Sixty years ago on Good Friday, a famous experiment took place at Boston University's Marsh Chapel conducted by Harvard Divinity School student Walter Pahnke, where he tried to answer the question: Do psychedelic drugs occasioned mystical experiences? In 2022, conversations about the connections between psychedelics, science and medicine, and spirituality are again top of mind, from Harvard and the academy to research hospitals and beyond. In this episode, Harvard Divinity School student...

Vladimir Putin's invasion and war on Ukraine is a crisis. It's a crisis that is unfolding before our very eyes across social media and cable and online news, and it's more than just a political crisis, though that's likely what most of us are hearing about. Putin's war is crisis of humanity. It's a crisis of conscience … and it's a crisis with deep religious ties. I'm Jonathan Beasley, and in today's episode of the Harvard Religion Beat, I'm speaking with Sean Eriksen about the religious...

Did you know that Christmas was illegal in Massachusetts from 1659 to 1681, and anyone caught celebrating the holiday would be subject to a fine of 5 shillings? And who was responsible for canceling Christmas? Was it pagans, or liberal policymakers, or the anti-religious? Nope, it was one of the most pious groups of people at the time: the Puritans. "Puritans abided by what's sometimes been called the regulative principle of Biblicism, which is that not only do you need to do what the Bible...

Dune. The Matrix. Blade Runner. Star Wars. We know that fantasy and sci-fi use religion, but do they change actual religion in the process? Do they impact how we believe, what we believe, and even the nature of belief itself? Today we're speaking with HDS Professor Charles Stang, who teaches the binge-worthy course, “Aliens, Artificial Intelligence, and Apocalypse: Ancient Mythology and Contemporary Film." We investigate why fantasy and sci-fi use religious elements in storytelling and even...

Today, mindfulness mediation courses can be found everywhere from schools to prisons to sports teams. The trendy fitness apparel company Lululemon is now advertising mindful clothing for men. There’s also Mindful Meats, Mindful Mints, and Sherwin-Williams sells a paint color they call Mindful Gray. There’s even Mindful Mayo, which you can buy at your local Whole Foods for $5.99. So why has mindfulness meditation suddenly become so popular? Well, for starters, recent studies show benefits...

Many have placed blame for the rise in hate crimes at the foot of political leaders and specifically President Trump for emboldening anti-Semites and white supremacists—very fine people, he’s called them—but yet, there’s another, equally troubling side to the story—one that calls into question the validity of the FBI’s own hate crime statistics and gives us more questions than answers. Full transcript available on the Harvard Divinity School website: https://bit.ly/2IDS5Hw HDS social and...

Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election thanks in large part to overwhelming support from one particular group of folks: white evangelicals. But given what we know about evangelicals and their social positions centered on family values, and given what we know about Trump, a thrice-married casino mogul facing numerous allegations of adultery, sexual assault, and bigotry, where does this evangelical support for Trump come from? Full transcript available on the Harvard Divinity School...