The Marsh Chapel Experiment was run by a graduate student at Harvard Divinity School, under the supervision of Timothy Leary. The goal was to see if in religiously predisposed subjects, psilocybin would act as reliable entheogen. The experiment was conducted on Good Friday, 1962 at Boston University's Marsh Chapel. Prior to the Good Friday service, graduate degree divinity student volunteers from the Boston area were randomly divided into two groups. In a double-blind experiment, half of the students received psilocybin, while a control group recieved a large dose of niacin. Niacin produces clear physiological changes and thus was used as a psychoactive placebo. In at least some cases, those who received the niacin initially believed they had received the psychoactive drug. Harvard Divinity School Harvard Divinity School is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States of America. ... Jump to: navigation, search Dr. Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was an American writer, psychologist, campaigner for psychedelic drug research and use, 60s counterculture icon and computer software designer. ... Jump to: navigation, search Psilocybin (4-phosphoryloxy-N, N-dimethyltryptamine) is a psychedelic alkaloid of the tryptamine family. ... Jump to: navigation, search The word entheogen is a modern term derived from two Ancient Greek words, ἔνθεος (entheos) and γενέσθαι (genesthai). ... Jump to: navigation, search Good Friday is a holy day celebrated by Christians on the Friday before Easter or Pascha. ... Jump to: navigation, search Boston University is a non-sectarian private university located in Boston, Massachusetts. ... Alternative meanings: Boston (disambiguation) The 18th-century Old State House in Boston is surrounded by tall buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries. ... Double-blind describes an especially stringent way of conducting an experiment, usually on living, conscious, human subjects. ... Jump to: navigation, search Psilocybin (4-phosphoryloxy-N, N-dimethyltryptamine) is a psychedelic alkaloid of the tryptamine family. ... From Latin ex- + -periri (akin to periculum attempt). ... Niacin, also known as nicotinic acid or vitamin B3, is a water-soluble vitamin whose derivatives such as NADH play essential roles in energy metabolism in the living cell. ... A placebo, from the Latin for I will please, is a medical treatment (operation, therapy, chemical solution, pill, etc. ...

However, the feeling of face flushing (turning red, feeling hot and tingly) produced by niacin subsided over the first hour or so. Meanwhile, the effects of the psilocybin intensified over the first few hours. Almost all of the members of the experimental group reported experiencing profound religious experiences, providing empirical support for the notion that psychedelic drugs can facilitate religious experiences. The word psychedelic is a neologism coined from the Greek words for mind, ψυχη (psyche), and manifest, δηλειν (delein). ...

External Links

• A brief video describing the immediate and longterm effects of the Marsh Chapel Experiment on Reverend Randall Laakko
• A newspaper article describing the experiment in more detail, with a focus on the experiment's immediate and longterm effects on Reverend Mike Young