In 2017, Rabbi Zac Kamenetz participated in a joint study between Johns Hopkins’ and NYU study where 24 religious professionals from diverse traditions and backgrounds. Each clergy member was given up to two major doses of psilocybin in a supported research setting with the hopes of understanding how the “mystical experiences” this compound can occasion could impact these leaders’ perception of their vocation, theology, and self. One of four “psychedelically naive” rabbis in the study, Rabbi Zac was new to the experience of psychedelic journeying, but had several spontaneous moments of expanded consciousness throughout his life which had grounded his spiritual path. His psilocybin experiences at Hopkins were “beautiful, terrible, amazing, inspiring, and troubling,” but his journey truly began when his participation in the study ended and the search for integration began.
As a seeker and scholar of Jewish wisdom and practice, Rabbi Zac left Hopkins with two major insights from his direct experience. First, from what he experienced “on the couch”--moments of profound gratitude, trance-like states, direct and personal encounters with mystical Jewish concepts–Rabbi Zac understood that if this modality and the light it can offer became more widely available to more people, the current vessels of Jewish practice and community may struggle to contain in it. Secondly, while he was grateful for the care and attention of the Hopkins team and appreciated their protocols, he wondered–what would a more culturally-attuned and specific form of psychedelic care look like for Jews seeking to explore their identity as Jews? From the preparation, in the exploration, through the integration, how could psychedelics help heal and hold a Jewish soul on its own terms?
Zac began to speak about these questions, with the seed of an idea for future project, but when the COVID lockdown of 2020 abruptly ended his work as a Jewish professional in a suddenly-shuttered organization, he quickly began offering online spaces for Jews from across the world to share and integrate their psychedelic experiences, with groups and individuals, in sacred and safe setting. With incredible and unexpected response, Zac began gathering other educators and practitioners to delve into the abundance of Jewish textual and living traditions describing the methods of achieving and making meaning out of diverse states of expanded consciousness. The vessel was beginning to form and receive the flow, and Zac established Shefa as the world’s first organization dedicated to psychedelic support.
