What do mushrooms have to do with mortality?
Potentially, quite a lot.
On a recent episode of The Doyenne of Death Podcast, I spoke with Donna Gareis, founder and head minister of the Church of Our Earth, about psilocybin, psychedelics, grief, spirituality, and end-of-life care.
It was a fascinating conversation about a subject that sits at the intersection of science, spirituality, medicine, and one of humanity’s oldest questions:
What happens when we die—and can changing our state of consciousness change the way we feel about death?
An Entheogenic Approach to Spirituality
The Church of Our Earth is what Donna describes as an entheogenic church.
The word entheogen generally refers to a substance—often plant- or fungi-based—used in a spiritual or religious context to encourage experiences of transcendence, connection, or expanded consciousness.
For members of the Church of Our Earth, psilocybin mushrooms are considered a sacrament.
Donna describes the church as nature-based, with an emphasis on reverence for Mother Earth, connection with what she calls our “inner healer,” and the use of plant medicines as tools for spiritual exploration.
That work eventually led her somewhere she had not initially expected: end-of-life care.
Using Mushrooms in Ceremony at End of Life
Donna originally began working extensively with mushrooms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Later, a friend who had pancreatic cancer came to her with an unusual request.
He wanted to have a psychedelic experience with his adult sons.
Donna agreed to help create a ceremony for the family.
What followed, she said, was a deeply meaningful experience. Afterward, the man’s sons cared for him at home during the final months of his life.
One of them eventually told Donna that the experience made him feel almost like a death doula.
Donna’s reaction was essentially: Wait—what’s a death doula?
That question opened another door.
She began researching end-of-life work and the emerging research into psilocybin and existential distress among people facing serious illness.
Researchers have been investigating whether psychedelic-assisted therapy can help reduce anxiety, depression, and fear of death in people with life-threatening illnesses. Some participants in published studies have described their experiences as among the most personally meaningful or spiritually significant experiences of their lives.
For Donna, the connection made sense.
If mushrooms could help people explore questions of meaning, consciousness, connection, and identity during life, perhaps they could also help people facing the transition out of life.
Botanical-style artistic rendering of psilocybin mushrooms (AI-generated).
What Does a Psychedelic End-of-Life Ceremony Look Like?
One of the most interesting parts of our conversation was Donna’s description of family ceremonies.
Not everyone involved necessarily consumes a psychedelic.
Some family members may simply “hold space”—sitting nearby, singing, offering a comforting touch, getting water, preparing food, or simply being present.
The psychedelic may be part of the experience, but Donna emphasized that the larger event is really about family connection.
In that sense, it reminded me of many other end-of-life practices.
The ritual matters.
The setting matters.
And the people surrounding us matter enormously.
Before a psychedelic ceremony, Donna also encourages people to consider their unfinished business.
Who do you need to forgive?
Is there someone from whom you need to ask forgiveness?
Is there something left unsaid?
Are there conversations you have been avoiding?
Do you have something you still desperately need to tell someone? Even if it’s simply, “By the way, I was right and you were wrong”?
That last one made me smile.
But the underlying idea is serious.
Preparing for death often involves much more than filling out an advance directive or making funeral arrangements.
There is emotional housekeeping to do as well.
Preparation and Integration Matter
A psychedelic experience does not exist in isolation.
Donna emphasized three important elements: preparation, the experience itself, and integration afterward.
That resonated strongly with me because I have had my own experience with psychedelic-assisted therapy.
After eight deaths in my family within 24 months, I finally reached a point where I realized that even The Doyenne of Death could use some help with grief.
I began working with a grief counselor. During that period, I also learned about someone in New Mexico offering psychedelic-assisted therapy in a religiously protected setting.
My experience involved MDMA rather than mushrooms.
Preparation was an important part of the process. I developed intentions for the session, created music playlists, considered what I wanted to address, and brought meaningful items with me.
The experience itself was deeply spiritual, and transformative.
It helped lift me out of what I can only describe as the Valley of the Shadow of Death.
But the experience wasn’t just about what happened during those hours. The reflection and integration afterward mattered enormously.
Donna makes the same point about psilocybin mushrooms.
For someone who is healthy, integration may involve asking:
How can I take what I learned during this experience and apply it to my everyday life?
For someone approaching the end of life, that question may be different.
It may instead become:
What does my life mean?
What do I need to make peace with?
What am I ready to release?
Mushroom artwork courtesy of Pixabay.
Can Psychedelics Reduce the Fear of Death?
Fear of death is one of the most powerful human fears.
We know intellectually that our mortality rate remains stubbornly fixed at 100%.
Emotionally, however, knowing that and accepting it are two very different things.
Research into psychedelics and serious illness has drawn attention partly because some participants report dramatic shifts in how they think about death.
That doesn’t necessarily mean they suddenly know what happens after we die.
Instead, many describe feeling less afraid of the unknown.
Some report sensations of profound interconnectedness. Others describe spiritual encounters, feelings of unity, experiences involving deceased relatives, or a sense that consciousness extends beyond the boundaries of the individual self.
Those experiences are deeply subjective.
Science is still working to understand exactly what psychedelic experiences tell us about the brain, consciousness, spirituality, and perception.
But from an end-of-life perspective, another question may be just as important:
If an experience with mushrooms helps someone approach death with less terror and more peace, what might that mean for the way we care for dying people?
Mushrooms are Not Just a “Party Drug”
Donna believes one of the biggest misunderstandings about psychedelics is the assumption that they are simply recreational drugs used to get high.
The emerging medical and therapeutic conversation is very different.
Researchers are studying psychedelic-assisted therapies in connection with depression, anxiety, addiction, post-traumatic stress, serious illness, and other conditions.
Donna came to the world of mushrooms through that scientific doorway.
During the pandemic, she began researching whether substances affecting serotonin receptors might help someone in her family who struggled with alcohol use.
She began growing mushrooms and studying micro-dosing.
From there, physicians she knew began referring people with difficult-to-treat conditions to her.
But something unexpected happened.
People weren’t just describing changes in mood.
They were describing spiritual experiences.
Some spoke of deceased relatives.
Others described encounters with God, spirits, or something they felt was larger than themselves.
Donna began to see her work not only through a medical or biological lens, but through a spiritual one.
Eventually, that led to the creation of the Church of Our Earth.
Death Care Is Coming Home
Near the end of our conversation, Donna made an observation that particularly resonated with me.
Much of the modern death-positive movement represents a return home.
More people want to die at home rather than under fluorescent hospital lights.
Families are learning how to care for dying loved ones.
The help of death doulas is becoming part of the conversation.
People are rediscovering rituals surrounding dying, death, and grief that human beings practiced long before death became institutionalized.
Donna sees psychedelic plant medicines as another piece of that homecoming.
Whether or not psychedelics and mushrooms become a regular part of end-of-life care remains to be seen.
There are legal, medical, ethical, spiritual, and practical questions that still need thoughtful consideration.
But the larger conversation is already underway.
And perhaps that’s the most important part.
We need more ways—not fewer—to talk about fear, grief, unfinished business, meaning, spirituality, and mortality.
Because avoiding death has never prevented it.
Talking about it, however, can profoundly change the way we live.
Talking about sex won’t make you pregnant. Talking about funerals won’t make you dead.
So start a conversation today.
This article is based on my conversation with Donna Gareis, founder and head minister of the Church of Our Earth, on The Doyenne of Death Podcast. The discussion addresses psychedelics, spirituality, and end-of-life issues. Psychedelic substances may be illegal or restricted depending on jurisdiction and may carry medical and psychological risks. This article is educational and is not medical or legal advice.