The Question
For centuries, human beings have looked inward and asked the same fundamental questions:
Who am I beneath everything I’ve been taught to be? Why do I sometimes feel separate from myself, other people, nature, and something greater? And what becomes possible when that sense of separation begins to dissolve?
Science approaches these questions by studying the brain, the body, our emotions, and consciousness. Spiritual traditions approach them through direct experience — things like ceremony, meditation, prayer, sacred medicines, and connection to the Divine.
At Divine Science Society, we believe these are not competing paths. They are two sides of the same coin.
The spiritual side helps us put words to what we feel and experience. Science helps us investigate what may be happening in the brain and body while we experience it. We believe both belong in the conversation.
“We did not come to choose between the laboratory and the altar. We came to prove they were never separate.”
So, What Are Psychedelics?
The word psychedelic comes from Greek roots commonly translated as “mind-manifesting” or “mind-revealing.” That’s a pretty good place to start.
Psychedelics can temporarily change the way we think, feel, see ourselves, and experience the world around us. Some come from nature, such as psilocybin, the active ingredient in certain mushrooms. Others, such as LSD and MDMA, are made in a laboratory.
Scientists are studying these substances to understand what they do in the brain and why some people report such powerful changes in perspective, emotion, meaning, and connection. DSS looks at them through a spiritual lens, too — within our tradition, certain psychedelics may be approached as sacraments.
What’s a sacrament?
Simply put, a sacrament is something used with sacred or spiritual purpose. For DSS, this distinction matters. The goal isn’t simply to consume a substance or have an unusual experience — a sacrament is approached with respect, purpose, preparation, and care.
We don’t believe the sacrament does all the work for you. It may open a door. You still have to decide what you do after walking through it.
One Experience. Two Languages.
Imagine that the nonstop chatter in your head suddenly gets quieter.
For a moment, you’re not consumed with what people think of you, what happened yesterday, what’s going to happen tomorrow, or whether you’re successful enough or good enough.
Instead, your normal way of seeing yourself and the world may loosen. You may see an old problem differently. You may feel unusually close to another person. You may experience nature differently. You may even feel connected to something much larger than yourself.
Science and spirituality can look at that same experience through two different lenses.
The Science
Your brain develops patterns. That's useful — we couldn't function without them. But some patterns can become very familiar. We can get stuck thinking about ourselves, our problems, our past, and our worries in the same ways over and over again.
Scientists have identified a group of connected brain areas called the Default Mode Network, or DMN. Think of it simply as one part of the brain's normal system for maintaining our ongoing story about ourselves.
Research suggests that classic psychedelics can temporarily change the usual activity and communication between brain networks. Scientists are also studying neuroplasticity — another complicated word for a simple idea: your brain can change. It can build new connections and learn new patterns.
So one way to think about psychedelic research is this: what happens when the brain becomes temporarily less locked into its usual way of seeing things? Could a different perspective become possible? Those are questions researchers are actively studying.
The Spiritual
Now take that same experience and look at it spiritually. What happens when the voice constantly saying “me, me, me” becomes quieter?
Some people describe feeling less separate — from other people, from nature, from life itself. Some describe love. Some describe unity. Some describe God, Source, the Universe, or simply the overwhelming feeling that “I am part of something bigger than myself.”
At DSS, we sometimes describe this as clearing away the noise that keeps us from experiencing our deeper nature. Some call it awakening. Some call it remembering. Some call it returning to Source.
Science cannot currently tell us that someone has literally connected with Source or raised a spiritual vibration. But science can study the experiences people report — changes in people's sense of self and others, and feelings of connection to themselves, other people, and the world. And that's where things get fascinating.
Raising Your Frequency
You’ll hear words like frequency, vibration, alignment, energy, and coherence at DSS and throughout many spiritual traditions and teachings. So what do we mean?
Think about two versions of yourself. One wakes up angry, afraid, resentful, worried, disconnected, and trapped in the same thoughts all day. The other feels present, grateful, loving, curious, connected, and aware of the people and world around them. Those feel like two completely different states of being.
At DSS, we might describe moving toward the second state as raising your frequency. We are using spiritual language to describe an inner shift — not claiming that a psychedelic literally turns up a scientifically measurable spiritual-frequency meter.
Teachers including Dr. Joe Dispenza frequently use ideas such as heart-brain coherence, meditation, changing habitual patterns, and moving beyond familiar emotional states in their personal-development teachings. Abraham-Hicks, communicated through Esther Hicks, uses another vocabulary: alignment, vibration, resistance, and bringing yourself into greater harmony with the state you want to experience.
These are spiritual and personal-development frameworks — not proof of psychedelic neuroscience. But notice the common question underneath them: can changing our inner state change the way we experience our lives? That’s a question worth exploring.
Ancient Curiosity, Modern Science
Psychedelics may sound like a new movement. Human beings exploring consciousness is anything but new.
Across cultures and throughout history, people have used sacred plants and fungi alongside practices such as prayer, meditation, fasting, chanting, breathwork, music, dance, and ceremony. Different cultures developed different traditions, beliefs, and reasons for these practices — we don’t want to lump them all together or pretend they all believed the same thing.
But they do remind us of something important: human beings have been exploring the inner world for a very long time. Before we had brain scanners, laboratories, or modern psychology, people were already asking who am I? What is consciousness? Why are we here? What connects us? Is there something greater than the individual self?
Today, scientists have tools that allow them to investigate parts of these experiences in ways earlier civilizations could not. DSS exists in that meeting place. Ancient curiosity. Modern science. Direct spiritual experience.
Why Does Connection Matter?
Look at modern life. We have phones connecting us to almost anyone on Earth. Endless entertainment. Endless information. More convenience. More ways to communicate. And yet many people still know the feeling of being disconnected — from themselves, from other people, from nature, from purpose, from something sacred.
That’s one reason the scientific research around connectedness interests us so much. Researchers have studied whether psychedelic experiences are associated with people’s feelings of connection to themselves, other people, and the world. Other research has examined psychedelic experiences and people’s reported relationship with nature.
The research is still developing. These studies don’t prove every spiritual interpretation people place on these experiences. But they give science something measurable to investigate around an experience spiritual traditions have talked about for a very long time: the feeling that we are not as separate as we think we are.
This Is Why DSS Exists
Divine Science Society is not a drugstore. We’re not here simply to give someone a substance and send them on their way.
We’re a spiritual organization asking a much bigger question:
What becomes possible when human beings explore consciousness with science, spirituality, responsibility, community, and reverence all at the same table?
And there are a few words you’ll hear us use often. Here’s what they actually mean.
01
Intention
“Why am I doing this?”
Before an experience, you think about what you're hoping to understand, explore, release, or see differently. It doesn't guarantee what will happen. It simply means you're entering with a purpose rather than approaching the experience casually.
02
Preparation
“Am I ready?”
Preparation means understanding what you're approaching, thinking carefully about your physical and emotional state, learning about risks and expectations, and entering the experience responsibly. In everyday language: know what you're walking into before you walk into it.
03
Sacred Practice
“How am I approaching this?”
At DSS, sacramental practice isn't about recreational consumption. Prayer, ceremony, reflection, reverence, environment, and community can all help create a meaningful spiritual container around an experience.
04
Community
“Who is walking beside me?”
Human beings don't have to figure everything out alone. Community gives us people with whom we can learn, question, reflect, and grow.
05
Integration
“What do I do with what I learned?”
This may be the easiest word to misunderstand. Integration simply means: what happens afterward? Maybe you realized you need to forgive someone. Maybe you saw a relationship differently. Maybe you recognized a pattern in yourself. That's an insight — integration is what happens when you ask, “Okay. How do I bring that realization into my actual life?” An extraordinary experience can last hours. What you do with it can shape years.
Our Purpose Is Bigger Than the Sacrament
- We believe humanity is capable of becoming more conscious, more connected, and more intentional.
- We believe spiritual exploration and scientific inquiry can coexist.
- We believe ancient wisdom deserves reverence rather than dismissal.
- We believe modern science deserves rigor rather than rejection.
- And we believe consciousness itself deserves exploration.
Awaken Minds. Heal Hearts. Elevate Humanity.
That’s bigger than any single sacrament. It’s about what happens when one person begins seeing themselves, other people, and the world differently. Then another person does. And another. That’s why we’re here.
Want to Go Deeper?
You don’t have to take our word for any of this. Explore the research. Explore the teachings. Ask questions. Stay curious. Come to your own conclusions.
There are many different ways to explore consciousness. Some begin in a laboratory. Some begin in meditation. Some begin with spiritual teachings. At DSS, we believe they can all contribute to a bigger conversation.
Explore Psychedelic Science
Scientists around the world are studying psychedelics and asking fascinating questions about the brain and human consciousness:
- How do psychedelics change the way different parts of the brain communicate?
- Why can our normal sense of “self” temporarily become quieter or less rigid?
- What is neuroplasticity, and how can the brain learn new patterns?
- Why do some people report feeling deeply connected to themselves, other people, nature, or something greater than themselves?
- What might these experiences teach us about consciousness itself?
Research institutions including Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research and Imperial College London’s Centre for Psychedelic Research are helping explore questions like these. The science is still developing — and that’s exactly why we believe curiosity matters.
Explore the Bridge Between Science & Spirituality
Dr. Joe Dispenza’s work explores the meeting place between the brain, meditation, our thoughts and emotions, personal transformation, and spiritual experience. His work discusses concepts including meditation, neuroplasticity, heart-brain coherence, changing habitual patterns, and expanded states of awareness.
Some of Dispenza’s broader interpretations extend beyond what mainstream science has established — we think that distinction is important. But the larger inquiry fits beautifully with something DSS believes deeply: science can study the mechanisms, spiritual practice can explore the experience. We don’t have to choose between the two.
Explore Law of Attraction & the Spiritual Perspective
Abraham-Hicks, communicated through Esther Hicks, approaches consciousness from a spiritual perspective centered around the Law of Attraction — the idea that our thoughts, beliefs, emotions, and inner state influence how we experience and engage with our lives, using concepts such as vibration, alignment, resistance, intention, manifestation, and connection to Source.
In simple terms, the teaching asks: what are you focusing on? What are you believing? What emotional state are you living from? And what changes when you become more intentional about all three? Law of Attraction is a spiritual philosophy, not an established law of physics or neuroscience — we believe it’s important to make that distinction rather than trying to turn a spiritual teaching into a scientific claim.
More Voices Exploring This Frontier
Psychedelic researchers may talk about brain networks and neuroplasticity. Joe Dispenza may talk about meditation, changing patterns, and creating a new state of being. Abraham-Hicks may talk about vibration, alignment, manifestation, and Source. DSS brings these conversations into the same room while respecting the differences between them — because underneath all of them is a question humanity has been asking for thousands of years: how much can our experience of life change when we change the way we experience ourselves?
Questions Worth Asking
When did disconnection become normal?
If our modern world gives us more ways to communicate than any civilization in history, why do so many people still feel disconnected — from themselves, from one another, and from nature? What might change if we became as intentional about cultivating connection as we are about productivity, consumption, and distraction?
What if ancient people knew something we're only beginning to measure?
For thousands of years, human beings have used sacred plants, ceremony, meditation, prayer, fasting, and other practices to explore consciousness. What if modern science is only beginning to develop the tools to study experiences humanity has been describing for centuries? Where might our understanding of consciousness lead if we stopped asking people to choose between the laboratory and the altar?
Who decides which medicines are acceptable?
Why are powerful pharmaceutical drugs prescribed and normalized every day, while psychedelics like psilocybin and LSD have been criminalized — even as researchers continue studying their therapeutic benefits? How much of that line was shaped by science, versus history, politics, and culture?
A Question Worth Sitting With
What if some of what humanity has called “spiritual awakening” and some of what science is now discovering about consciousness aren’t competing ideas — but different ways of exploring the same extraordinary human experience?
Maybe the next frontier isn’t somewhere outside of us.
Maybe it begins within.
DSS approaches sacramental practice as religious and spiritual practice, not medical or mental-health treatment. Nothing on this page constitutes medical advice. Psychedelic substances can carry significant psychological and physical risks and may be illegal depending on substance, jurisdiction, and context.
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