Walter pahnke biography

Walter Norman Pahnke (Jan 18, 1931 – July 10, 1971) was a.
Walter Norman Pahnke was a minister, physician, and psychiatrist most famous for the "Good Friday Experiment", also referred to as the Marsh Chapel Experiment or the "Miracle of Marsh Chapel".
Walter Norman Pahnke (1931-1971) was born on January 18, 1931, in Harvey, Illinois, to Ferol (Helfrich) and Walter Dorance Pahnke (1896-1985).

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Who was Walter Pahnke?

Walter N. Pahnke was a minister, physician, and psychiatrist who attended Harvard in the early 1960s. He earned an MD from Harvard Medical School, a BD from Harvard Divinity School, a PhD from Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and a Harvard psychiatric residency. He was a psychedelic researcher at Harvard University and best known for the "Good Friday Experiment". This is also referred to as the Marsh Chapel Experiment or the "Miracle of Marsh Chapel". On April 20, 1962 Pahnke conducted an experiment as part of his Ph.D. thesis in Religion and Society under his thesis advisors Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert. In this experiment, ten students from Andover Newton Theological School were given 30 mg psilocybin and ten an active placebo in a religious setting to see whether entheogens could help facilitate a genuine religious experience. Nine out of ten of the students reported religious or mystical experiences while only one of ten in the placebo group reported the same. Among those who participated in the study were Leary and Huston Smith, profes

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Pahnke, Walter

Dates

Existence: Jan 18, 1931 - July 10, 1971

Biographical Information

Walter Norman Pahnke (1931-1971) was born on January 18, 1931, in Harvey, Illinois, to Ferol (Helfrich) and Walter Dorance Pahnke (1896-1985). He earned his Artium Baccalaureus (magna cum laude) from Carleton College in 1952, his MD from Harvard Medical School in 1956, his BD (cum laude) from Harvard Divinity School in 1960, and his PhD from Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 1964. He designed and conducted the well-known “Good Friday Experiment” in April 1962 as part of his PhD research under advisors Timothy Leary ad Richard Alpert. This controlled experiment evaluated the potential of psilocybin to catalyze religious experiences. During his PhD work, he received a Sheldon Travelling Fellowship from Harvard, which allowed him to travel to Europe to train with Hanscarl Leuner at the University of Göttingen in Germany. In 1964, he undertook his psychiatric residency at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center in Boston, where he continued his resear

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Walter Pahnke

American physician and psychiatrist

Walter Norman Pahnke (Jan 18, 1931 – July 10, 1971) was a minister, physician, and psychiatrist most famous for the "Good Friday Experiment", also referred to as the Marsh Chapel Experiment or the "Miracle of Marsh Chapel".

Pahnke attended Harvard in the early 1960s. He earned an MD from Harvard Medical School, a BD (now M.Div.) from Harvard Divinity School, a Ph.D. from Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and a Harvard psychiatric residency. He was a psychedelic researcher at Harvard University.

In 1967, Pahnke joined the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center in Spring Grove, Maryland. He conducted psychedelic therapy sessions using lysergic acid diethylamide and dipropyltryptamine, with terminal cancer patients as well as people suffering from alcoholism and severe neurosis. There he worked with therapists Stanislav Grof, Bill Richards, and Richard Yensen, among others. Pahnke served as director of the project from 1967 until 1971, when he died in a scuba diving accident in Maine.

Good Friday Experiment

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