Sacred Drugs

How Psychoactive Substances Mix with Religious Life

Gary Laderman

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Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Routledge
25 September 2025

Religion & science; Sociology; Social, group or collective psychology

Sacred Drugs explores the numerous ways in which psychoactive substances, from alcohol to psilocybin, cannabis to pharmaceuticals, and coffee to tobacco, intersect with religious life. This cutting-edge volume acknowledges the ubiquity of drug use in American society and that, in fact, being drugged with an altered state of consciousness is a common feature of American life today, as it has been throughout human history and across global ancient cultures. Its focus is on the undeniable and pervasive evidence that drugs are often consumed for religious purposes.

Sacred Drugs touches on the presence of drugs in a number of religious traditions, including Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam. It also delves into the religious textures, sensibilities, and histories of psychoactive agents, sometimes intersecting with these traditions, sometimes with Indigenous cultures around the world, and sometimes not directly related to any particular religion, but instead related to more basic existential religious concerns: a mortal body that suffers, ages, and dies, but also yearns for transcendence, healing, and ecstasy; or the desire to uncover and live true to one's identity, as well as to find energizing communities that bind individuals together; or how to counter chaos, meaninglessness, and disorder. This controversial book will be the go-to volume for readers interested in the complex relationship between religious life and psychoactive substances.

By: Gary Laderman
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781032989631
ISBN 10: 1032989637
Pages: 122
Publication Date: 25 September 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Part I Introduction 1. Sacred? Drugs?: Disorientations 2. Why Alter Consciousness, Religiously? 3. The Impact of the Psychoactive Revolution in the West: A New Drugged World Order Part II 4. Everyday Drugs and Sacred Potentialities 5. Faith in Pharmaceuticals 6. Addiction and the Sacred 7. Psychedelic Awakenings Conclusion

Gary Laderman is Goodrich C. White Professor of American Religious History and Cultures, Emory University, USA.

Reviews for Sacred Drugs: How Psychoactive Substances Mix with Religious Life

'Finally, a lucid and deeply researched book that illuminates a public secret within the humanities. Taking drugs is innately religious. Going beyond the cheap truths of the “psychedelic renaissance” in the sciences, this book maps how the use of drugs in general - from alcohol to pharmaceuticals to acid - speaks to humanity’s most fundamental yearnings.' J. Christian Greer, Stanford University, USA