April 24, 2025

Out of the Psychedelic Hinterlands

Before she became a Christian, Ashley Lande, a writer and artist based in Kansas, bought into the myth that psychedelic drugs would help her soar above the mundanities of life and grasp the mysteries of the universe.

But this confidence eroded as it rubbed up against hard realities that couldn’t be shunted aside by New Age claptrap. First came the shock of giving birth and becoming a mother. Then, more dramatically, came the shock of watching a friend, another young mother, lose her little girl to leukemia.

Lande recounts her journey to faith in a recent memoir, The Thing That Would Make Everything Okay Forever: Transcendence, Psychedelics, and Jesus Christ. In a CT testimony piece, published in the January/February issue, she describes her reaction upon hearing the hymn "It Is Well with My Soul," which the grieving friend, a Christian, had recommended.

"Suddenly," writes Lande, "all the trifling New Age conceptions of what ailed humanity were insufficient to account for the sordid mess of history. There was something very wrong with me, with us. The tragic death of a child woke me up to the fact that the world was broken, and so was I. All my journeys into the psychedelic hinterlands, all my attempts to clear my mind through meditation, all my grueling yoga sessions for the sake of some elusive ‘enlightenment’ were worse than worthless. I couldn’t save myself. But Jesus could.

"Jesus on the cross. Jesus resurrected. God who became flesh to save us. There could be no other savior, no other path to transcendence, I knew. It was humbling and wondrous to realize that Jesus Christ would not be co-opted into my pantheon of gods. He made a claim upon my whole life that demanded a response."

Two Decades of Justin Brierley

Twenty years ago, the UK-based apologist Justin Brierley launched his radio show Unbelievable?. The program, which ran for nearly two decades, welcomed prominent atheists, like Philip Pullman and Richard Dawkins, facilitating candid conversations about faith and its role in society. With his winsome and engaging demeanor, Brierley helped show Christians they have nothing to fear from considering arguments against Christianity. (Today, he hosts multiple podcasts that continue in the same vein.)

Earlier this week, Brierley released Why I’m Still a Christian: After Two Decades of Conversations with Skeptics and Atheists—the Reason I Believe, an updated version of a previous book that took the name of his radio show. In the March-April issue of CT, religion reporter Madeleine Davies gives a detailed portrait of his work defending the faith and befriending its opponents.

"Brierley," she writes, "took his first job at Premier Christian Radio 22 years ago. In that time, he has grown a large and largely online audience with an appetite for in-depth, unashamedly intellectual debate about Christianity’s claims to truth.

"In doing so, he has forged a career as a prominent Christian apologist. It’s a role that he has arrived at by an unusual route—as mediator rather than preacher. His tool is the well-timed question offered in service of the listener rather than the monologue delivered to the camera.

"His story also tells us something about the evolution of apologetics in 21st-century Britain, where the internet, rather than the institutional church, has played host to debates about the big questions of life, the universe, and everything."

Matt Reynolds

Senior Editor, Books

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in the magazine

Even amid scandals, cultural shifts, and declining institutional trust, we at Christianity Today recognize the beauty of Christ’s church. In this issue, you’ll read of the various biblical metaphors for the church, and of the faithfulness of Japanese pastors. You’ll hear how one British podcaster is rethinking apologetics, and Collin Hansen’s hope for evangelical institutions two years after Tim Keller’s death. You’ll be reminded of the power of the Resurrection, and how the church is both more fragile and much stronger than we think from editor in chief Russell Moore. This Lent and Easter season, may you take great courage in Jesus’ words in Matthew 16:18—"I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it."

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Out of the Psychedelic Hinterlands

Two Decades of Justin Brierley

I Turned to New Age Psychedelics for Salvation. They Couldn’t Deliver.

Justin Brierley Goes from Unbelievable to Re-Enchanting

CT Partners are making a global impact through the One Kingdom Campaign