The entheogenic origins of Mormonism: A working hypothesis

Abstract

Historical documents relating to early Mormonism suggest that Joseph Smith (1805–1844) employed entheogen-infused sacraments to fulfill his promise that every Mormon convert would experience visions of God and spiritual ecstasies. Early Mormon scriptures and Smith’s teachings contain descriptions consistent with using entheogenic material. Compiled descriptions of Joseph Smith’s earliest visions and early Mormon convert visions reveal the internal symptomology and outward bodily manifestations consistent with using an anticholinergic entheogen. Due to embarrassing symptomology associated with these manifestations, Smith sought for psychoactives with fewer associated outward manifestations. The visionary period of early Mormonism fueled by entheogens played a significant role in the spectacular rise of this American-born religion. The death of Joseph Smith marked the end of visionary Mormonism and the failure or refusal of his successor to utilize entheogens as a part of religious worship. The implications of an entheogenic origin of Mormonism may contribute to the broader discussion of the major world religions with evidence of entheogen use at their foundation and illustrate the value of entheogens in religious experience.

Full text

The entheogenic origins of Mormonism: A working hypothesis*
ROBERT BECKSTEAD
1
, BRYCE BLANKENAGEL
2
, CODY NOCONI
3
and MICHAEL WINKELMAN
4
**
1
Retired, Department of Emergency Medicine, Pocatello, ID, USA
2
Naked Mormonism Podcast, Seattle, WA, USA
3
Independent Researcher, Portland, OR, USA
4
Retired, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
(Received: March 19, 2019; accepted: June 8, 2019)
Historical documents relating to early Mormonism suggest that Joseph Smith (1805–1844) employed entheogen-
infused sacraments to fulfill his promise that every Mormon convert would experience visions of God and spiritual
ecstasies. Early Mormon scriptures and Smith’s teachings contain descriptions consistent with using entheogenic
material. Compiled descriptions of Joseph Smith’s earliest visions and early Mormon convert visions reveal the
internal symptomology and outward bodily manifestations consistent with using an anticholinergic entheogen. Due to
embarrassing symptomology associated with these manifestations, Smith sought for psychoactives with fewer
associated outward manifestations. The visionary period of early Mormonism fueled by entheogens played a
significant role in the spectacular rise of this American-born religion. The death of Joseph Smith marked the end of
visionary Mormonism and the failure or refusal of his successor to utilize entheogens as a part of religious worship.
The implications of an entheogenic origin of Mormonism may contribute to the broader discussion of the major world
religions with evidence of entheogen use at their foundation and illustrate the value of entheogens in religious
experience.
Keywords: Joseph Smith, Mormonism, entheogen, psychedelic, spirituality
INTRODUCTION
The number and quality of spiritual experiences reported by
participants in early Mormonism (Welch & Carlson, 2005)
far exceeded the daily background frequency reported in
today’s general population (Underwood, 2006,2011).
Multiple supernatural and naturalistic explanations have
been suggested to account for the sheer number of early
Mormon visions and ecstasies, including rational supernat-
uralism (Erying, 1989;Park, 2008;Widtsoe, 1915), out-of-
body experiences (Bushman, 2006;Fillerup, 1996), animal
magnetism or Mesmerism (Bunker & Bitton, 1975),
prophetic charisma (Foster, 2005), dissociation secondary
to childhood trauma (Morain, 1998), enthusiasm associated
with the Second Great Awakening (Staker, 2009, pp. 19–26;
Taves, 1999), apparent materialization of the sacred during
trance (Taves, 2014), pious fraud (Vogel, 2004, p. vii), and
automatic writing (Dunn, 2002). However, no single
explanation has to date successfully accounted for the
number and quality of visions in early Mormonism. Nor
can these modalities explain the “on-demand”visions that
were neither spontaneous nor the result of prolonged auste-
rities. To date, Joseph Smith’s and early Mormon converts’
visionary experience are neither easily defined nor under-
stood (Waterman, 1999).
Against this background, we present compelling evidence
suggesting that many early Mormon visionary experiences
were facilitated by entheogenic substances that resulted in
mood elevation and heightened spiritual awareness among
early Mormon converts. In this entheogenic working hypoth-
esis of early Mormonism, we consider the supernatural as
natural (Taves, 2014;Winkelman & Baker, 2015) and entheo-
gens as medical therapy (Rucker, Jelen, Flynn, Frowde, &
Young, 2016;Winkelman, 2001;Winkelman & Sessa, 2019).
Because the two largest factions of Mormonism have opened
their libraries to everyone (Spencer, 2009)and“primary
source materials are so abundant and available, far more
so than for more ancient religions”(Mason, 2015,p.22),
Mormonism may provide insight into the role entheogens
played in the early success of traditional religions (see
Richards, 2016;Winkelman, 2010,2013).
Visionary experience as veridical
Converts who reported angelic visitations, ecstasies, and
visions of God in 19th-century Mormonism regarded their
experiences as veridical and not as imaginary constructs of
the mind. The 19th-century publication, The Essential
Guide to Datura (“Essential,”n.d.), describes the subjective
visionary experience of datura intoxication as “widely
perceived to be real.”In reviewing firsthand reports of early
Mormon visionary experience, we find overlaps of these
*The authors have made minor spelling and grammatical
corrections to some quotations to clarify writing errors.
** Corresponding author: Michael Winkelman, PhD; Caixa Postal
62, Pirenopolis, Go. 72980-000, Brazil; Phone: +1 623 239 1662;
E-mail: michaeljwinkelman@gmail.com
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium for non-commercial purposes, provided the original author and
source are credited, a link to the CC License is provided, and changes –if any –are indicated.
© 2019 The Author(s)
ORIGINAL ARTICLE Journal of Psychedelic Studies 3(2), pp. 212–260 (2019)
DOI: 10.1556/2054.2019.020

with contemporary accounts of visions facilitated by
entheogenic substances, and with known symptomology
associated with entheogenic use.
Defenders and critics of Mormonism may misunderstand
this paper’s thesis as questioning the validity of Mormon-
ism’s founding visionary experiences. Nothing could be
further from the truth. All human experience and insight
emerge in the chemistry of the brain, including the achieve-
ments of mathematics, science, epistemology, and even
morality. To explore how brain chemistry was involved in
Joseph Smith’s religious experiences and those of other
early Mormon believers and whether entheogens facilitated
those experiences is not to question the spiritual validity and
power of those experiences but to illuminate how such
compelling experiences were accessed then and draw impli-
cations for how they may be accessed now. If the prepon-
derance of evidence leads to the conclusion that entheogens
facilitated many of Smith’s visionary experiences and those
of many early Mormon converts, then another oddity of the
rise of Mormonism is explainable, the dramatic decline in
reported visionary experience after Joseph Smith’s death.
Entheogens as authentic mystical experience
Clinical research with entheogens (psychedelics) indicates
that while they produce varying experiences, they also
produce mystical experiences indistinguishable from those
produced by non-drug means (i.e., prolonged meditation;
see Griffiths, Hurwitz, Davis, Johnson, & Jesse, 2019;
Griffiths, Richards, McCann, & Jesse, 2006;Richards,
2016). A double-blind study in the 1960s with students at
the Harvard Divinity School (Pahnke 1963,1966) found
those sessions facilitated by psilocybin-reported experiences
ranked, immediately and decades later, as among the most
profound and life-shaping spiritual experiences in their lives
(also see Doblin’s, 1991 follow-up study). Richards (2016)
reviewed this and other clinical research and examined their
implications for issues in religious studies. The profound
and undeniable implications of entheogens are their ability
to produce genuine mystical experiences that are phenome-
nologically indistinguishable from the mystical experiences
that result from devoted spiritual practices or which occur
spontaneously. The clinical research establishes that it is
pharmacology rather than personal expectation alone that
enables entheogens to produce the standard core mystical
features such as union with and intuitive knowledge of God,
a sense of transcendence of time and space, a connection
with sacredness, a sense of ineffability, and positive mood.
This direct encounter with primal religious and mystical
experiences provoked by entheogens has profound implica-
tions for religious studies in general (Smith, 2000,2001),
and as we will show here, for our understanding of the
sacred visionary experience of early Mormonism.
Context of Mormon entheogens
Two salient characteristics of the early Mormon religion,
founded by Joseph Smith (Figure 1) in 1830, were:
(a) converts who were “seekers”whose “greatest hunger
was for spiritual gifts like dreams, visions, tongues, mira-
cles, and spiritual raptures”(Bushman, 2005, p. 147);
and (b) converts who would sacrifice everything they
possessed, even their own lives, and those of their family,
to gather together, establish cities, and build temples to
create a New Jerusalem, or Zion in America. While new
religions were prevalent in the 19th-century America, the
zeal with which Mormons defended their religion speaks to
the charismatic power of the founding prophet, a charisma
which may have leveraged entheogens for chemically in-
duced spiritual awakening. We propose that the entheogenic
context of early Mormon involved sacraments, ordinances,
and endowments feeding these seekers’hunger for primary
religious experience.
Discovering their yearning could be satisfied in
Mormonism, seekers flocked to Joseph Smith (Figure 1),
swelling Church membership from a mere 6 in 1830 to
8,000 living in Nauvoo by 1844 rivaling Chicago in popu-
lation size (Hoyt, 1933, p. 50). Critical to the rise of convert
numbers that the Church experienced was that between
1830 and 1836, seeker converts participating in Mormon
rituals in which sacraments were ingested or anointing oils
applied, had the dreams, speaking in tongues, miracles, and
spiritual raptures they sought, with many enjoying visions of
God and Jesus Christ (Anderson, K. R., 1996,2012;
Petersen, 1975, pp. 80–81). The experiences surrounding
the dedication of the Kirtland temple in 1836 have been
called the Mormon Pentecost (Olmstead, 2000), and had a
similar impact on the rise of early Mormonism as the early
Christian Pentecost had on the rise of Christianity; both
Figure 1. Painting of Joseph Smith, ca. 1842. Community of
Christ. Public domain
Journal of Psychedelic Studies 3(2), pp. 212–260 (2019) |213
Early Mormon entheogens

sects faced the same charges of drug-related visions
(see Acts 2:1–31, “KJV”).
Sectarian observers were appalled by the strange
behaviors associated with visionary sacrament meetings
that Mormons had opened to the public. Of this period, the
Cleveland Harold & Gazette reported:
Large [Mormon] meetings, continued for successive
days, were held –earnest preachings and alarming
exhortations were given ::: swoons, trances, jerkings,
and visions were frequent (“The Mormons,”1839)
A non-Mormon medically trained observer, James J. Moss
who witnessed several meetings concluded that the strange
behaviors and visions were produced by drinking “medicated”
sacramental wine and contemplated stealing a bottle “to see if
it were drugged or not”(Moss, 1878). Importantly, Moss,
who was a believing Campbellite and had witnessed
Methodist enthusiasm during the same period, distinguished
between characteristic religious enthusiasm and sensational
early Mormon visionary experience. Although Joseph Smith
was not present at these meetings, he attended subsequent
meetings where the sacrament produced similar bodily man-
ifestations (Bushman, 2005, pp. 156–157). In response to the
multiple complaints generated by the strange behaviors of
Mormon enthusiasts, Smith closed sacrament meetings to
outside observers, restricted attendance to male members only,
added anointings with oil, and began construction of a temple
in Kirtland, Ohio. During the dedication period of the Kirtland
temple in early 1836, en mass visions were once again
reported by many of those who participated, with the same
accusations of drugged sacramental wine (see below).
The evidence for Joseph Smith’s use of entheogens
explained in detail in this paper is primarily based on six
straightforward phenomena reported or observed during the
life of Joseph Smith.
1. Entheogens were found in every area the Smith family
resided, and produce visions, and spiritual ecstasies.
2. Joseph Smith was mentored by individuals with
experience in esoteric fields of knowledge.
3. Visionary experience in early Mormonism was
frequently “on-demand”rather than spontaneous.
4. Joseph Smith devised a method to facilitate dramatic
religious experience among his followers (Welch &
Carlson, 2005).
5. There was an association between early Mormon
visionary experience and participation in Mormon
ordinances where bread and wine were served, and
oil anointings were received.
6. Visionary experiences of the magnitude experienced
during Joseph Smith’s life ceased at his death.
We find the best explanation for these phenomena is
Joseph Smith’s personal use of entheogens and his admin-
istration of entheogens to early Mormon converts.
Entheogens as the “means”
In contrast to traditional Christianity, Smith consistently
understood matter and the body to be sacred, not profane.
For Joseph Smith, the physical did not impede the spiritual
but was instead the route to the spiritual. This unique aspect
of Joseph Smith’s theology and prophetic practice finds
expression in his doctrine of “means.”In Smith’s theology,
divine action operates through the instrumentality of mate-
rial causes, including human action and natural law. The
Book of Mormon raises this idea to the status of a general
law of divine action, asserting: “The Lord God worketh
through means”(Smith, 1830, p. 236, emphasis added).
Joseph Smith’s doctrine that God operates by “means”
and that the physical is a gateway to the spiritual provides a
theological rationale for using entheogenic herbs and fungi.
In the view of some prominent Mormons, entheogens are
not prohibited by Joseph Smith’s dietary “word of wisdom”
(see below). Such entheogens would be physical means God
has provided for humankind to achieve spiritual ends.
Smith’s approach anticipated recent developments in the
study of religion, particularly the role physical process plays
in religious experience. In this, Smith seemed to anticipate
Edward O. Wilson, professor of biology at Harvard and one
of the world’s leading experts on biological diversity, who
concluded that “we have come to the crucial stage in the
history of biology when religion itself is subject to the
explanations of the natural science”(Fuller, 2008, p. 4).
Joseph Smith likely understood that entheogens were a
trigger for religious experience, a fact vindicated when
considering entheogens as simple molecules cannot create
the richness of early Mormon visions and ecstasies without
the human capacity for religious experience. Instead, the
religious experience is a product of the body through the
actions of endogenous and exogenous neurotransmitters on
human cognition. Mormons regularly modify their physical
chemistry to promote spiritual experience through the Mor-
mon practice of monthly prayer and fasting, but this is an
unreliable method of inducing a transcendent spiritual ex-
perience of the nature experienced at the foundation of
Mormonism.
In Smith’s(1835)“the Word of Wisdom,”he overtly
endorses the use of one mind-altering substance for spiritual
ends, wine in the sacrament of communion (D&C 89:5). The
revelation further teaches that “all wholesome herbs God
hath ordained for the constitution, nature, and use of man—
every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the
season thereof; all these to be used with prudence and
thanksgiving”(D&C 89:10-11). Adherence to the prohibi-
tion of addictive substances and the use herbs carries the
promise of “wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even
hidden treasures”and protection from the “destroying
angel”(D&C, 89:19-21). Herbs were a physical means to
profound religious experience, experiences that rarely occur
without using entheogens. As we discuss, evidence suggests
that Smith gained knowledge and skill in working with
herbs (D&C, 42:43; 59:17–18; 89:10–11; Haller, 2000;
Heinerman, 1975), including entheogens. Joseph Smith’s
grandson, Frederick M. Smith, came to the same conclusion
as discussed below.
Joseph Smith was also a restorationist and advocated a
unique form of Native American “restoration”or “revival.
From its title page onward, The Book of Mormon advocated
a“restoration”of Native temporal and spiritual power and
Smith sought alliances with Native Americans and traded
objects of spiritual significance with them. If Smith learned
214 |Journal of Psychedelic Studies 3(2), pp. 212–260 (2019)
Beckstead et al.

of entheogens that bore the imprimatur of Native Ameri-
can shamanism, he would have been likely to seek mentors
in their use, not only for himself but also for converts of
his Church. Besides facilitating religious visions and
spiritual ecstasies, entheogens have remarkable antide-
pressant properties, suggesting a motivation, possibly
unconscious, for their use by the Smith family and in
early Mormonism.
Wholesome herbs God hath ordained
That Joseph Smith did not consider entheogens a problem
is evident from his attitudes toward herbs. Joseph Smith
knew of herbs and their uses and claimed the requisite
knowledge and skill to devise and prescribe herbal
remedies for others (Heinerman, 1975). Joseph Smith’s
development into a village scryer or “seer”involved
following the path set forward in several esoteric traditions
of the area he grew up, and possibly from his interpretation
of biblical passages indicating the ingestion of some
material preceding the visions of Ezekiel and John as
discussed below.
In line with other health edicts of the 19th century, in
1835, Joseph Smith delivered a revelation called “The Word
of Wisdom”suggesting dietary practices and the proper and
improper use of alcohol, tobacco, and other substances.
However, Smith carved out an exception for plant and herb
medicine in the Word of Wisdom.
And again, verily I say unto you, all wholesome herbs
God hath ordained for the constitution, nature, and use
of man. Every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit
in the season thereof. All these to be used with prudence
and thanksgiving (Smith, 1835)
The first “anti-Mormon”book, Mormonism Unvailed [sic]
by Eber D. Howe (1834), attributed the exemption carved
out for “herb[s] in the season thereof ”to Frederick G.
Williams’influence on Joseph Smith (discussed below).
Howe referenced Williams’herbarium on either side of his
Kirtland home while disparaging his “communion with
spirits from other worlds.”Howe continues,
We are next told that every wholesome herb, God
ordained for the use of man!! and we should infer that
the writer or the recording angel had been inducted into
the modern use of herbs, by the celebrated Doctor. F. G.
Williams in Kirtland. F. G. Williams is a revised quack,
well known in this vicinity, by his herbarium on either
side of his house; but whether he claims protection by
right of letters, patent from the General Government, or
by communion with spirits from other worlds, we are not
authorized to determine. (pp. 229–230)
The Smith family exemption of entheogenic herbs as pro-
hibited substances in the Word of Wisdom seems genera-
tional considering that Joseph Jr.’s grandson Frederick M.
Smith, also a prophet to the Reorganized Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints, carved out a similar exemption
for peyote as discussed below. We begin by examining the
historical setting of entheogenic practices of Joseph Smith Jr.
and his ancestors, mentors, and colleagues. We then
summarize the evidence for the entheogens available to
Joseph Smith and his mentors, followed by descriptions of
early Mormon visions and ecstasies we correlate with a
clinical syndrome suggestive of intoxication with visionary
anticholinergic substances.
HISTORICAL SETTING: ANCESTORS,
MENTORS, AND COLLEAGUES
For Joseph Smith to fulfill his promise that every Mormon
convert would have visions of God and spiritual ecstasies,
he needed assistance from trusted associates who would
covertly procure, process, store, and administer entheogens.
Several early church leaders (including the Smiths,
Cowdery, and Whitmer families in particular) were deeply
invested in the study of occult practices, and herbal, plant,
pharmaceutical, folk medicine /craft, and the utilization of
“spirituous liquors”(Brooke, 1996;Quinn, 1998).
Salem witch trials
The Smith family involvement with the magic world view
and possibly entheogenic material went back several
generations. For instance, the Smiths were involved with
the witch trials in 17th century Salem, Massachusetts, that
may have been instigated by the psychedelic ergot fungi
(Claviceps purpurea). Samuel Smith, Joseph Smith’s great
grandfather, gave testimony in April 1692 that Mary Easty
threatened him after which he reported, “I received a little
blow on my shoulder, and the stone wall rattled very much”
(Smith, 1692). After the Salem trials, other generations of
his ancestors resided in areas noted for beliefs and practices
of folk magic and alchemy (Quinn, 1998, p. 31). European
occultism also shaped the cultural milieu in which the witch
trials occurred. Mormon historian B. H. Roberts noted,
“Indeed it is scarcely conceivable how one could live in
New England [in the 18th-19th centuries] and not have
shared such beliefs”(Quinn, 1998, p. 29).
The hypothesis of ergotism as the culprit in the Salem
witch trials of 1692 (Caporael, 1976) is based on the signs of
convulsive ergotism including seeing apparitions, feeling
pinpricks, pinches, burning sensations, and by symptoms of
urinary obstruction. However, those afflicted had none of
the constitutional symptoms or residual effects known to
occur with ergot poisoning (Woolf, 2000), making poison-
ing by ergot-infected rye bread less likely. The manifest
symptoms were attributed to potions made by Tituba, a
South American Arawak Indian or Caribbean enslaved
person (Albanese, 2005;Breslaw, 1996) owned by the
Reverend Samuel Parris (Dannaway, Piper, & Webster,
2006). Tituba was familiar with Hoodoo religion (Martin,
2006) and plant medicines from her African heritage and
could have prepared an anticholinergic such as datura
(Caporael, 1976). This could have produced the symptoms
ascribed to Parris’daughter, and her cousin, the first
“bewitched”inhabitant of Salem, whose behaviors, resem-
bled the anticholinergic toxidromal (Holstege & Borek,
2012) and dissociative features of Hallucinogen Persisting
Perception Disorder (Martin, 2006).
Journal of Psychedelic Studies 3(2), pp. 212–260 (2019) |215
Early Mormon entheogens

Joseph Smith Sr.
The founding prophet of Mormonism, Joseph Smith Jr., was
born on the December 23, 1805 into a Christian family
enmeshed in folk-magic and the occult (Quinn, 1998).
Joseph Smith’s father, along with his other sons Alvin and
Joseph Jr., engaged in the “more esoteric components of the
western New York religious-cultural situation”(Shipps,
1987). Joseph Smith’s earliest mentor was his father, who
we believe would have communicated his entheogenic and
magico-religious knowledge to his sons.
Ginseng extraction
Joseph Sr.’s knowledge of preparing plant extracts was
recorded in 1811 when he collected and crystallized the
2018 equivalent of $57,000 worth of ginseng root (Figure 2)
intended for sale in China (Smith, L. M., 1853, p. 49).
Administration of ginseng root extract compares well with
Modafinil, a widely prescribed pharmaceutical drug used to
treat “excessive daytime sleepiness associated with narco-
lepsy or shift-work”(Neale, Camfield, Reay, Stough, &
Scholey, 2013). Having crystallized and likely made use of
this psychoactive themselves, the Smith’s would have had
no difficulty collecting, processing, and storing more potent
psychoactive plants and fungi for their medicinal and
magico-religious practices.
Family magical practices
Quinn (1998) has argued that the Smiths, who lived in
Vermont, New Hampshire, Upstate New York, and North-
ern Ohio, engaged several magico-religious practitioners of
which Luman Walters (discussed below) played a signifi-
cant role as mentor to both Joseph and his father
(pp. 98–135). The Smith family, including Joseph Jr.,
possessed and employed several magic-related artifacts
including astrological charts, magical parchments, a cere-
monial dagger, an alchemical amulet, a silver Jupiter
talisman, and a cane that all “manifest direct indebtedness”
to occultists including Sibly, Scot, Agrippa, and Barrett
(Quinn, 1998, p. 118). Quinn characterizes these occult
books of “enormous significance”to the Smith family,
especially Joseph Jr. whose cane was inscribed with
symbols from The Magus conveying the message: “Jupiter-
reigns over-Joseph Smith”(Ibid). Shown in Figure 3is
the silver Jupiter talisman also bearing the markings of
Jupiter.
Joseph Smith Jr. possessed a Jupiter talisman, and a cane
with a carved “serpent,”a character in the Edenic allegory,
and one animal believed to be “governed by both Saturn and
Jupiter;”this, Quinn argues, shows that Smith relied on the
works of occultists Francis Barrett and Heinrich Cornelius
Agrippa (Quinn, 1998, pp. 90–91). Agrippa (1486–1535)
names henbane, mandrake, and black poppy as three herbs
“under the power of Jupiter”(Agrippa, 1801). According to
Barrett (1801, pp. 89–92), henbane and black poppy are
among the herbs used to invoke the “images of spirits”
through proper suffumigations involving hemlock, henbane,
black poppies, mandrake root, and other plants. Also,
Joseph Smith possessed an esoteric Amulet (Quinn, 1998,
p. 93) that seems to bear symbols belonging to both alchemy
and masonry and representing Psilocybe species mushroom,
which we discuss below.
The visions of Joseph Smith’s parents
In 1853, Joseph Smith’s mother, Lucy Mack Smith, related
several family dreams in her book, Biographical Sketches of
Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and his progenitors for many
Generations and from which we learn about Joseph Smith’s
life growing up in the magically and religiously charged
environments of sparsely populated New England and
Upstate New York.
Lucy’sfirst vision
The golden Amanita muscaria could be the mushroom that
best fits Lucy Smith’s remarkable first vision. Lucy’sdream
occurred c. 1802–1808, at least 3 years before her husband’s
twodreamsin1811(describedbelow)and12yearsbeforeher
son’sfirst vision. Joseph Sr. had just informed Lucy it was
best for her to “desist”attending the Methodist church because
his father and older brother were very displeased. Lucy related
that “after praying for some time ::: [she] fell asleep and had
the following dream”in which she saw trees that “were very
beautiful, they were well proportioned, and towered with
majestic beauty to a great height ::: I saw one of them was
surrounded with a bright belt, that shone like burnished gold,
but far more brilliantly”(Smith, J., 1853, pp. 54–55).
Figure 2. Ginseng found near the old Smith family farm, Sharon,
Vermont (photo by Robert Beckstead)
Figure 3. Joseph Smith’s silver Jupiter talisman, after Barrett’sThe
Magus (courtesy of Signature Books)
216 |Journal of Psychedelic Studies 3(2), pp. 212–260 (2019)
Beckstead et al.

A. muscaria occasionally forms “fairy rings”around the
host tree (Figure 4), and the color of a mature A. muscaria,
as shown in Figure 5,“takes on a metallic sheen ranging in
color from red-orange to golden or bronze”(Heinrich,
2002, p. 14), a feature enhanced by early morning or
evening light. Further, aging and drying converts ibotenic
acid to the more hallucinogenic and less toxic muscimol and
“once completely dry, the golden mushroom’s power is
complete”(Heinrich, 2002, p. 170). A golden A. muscaria
surrounding its host tree may have been one of Lucy’s
waking memories and incorporated into this dream.
Lucy’s dream ended with her mood lightened as she
concluded that her husband would share her feelings,
when “more advanced in life, would ::: rejoice therein;
and unto him would be added intelligence, happiness,
glory, and everlasting life”(Smith, L. M., 1853,p.56).
Lucy’s dream included a conscious memory of having
seen a “burnished gold”ring probably of A. muscaria.If
Lucy deliberately tried this entheogenic fungus, she may
have done so as treatment for her lifelong depression
(Groesbeck, 1988).
Joseph Smith Sr.’sfirst vision
Two dreams reported by Joseph Smith Sr. strongly suggest
experience with entheogens whose content contains not only
allisions to entheogens but also some familiarity with
esoteric allegory and symbolism.
Datura dream. In what his wife described as his “first
vision,”Joseph Sr. found himself entirely alone, although
accompanied by an “attendant spirit.”In the “desolate
field,”before him, Joseph Sr. saw only dead, fallen
timber, and heard only “deathlike silence.”Querying his
attendant spirit on the meaning of such desolation and
dreariness, Joseph Sr. was told that ahead he would
find, “a certain log a box, the contents of which, if you
eat thereof, will make you wise.”Shortly after “tasting”the
contents, Joseph Sr. reports being threatened by “all
manner of beasts ::: bellowing ::: most terrifically.”
In the panic, Joseph Sr. escaped on the “fly,”andwhenhe
returned to his natural senses, Joseph Sr. found
himself “trembling.”Despite the frightful experience,
Joseph Sr. reported being “perfectly happy”(Smith,
L. M., 1853, p. 57).
The following datura experience posted online is impres-
sive for its robust emotional impact, the overlay of visionary
material on everyday reality, and the generation of a differ-
ent reality.
You effectively keep your rational, sober mind along with
your ego while on Datura; it’s rather that your sober
mind is experiencing a completely different reality.
Imagine normal sobriety but as you start to dream while
awake. Rather than enlightenment through ego death,
the nightshades offer dimensional travel to other planes
of reality (deCypher, 2008)
The frightening aspect of Smith’s dream suggests a waking
experience with datura fruit and his memory of the biblical
warnings of death (“thou shalt surely die”) associated with
the “tree of knowledge of good and evil”(Genesis 2:17),
coupled with his awareness of reports of fatalities associated
with datura poisoning (e.g., Bigelow, 1817). Smith’s guide
echoes the serpent in Genesis 3:3, who advises that eating of
the fruit “will make you wise.”An element of Joseph Sr.’s
first dream reappears in his second dream, thorns. Signifi-
cantly, thorns are introduced into the world, according to
Figure 4. Ring surrounds a host tree (not shown) Shutterstock
Figure 5. Mature, Burnished Golden A. muscaria (photo by
Heinrich, 2002)
Journal of Psychedelic Studies 3(2), pp. 212–260 (2019) |217
Early Mormon entheogens

Genesis 3:3, because of the ingestion of the “forbidden fruit”
of the tree, perhaps symbolically referencing the thorny
mature datura seedpod. What then, was the knowledge that
Joseph Sr. received from his spirit guide and his dreams?
According to his wife, following his two dreams, Joseph Sr.
“seemed more confirmed than ever, in the opinion that there
was no order or class of religionists that knew any more
concerning the Kingdom of God, than those of the world, or
such as made no profession of religion whatever”(Smith,
L. M., 1853, p. 60).
A. muscaria dream. The same year as the first dream,
Joseph Sr. had a second entheogen-related dream, which
involved basking in ecstasy, the joy, and love associated
with the Edenic tree of life. In this dream, which he related
to his wife Lucy, a psychopomp leads Joseph Sr. to a tree
with, “beautiful branches spread themselves somewhat like
an umbrella, and it bore a kind of fruit, in shape much like
a chestnut bur, and as white as snow, or, if possible,
whiter.”As he watched, the chestnut “shells commenced
opening and shedding their particles, or the fruit which
they contained, which was of dazzling whiteness.”When
he partook of the fruit, he experienced something
“delicious beyond description”and, inviting his family to
eat, they “got down upon [their] knees, and scooped [the
fruit] up, eating it by double handfuls”(Smith, L. M.,
1853,p.85).
In this dream, Joseph Sr. incorporates the spiny, thorny
fruit of the chestnut, a feature of the first dream, which is
similar in appearance to the fruit of datura. Instead of datura,
however, the umbrella-shaped fruit scooped from the
ground in the second dream evokes images of dazzling
white spores dropping from the gills of an A. muscaria
against a bright background or on a black surface.
Joseph Sr.’s esoteric Christian A. muscaria dream
concludes with Joseph Sr. explaining to his wife, Lucy,
“I drew near and began to eat [the fruit] of it, and I found it
delicious beyond description. As I was eating, I said in my
heart, ‘I cannot eat this alone, I must bring my wife and
children, that they may partake with me.’I went and brought
my family, which consisted of a wife and seven children, and
we all commenced eating, and praising God for this bless-
ing. We were exceedingly happy, insomuch that our joy
could not easily be expressed”(Smith, L. M., 1853, p. 85).
Emma Smith
Emma Hale, Joseph’s wife, was gifted in using herbs. One
of Emma’s medicines was a healing salve that contained
“jimson weed”or Datura stramonium (Bailey, 1952) and
when the Sauk Indians visited Nauvoo in 1841, she
exchanged recipes for herbal medicines with the wife of
Chief Keokuk (Newell & Avery, 1994). In 1867, Emma
wrote to her son, Joseph Smith III: “I will tell you now how I
make the salve. Of sweet elder bark a good large handful
after it is scraped, and as much gymson [jimson] leaves and
buds if they are green and tender enough to be pounded up
fine”(Bidamon, 1867;Youngreen, 2001, pp. 97, 119).
Emma’s grandchildren also reported her use of psychoactive
medicinal beer, ginseng, and lobelia, or “Indian tobacco”
(Youngreen, 2001, pp. 73, 99). Ginseng has stimulant,
antidepressant, and aphrodisiac properties, while lobelia
(a hallucinogen and sedative) had entheogenic uses among
Native Americans (Alrashedy & Molina, 2016).
Native Americans
Smith always lived close to Native Americans and likely
was influenced by shamanic activities. For instance, the
Algonquin (Delaware, Fox, Ojibwa, Potawatomi, Sauk) in
the Northeast and Great Plains, the Iroquois (Cayuga,
Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca) in the northeast (Tooker &
Sturtevant, 1979, p. xviii) and the Cherokee in the southeast
(Hamel & Chiltoskey, 1975, p. 41) and their shamans
resided close enough to Joseph Smith that he would have
been captivated by their religious and medical practices.
In 1822 Seneca Indian Chief, Red Jacket, nephew of
Chief Handsome Lake, spoke only miles from where Joseph
Smith lived. Red Jacket might have sparked 17-year-old
Joseph Smith’s interest in Native American culture and
seeking a Native American shamanic mentoring (Taylor,
2010).
Joseph Smith demonstrated his interest in Native Ameri-
can life at age 18 when he regaled his family with stories of
ancient Indian life (Smith, L. M., 1853, p. 79), and later
partially built his prophetic career on a Native platform with
The Book of Mormon. Comparative religionist Åke V.
Ström (1969) has demonstrated many parallels of Joseph
Smith’s teachings and practices with those of Native reli-
gions of Northeastern North America, especially that of the
Algonquins. The parallels are extensive enough that Ström
posits that the boy Joseph may have been heavily influenced
by an Algonquin neighbor. Smith’s Native American influ-
ences may have included North American entheogens, such
as D. stramonium,A. muscaria, and Psilocybe species. The
Native Americans used entheogens in medical and spiritual
practices such as the Ojibway Midewiwin or Grand Medical
Society. The Ojibway (Anishinaabe people) in their legend
of Miskwedo described the use and effects of A. muscaria
(Navet, 1988).
We summarize here the version told by medicine woman
Keewaydinoquay Peschel (1979) where Miskwedo, the red-
topped mushrooms, the spiritual children of Grandmother
Cedar and Grandfather Birch. Two brothers came upon
Miskwedo “turning and revolving, buzzing and murmuring,
singing a strange song of happiness under a brilliantly
sunny sky.”The older brother tried to dissuade his younger
brother from eating the mushroom, but defies his brother
and merged with the mushroom, becoming a Miskwedo
himself. Distraught, the older brother ran home to ask the
medicine men what to do; and he was told to return, locate
the chief and the wisest Miskwedo, and stick the quill of an
eagle feather through each of their stipes to stop them
turning and singing songs of happiness, then to do the same
to his younger brother and carry him home. He followed the
elder’s instruction, and his younger brother turned back
into his previous form. However, after returning home, the
older brother arose in the morning “with his heart heavy
with sadness and foreboding,”while his younger brother
“arose smiling each day, his heart filled with happiness, his
lips singing merriment.”The older brother became suspi-
cious when, the younger brother urinated more frequently
and took longer than before. When the older brother
218 |Journal of Psychedelic Studies 3(2), pp. 212–260 (2019)
Beckstead et al.

investigated, he found his younger brother with “arms are
open wide, spread like the umbrella of a mushroom”with
beautiful robes “glowing red, and tufts of white”singing
with a “voice of happiness”to the “people following him.”
Now and forever, older brothers are unhappy in contrast to
the younger brothers who “drink the Elixir of the Great
Miskwedo”learning much of “the supernatural and other
knowledge”by drinking “the liquid Power of the Sun.”
Together, these stories transmit knowledge about A. mus-
caria, where to look for it, how to recognize it, the joys it can
bestow, and the displeasure of authorities if consumed. For
instance, these mushrooms are always associated with trees
such as cedar and birch and have red tops with white tufts.
The experience of ingesting these mushrooms includes tran-
sient ego disillusion, unity with the Divine, and mood
elevations. The stories also warn of authoritarian displeasure,
whom themselves refuse filling their hearts with happiness,
try to suppress its use. In The Book of Mormon,JosephSmith
relates a similar story about Lehi’s use of entheogens. Lehi
comes upon a tree ladened with fruit that filled his soul “with
exceeding great joy.”However, others, whose dress was
“exceeding fine,”mocked, and pointed their fingers at those
“partaking of the fruit.”The scoffing caused some who ate
from the tree to feel ashamed and fall “away into forbidden
paths”(Smith, J., 1830, p. 20).
Midewiwin shaman are believed to possess the power of
a long life, even “victory over death”through healing plants
and the rituals. Such power strongly suggests that among
other herbal remedies, the Midewiwin shaman utilized
entheogenic material.
Delaware (Tantaquidgeon, 1972,p.37)andMohegan
(Ibid, pp. 72, 128) peoples were familiar with datura. Native
Americans living in Virginia gave a psychoactive brew called
“wysoccan”to their young men during a rite of passage,
causing a “derangement for 20 days,”strongly suggesting it
contained D. stramonium (Schultes, 1975,9,142)orA.
muscaria (Geraty, 2015). Most North American Eastern
Woodland Indian groups reported: “datura as the base of
a narcotic drink used in manhood initiation rites”(Goodman,
1993). In 1705, Virginian Indians were reported to have been
using datura in their religious ceremonies (Safford, 1922)and
there was widespread use of datura in initiation ceremonies in
Native North America (Jacobs, 1996). Further, sometimes,
Eastern Native Americans would add “datura and other
powerful substances ::: to tobacco to prepare a particularly
potent smoke”(Fuller, 2008,p.81).
Growing up and into adulthood, Smith lived relatively
near to the Algonquin areas of the Potawatomi, Ojibwa, and
Delaware peoples whom all belonged to the Algonquin
family. We will explore Smith’s relationships with this
group of peoples when we discuss his transactions with
the Potawatomi in the early 1840s Nauvoo. However, it is
enough to note that Smith likely noted the secretive
Midewiwin medical society with its selective membership,
graded training of new shamans, and their use psychoactive
materials including datura and A. muscaria.
Esoteric Christianity
Joseph Smith was influenced at a young age by several
categories of esotericism, including esoteric Christianity,
spiritual alchemy, and speculative freemasonry (Owens,
1999). Significantly, some members of these esoteric
schools of thought had an interest in entheogen use and
encoded their knowledge in esoteric works of art.
During the 13th century, esoteric Christian artists painted
Biblical themes associated with entheogenic mushrooms
(Brown & Brown, 2016; also see Brown & Brown in this
issue). For instance, in Figure 6is an “Eden Panel”found in
Saint Michael’s Church, Germany (1240 CE) showing
Adam and Eve standing, and a serpent coiled on a tree in
front of a spotted A. muscaria mushroom cap. Also, in
Figure 7, the Edenic tree also takes on the form of an A.
muscaria in a ca. 1291 fresco found in Plaincourault Abbey,
Indre, France. Figure 8shows a painting by the Flemish
artist, Petrus Christus (c. 1410–1475) portraying the child
Christ laying supine on an A. muscaria bed looked over by
Figure 6. Eden Panel, St. Michael’s Church Germany, 1240.
Public domain
Figure 7. Temptation in the Garden of Eden, Plaincourault Chapel,
France, ca. 1299. Color enhanced. Public domain
Journal of Psychedelic Studies 3(2), pp. 212–260 (2019) |219
Early Mormon entheogens

Joseph, Mary, and winged angels. The relative abundance of
Christian A. muscaria syncretic art led Antonio Escohotado
(2012) to conclude, “it seems indisputable that there is a
connection between visionary mushrooms and Christianity”
(p. 73). There are reasons to think that given his esoteric
background, Joseph Smith or one of his mentors had access
to this art, decrypted it, and then encoded in Smith’s
teachings, revelations, and ordinances.
Where then did Joseph Smith first learn of alchemy and
esoteric Christianity? In his book, Magic Mushrooms in
Religion and Alchemy, Heinrich (2002, pp. 105–153)
discusses the relationship between esoteric Christianity and
using A. muscaria as a sacramental meal. According to
Heinrich, Jesus unmistakably identifies himself with an
entheogenic substance, an elixir of life and bread of heaven,
the A. muscaria mushroom shown in Figure 9. Heinrich
quotes Jesus telling a woman,
::: whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him
shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall
be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting
life. (p. 120)
The “living water,”according to Heinrich, is water-soluble
muscimol, the principle psychoactive in A. muscaria. Mus-
cimol is excreted unchanged in the urine, which the shaman
or others can consume. Supporting Heinrich’s argument of
entheogenic urine, we note Jesus’s saying in John 7:8,
He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of
his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
The phrase “out of [Jesus’] belly”may describe entheogenic-
laced urine. Due to physiological processes, urine after
ingesting A. muscaria is more potent than the tea initially
consumed. The entheogenic component of A. muscaria is
water-soluble, and when extracted with water, turns the water
the color of red wine. Further, the mushrooms upturned cap
(Figure 9) and becomes the cup holding the elixir of life, and
the mushroom itself becomes the life-giving bread. Heinrich
(2002, p. 122) quotes Jesus telling he disciples:
I am the living bread that has come down from heaven.
Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and the bread
that I shall give is my flesh ::: ifyoudonoteat[my]
flesh and drink [my] blood, you will not have life in you.
Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has
eternal life ::: for my flesh is real food and my blood is
real drink ::: As I, who am sent by the living Father,
myself draw life from the Father, so whoever eats me
will draw life from me. This is the bread come down
from heaven :: : anyone who eats this bread will live
forever. (p. 121)
Implied in Heinrich’s discussion of these passages is his
confidence that anyone using entheogens in a Christian
context will experience “many of the states described :::
in mystical Christianity”(p. 5).
Although most of Smith’s revelations and teachings
suggest the traditional Christian understandings of Jesus,
occasionally he betrayed a different view. For
instance, in 1844, Smith is reported to have said,
I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole
church together since the days of Adam ::: Neither
Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it :