Church of Psilomethoxin

The Church of Psilomethoxin is led by three co-founders/Lead Oracles – Ian Benouis, Benjamin Moore, and Greg Lake.

Ian Benouis has a robust professional, educational, and activist background. He grew up in Hawaii in the 1970’s where cannabis and mushrooms were decriminalized and integrated into the culture. A West Point graduate, former US Army officer, Blackhawk helicopter pilot, and combat veteran, he has been healing himself for over 30 years with sacred medicines, a spiritual practice, and by being a student & practitioner of ethnobotany.

Ian has dedicated much of his life to helping bring alternative healing by combining his professional background with his knowledge of plant medicines.

• He was the Chairman of the Board for a public policy foundation in Texas for over 7 years.
• He moderated numerous veteran’s panels including the MAPS Psychedelic Science conference in 2018 in Austin and the World Bufo Alvarius Congress in 2019 in Mexico City.
• He founded an ONAC church chapter that was later returned to the parent church. He also founded a Santo Daime church (the US chapter of a Brazilian government approved church). Between he and his law partner Greg Lake, they have created over sixty entheogenic churches in the US.

Ian is a political activist in the cannabis and entheogenic medicine space nationally, as well as locally in Texas, and has been helping wounded veterans for over 9 years. He organized trips to Peru and Mexico for veterans with PTSD for a 10-day plant diet, including ayahuasca and other plant medicines with three Shipibo trained shaman brothers. He has been a part of documentaries and series highlighting the benefits of plant medicine for veterans.

Ian is a Co-Founder of the Church of the Sacred Synthesis, which offers the sacrament psilomethoxin and was the first human to ingest it through bioassay. He is also Patient Number One at the Mission Within, which treats special operators with PTSD, TBI, and addiction using iboga and toad in Mexico. Currently, he acts as an advisor there after being the General Counsel and spearheading the veteran healing program.