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Revelation and Return: Religious Professionals Share Their Stories From the Hopkins Trial (Session 2))

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Tuesday, January 27, 2026
9:00 AM PT | 12:00 PM ET

The NYU–Johns Hopkins Religious Professionals Study explored the effects of psilocybin on clergy from diverse faith backgrounds, including rabbis, ministers, and imams. Participants reported profound spiritual experiences, with many saying the sessions deepened their sense of vocation and connection to the divine. It has become a landmark in understanding how psychedelics might intersect with spiritual leadership and religious life. Since the study’s results were released just a few months ago, it has received significant coverage in the media. After Michael Pollan’s New Yorker piece, and Jay Michaelson’s beautiful response, there are still more stories to tell. 

On Tuesday, January 27th 16th join us on Zoom for Revelation and Return: Religious Professionals Share Their Stories From the Hopkins Trial. In our second installment, you’ll hear from Jeff Vidt. a crtified Spiritual Care Specialist and registered Psychotherapist, Rabbi Julie Hilton Danan, Ph.D., the religious leader of Seaside Jewish Community, Rehoboth Beach, and Pastor Ruben Nuño, Director of the Ecumenical Outreach Partnership at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. Moderated by Hunt Priest, founder and CEO of Ligare: A Christian Psychedelic Society, this event offers a rare window into how psilocybin and the groundbreaking study from John’s Hopkins and NYU impacted the spiritual lives and trajectories of these leaders.

This session will be recorded and available on our Youtube Channel + Podcast.

This event is a collaboration between Shefa: Jewish Psychedelic Support, Ligare: A Christian Psychedelic Society, and Ruhani, an organization focused on the intersections of Islam, Muslim cultures, and psychedelics.


About the Speakers

Jeff Vidt is a Certified Spiritual Care Specialist and Registered Psychotherapist, and has spent his entire professional career promoting and providing spiritual care.  He has worked in a diverse range of health care contexts, including the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, Unity Health Toronto, and various hospices and long-term care centres.  

He is passionately dedicated to education and helping others learn the ways spirituality impacts health, and has developed expertise in providing staff support in trauma. Since his participation in the study, Jeff has co-founded the Sacred Medicine and Psychedelic Therapies Circle, a community dedicated to the advocacy of spiritual care in psychedelic therapy spaces.

He lives in Ottawa with his wife and two sons.

Rabbi Julie Hilton Danan, Ph.D., is religious leader of Seaside Jewish Community, Rehoboth Beach. She has rabbinic ordination from the ALEPH Rabbinic Program (Jewish Renewal), and also holds a Ph.D. in Hebrew Studies/Rabbinic Literature from the University of Texas at Austin. Rabbi Julie has taught at universities and seminaries, and led congregations in Texas, California, New York, and now Delaware. She is an avid nature photographer and incorporates nature experiences and photography into her rabbinate. Rabbi Julie is the mother of five grown people and grandmother of six. She participated in the Religious Professionals Study at Johns Hopkins in 2016.

Our moderator, Hunt Priest is the founder and CEO of Ligare: A Christian Psychedelic Society. In early 2016, he was a participant in a psilocybin study involving religious professionals.

His encounters with psilocybin opened him to the healing and consciousness-raising power of sacred plants and fungi, and to their connection with his own Christian practice. These epiphanies permanently altered the trajectory of his work.

Through Ligare, he seeks to ensure that the healing potential of these sacred plants is accessible to all who serve as healers of bodies, minds, and souls. A significant part of his work—and Ligare’s—focuses on active collaboration to bridge the knowledge gap between psychedelic research and religious and spiritual communities. Because these substances are powerful, safety remains of the utmost concern.

https://www.ligare.org/

Tuesday, January 27, 2026
9:00 AM PT | 12:00 PM ET

The NYU–Johns Hopkins Religious Professionals Study explored the effects of psilocybin on clergy from diverse faith backgrounds, including rabbis, ministers, and imams. Participants reported profound spiritual experiences, with many saying the sessions deepened their sense of vocation and connection to the divine. It has become a landmark in understanding how psychedelics might intersect with spiritual leadership and religious life. Since the study’s results were released just a few months ago, it has received significant coverage in the media. After Michael Pollan’s New Yorker piece, and Jay Michaelson’s beautiful response, there are still more stories to tell. 

On Tuesday, January 27th 16th join us on Zoom for Revelation and Return: Religious Professionals Share Their Stories From the Hopkins Trial. In our second installment, you’ll hear from Jeff Vidt. a crtified Spiritual Care Specialist and registered Psychotherapist, Rabbi Julie Hilton Danan, Ph.D., the religious leader of Seaside Jewish Community, Rehoboth Beach, and Pastor Ruben Nuño, Director of the Ecumenical Outreach Partnership at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. Moderated by Hunt Priest, founder and CEO of Ligare: A Christian Psychedelic Society, this event offers a rare window into how psilocybin and the groundbreaking study from John’s Hopkins and NYU impacted the spiritual lives and trajectories of these leaders.

This session will be recorded and available on our Youtube Channel + Podcast.

This event is a collaboration between Shefa: Jewish Psychedelic Support, Ligare: A Christian Psychedelic Society, and Ruhani, an organization focused on the intersections of Islam, Muslim cultures, and psychedelics.


About the Speakers

Jeff Vidt is a Certified Spiritual Care Specialist and Registered Psychotherapist, and has spent his entire professional career promoting and providing spiritual care.  He has worked in a diverse range of health care contexts, including the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, Unity Health Toronto, and various hospices and long-term care centres.  

He is passionately dedicated to education and helping others learn the ways spirituality impacts health, and has developed expertise in providing staff support in trauma. Since his participation in the study, Jeff has co-founded the Sacred Medicine and Psychedelic Therapies Circle, a community dedicated to the advocacy of spiritual care in psychedelic therapy spaces.

He lives in Ottawa with his wife and two sons.

Rabbi Julie Hilton Danan, Ph.D., is religious leader of Seaside Jewish Community, Rehoboth Beach. She has rabbinic ordination from the ALEPH Rabbinic Program (Jewish Renewal), and also holds a Ph.D. in Hebrew Studies/Rabbinic Literature from the University of Texas at Austin. Rabbi Julie has taught at universities and seminaries, and led congregations in Texas, California, New York, and now Delaware. She is an avid nature photographer and incorporates nature experiences and photography into her rabbinate. Rabbi Julie is the mother of five grown people and grandmother of six. She participated in the Religious Professionals Study at Johns Hopkins in 2016.

Our moderator, Hunt Priest is the founder and CEO of Ligare: A Christian Psychedelic Society. In early 2016, he was a participant in a psilocybin study involving religious professionals.

His encounters with psilocybin opened him to the healing and consciousness-raising power of sacred plants and fungi, and to their connection with his own Christian practice. These epiphanies permanently altered the trajectory of his work.

Through Ligare, he seeks to ensure that the healing potential of these sacred plants is accessible to all who serve as healers of bodies, minds, and souls. A significant part of his work—and Ligare’s—focuses on active collaboration to bridge the knowledge gap between psychedelic research and religious and spiritual communities. Because these substances are powerful, safety remains of the utmost concern.

https://www.ligare.org/