In San Francisco, anything goes, including churches that provide magic mushrooms. However, it appears that not even churches are immune from succumbing to the city’s harsh building regulations, and no amount of praying or mushrooms can provide relief.
Church of Ambrosia. From the get-go, it’s clear that the Church of Ambrosia isn’t your typical church. Its name, for instance, includes the word “ambrosia,” which some have said is a reference to a certain type of hallucinogenic mushroom. Besides magic mushrooms, or mushrooms that contain psilocybin, the church also provides cannabis to its members. It calls these substances, which are still illegal in the city, religious “sacraments.”
While the premise of a magic mushroom church may be hard to believe, it does incorporate some traditional religious elements. For instance, the church’s pastor, Dave Hodges, wears robes like those of a Catholic priest, though his include a rainbow of colors as well as images of mushrooms.
Dave Hodges, the founder of the Church of Ambrosia.
On its website, the church describes itself as a “nondenominational” and “interfaith” religious organization. Founded in 2019, it says it has 120,000 members between its Oakland and San Francisco location and claims to be the “world’s largest psychedelic church.”
Zide Door. That’s the name of the Church of Ambrosia’s San Francisco location, which it opened in April 2023. It will have a short-lived legacy, though. Earlier this month, Hodges announced that the Church of Ambrosia would be closing Zide Door by the end of the year because of problems with the San Francisco Planning Department.
According to Hodges, Zide Door has been targeted by the Planning Department, which he claims have targeted the church with requirements for structural upgrades. Many of these upgrades will require six figures to fix, the church said. They were purportedly not required when the church opened in 2023.
The church also cited what it called “disturbing” comments from Planning Department officials to the local media.
“It seemed to me like we were dealing with a bunch of people on mushrooms that were trying to convince us that they weren’t hosting bunches of people on mushrooms,” Daniel Sider, the department’s chief of staff, said in an interview with the San Francisco Examiner in August.
San Francisco’s magic mushroom churches. Zide Door isn’t the only so-called magic mushroom church in the city. Local media report that there are at least two others, including the Church of Cosmic Consciousness and The Living Church.
While consuming magic mushrooms is still illegal in California and on the federal level, these establishments lean on exemptions in the law, which allows groups to consume illegal substances for religious purposes. According to SFGate, at least three churches in the U.S. have won the right to use psychedelic substances for ceremonial purposes in court.
In San Francisco, the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution in support of psychedelic use in 2022 and asked law enforcement to deprioritize the investigation and arrest of magic mushroom users.
A shroud of controversy. Zide Door has weathered its fair share of controversy in recent months. A report from The San Francisco Examiner cited a former employee who called the church's employees "glorified drug dealers." The outlet also claimed to have obtained a recording of Hodges during a staff meeting this year, where the pastor claimed he expected to go to jail if "shit goes bad."
Multiple Zide Door employees also reportedly claimed the building where the church operated had experienced a ceiling collapse and a cockroach infestation. Hodge denied every "scurrilous insinuation" in the story in a response through his lawyers.
A possible future. In a statement on the Church of Ambrosia’s website, Hodges said they could reopen Zide Door in the future if tolerance toward the church improved.
But as for now, “the signs of the universe are saying, ‘Get out of SF as soon as possible,’” the pastor said.
Images | Church of Ambrosia | Xataka On
Related | Latest Images From Dark Energy Camera Show 'God’s Hand' Trying to Catch a Nearby Galaxy
View 0 comments