Psychedelics and Plant Allies in End-of-Life Care
Threshold Missionary Training

The sacred lives at the threshold, in the last breaths, the last words and the quiet moments around a bedside. The people you sit with are already asking about psilocybin. This course makes you someone who can answer them openly, as ordained clergy.

Psychedelics and Plant Allies in End-of-Life Care is an eight-week course from Church Of Our Earth for people who walk beside the dying. You'll learn to bring psilocybin, other psychedelics and plant allies into end-of-life care in microdosing and high-level microdosing amounts, and you'll be ordained as a Threshold Missionary of the Church. As far as we know, no other organization in the world trains death workers in this and ordains them.

Format: Live 2-hour virtual sessions, every Monday starting March 1 through April 19, 2027, 6 to 8 pm EST, with weekly mentor check-ins and weekly homework.

What the class is like:

This isn't a course you watch alone. Each week you'll gather live with people who do this sacred work: death doulas, hospice workers, doctors, nurses, therapists, social workers, chaplains and others who sit with the dying. You'll learn from experienced practitioners and specialists who are doing this work right now, and you'll hear from past graduates about what they've built since ordination. 

There is homework each week, including reading, reflection and written assignments, so plan time for it between sessions. It's where much of the deepest learning happens. You'll share what you're seeing at the bedside and learn from each other. Your mentor checks in with you every week, so you're never figuring this out by yourself. Death work can be lonely. We built this course around community because this work is meant to be shared. You'll leave with ordination, and with friends and colleagues who will keep walking beside you long after the course ends. The classes will be recorded so you will be able to follow along if you have to miss a session.

Here are some of the things we explore together:

• Church doctrine, the mushroom as Sacrament, and the sacred at the end of life

• The science, spiritual traditions and safety of psilocybin, ketamine and other psychedelics

• Microdosing and high-level microdosing for people who are dying

• How frailty, medications and the care team shape what's right for each person

• Preparation, set, setting and integration

• Medicinal cannabis for comfort and ease

• Plant allies, including herbs, teas, flower essences and anointing oils

• Bedside rituals and ceremonies for the dying

• Safety, screening and knowing when to refer

• Building your own ministry practice

What ordination opens up:

Imagine sitting with someone who is afraid of dying and being able to talk with them honestly about the mushroom. Imagine offering a gentle sacramental microdose, lighting a candle together and helping them find some peace in the time they have left. That's the work of a Threshold Missionary. You'll be able to:

• Talk openly with the dying about psilocybin and other psychedelics

• Help Church Members who are dying decide whether psilocybin may be right for them

• Share what psilocybin has been studied for, including anxiety, depression and existential distress

• Guide dying Church Members in microdosing and high-level microdosing

• Help them set intentions, reflect on their experiences and notice what changes

• Walk with them through fear, regret, forgiveness, unfinished business and meaning

• Lead bedside rituals and ceremonies

• Bring plant allies into your care for comfort and calm

• Offer spiritual counsel to dying Church Members

• Be listed as a minister of the Church and supported by a community of fellow ministers

When your clients join Church of Our Earth, they become members of our congregation, and as their minister, you can counsel them on spiritual matters about the Mushroom as their clergy.

A focused calling:

This ministry is built for one sacred moment in life. As a Threshold Missionary, you share the Sacrament with Church Members in their end-of-life transition, in microdosing and high-level microdosing amounts. Many people who are dying are frail, medicated or short on time and energy, and a full psychedelic journey isn't right for them. A gentle, steady practice often is.

• Build a Ministry of Your Own

Ordination gives you something most death workers don't have: a ministry you can build and offer on your own terms. Your ministry is its own sacred work, separate from your professional practice, and many of our graduates run the two side by side.

• A death doula can add sacramental microdosing, plant allies and bedside ceremony to what she already offers, giving the people she serves something they can't find anywhere else.

• A hospice or palliative care nurse can build a ministry outside her hospital or agency role, visiting dying Church Members in their homes and offering the spiritual care she's always wished she had time for.

• A doctor, therapist or social worker can open a ministry alongside their clinical practice, serving dying Church Members as clergy, with their professional work kept clearly separate.

• A chaplain or spiritual care provider can widen what they offer at the bedside, bringing the mushroom and plant allies into the sacred work they already do.

Wherever you're starting from, we'll help you shape a ministry that fits your life and calling. Your training includes a one-on-one business consultation on how to set up your ministry offerings, what to offer, how to price it and how to talk about your work with the people you serve.

Your path to ordination:

Each step is designed to help you grow into your ministry, not just check a box.

• Attend the sessions

• Complete the weekly homework

• Keep a personal journal

• Write your Minister's Creed

• Complete a safety and screening review

• Write a ministry plan

• Present your capstone

As a Threshold Missionary:

• Attend our virtual Member’s Meetings (there are eight a year) 

• Give 15 volunteer hours a year (these might include: helping teach a class; spreading the word about COOE at local events; writing an article for one of our Newsletters; leading a meditation or ritual at a Member’s Meeting; mentoring new students; co-collaborating on social media campaigns, etc.)

• Take part in continuing education

• Pay a yearly fee of about $200, which includes mentorship and a minister listing

This Is Religious Training

This course is religious in nature, and we want you to know that before you sign up. You aren't earning a certification or adding a technique to your toolbox. You are entering a religious tradition, learning its doctrine, taking up its practices and being ordained as clergy of Church Of Our Earth. The mushroom is our Sacrament, and sacramental microdosing is a devotional practice, a way of meeting the sacred at the threshold between life and death. We study the science because it helps us understand and speak about what we're experiencing, but the science serves the faith, not the other way around.

Every time the Sacrament is shared, it happens within ceremony. At a bedside, that can be as simple as lighting a candle, setting an intention and offering a blessing, and we'll teach you how to create rituals that feel true to you and the people you serve. 

You'll take a vow of respect to Nature, keep a daily spiritual practice, complete the weekly homework, write your own Minister's Creed and work through our doctrine with us. After ordination, you'll stay connected to the Church through minister meetings, monthly reports, volunteer hours and continuing education. As a Threshold Missionary, you serve Church Members at the end of life, and your ministry is separate from your professional practice.

If you're looking for a professional certification, there are other programs out there that do that well. If you feel called to sit at the threshold as a spiritual path, we'd love to walk beside you.