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# A Psychedelic Church Threatened To Sue Us For $500 Million
- URL: https://ghost.psymposia.com/a-psychedelic-church-threatened-to-sue-us-for-500-million/
- Published: 2026-03-27T11:00:49.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-29T01:01:57.000Z
- Description: A summary of our history with Martin Ball and the Church of Psilomethoxin. Excerpt from "Hamilton's Pharma Cope, Part 2."
- Author: Mike Elliott
- Tags: Videos, #youtube, #youtube-transcript

A summary of our history with Martin Ball and the Church of Psilomethoxin. Excerpt from "Hamilton's Pharma Cope, Part 2."

## Transcript

*This transcript was generated automatically from YouTube's captions, then cleaned up by removing filler words, repeated words and background sounds. It may still contain errors.*

[\[00:00\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMyRZVNd964&t=0s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) A letter arrived in our inbox that was an initial letter saying that if they were to take it to court, the church would be seeking $500 million in damages. The following excerpt is from part two of our series on the misinformation being spread about Psymposia by Hamilton Morris. This particular clip dives deep into our history with the church of Silthoxin. All right, the whole Silthoxin saga comes up multiple times in this conversation and it's genuinely too weird and interesting of a story to leave underexplained and it also provides a clear lens into previous smear campaigns against us for our reporting on abusive practices and practitioners in the psychedelic space.

[\[00:49\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMyRZVNd964&t=49s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) So, I'm going to catch you up to speed real quick. The church of Silamethoxin was a psychedelic church allegedly operating legally above ground in Texas. They basically claimed to have developed a novel tryptoamine psychedelic that was like an oral version of 5meod DMT which is like the smokable psychedelic you hear people discuss getting from like a toad. They basically claimed that they discovered a way to make an oral 5meod DMT experience by soaking the substrate of psilocybin mushrooms in 5me DMT. Therefore making mushrooms that produced psiloxin which produced a 5me DMT experience.

[\[01:35\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMyRZVNd964&t=95s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) In 2007, Alexander Scholan on his website, you know, he noted that there were people in Germany who at the time were feeding other synthetic tryptoines to mushroom substrates and getting four hydroxilated versions of it in the mushroom fruing body. He said, "I theorized that if you throw or were to mix in five DMT salt to a growing mushroom substrate that it would produce xylomthoxin." Ian, my law partner, stumbled across it and Ian being the person he is, had access to the resources to try this and so yeah, so it was tried. As far as we know, it was successful on the very first run. Obviously, we've tweaked the process and are continuing to tweak the process as we move forward.

[\[02:22\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMyRZVNd964&t=142s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) But yeah, so they have this claim and because they say it's a novel tryptoamine, it's like kind of a gray market product that they begin selling on their website for $300 an ounce. Cut to 2023\. Two EONA chemists, Samuel Williamson and Alexander Sherwood, publish a pre-print analysis of the sacrament that is being sold as Silthoxin by the Church of Silthoxin. Right. Their preprint alleges that their analysis finds no psyllamethoxin, novel tryptoine in what the church is selling to its members, but they do find all of the ingredients and chemicals you would normally find in a psilocybin mushroom. So we go ahead and report on these findings at Psymposia and essentially say according to this chemical analysis it looks like the church of silthoxin is selling regulars psilocybin mushrooms under a different name and shipping them across the country to its members and a number of

[\[03:23\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMyRZVNd964&t=203s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) Other independent analyses were released basically finding the same thing or at least the fact that no sylliamoxin was detected in the sacrament. Throughout this whole debacle, the church basically fell back on saying, "Well, we never claimed that silthoxin was positively detected in our sacrament. We operate based on faith that this is a novel tryptoine, which is not completely true. as we discuss in our article with a number of citations in which they discuss how psilocybin and normal things you'd find in mushrooms actually were not found in their sacrament and things like that. But yeah, we produce a four-part series on this whole debacle and the fallout from it. And for this series, I interviewed church co-founder Greg Lake about some of the questions that we had and accusations flying around about their church.

[\[04:16\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMyRZVNd964&t=256s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) I'll play a couple highlights from that interview here. Given the current stuff that has come out about the sacrament and sort of the questions around whether syllamethoxin is actually present were participants informed that they that there hasn't been a positive identification of salomothoxin in the sacrament or was it presented as I think that's ever since we started that's been abundantly clear and you feel like the way that the church has sort of messaged about the sacrament has made that clear. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there's been several different articles and conversations that have made that abundantly clear from day one. Gotcha. I guess to me there there does feel like a little bit of a reasonable expectation that people when getting the sacrament from the church would be receiving silthoxin.

[\[05:08\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMyRZVNd964&t=308s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) I mean, given everything that I've heard in conversations, but also just the idea that you're the church of Silthoxin, right? Yeah. I mean again I we've been abundantly clear many many many times. Yeah we're a church people are allowed to operate on faith. If people have taken the sacrament and they feel truly that this is new novel and in their opinion solom voxin they have perfect right to do it. Now that this article has been published people can make up their own mind and we're good with it either way. It would to me I would be more hurt by not giving people continued access to it than to just like cut it off. I just again people I think people have a right to say I don't want to I don't believe the science 100% here. I guess in light of the article that was published and the GCMS testing that you've done do you think there is the potential that there isn't psyllomothoxin in your sacrament?

[\[06:03\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMyRZVNd964&t=363s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) I mean do you make space for that potential that maybe it is just powdered psilocybin psilocin they assistin? I mean, I'm I firmly believe it is, but like if someone else has room for some doubt, that's fine. After all of this had like seemingly blown over, a letter arrived in our inbox that was an initial letter saying that we would be sued unless we settled out of court with the Church of Sacred Synthesis now. And that if they were to take it to court, the church would be seeking $500 million in damages. The list of defendants on this included us, Eona, other publishers like Psychedelics Today, and Gordo Tech who published the results of this analysis, basically suing anyone who republished the results of Sherwood and Williamson's analysis, what they deemed defamatory analysis results. the original letter of notice from the church, which was being

[\[07:04\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMyRZVNd964&t=424s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) Represented by Greg Lake, the co-founder who I interviewed, who stepped down from his church leadership position to single-handedly represent the church in court. It included notice of defamation on behalf of a psychedelic practitioner named Martin Ball as well, who we had previously reported on for his role in the publication of MAPS Canada's executive director's psychedelic guide book that was going to come out. He was a publisher. He wrote the forward to it. I didn't just design the cover for Mark Hayden in his book. I was actually a contributor. I was the editor. I wrote the forward to that. I edited. I formatted. I produced that book. We'd reported on Ball and his involvement with this book, not because he was just some random guy with wacky ideas, but because he was kind of paraded around as a respected underground facilitator, with a number of very problematic practices.

[\[07:58\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMyRZVNd964&t=478s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) These practices have been detailed in past books by Ball, including psychedelic integration guides and facilitator guides, mostly around the psychedelic 5met. However, Ball has asserted in the past that his practices could be applied across the board. There's a consistent attempt by mainstream psychedelic outlets to uplift practitioners from the underground space and their practices into mainstream psychedelic therapy contexts. MAPS Canada affiliated with the MAPS taking MDMA through clinical trials. Their executive director was producing a book with Martin Ball, who was on record in publicly available content discussing touching clients genitals while they were under the influence, throwing up on clients heads, and putting his tongue in the mouth of unresponsive clients.

[\[08:50\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMyRZVNd964&t=530s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) Sometimes it just happens where I throw up on the person because that's what they need. He did need someone to lick his heart. So, he's lying down and I've got my tongue on his heart and then I can feel it coming and then right on his chest and then he like smeared it all over himself. But she's on the mat. I'm on top of her and my tongue is on her forehead and I'm growling and then all of a sudden I can feel it. It's coming. It's coming. And I threw up all over her head. Here's what I've learned about throwing up on people. They're usually like, "Oh yeah. Oh, \[laughter\] \[clears throat\] my job as a facilitator here is simply to follow the energy and to embody it fully. And if it means I need to throw up on someone, throw up on them.

[\[09:37\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMyRZVNd964&t=577s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) Just do it because they're going to appreciate it. As odd as it may seem. I'll tell you, there's one time I had this woman who was 79 years old because she wasn't breathing and she was just lying there. What happened was is I ended up lying down on top of her. \[laughter\] So, I put my tongue in her mouth and I pushed against her tongue and there was no push back. And I was like, "Okay, you know, this is serious." And so, then I just waited with my tongue up against the tip of her tongue. And after a while, she suddenly pushed my tongue out of her mouth. And these practices weren't even just spur-of-the- moment riffs. He essentially wrote the exact same practices in his book and theogenic liberation writing in a chapter called being a non-dual energy practitioner.

[\[10:24\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMyRZVNd964&t=624s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) When the energy is ready to release, it may come out of either you or your client's body. This can take the form of dry heaving and gagging or full purging and vomiting. In rare cases, the energy may be so demanding that you are required to purge directly onto the client. Though this sounds perfectly awful, you can trust that if it occurs, it is what the client needs in that moment and will be appreciated. When we reported on this, Mark Hayden really tried to backpedal and distance himself from Martin Ball, saying he wasn't familiar with Ball's techniques. However, his own book, The Manual for Psychedelic Guides, listed enthogenic liberation as suggested reading. In another book of balls, all is one. He also asserts that morality and ethics are purely products of the ego and as such are imaginary constructs.

[\[11:13\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMyRZVNd964&t=673s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) This comes up repeatedly in the reporting that we do at Psymposia around the psychedelic therapy teachings of facilitators. This idea that you know what your client needs best, that your intuition, even if it's throwing up on your client's head, will be appreciated and is what the client needs because you have done the work and your intuition essentially operates as some kind of voice of the divine. These practices can manufacture consent for many harmful practices. The response to our reporting on this collaboration between Mark Hayden and Martin Ball on a new guide for psychedelic practitioners was emblematic of how much of the space reacts when called out for abusive practitioners, legacies, and practices within the space. A particularly emblematic conversation happened just recently between a writer named Tom Hatsis and a podcaster named James Jessu retroactively discussing the situation, mischaracterizing and misremembering the whole situation, what was reported and

[\[12:15\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMyRZVNd964&t=735s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) Why. The tearing down of an innocent man like Martin Ball over at Psymposia. They just decided that he was this evil person. Even though he's actually a good friend of mine. He's one of the kindest, most generous, and genuine human beings you'll ever meet. And they went after him over some absolute nonsense. They accused Martin Ball, who used to be a 5me DMT facilitator of abusing his clients. And not only could they not find anybody who reported Martin or felt like he had abused them, but his clients actively got in touch with Psymposia and said, "He didn't abuse us. This is what we wanted. He killed me. He, you know, he was great. So, I helped report that story and what he's saying there is actually completely false.

[\[13:00\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMyRZVNd964&t=780s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) We didn't have people reaching out saying Martin was great or that they got what they asked for. What we did have was people reach out saying in context of our reporting, they were disturbed by previous interactions with Martin. But what Hatsus is getting at here completely misses the point, which is that we didn't need to hear from Martin's clients. He was out here in public YouTube videos describing his practices in a way that was perfectly fair game to criticize. And there was a lot of this misinformation around the Martin Ball situation where people either weren't reading the source material why we were reporting it in the first place or sprinkling their own misinformation in. And this is consistent across the field of our reporting on abuse. We have consistently called out people for consent violations and abusive practices.

[\[13:48\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMyRZVNd964&t=828s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) People turn that around in podcasts and propaganda misinforming their audience and expecting them not to go look at the source material and then they say there should be a place for watchd dogs like Psymposia in the space. We just don't like how they do things or what they report. Look, there are people that are abusive facilitators who do cross the line and it's a good thing to have somebody watchd dogs like Psymposia out there making sure that these abuses are brought to light. But what I've realized from Psymposia is that guard dogs need watchkitties. And there are plenty of, as Hatsis describes them, watch kitties out there who are ready to attack our reporting on people they're either friends with or met one time and thought were very nice people.

[\[14:36\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMyRZVNd964&t=876s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) He's actually a good friend of mine. He's one of the kindest, most generous, and genuine human beings you'll ever meet. I actually met the woman who is accused of elder abuse at the mass conference and she seemed like a nice lady to me. Their function seems less making the space any safer and more providing apologetics for abusive practices and practitioners in the space. Since our reporting on ball, he has largely retained his status as a 5me DMT guru in the underground space. And in this role, he found himself promoting and reviewing the church of sylloxin sacramental substance. For me personally, all of my experiences with the syllamethoxin so far is, you know, people ask me like, well, is it really edible 5 Modo DMT? And I was like, yeah, to the best of my way of describing it, that that's this seems like a totally legit way to describe what this molecule is.

[\[15:28\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMyRZVNd964&t=928s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) We covered these endorsements in our reporting on the Church of Silthoxin. And this was one of the reasons alongside our previous reporting on Ball's collaboration with Mark Hayden that Ball was included in that initial letter sent by the church. When the official lawsuit was filed, however, Ball was not included and Eona offered to defend all of the republishers of their chemist's analysis in court. So, they took that to court and it was ultimately dismissed under an anti-SLAP judgment. Along the way though, an interaction between our legal representation and Greg Lake from the church was discussed on a legal YouTube channel. More concerning in an effect it is as part of what appears to be a fact gathering operation to complete service. Plaintiff's council impersonated a fake individual and contacted the Eona one of the Eona defendants Eona.

[\[16:21\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMyRZVNd964&t=981s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) And this is beyond dispute, your honor, because there's a recorded voicemail of plaintiff's council purporting to be a person named G. But this was one day after plaintiffs sent a demand letter to Dona. Plaintiff's council calls impersonating an individual named G and then also sends a written communication where plaintiff's council purports to be a Roger Growing. And then when we confronted Plaintiff's Council with frankly these unimpeachable facts, plaintiff's council floated conspiracy theories like his phone number, phone being hacked, and then simply stating he never misidentified himself. Unfortunately, this has caused me a lot of stress, my normal work, plus taking on this litigation. And I had a couple seizures over the course of about 3 weeks.

[\[17:11\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMyRZVNd964&t=1031s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) And I honestly do not remember placing these two phone calls to Eona. My wife tells me that I did did make the one with and identified myself as G. You know why I did that where I was mentally when I did that I do not know. In case that wasn't clear, that was Greg Lake, one of the founders of the Church of Silameth Oxin, who was representing the church in court, saying that he impersonated people while attempting to contact Eona, but doesn't remember it due to some state of mind. Around the time of this lawsuit, we were leaked text messages from Greg discussing other instances in which his state of mind has conflicted with court cases that he was involved in.

[\[18:00\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMyRZVNd964&t=1080s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) In one instance, he texted this group saying, "He sued someone MRV and Star Magazine in 2013 for defamation in state court in Texas. I was a year out of law school on my own, so strung out on drugs, I was living in a 150 per week hotel room, and didn't have an office. Stayed high and drunk all day every day, and lost the case on a slap motion." In the following text, he wrote, "Psymposia probably won't survive this suit, but they need to go." Also, in these text messages, Lake wrote more about his intentions of suing us in Eona, writing, "I have no reservations about shutting down entire entities. We never did a thing to hurt anyone and only had the best of intentions. We all suffered greatly, and now it's time to let them feel what I felt.

[\[18:48\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMyRZVNd964&t=1128s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) Let them struggle to pay bills and feed their kids. Nothing I do in this space has anything to do with money, but this lawsuit it does and it should because people like Eona, Psymposia, Promega, Psychedelics today, that's the only way they will learn. The case was initially dismissed on that anti-slap defense, but has remained in appeals court since 2024\. The Church of Silthoxin is still around today under the Church of Sacred Synthesis name. Still selling Psyllamethoxin on their website as well as products like 5me DMT nasal spray and light wands and an upcoming cacao product as sacraments. Greg Lake, who was featured heavily in this video and who was a co-founder of the church, no longer appears in leadership.

[\[19:35\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMyRZVNd964&t=1175s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) And that's going to kind of wrap this postcript editor's note on the Church of Silthoxin and Martin Ball. Thanks for bearing with me here. We thought it was important to cue the audience into some of these past smear campaigns that have been run against us and the nature of the misinformation that had been spreading about our organization even prior to all of this Hamilton Morris FDA nonsense.