I started a new sort of mental health agency forged in the image of a church. Why blend these two modes? In my opinion, psychotherapy offers better evidence-based approaches to promoting increased wellbeing and reduced suffering than religious institutions have ever offered. But a stable community of spiritual fellowship (a church) is uniquely apt to provide a profound mystical experience. Spiritual communities are better equipped to integrate such extraordinary “states” into enduring “traits” by providing an arena to express and develop such traits.
Deaths of despair (alcohol addiction, suicide, drug overdose) are on the rise in this nation. Not content to merely inoculate ourselves from such a fate, The LENS encourages its adherents to unfold the fullness of their capacities back into the universe which wrought them.
The LENS will continue to host symposiums wherein guest artists are spot-lighted, testimonials of awe-inspiring experiences are shared, and proven psychotherapeutic tools are practiced. The LENS is also hosting thoughtfully designed and carefully executed Entheogenic Retreats in accordance with the latest discoveries in psilocybin research. Participants safely and reliably experience what thousands of people have discovered is our natural and constitutionally protected birthright… a mystical experience among the most meaningful and healing available to mankind.
