidation is a shameful example that, ironically and in my opinion, appears to be tantamount to actual defamation in contrast to what it claims. I am not the first whistleblower who has been attempted to be bullied into silence, nor will I be the last, but I will fight for my free speech for the public interest.

Finally, the letter asserts: “Mr. Welker is not a journalist. He is a first-year part-time pastor of a small Christian congregation in rural Vermont.”

It is true I am not a journalist; I will proudly wear the label of whistleblower instead. And I will also confess one other factual thing the letter gets right, that I am a pastor of a small rural church, that it is my first pastorate, and they cannot afford a full-time pastor. I don’t know why he included this detail. But for whatever it’s worth, I’m thrilled to be serving where I am. I am blessed beyond riches.

Given the ample evidence as outlined in this letter, I plan to continue to write for Psychedelic Candor as appropriate, remaining within Substack’s content guidelines, terms, policies, and agreements as I have.

Sincerely,

Rev. Joe Welker

East Craftsbury Presbyterian Church (a small, rural church)

A few days ago, I tweeted some disturbing comments Bob Jesse made at a psychedelics conference last week with Richards next to him.