Dr. Walter Houston Clark, 1902-1994

Psychedelic drugs are simply an auxiliary which, when used carefully within a religious structure, may assist in mediating an experience which, aside from the presence of the drug, cannot be distinguished psychologically from mysticism.

Dr. Clark was a psychologist with a religious background who took a special interest in psychedelic drugs and religious experience. He was educated at Williams College and Harvard University. During his lifetime, he was a professor of psychology and religion at Bowdoin College, Middlebury College, Hartford Seminary School of Religious Education, and Andover Newton Theological School. Dr. Clark believed that–properly administered–mind-altering drugs were a source of intense religious experiences. His own analysis was published in 1969 as Chemical Ecstasy: Psychedelic Drugs and Religion and also his later book, Religious Experience: Its Nature and Functioning in the Human Psyche (1973).