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Since entheogens are apparently highly efficacious means of inducing experiences with mystical-type characteristics, furthermore, and since such characteristics may serve as a basis for claims to spiritual authority, entheogenic spirituality has the apparent capacity to challenge the authority and power of religious institutions. Nevertheless, it can be understood in relation to discourse, practice, community, and experience as a form of institution-less religion. As a largely non-institutionalized form of religion, entheogenic spirituality does not conform to an understanding of religion as involving institutions. In addition, it discusses the issue of how entheogenic spirituality challenges our understanding of religion in an overall sense, and particularly from the perspective on the relationship between religion and power. There is also a small but growing literature on entheogenic spirituality by scholars of religion, however, and the overview article discusses how my research relates to this literature. The individual articles relate the specific findings they discuss to extant research, although most of this research has been performed by academics working in fields outside the Study of Religions. Experiences with mystical-type characteristics such as ego dissolution and unification with transcendent forces were important to many spiritual entheogen users, but not to everybody, and rarely to spiritual cannabis users. The most common characteristics for entheogenic experiences were connected to insight, positive feelings, and improved connections to other people and to nature. It is connected to entheogenic experience, but also to the integration of experience for purposes of personal growth.
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As these studies have understood the matter, entheogenic spirituality is a phenomenon involving the use of entheogenic drugs – LSD, psilocybin, DMT, MDMA, and cannabis – in informal settings for spiritual purposes. This dissertation presents and discusses a range of articles related to studies in entheogenic spirituality.