January 30, 2007

A Trip To See God

Here's an interesting story about a study connecting the active ingredient in psychotropic mushrooms and religious experiences. Pretty interesting, though Joanna reminded me of a case from law school involving Native Americans wanting to use peyote for religious purposes. I can't remember the specifics of the case or how the reasoning applied there would be affected by a study of this sort. Little help legal buddies?

1 comment:

sarah said...

i can't remember if it was a state or federal case. basically peyote is illegal to possess. members of a native american tribe were prosecuted for possessing peyote. thier defense was that it was necessary for them to partake in their religious ceremonies, therefore the ban on peyote infringed on their religious freedom. the case went all the way to the federal supreme court & the indian defendants won. this case is anomolous & every other group that has tried to use it has failed. the aspect of the religious ceremony that i think really sold the judges is that there are ceremonies devoted to peyote (without it the ceremonies would involve nothing else) & there was socio-anthopolical date showing that the ceremonies had been performed by this tribe for many centuries.