Oakland’s psychedelic mushroom church makes a cautious return
Smoke twirls from the lips of a man with a long beard and metal-framed glasses, who is dressed like the Pope with a psychedelic twist: embroidered gold hemp leaves decorate his cloak, and mushrooms adorn his stole.
Dave Hodges is the pastor, preacher, and founder of Zide Door, a nondenominational and interfaith church in Oakland where religious practice centers on the use of natural hallucinogens known as entheogens—mainly, mushrooms containing the psychoactive chemical psilocybin. For Hodges, “Mushrooms are the origin of all religion.”
Hodges founded Zide Door in January 2019 and, until the pandemic forced him to scale back, presided over psyche-altering sacraments and hot-boxed sermons at the church, a nondescript building on 10th Avenue near E 12th Street, every Sunday at 4:20 p.m.
Despite two years of a global pandemic—and some unwelcome attention from local law enforcement agencies along the way—Hodges said interest in Zide Door has grown, and the church is now making a cautious return to hosting in-person gatherings, with plans to do more in the coming months.
