Singularism, a religion that uses psychedelic drugs, is testing Utah's religious freedom law

Last year, Utah lawmakers passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which gives people more power to challenge the government if it interferes with their religious beliefs.

Religious freedom is, in many ways, the backbone of the major religion in Utah — the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — and the Republican-sponsored measure passed easily.

But that law is being put to the test in the courts by an unexpected group — a very small religion that’s been targeted by law enforcement for using psychedelic drugs as part of its practices. The religion is called Singularism.

In 2023, police carried out a warrant at its Provo headquarters, seizing its sacramental psilocybin and, later, hitting its founder with criminal charges. Singularism founder Bridger Jensen is suing, and citing this religious freedom law as his argument.

Kyle Dunphey is covering it all for Utah News Dispatch.

Full conversation

KYLE DUNPHEY: Singularism is a very small religious group located in Utah county, which is also home to Brigham Young University. And it's kind of like a hub of a lot of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint activity. So it's a very — It's located in this pretty conservative religious county in northern Utah.

The religion's spiritual center was opened in 2023 by Bridger Jensen, who was very public about, you know, his activity in the county and his new religion. He hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony. He invited local government officials to come tour the spiritual center and really made it known that this religion centered around what's called entheogenic practices, which is essentially the use of psychedelic drugs in kind of religious or spiritual practices.

The center would offer, you know, participants the psilocybin tea. Psilocybin is sort of the active psychedelic ingredient in a lot of like psychedelic mushrooms. So they were then supervised as they kind of experienced this psychedelic religious kind of experience in this private and controlled environment, according to the lawsuit. And his attorneys say that none of the drugs ever actually left the spiritual center. They only stayed right, right there on, on the property.

Utah News Dispatch

LAUREN GILGER: Are those drugs legal in Utah?

DUNPHEY: No, they are not. But there is some precedent of religions using banned substances in their spiritual practices. There's a former Republican lawmaker, Steve Urquhart, who's kind of known at the time for being this pretty conservative politician. He recently started this church called the Divine Assembly 2020, which like Singularism, kind of has this strong emphasis on psychedelic mushrooms.

We also have a lot of Native American churches here that you have some kind of entheogenic practices. So it's not legal, but there is precedent for these substances to be used in religious practices.

GILGER: Right. OK. So they've been very open about the fact that they use these psychedelics in their religious practice, but they were raided by law enforcement last year, right?

DUNPHEY: Yeah. Yeah. So in. In 2024, Provo police carried out a search warrant, and they seized the group's drugs, and they seized some documents. These documents, they're called in the lawsuit, they're called sacred scripture. They're essentially records that are related to and kind of document these personal religious experiences. Which, according to the complaint and some of the filings since the complaint, the seizure of those records is, kind of, according to the religion's founder, Jensen, one of the bigger affronts to religious freedom, in his opinion.

They didn't arrest him when they carried out the search warrant, but they did tell him to expect criminal charges. And sure enough, about a month later, he was charged with possession of psilocybin with intent to distribute, which is a second-degree felony, and possession of THC and drug paraphernalia, which are both Class B misdemeanors.

GILGER: Right. So, he's not taking this sitting down, though. He's suing in response and citing this new law passed by Utah residents just in 2024 that really is all about religious freedom, right?

DUNPHEY: Yeah. I mean, I think that's one of the more interesting aspects of the lawsuit. This law was passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor just months before the police carried out the search warrant. And essentially it codifies federal law and makes it easier to sue the government if someone has been burdened — that's the language from the bill, burdened by a government restricting their ability to practice their religious beliefs.

The act is, it's kind of unique in that it's really centered on someone's sincere religious beliefs. And then we see that same language kind of spelled out in the complaint so clearly, like the way that Jensen in this religion kind of went about their lawsuit, they're really leaning in on this new law, which I found really interesting.

GILGER: Right. And this law really hasn't been tested yet because it is so new. Tell us a little bit about the motivation behind this law, which was passed in this, you know, this conservative state with a lot of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Was this how the people who crafted this law might have expected it to be used?

DUNPHEY: Yeah, you know, that's an interesting question. And I think I would be curious to hear a little bit more from some of the bill sponsors about what they think of this lawsuit. You know, the sponsor in the Senate, Sen. Todd Weiler, who's a Republican, he said that this was really a bill intended to protect minority religions. And by most definitions, Singularism is a minority religion.

And so, yeah, it's interesting. This is the first test. And that's actually an argument that the attorneys for Utah county and the Provo Police Department used in one of their motions, their motion to dismiss the lawsuit. Because they're essentially saying that this law is so new, there's no court ruling, there's no opinion that's citing or mentioning this act, that it essentially shouldn't be used to determine this lawsuit.

And that argument was ultimately kind of dismissed by a federal judge who just last week ruled in favor of Singularism.

GILGER: Right. It sounds like this. This lawsuit could very well be that legal precedent they're looking for there.

DUNPHEY: Exactly. Yeah.

GILGER: How is this Religious Freedom Act tied to the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the large Mormon population in Utah?

DUNPHEY: Yeah, I mean, religious freedom is a huge issue in Utah. It's something that I think the state champions in a lot of ways. You know, of course, the history of Latter-day Saints moving to Utah is really defined by religious persecution. And they at the time were this small minority religion that were essentially being chased across the country, and they settled in Utah.

And, you know, in the century since, there's been a lot of legislation around protecting religious freedom. And you see that a lot with how the state, especially in the last 30 years, has responded to the global refugee crisis and taking in refugees from, you know, Muslim majority countries and making sure that they are able to practice their religion in Utah.

So there's a lot of that support for religious minorities in the state, despite the state, you know, having this predominant overarching religion that is really present in a lot of people's lives.

GILGER: Yeah, absolutely. So, what are we watching for next in this case, Kyle?

DUNPHEY: This, of course, could go to trial. I'm sure that. I think one of the biggest aspects of this federal judge's ruling is that it orders Utah county to stop all criminal proceedings against Bridger Jensen. So, for now, he's not going to face these charges. There is no hearing set currently, but we'll see what happens.

I think that if anything, it could, like you said, Lauren, be that legal precedent for this new law. Which I think is really interesting.