“The interconnectedness of all things…”

Thursday 28th November 2024

Simon Cross speaks to Annette Kaye from Psychedelic Christian charity Ligare.

Can you tell us a little about yourself?

I’m Annette Kaye, a southern hemisphere girl who finds herself in the far north-east of the UK, mother to two adult daughters, and tow teenage step daughters, all of whom, along with my partner, keep me challenged, and happy to be alive! In addition, I am a ceramic and mixed media artist, an Ignatian-trained spiritual director, supervisor, and trainer, a transpersonal psychotherapist, and a facilitator of eco-spirituality, as well as psychedelic, retreats. Faith-wise, I have travelled through many rooms of Christianity - conservative Evangelical, charismatic, liturgical, contemplative, and would now, with my interest in, and concern for, the natural world, call myself something of a Christian Animist.

So what is Ligare? And how did you come to get involved?

Ligare is a charity at the intersection of Christianity and psychedelics, set up three years ago by Rev Hunt Priest, an Episcopal priest. Hunt was a participant in a piece of research by a team at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, who (along with many other teams around the world) were looking at the benefits of psychedelics for conditions such as treatment resistant depression, various addictions, and end of life anxiety.

Their participants, many of whom were finding lasting, practical results from the plant medicines, were also describing their experiences as having spiritual qualities. So the research team decided to get in clergy of different faiths (Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist) to see if they validated this claim - which they did (this piece of research is expected to be published imminently). A few years after his initial experience, Hunt felt called to leave his parish ministry and set up Ligare, feeling that this was an important area for Christians and their churches to become aware of. Not for everyone to try psychedelics, but to at least become aware of them as a valid spiritual path that a growing number of people are choosing to explore, and to offer support to those Christians who did decide to explore them.

I came across Hunt in my deep (cerebral) dive into all things psychedelic during Covid, and just before I headed to the Netherlands for my first psychedelic experience. He mentioned spiritual direction as being at the heart of Ligare’s mission, and I saw my future career flash before me! So I contacted him, and now facilitate Ligare UK/Europe, a group that meets online once a month to share our faith and psychedelic experiences, as well as inviting occasional guest speakers. In August 2024 we took Ligare to Greenbelt where we were met with enormous curiosity, interest, and delight!

Why might Christian people want to engage with psychedelics?

Christians might choose to engage for any of the more psychological or physical reasons mentioned above - depression, addiction, etc - but also for the spiritual sense of encounter with God/the Divine these experiences can bring.

For myself, I feel I have at times been opened up to the Big Story of the Creator and Source of the cosmos, and to the great Love at the heart of that Source, as well as to the great suffering of the world. All this with far greater intensity than ever before. I have had encounters with Jesus, and Mary his mother, as well as an experience of a feminine Divine. I’ve been given glimpses into a more mystical understanding of the Christian story - one that I didn’t consciously have before, but which I was told afterwards tallied with a more Eastern Orthodox understanding.

It has invigorated my faith, and challenged me to live it more deeply in my mundane daily life. I know this is Hunt’s experience too, as well as many of the growing numbers of Christians stepping into these experiences.

The Christian tradition has so much in it that can support these experiences: having a daily prayer practice helps with both the preparation and integration of these experiences; the tradition of discernment is invaluable when trying to make some sense of them; and there’s a long history of Biblical characters, Christian saints, and others, having ecstatic experiences that, by the sounds of them, very much parallel the experiences people have on psychedelics, that we can learn from.

Indigenous people’s have used these medicines for millennia as part of their spiritual practice and ceremony. There’s even serious speculation that Biblical and early Christian communities would have known of these substances, and possibly included them in their practice (see Brian Muraresku’s book ‘The Immortality Key’).

What avenues do psychedelic experiences open up to us?

There are clearly psychological and spiritual paths that open up to us via psychedelics. Another one common to many people is a deepened connection with the natural world, and an understanding of the interconnectedness of all things - something our beleaguered planet is sorely in need of today. Like the fungal mycelium under the ground, connecting trees and plants to each other, the psychedelics show many of us both the beauty and the suffering endemic in the life of the planet, how deeply interdependent we are with it, how much it needs our loving care and stewardship (and not our mastery and domination). They show many people the hollowness of our acquisitive, extractivist culture.

It’s important to mention safety: the (mind)set, and setting of these experiences is of paramount importance - coming to them well prepared, ideally with some sort of spiritual practice already in place, a supportive community around you; and for the setting to be safe, well held, by qualified facilitators. The experiences are not always pleasant, but if held safely, are reported by the majority of people as being among the most important experiences of their lives.

What opportunities are there for people to engage with Ligare and other psychedelic experiences?

Ligare US (https://www.ligare.org/) has an ongoing programme of discussions and forums with people involved in the psychedelics and faith conversation. Sign up to their mailing list to be alerted to these. They will also share interesting research projects, books and articles on the subject.

At the heart of Ligare’s work is their offering of group spiritual direction, where small groups meet monthly with a spiritual director to talk about faith and psychedelics. Not all participants have had psychedelic experience yet, but may be working their way towards that. I facilitate one of those groups, and have been so moved to listen to people’s experiences, with them often saying this is the only context where they can speak of them within a Christian context. There is a rolling programme on offer, and interest can be registered through the website.

Our UK/Europe group meets on Zoom every 2nd Tuesday of the month at 6pm UK. If you would like to join us, you can contact me on annette.ligareuk@gmail.com to be added to the mailing list.

Retreats: Ligare, for legal reasons connected to their US charity status, are not allowed to organise psychedelic retreats, so a small group of us have started an independent organisation ( http://christic.co.uk/), where we offer legal retreats in the Netherlands within a broad (progressive!) Christian container, celebrating the Eucharist, and saying morning and evening prayer together as part of the retreat. We take safety very seriously and include substantial preparation and integration on either side of the retreat. Our next retreat is 17-21 February 2025, and anyone interested can contact me through the website.

Quick links:

Ligare https://www.ligare.org/

Ligare UK: annette.ligareuk@gmail.com

Christic retreats: http://christic.co.uk/

Eco-spirituality retreats: https://www.soulrewilding.co.u...

Resources:

Sacred Knowledge, by William Richards (of Johns Hopkins)

How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan (book and Netflix series)

Fantastic Fungi, movie