Colorado’s “first psychedelic church” for magic mushrooms opens in Colorado Springs

COLORADO SPRINGS —The walls of Benji Dezaval’s basement are painted a deep forest green. Vines trickle below a white lotus lantern in the center of the room and a pot of succulents hangs in the corner. The lights are dimmed, giving the room a gentle green glow. 

About a dozen people face each other, some sitting in chairs and others cross-legged on the floor, as Dezaval guides them in a conversation about community and pride. 

At a quick glance, it looks a lot like a group therapy session. 

But as the clock nears 6 p.m., the group gathers around a bar in the next room to accept a “communal gift” — 2 grams of dried psilocybin mushrooms, two weeks’ worth of microdoses or a light dose of dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, which Dezaval extracts from root bark. 

“Everything is provided for free as an act of wellness,” lead guide Dezaval said before offering the psychedelics he cultivated inside his northeastern Colorado Springs home to the group of faces, some familiar to him, some new. 

What started with a psychedelic trip in January — when he felt like he was transported to a dense forest in Mexico where an ancestor told him to help others heal with mushrooms — has become a full-time job for Dezaval. He now runs about a dozen gatherings a month, mostly in his home, through what he has dubbed “Colorado’s first psychedelic church.”

During “primary gatherings” at the church, Dezaval guides people into discussion on topics from love to social justice. He also hosts a range of social events, from movie nights to painting while microdosing. Mushrooms along with other psychedelics are offered to anyone 21 years or older. 

He is in the process of certifying the organization as a religious nonprofit and promotes it on his website, through Meetup, Reddit and Discord, and word of mouth. 

The church is just one example of a tidal wave of new ideas about how to use psychedelics after Colorado voters approved Proposition 122 in 2022, which decriminalized the use of psilocybin — the psychedelic fungi commonly known as “magic mushrooms” that have long been used by Indigenous people as a natural medicine.  

Dezaval is not charging for the psychedelics and is not operating his church as a healing center. Under the state’s natural medicine laws, adults 21 years and older are legally allowed to share psychedelics in the context of counseling, spiritual guidance and “community-based use.”

A spokesperson for the state’s Natural Medicine Division declined to comment specifically on the church.

“I use these tools with respect and reverence,” said Dezaval, who worked as a mental health worker for 10 years. “The universe has provided these for us to find our wellness.” 

As someone who has fought depression and suicidal thoughts, Dezaval said he formed the church to make psychedelics more accessible, knowing firsthand their power to impact mental health, and foster community.

Though he speaks about the power of psychedelics in spiritual terms, Dezaval remains sharply critical of some traditional churches. 

“To sit here and to look at a society that has paved the way for a lot of religious organizations to manipulate the system to find their version of benefit, not society’s version, their version,” said Dezaval, who goes by Teopixqui Dez to those in his community. (Teopixqui translates to “guard of God” in Aztec.) 

“What if we took that same power and did something actually meaningful with it? Those same avenues that are used to spread hate, those same avenues that are used to to restrict people, we can use to empower people,” he said. 

Since January, he has transformed his basement to prioritize comfort for those who choose to trip there. There’s a daybed with pillows to lie down on. At the bar, there are popcorn, snow-cone and cotton-candy machines. 

Before passing out psychedelics, Dezaval confirms the person is at least 21 years old and then hands them a business card that reads “Enjoy shrooms responsibly” with a QR code that brings people to a Google document that lists safety information and a dosing guide.

Those who attend the church are welcome to take the psychedelics at Dezaval’s home or in their spare time.