Karl Marx once said religion is the opiate of the masses. His metaphor may have a whiff of literal truth, even if it was intended as a hostile attack on religion from an atheistic perspective. It may be worth considering the possibility that religion does indeed work like a drug for some people, and that religious life does have a drugging effect in American lives.

Before tackling the particularities of religious drug life, it is important to recognize the fact that psychoactive drugs have been and continue to be an integral part of many religious communities. Whether we are talking about wine and Christians, cannabis and Rastafarianism, Hinduism and the mysterious soma, coffee and Sufi mysticism, or peyote and the Native American Church, to name only a few examples, the evidence for deeply rooted links between sacred rituals, personal spirituality, drug consumption, and the communal bonds they engender is glaring.

The integration of drug use into religious life is only one side of the coin though, and obvious to most. The other side of the coin, the way religious life itself has a drugging effect for believers, is less obvious and certainly more controversial. And while the immediate assumption might be that I am attacking religion as a delusion or something that isn’t real, à la Marx, that is not at all my position. Religious sensibilities and sentiments are some of the most real and powerful forces in human history and social life, and like drugs, they can lead to elation and euphoria, order and stability, and addiction and human destruction.

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Psychology Today
January 31, 2024