Introduction
A Latter-day Saint woman wrote to Garrett Dirkmaat asking about a video and an article claiming that Joseph Smith both received his visions and translated the Book of Mormon through the use of psychedelic drugs, including toads, “magical herbs,” and psychedelic mushrooms. She asked whether there was any evidence supporting this theory.
Dirkmaat explains that historians work with sources to determine what most likely happened in the past. They distinguish between what is merely possible and what is actually supported by documents. Historians do not attempt to prove or disprove whether someone truly saw God; instead, they ask whether a person consistently claimed such experiences and seemed to sincerely believe them.
Joseph Smith’s Historical Record
Regarding Joseph Smith, Dirkmaat notes that the Joseph Smith Papers project has gathered approximately 12–14,000 documents, consisting of tens of thousands of pages and hundreds of thousands of words (including private letters, private journals, minutes, public speeches, etc.). Across this documentary record, there is no indication that Joseph Smith privately considered himself a fraud or admitted fabricating his prophetic claims. The evidence shows him consistently acting and speaking as someone who believed he was called of God.
Modern professional historians, including those who are not Latter-day Saints, generally do not describe Joseph Smith simply as a conscious con artist who fabricated everything. For example, historian Daniel Walker Howe, author of a volume of the Oxford History of the United States that covers the period including early Mormonism (and who is not a Latter-day Saint), does not reduce Joseph Smith to a deliberate liar in his treatment. Historians in general focus on what the sources show: that Joseph claimed visions repeatedly and appears to have sincerely believed his prophetic role.
Origin of the Psychedelic-Drug Theory
The psychedelic-drug theory discussed in the email comes from an article published in the Journal of Psychedelic Studies, an online-only journal begun around 2017 and published by a Hungarian academic publishing house. Within academic publishing, it would be considered a lower-tier journal compared with leading historical or religious studies journals.
The article’s three authors are not trained historians. One is a retired emergency-department physician, another an independent researcher, and the third a retired professor in the social sciences who has specialized in the study of hallucinogens in religious contexts.
They describe their proposal as a “working hypothesis,” stating that no single explanation has yet accounted for the number and intensity of visions in early Mormonism or for “on-demand” visions. They argue that Joseph Smith’s and early Mormon converts’ visionary experiences are “neither easily defined nor understood,” and propose psychedelic substances as a possible explanation.
For a broader discussion of how revelation is evaluated in early Latter-day Saint history, see this analysis on revelation and prophetic claims.
Historical Data Points the Theory Uses
The authors draw on a limited set of historical data points, including:
Luman (Lumen) Walters
A local “seer” or folk magician in the Palmyra area sometimes linked to Joseph Smith in treasure-hunting activities. Walters reportedly owned a stuffed toad used in magical rituals.
Willard Chase
A neighbor of the Smith family and later critic, who gave an antagonistic account claiming that Joseph encountered a spirit “something like a toad” at the Hill Cumorah before obtaining the plates.
Hallucinogenic Fungi in the Region
Based on these accounts and the general presence of hallucinogenic fungi in the region, the article theorizes that Joseph Smith may have used toad-related or fungal hallucinogens to induce visions.
Dirkmaat: Absence of Evidence for Psychedelic Use
Dirkmaat notes that even Joseph Smith’s hostile contemporaries—including those involved in early money-digging and those who later wrote anti-Mormon accounts—did not accuse him of using psychedelic or hallucinogenic substances.
Some early anti-Mormon publications did claim that Joseph was drunk during the translation of the Book of Mormon as a way to attack his character, but they do not describe systematic or ritualized use of hallucinogenic drugs.
The Gold Plates as a Historical Obstacle
The Book of Mormon and the associated gold plates present an additional historical problem for purely naturalistic explanations. Multiple witnesses—both friendly and later estranged from the Church—testified that Joseph possessed a set of metal plates.
The Three Witnesses
Reported seeing the plates and an angel in a visionary setting.
The Eight Witnesses
Reported physically handling and turning the plates.
Other Neighbors
Including some critics, admitted lifting a box or object that Joseph said contained the plates and remarking on its substantial weight.
These testimonies imply that Joseph either:
- Manufactured plates and successfully deceived multiple observers,
- Found some genuine artifact and reinterpreted it, or
- Deceived all witnesses about their existence and nature, contrary to their later affirmations.
Alternative Non-Believing Scholarly Models
Some modern non-believing scholars, such as Ann Taves, have proposed alternative naturalistic models for the Book of Mormon’s origin, including:
- Joseph engaged in a kind of auto-writing or trance composition beyond his normal literary abilities.
- Joseph misperceived or re-framed some material object as sacred plates.
These theories attempt to account for both Joseph’s sincerity and his production of a lengthy, complex text.
Translation Eyewitness Accounts
Dirkmaat emphasizes that there are dozens of accounts from scribes and witnesses involved in the translation of the Book of Mormon, including Emma Smith and Oliver Cowdery, spanning roughly 60 years.
These accounts are independent yet consistent on key points:
- Joseph dictated the text without using reference books or notes.
- He used instruments such as the interpreters or a seer stone.
- None describe Joseph ingesting hallucinogenic substances or entering drug-induced trances during translation.
Joseph Smith’s 1832 History
Joseph Smith’s 1832 history, written about three and a half years after completing the Book of Mormon, demonstrates limited formal writing ability. The account contains incomplete thoughts, grammatical issues, and significant spelling problems.
This contrasts sharply with the complexity, narrative coherence, doctrinal structure, and internal consistency of the Book of Mormon, leading scholars—both believing and non-believing—to seek special explanations for its origin.
Dirkmaat’s Conclusion
Dirkmaat concludes that the psychedelic hypothesis is speculative and unsupported by direct historical evidence. The authors themselves label it a “working hypothesis” based primarily on:
- One hostile account mentioning a toad-like spirit,
- A folk magician’s stuffed toad,
- General knowledge of hallucinogenic fungi in the region, and
- Modern interest in psychedelics and religious experience.
By contrast, the historical record—from both supporters and opponents of Joseph Smith—does not document psychedelic drug use.
The dominant scholarly explanations remain:
Believing Interpretation
Joseph genuinely experienced divine revelations and translated the Book of Mormon by the gift and power of God.
Non-Believing Naturalistic Interpretation
Psychological or creative explanations that acknowledge Joseph’s sincerity while rejecting supernatural causation, without relying on undocumented psychedelic use.