The Church of Reality was based on the ideas that cannabis is healthy, opens the mind, improves the intellect and raises people’s awareness to the higher mind. In fact, the concept of the Church of Reality was developed under the influence of marijuana. For these reasons, pot is considered holy and necessary for the spiritual experience.
The principles of the church is that of developing a higher understanding of reality. Members use cannabis as a tool in their church to understand the world, politics, the arts, and science. The church does not believe in Biblical stories, but instead looks to historical events, and the most likely path of future human evolution, called Sacred Direction.
When asked their religious preference, members say that they are realists and seek a better understanding of the human condition through reality. Members say belonging to the church provides them with a sense of purpose and community. They seek to better understand the reason for existence and how to best live life.
The idea first came about during a smoking session back in 1998. Thought taken seriously at the time, it also seemed like a good way to annoy the religious right. Founder Marc Perkel grew up in a Jewish family and went to religious studies as a child. The teachings of the Hebrew bible told a story of a God that would kill babies and destroy the world with water. This was a God that Perkel wanted nothing of. He hated his religious studies for another reason, it was taking away his time to do what he really loved: math.
