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".
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.
Pahnke served as director of the project from 1967 until 1971, when he died in a scuba diving accident in Maine.
[1] In this experiment, ten students from Andover Newton Theological School were given 30 mg psilocybin and ten were given an active placebo (niacin - vitamin B3) in a religious setting (a Good Friday service) to see whether entheogens could help facilitate a genuine religious experience.
Among those who participated in the study were Leary and Huston Smith, professor of philosophy at MIT and respected religious scholar.