Podcast Summary: "I Took Mushrooms And Saw God" – Michael & The Psychonaut Pt. 2

The Michael Knowles Show, The Daily Wire
Date: October 25, 2025

Episode Overview

In this striking and deeply introspective episode, Michael Knowles hosts “Josh,” an evangelist and former drug user, as he recounts a searing personal journey: a high-dose psilocybin (mushroom) trip that led to a terrifying confrontation with spiritual realities. The conversation, weaving Christian theology with harrowing psychedelic experience, probes the boundary between the material and spiritual worlds, the nature of repentance and revelation, and the temptation of self-divinization. The episode’s tone is earnest, narrative-driven, and philosophical, mixing raw storytelling with robust theological analysis.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Background & Motivation for the Mushroom Experience

• Josh’s spiritual background: Former heroin addict, now living a devout, “sold-out” Christian life ([01:53]).
• Reason for the trip: Seeking to confront lingering fear and anxiety around psychedelics, believing perhaps mushrooms (because “they’re natural”) could reconnect him to God in a meaningful way ([02:16], [03:08]).
  • "[I was] tired of there being fear with this... I don't like fear. I'm gonna confront this. I'm gonna take it. I said, it's now or never." – Josh ([03:29])

2. The Initiation of the Trip & Immediate Spiritual Confrontation

• Setting: In a friend’s house, after taking an eighth of mushrooms ([04:11]).
• Friend leaves; atmosphere shifts: Josh feels a malevolent presence, likened to past demonic encounters from his ministry days ([04:42]).
  • “The second he walked out the door, it was like that feeling of sleep paralysis. The feeling of, like, demons and evil walks in the room... I know this presence.” – Josh ([04:55])
• Internal dialogue: Tries to reassure himself (“You can’t die”), only to feel a voice – understood as God – rebuke his pride ([05:33]).
  • “Who says I can't take your life whenever I want?” – Voice in Josh’s heart ([05:33])

3. Escalating Crisis: Despair, Prayer, and Spiritual Consequence

• Physical and spiritual terror: Overwhelming sense of spiritual peril, feeling “death encompassed” him ([07:54]).
  • “Forgiveness doesn’t equate to consequence... Oh no. I opened this door. I know better.” – Josh ([07:54])
• **Calls wife for help, unable to explain; drifts in and out of a black void, feeling spirit being pulled away ([08:51]).
  • “By the time she gets there, I’m not able to really function... I couldn’t breathe well... like I was gasping for breath and I’m feeling my body go in and out.” – Josh ([09:15])

4. Full-Blown Vision: Heavenly Courts, Accusation, and Fear

• Out-of-body experience: In a great hand, confronted by “demons” presenting a case before a “tower of light” – the kingdom of heaven ([10:45], [11:28]).

• Demons’ accusation: Josh, as an evangelist, is accused of “taking souls from their kingdom but eating from their table” ([12:36]).

  • “We’re tired of this kid. He keeps coming into our kingdom, taking people out. And then he came back and ate off our table.” – Demonic Accuser ([12:30])

• Insight into spiritual judgment: Josh describes an experience of total spiritual transparency, feeling naked and exposed.

  • “In the spirit, everything is just... it's out on the open... It was that moment of being naked before everything, of me being a hypocrite in that moment…” – Josh ([13:54])

• Physical and spiritual anguish: Describes intense physical symptoms (breathlessness, feeling organs “shriveling up”), blending with acute spiritual fear ([15:10]).

  • “Fear becomes a jacket... just despair. Every negative emotion you could think of is there, and then it’s heightened.” – Josh ([15:10])

5. Theological Analysis and Commentary

• Nature of spiritual and physical realms: Michael Knowles reflects on the inseparability of spiritual and bodily existence, referencing Aristotelian and Christian metaphysics ([17:30]).
  • “Our soul is the substantial form of our body... you are your soul, you are your body... those things are together inseparably for now in this world.” – Michael ([17:54])
• Josh’s agreement: The spiritual world is “happening right now, while we’re sitting here talking” ([18:58]).

6. Deliverance, The Cross, and Restoration

• Josh surrenders: Feeling lost, prays for salvation for the sake of his unborn child ([20:00]).
  • “God, just save me for them... At that moment, I started to feel almost a slight pressure release.” ([20:40])
• Intercession and redemption: Feels the prayers of the “cloud of witnesses” (saints). Sees Jesus emerge from the tower, “puts his arm around me. He said, 'This one’s mine. He belongs to me.’” ([22:14]-[24:17])
• Physical manifestation: Following this, Josh experiences a dramatic deliverance—vomiting profusely as a physical sign ([24:00]).

7. Face-to-Face: Encounter With Christ

• Further vision in the tower: Finds himself with Jesus face to face; Jesus looks at him lovingly and says, “Maybe we shouldn’t do that again,” smiling ([25:21]).
  • “He’s staring in my eyes. He smiles at me, like he was happy to see me. And he said, 'Maybe we shouldn’t do that again.’” – Josh ([25:45])
• Overwhelmed by grace and knowledge: Josh is “flooded” with spiritual revelations and feels “downloads” of knowledge ([31:14]).
  • “Everything I could ever think about in my life and want to understand is coming to me... I said, stop, you’re going to kill me. It’s going to kill me.” – Josh ([32:00])
• Returns to reality: After the vision ends, he is left changed, fearful in a new, holy sense ([34:46]).

8. Reflections on Aftermath and Theological Meaning

• Immediate aftermath: Josh’s wife is frightened and bewildered; Josh is “scared to move,” stays up saying “hallelujah” for three days ([34:46]-[35:39]).
  • “For the next three days, I didn’t want to talk. I was scared to talk. That’s what the fear of God will do... the acknowledgment of his holiness, wonder and awe.” – Josh ([35:39])
• Distinguishing true reverence: Differentiates between servile fear and holy fear ([35:41]).
• Critical Comment on Modern Spirituality: Both Josh and Michael critique movements that glorify individual divinity or psychospiritual “self-creation.”
  • “If it’s about you, you, you, you, you... you’re probably not on the right path.” – Michael ([36:14])
  • “He’s perverted everything that God has, took it for himself, and then made people afraid of certain things that God had created for people. And he kicked Jesus out of it... everything’s gotten perverted.” – Josh ([36:54])
• Central theological image: The Cross as the axis mundi, the unavoidable center of reality ([37:16]).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The spirit world is happening right now, while we’re sitting here talking.” – Josh ([18:58])
• “Who says I can't take your life whenever I want?” – Voice in Josh’s heart ([05:33])
• “He puts his arm around me. He said, ‘This one’s mine. He belongs to me.’” – Josh ([24:17])
• “Maybe we shouldn’t do that again.” – Jesus to Josh, in vision ([25:45])
• “We’re tired of this kid. He keeps coming into our kingdom, taking people out. And then he came back and ate off our table.” – Demon accusation ([12:36])
• “If it’s about you, you, you… you’re probably not on the right path.” – Michael ([36:14])
• “You’re the one that came for me. No one else… It was you.” – Josh ([27:10])

Important Segment Timestamps

• [01:53] – Josh explains his Christian devotion and context for considering mushrooms
• [04:55] – Arrival of malevolent spiritual presence after friend leaves
• [05:33] – Internal “rebuke” about mortality (“Who says I can’t take your life…”)
• [07:54] – Realization of spiritual consequence; prayer for forgiveness
• [09:15] – Physical and spiritual crisis, calls wife for help
• [10:45] – Vision of hand, demons, and tower of light (kingdom of heaven)
• [12:36] – Demonic accusation in the heavenly courts
• [15:10] – Sensation of fear, despair, and spiritual exposure
• [18:58] – Philosophical discussion about body-soul unity
• [22:17] – “Receive the Holy Spirit” and beginning of divine intervention
• [24:17] – Deliverance: Jesus touches Josh, ending the ordeal
• [25:45] – Jesus’ personal admonition: “Maybe we shouldn’t do that again.”
• [32:00] – Overwhelmed by divine revelation (“Downloads”)
• [34:46] – Aftermath; Josh’s wife’s reaction & lingering holy fear
• [35:41] – Distinction between types of spiritual fear
• [36:54] – Theological reflections on society’s spiritual perversions

Conclusion

This episode provides a raw, detailed account of a life-changing psychedelic experience as interpreted through devout Christian faith. It is a cautionary tale about spiritual pride, the dangers of mixing psychedelics with religious seeking, and the inescapable centrality of Christ’s grace. Throughout the gripping narrative, Michael Knowles and Josh bring together personal testimony, scriptural parallels, and philosophical analysis, offering listeners both a warning and profound reflection on the mysteries of faith, repentance, and the ever-present reality of the spiritual realm.