Brian Johnson has discovered Shrooms, and he really wants you to know
“Come watch me Longtime “not dead” entrepreneur Brian Johnson revealed he was taking a high dose of psychedelic mushrooms at the Psilocybin Center in Oregon on Sunday, days before his live broadcast.
This is the second step in his new research into whether psilocybin use can improve nearly 250 health biomarkers, including various measures of brain connectivity, cortisol and testosterone levels.
“There’s the potential for psychedelics to play an even more important role in all of our lives, and wouldn’t it be amazing if it was a life-long drug therapy as well,” Johnson announced on the stream. Before consuming the bug Sunday — which is legal in licensed facilities in Oregon starting in 2023 — Johnson measured his brain activity with a $50,000 helmet made by Kernel, a neuroimaging company founded by the 48-year-old. He also took a saliva sample and took a temperature. (After his Nov. 9 trip, he shared a lot about the state of his erection, but more on that later.)
Then he mixed more than five grams of powdered mushroom with lemon juice to make it more powerful. Johnson wore makeup, and a strange new age of live celebrity psychedelic exhibitionism was born—an era arguably at odds with the drug’s introspective nature. The five-and-a-half-hour live stream, which has been viewed more than 1.1 million times, also featured Johnson’s 20-year-old son Talmidge, who has received blood transfusions in an attempt to stay young, journalist Ashley Vance, DJ Seth Grimes, and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. YouTuber MrBeast, pictured in a cartoon poster promoting the event, didn’t make an appearance, which probably counts as a blessing in disguise for most high-flyers.
Observers noted that live streaming an intense psychedelic trip may not be helpful, as it can lead to distracted attention and performance stress. Johnson seemed to acknowledge this before taking the mushrooms, saying, “I guess the biggest question is, can I go off the rails?”
“Having the whole world watching you may not facilitate the best outcome,” says Ryan Zafar, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Psychiatry and Neuropharmacology Research at Imperial College London. “Brian’s collection speaks more of self-dissolution to self-enrichment, and is characteristic of many of his quasi-scientific pursuits. These kinds of experiences are often best held inward and inwardly focused.” (Ego-death, where one’s sense of self dissolves, is an experience some people seek when taking various psychoactive drugs.) Jamie Weil, author of Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex, and Death in a World GoneHe was more brutal in his assessment, telling WIRED that the project was a “circus of self-gratification” and an exercise in “digital narcissism.” “Is this the same psychedelic renaissance that all the libertarians and prisoners of conscience are getting into?” he asked. (Asked if he wanted to respond to criticism of his methods, Johnson told WIRED, “I wish whoever said that the best of luck.”)
But while the person hitting the ball in front of the camera may be performing and less glamorous — at one point Johnson plays with a thin player after declaring that “it’s all alive” — his broadcast could also help reduce the stigma surrounding drug use. “I think it’s fine and dandy to show people what they’re experiencing [of taking psychedelics] Hamilton Morris, a journalist and former consultant to the psychedelic industry, said on the live stream: “It seems that demystifying it somewhat suggests that it can be useful.” Morris hosted Vice. Hamilton Pharmacywhich showed him taking drugs in front of the camera.
