00:00 Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Wednesday, March 20.
00:05 Today on Forbes, the Prophet of Shroom.
00:10 When meeting the so-called Mushroom Priest of San Francisco, one must first pass two
00:15 armed guards wearing bulletproof vests and then clear a metal detector.
00:19 Why, you may ask?
00:21 Pastor Dave Hodges, the 42-year-old founder and leader of the Church of Ambrosia, says,
00:27 "There was a stabbing right outside this door the other week."
00:31 He describes his church as a non-denominational religious organization founded on the belief
00:35 that cannabis and psilocybin mushrooms are sacraments that can be used as spiritual tools.
00:42 Founded five years ago in Oakland, Hodges recently opened the church's second location
00:46 in San Francisco's Soma neighborhood.
00:49 Explaining how his city is rife with crime and other street plagues, Hodges says, "You
00:54 see people smoking crack and shooting up, people overdosing.
00:58 You can see why we're not the problem."
00:59 Hodges, who is wearing a plaid shirt, black chinos, and New Balance sneakers, looks more
01:06 like an IT specialist than a religious leader who claims to have met God during his own
01:10 magic mushroom-inspired burning bush moment in 2019.
01:15 Hodges describes his experience in that certain California way where it's hard to tell if
01:19 he is crazy, enlightened, or a little bit of both.
01:23 He says, "The ceremony ended with three bright, shining, golden beings, who identified themselves
01:29 as the oldest of the mushroom gods, sitting down with me and telling me why I went through
01:33 everything in my life and what they needed me for and what I'm supposed to do.
01:37 And they told me what I need to do was make sure that people have access to these sacraments
01:41 and spread the knowledge."
01:44 Like other religious leaders, Hodges has been persecuted by the government.
01:49 Police raided the church's Oakland location in 2020 and seized $200,000 worth of cannabis,
01:54 mushrooms, and cash, but did not arrest him.
01:58 Yet unlike most other church founders, his members can obtain cannabis, hallucinogenic
02:02 mushrooms, and another psychedelic called DMT, which is the active ingredient in ayahuasca,
02:08 in exchange for a monetary contribution.
02:12 In other words, his church possesses enough illegal drugs to put Hodges in prison for
02:16 many years.
02:18 His ministry is also sitting on a small fortune.
02:22 The Church of Ambrosia is the largest known megachurch in the United States.
02:26 With 105,000 members, it has more congregants than Oklahoma's Life Church, which has 85,000
02:32 members, and more than double Texas' Lakewood Church, run by televangelist Joel Osteen.
02:39 New members pay $10 to join the Church of Ambrosia, while existing members give $5 to
02:44 its coffers to enter if their month-long membership has expired.
02:48 Between membership fees and regular contributions for drugs, Hodges' church rakes in more than
02:53 $5 million a year, Forbes estimates.
02:57 Hodges refused to discuss finances, other than saying the money goes back to the church
03:01 and that it pays $3 million a year in legal fees, rent, and security.
03:06 The church does not have IRS tax-exempt status, nor is it a registered non-profit.
03:11 While walking through the psychedelic mural-painted halls of his location in Oakland, which is
03:15 called Zide Door, Hodges said he never intended to run a church of this size.
03:21 With a pained look on his face, he says, "We got way too big, way too quick.
03:26 It's crazy."
03:28 If the Church of Ambrosia sounds like a joke, Hodges admits that it did start out that way.
03:33 In 2010, like every summer, he went to Burning Man, the week-long arts festival held in the
03:38 Nevada desert that's often fueled by psilocybin, LSD, MDMA or ecstasy, and electronic dance
03:45 music.
03:46 Hodges wore an old Halloween costume he dubbed the so-called "Church of More Pot" and walked
03:51 around in a white shirt holding a black book in his arms.
03:54 He says, "It was a joke, but people took it very seriously."
03:58 Then, in 2019, Hodges, who had run two medical marijuana collectives in the early 2000s in
04:04 San Jose before getting shut down by the city due to running afoul of zoning laws and unpaid
04:09 taxes, decided to make the church official and opened Zide Door in Oakland.
04:15 At first he held weekly Sunday sermons at 4.20pm, a magic hour for potheads.
04:20 He would pass out joints and members would listen to Pastor Dave pontificate about weed
04:24 and spirituality.
04:27 For full coverage, check out Will Yakowitz's piece on Forbes.com.
04:32 This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes, thanks for tuning in.
04:36 -
04:42 [MUSIC PLAYING]
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