In
the heady postwar years, hundreds of promising studies were conducted in the United States, Canada, and Europe on the use of LSD and other psychedelics, like peyote, to treat such psychiatric maladies as schizophrenia, autism, drug addiction, alcoholism, and chronic depression.
Not only were these churches leveling off from the
heady gains of the
postwar revival era (the main Presbyterian bodies from 1940 to 1960 had gained adherents at more than twice the rate of the preceding 20
years), but just as important, even more than before they were «losing» members and potential members because the regions in which they were strongest were «losing» population.