Oakland ‘Church’ Gives Out Mushrooms and Pot to Help People ‘Experience God’

Oakland ‘Church’ Gives Out Mushrooms and Pot to Help People ‘Experience God’

This is insipid and wrong. A person doesn’t have to abuse drugs to “experience God.” If you’re looking to “experience God,” you can try prayer, reading the Bible, or taking a walk outside and observing nature, or maybe try helping someone in need.

(Link): Oakland ‘church’ gives out mushrooms and pot to help people ‘experience god’

by John Sexton
August 17, 2022

This is one of those only in the Bay Area stories. An organization that calls itself the Zide Door Church of Entheogenic Plants opened its doors in 2019. The leader of the group says he gave weekly sermons until the pandemic made that impossible. But he continues to give out drugs to those who pay a monthly membership fee plus donations.

Church founder Dave Hodges said when the church opened, he conducted weekly sermons at the Oakland building but basically stopped during the pandemic.

During the sermons, he dressed in robes adorned with pictures of cannabis plants and talked about “the insights” he experienced when going into “these deep realms” after taking mushrooms.

Prior to COVID, Hodges would pass out joints to his members before giving his sermon. The church does not allow people to take mushrooms on-site due to safety issues and instead encourages people to take psychedelics in a place where they won’t have to drive for at least 8 hours.