Are Climate Psychedelics ‘Cultists’?
By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 9, 2026My post, Psychedelics for Climate Action, struck a nerve. The head of the tripping group, Marissa Feinberg, considered the parenthetical statement “12,000 cultists” was defamatory. I have received three warnings and a threat of legal action (see the end of the post below).
Hallucinates … Hallucinations … How strange. I quoted Feinberg: “Our psychedelic-climate leaders are active today, creating change and doing compelling transformational work in this space.”
A definition of “cult” includes different meanings:
- “a relatively small group of people having beliefs or practices, especially relating to religion, that are regarded by others as strange or sinister or as imposing excessive control over members” (here)
- “a misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular thing” (here)
- “a system of religious veneration and devotion directed towards a particular figure or object” (here)
Similar terms are identified as “sect, denomination, church, faith, belief, persuasion, affiliation, movement, group, body, faction, clique.”
The origin of the term according to Merriam-Webster:
Cult, which shares an origin with culture and cultivate, comes from the Latin cultus, a noun with meanings ranging from “tilling, cultivation” to “training or education” to “adoration.” In English, cult has evolved a number of meanings following a fairly logical path. The earliest known uses of the word, recorded in the 17th century, broadly denoted “worship.” From here cult came to refer to a specific branch of a religion or the rites and practices of that branch, as in “the cult of Dionysus.” By the early 18th century, cult could refer to a non-religious admiration or devotion, such as to a person, idea, or fad (“the cult of success”). Finally, by the 19th century, the word came to be used of “a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious.”
Legal Issues?
There are some legal issues, although I doubt they deal with me. Is Psychedelics for Climate Action‘s “rising psychedelic-climate trend” legal consumption? If one or more of the claimed 12,000 participants overdose, is there legal liability against PSYCA from a family member? What if an underage person is involved?
Was Marissa Feinberg tripping with her threat below? Imagine a legal battle. The Church of Climate will be exposed as fringe hippyism, an association that would embarrass and marginalize Climatism. The ball is in her court.
Then a second try:
And a third try with a legal threat:
