I am going to project this into the universe and see what comes of it. I've done this twice in the past year, and been amply rewarded, so it certainly can't hurt. This is an earnest and humble request, and I welcome your feedback and input, even those not on this path. Background: After working with my home congregation for a number of weeks, I think I know what I want - I want to be a member of an intensely spiritually-oriented and committed chalice circle that honors, appreciates and validates an authentic pursuit of spirituality which utilizes the tools of psychedelics to engage the divine.

While all members of my congregation that I've interacted with are supportive of whatever path any member chooses, I find that something is lost in terms of understanding between myself and my path and other church members who aren't pursuing a spiritual path in quite such a similar fashion. This leads to hesitancy on my part in sharing and a sense of marginalization or having to hide some part of who I am from them, and that starts to feel very yucky. However, I need to honor their beliefs and experiences just the same.

I feel like there must be other members of the church in the same boat - and if you could point me in the right direction, I sure would appreciate it. Perhaps this has been thought about before, and there's a sub-group of the church that goes around quietly practicing in a super intense way with psychadelics, divining the messages between things, maybe called the children of Emerson or Thoreau's siblings... The type of people who would have been at the scene when the events of the electric kool-aid acid test were playing out. Again, this is me raising my hand and saying that I'm ready and wanting to connect with my church and my church community on this topic, validate this as a path within the church (perhaps bringing the matter to the general assembly) but less interested in the politics than in connecting with like-minded folks who are using every tool in the toolbox for their spiritual pursuits, especially this, what I would consider the most obvious one and certainly one of the most reliable.

What my hope is: To connect, bounce ideas off of one another and likely have an at least year-long chalice group (nationwide, probably) to discuss issues which face those of us at the intersection of these two important parts of our lives as practicing UU's and psychedelic seekers.

Thanks in advance.

UPDATE: I just want to say thank you to all of your beautiful people who engaged me on this topic even though I realize its kind of edgey; it was a true honest inquiry as I seek to understand my own spiritual journey and my place within my own congregation and the larger UU organization - thank you for your patience and grace, I really appreciate your support! Be well!