(RNS) ‘Many of the patients,’ a researcher observed, ‘would say something like, ‘Now I’ve experienced the death of the body, so I’m not so afraid.’ They get through it. They come out the other side.’

(RNS) Twelve subjects will receive psilocybin in living-room-like psychedelic session rooms at NYU in Manhattan and at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.

(RNS) At age 65, Bob Gersztyn’s religious fervor has mellowed so much that he calls himself an “allegorical Christian.” But he has put together his love of pop music and photography to publish “Jesus Rocks the World — The Definitive History of Contemporary Christian Music.”

(RNS) For 50 years, hundreds of thousands of seekers have come to the Esalen Institute, the incubator of East-meets-West spirituality, looking for news ways to bring together body and soul. Now, the spiritual mecca is facing a bitter dispute over its future, and like the countless pilgrims who have come here, Esalen now faces its own midlife crisis. By Don Lattin.