Beyond Words
A profound 52-week spiritual devotional bridging the gap between sacred Christian tradition and the transformative insights of the psychedelic experience.
What if your most profound spiritual experiences—whether in prayer, in nature, in silence, or through psychedelics—were not detours from Christianity, but invitations deeper into it?
Beyond Words is a groundbreaking 52-week devotional for Christians, spiritual explorers, and anyone integrating mystical or psychedelic experiences within a life of faith. Following the Year A lectionary, this companion offers weekly Gospel reflections written through what contributors call “the mystical lens”—a way of seeing Christ that honors both ancient Christian wisdom and contemporary spiritual awakening.
Featuring insights from 27 spiritual leaders across 15 Christian traditions, including participants in the Johns Hopkins and NYU psilocybin studies for clergy, this devotional explores how direct encounters with the Divine—through sacred medicine, contemplation, nature, or revelation—can deepen rather than diminish Christian faith.
Each week includes the Gospel passage, a mystical interpretation, personal stories of awakening, reflection questions, spiritual practices, and journaling prompts to support grounded integration and real transformation.
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reviewsWhat readers and reviewers have said.
“Beyond Words is a groundbreaking devotional that fills a crucial gap by helping Christians integrate their psychedelic experiences within their faith tradition. As psychedelic therapy becomes mainstream, resources like this will be essential for the millions who encounter the Divine through these profound medicines."
Rick Doblin, PhD
Founder & President
Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)
"Every pastor knows congregants are having experiences they can't share in church. This devotional breaks that silence with wisdom, honesty, and deep faith. By bringing mystical experience into dialogue with Gospel readings, Beyond Words shows us how to hold both ancient tradition and emerging revelation. A gift for anyone ministering to seekers in our changing spiritual landscape."
Rev. Molly Phinney Baskette
United Church of Christ Pastor
Author of Real Good Church
"In my decades of guiding psychedelic experiences and studying mystical encounters, I've witnessed countless persons seeking to integrate powerful spiritual openings with their Christian faith. This devotional beautifully contributes to that process. These pioneering voices demonstrate that the perennial wisdom revealed in transcendental states of consciousness can enrich our understanding of the Gospels. For anyone seeking to understand how mystical experiences and Christian traditions can dance together in harmony, Beyond Words offers both theological grounding and practical guidance."
William A. Richards, Ph.D.
Author of Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics & Religious Experiences
“These teachings honor the ancient paths while walking the Jesus road with spiritual maturity and unflinching truth. For Native Christians who have always held these worlds together in their bones—and for settlers willing to purify, decolonize, and reclaim their most authentic spiritual inheritance—Beyond Words offers a clear, initiatory path forward. It is a work of healing, remembrance, and spiritual authority.”
“Karl Rahner famously said ‘the Christian of the future will be a mystic or will not exist.’ Psychedelic researchers like Walter Pahnke and William Richards have demonstrated what indigenous healers have known for millennia: that entheogenic plants can evoke meaningful and transformational mystical experiences. But it takes more than an experience to live a mystical life: for Christians, meaningful spirituality emerges from a life of prayer and spiritual practice. Which brings us to this wonderful book by Matt Zemon and an amazing array of psychedelically-informed Christian clergy and writers. On the surface, Beyond Words is an excellent, spiritually-oriented commentary on the Gospel Readings for Lectionary Year A. But because it invites us into meeting the wisdom of the Gospels in the light of sacred plants, it also offers a way to reclaim a truly contemplative and deeply mystical pathway into the wisdom of the Word. The end result is Beyond Words not only provides beautiful new insights into the Lectionary, but also makes the case for psychedelics as a gift to Christian spirituality — and an excellent resource for those of us who agree with Rahner and want to see Christians reclaim the depth, genius and beauty of the mystical element of our faith. All this to say, this is a wonderful resource that I know I will return to again and again.
Norma J. Burton, M.Div, MA
ounder, Journey to Completion & the International Alliance for Spirit at Work; Unity Church minister. Norma apprenticed with Huichol mara’akame shamans of Mexico; Candomblé–Espíritu healers of Brazil; Shugendō mountain ascetics of Japan; and Cherokee, Iroquois, Hopi, and Navajo medicine holders of North America.
Carl McColman
author of Read the Bible Like a Mystic and The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism
"For too long, the church has approached psychedelics with the same tepid centrism that kills every prophetic movement, either wholesale condemnation or breathless exoticism. This book does neither. Instead, Beyond Words offers what we desperately need: twenty-seven Christian voices who've stopped pretending that eating God on Sunday morning is somehow less radical than encountering the Divine through sacred medicines.
This isn't another attempt to baptize indigenous practices at the point of a publishing contract. It's Christians finally telling the truth about experiences many of us have been having in secret, experiences as central to our faith as Paul's Damascus road or Peter's transfiguration.
As I wrestled with whether to preach about these matters from my own pulpit, I kept returning to my ordinal vows: to minister impartially to the needs of all. This book embodies that holy obligation. It refuses to let our people suffer in silence, caught between their mystical encounters and their Sunday faith.
If the Philokalia can provide a roadmap for Orthodox mystics across centuries, then Beyond Words offers something equally vital: a weekly companion for those of us navigating the psychedelic renaissance while remaining rooted in the Gospel. It's medicine for a church that has forgotten how weird and wonderful our own traditions already are.”
Rev. Nathan Dannison
Senior Minister, Fountain Street Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan