Lucille Kahn

Lucille Kahn (1902–1995) was a Broadway stage actress whose career began in the 1920s and whose later decades were defined by advocacy for spiritual and metaphysical inquiry. She appeared on Broadway in 1923, with her credits including the David Belasco production of Laugh, Clown, Laugh, in which she performed alongside theatre figures Otis Skinner and Lionel Barrymore.

In 1927, Kahn married David E. Kahn, a close friend and early supporter of the psychic Edgar Cayce. Her home on East 80th Street in New York functioned during the 1950s and 1960s as an informal gathering place for figures associated with Eastern philosophy, spiritual exploration, and metaphysical development. Among those who participated in lectures and discussions held there were Aldous Huxley, Gerald Heard, and Bill Wilson, the cofounder of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Encouraged by Wilson and Heard, and supported by funding from Eileen Garrett's Parapsychological Foundation, Kahn helped organize a group of intellectuals in 1958 to investigate the clinical and spiritual potential of LSD-25. Known as the Basic Group, this circle met regularly between 1958 and 1960 in private homes outside New York City. During each session, a single subject received a dose of 75 to 100 micrograms of LSD-25, administered by Dr. Robert Laidlaw, then chief psychiatrist at Roosevelt Hospital. Other group members present would offer support, record observations, and pose questions to the subject during the experience. Written transcripts and audio recordings were compiled from each session, and subjects were subsequently asked to produce written reflective reports. These materials were distributed among the group's members. Participants included Eugene Exman, religion editor for Harper and Brothers; Dr. Garma Chen Chi Chang, a Buddhist scholar and Bollingen Fellow; and Rachel Davis DuBois, an educator and early civil-rights activist.

Kahn devoted much of her later life to promoting the work of Edgar Cayce through the Association for Research and Enlightenment. She traveled extensively to holy sites, frequently as part of ARE tours, and met with the Dalai Lama. She contributed the final chapter to her husband's posthumously published memoir, My Life with Edgar Cayce, and wrote additional articles for ARE publications. Lucille Kahn was the grandmother of contemporary pageant artist Alex Kahn.