A Visit to a Psychedelic Art Mecca in Photos

Alex and Allyson Grey's Church of Sacred Mirrors in New York's Hudson Valley celebrates "visionary art" and displays their impressive body of work.

I happen to live in upstate New York, just a half-hour’s drive away from perhaps the greatest collection of psychedelic art from the world’s leading psychedelic artists, Alex and Allyson Grey—the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors. The couple has been sharing their visions via visual as well as performance art since the 1970s. They opened a version of the chapel in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood in 2004 and bought the upstate property in 2008. They recently re-opened the grounds for the first time since the pandemic, this time with Entheon, a meticulously constructed monument to their work and others’ in the genre. Their aim is to share art that depicts mystical experiences. In their manifesto “Why Visionary Art Matters,” they write: “Visionary mystical experiences are humanity’s most direct contact with God and are the creative source of all sacred art and wisdom traditions. The best currently existing technology for sharing the mystic imaginal realms is a well-crafted artistic rendering by an eye witness.”

I visited recently with my partner A. Jesse Jiryu Davis, who’s a photographer, because this is a journey best shared visually, rather than through words. Below is just a taste; I recommend visiting yourself if you can, as the grounds include not only the main museum/chapel building, Entheon, but also a cozy retreat house, the Mushroom Café, sculptures, and beautiful nature trails.

The exterior of the main building, Entheon.

The doors to Entheon.

The room that houses Alex Grey’s series of paintings depicting love, sex, conception, and birth via his trademark images of the human body in X-ray form—with blood vessels, organs, nerves, and chakra blasts of energy visible.

One of the rooms dedicated to Allyson Grey’s works, which focus on three themes: Chaos, Order, and Secret Writing. Her “Secret Writing” pieces are particularly arresting, consisting of endless iterations of her mystical alphabet, meticulously repeated. I love how the wooden floor and the wallpaper continue the theme.

Allyson Grey’s Secret Writing on the stair railings.

The room dedicated to Alex Grey’s “Net of Being,” “Godself,” and “Cosmic Christ.”

Alex Grey’s masterpiece “The Sacred Mirrors Collection,” which starts with his depiction of human body systems, then a diverse collection of naked humans, then “spiritual energy systems” and religious figures such as Buddhism’s Avalokiteshvara and Jesus.