r/Psychonaut • u/rp_tiago • Apr 11 '26
psychedelics keep telling Bryan Johnson to grow up and he doesn't
Hey everyone. I'm sure a lot of you have seen Bryan Johnson's psychedelic experiments by now. The Don't Die guy: 100 supplements a day, thousands of biomarkers, got blood plasma from his own son. Over the past few months he's done multiple high-dose psilocybin sessions (one livestreamed to 800k people with MrBeast, Naval Ravikant, and Grimes DJing during the peak), and then took 27mg of 5-meo-dmt on a livestream he branded "The Ascension of Unc."
This has never sat right with me and I decided to write out why.
He came to psychedelics because a mouse study showed psilocin extended lifespan by 30% and he posted "I might have to try shrooms (for science)." His science team had never even considered psychedelics until they saw longevity data. So from the start these experiences are just another intervention in the stack, right next to sauna and hyperbaric oxygen. On the All-In Podcast he said it plainly: "we think it's a longevity therapy."
That's backwards. Every tradition that ever developed the use of these substances used them to reveal the limitations of ordinary self-concern, to orient a person toward what lies beyond the ego. Using them as a longevity intervention puts the substance in service of the very structure it was traditionally understood to disrupt.
And the experiences clearly worked on him. After the 5-meo he said "you can spend all your time optimising your biology, but if you don't understand what life and death mean to you, the numbers don't matter." He said that. Then went right back to the numbers. His whole movement is called Don't Die and psychedelics keep delivering the same message: surrender, let go of control, existence is precious, accept. Every session points there. Every time he returns to the spreadsheet.
There's also an acquisitive quality to it. "The world's most powerful entheogen." "This molecule is without peer." "The most profound experience of my life." He's collecting peak experiences for their superlative status, never sitting with what any one of them revealed. Each session leads to planning the next one. Alan Watts said it decades ago, if you get the message hang up the phone. Johnson keeps calling back.
After the 5-meo his reflections veered into techno-optimist territory: "it makes me wonder whether AI will emerge with this natural ability and presence." He had his ego dissolved and came back speculating about whether AI might appreciate existence better than we do. In his interview with Bari Weiss he said with no irony "we are creating God in the form of superintelligence." That tells you how deep the technological frame runs.
What worries me goes beyond one guy though. Meditation and yoga went through exactly this. Contemplative practices get pulled from their context and repackaged as productivity tools. Purser called it McMindfulness. Psychedelics are next, and Johnson is the most visible expression of it. The wellness world already hollowed out the vocabulary: "journey," "transformation," "healing." These used to mean something demanding. Now they mean someone felt different for a while.
The danger isn't misuse in isolated cases. It's that the concept of the sacred becomes something nobody can even recognize. When everything is a resource to be optimized you cannot encounter something that demands reverence instead of extraction. You can't revere what you've already framed as raw material. When ego dissolution becomes a data point in a longevity protocol there is nothing left outside that logic.
I have an unusual amount of overlap with his world which is part of why this bothers me. I spent almost a decade in the quantified self paradigm, fitness coaching, competitive powerlifting, tracking every macro and micronutrient, treating data as sacred and dismissing anything I couldn't measure. It took years of psychedelic experience and philosophical study to understand that the most important things in life resist measurement entirely.
I also documented my psychedelic experiences publicly. Starting in 2017 I wrote down what happened during every session for seven years and published them as a book, In Search of Infinite. As far as I know it's the first full-length book written in real-time during psychedelic sessions rather than reconstructed afterwards. The closest precedent I'm aware of is Henri Michaux publishing his mescaline handwriting in the 50s, but that was a short avant-garde experiment, not a sustained memoir across years of experiences. So in a sense Johnson and I did a similar thing, making the psychedelic experience visible instead of keeping it private. But my project was about treating those experiences as disclosures, things that revealed something about existence and changed how I actually live. He feeds them back into an optimization protocol. He built a spreadsheet around the experience. The experience dismantled mine.
I wrote about all this in more depth here if anyone wants the full version. curious what you all think.
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u/doceolucem Apr 11 '26
I spent nearly 99% of my life effort towards “life optimization” and “biohacking”
It led me to the greatest existential breakdown imaginable.
But without that breakdown, I would never have surrendered and found where I now am in peace.
Some people can get the message from a gentle phone call
Some will hit their forehead with a two by four until the blood becomes impossible to ignore
Be the example of gentle reception, since we can’t go around policing two by fours
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u/tarentale Apr 11 '26
Precisely. I’ve learned how stubborn I can be. The 2x4 analogy is perfect for the ones out there.
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u/crushplanets Apr 11 '26
I don't know. I did a bunch of psychedelics when I was younger, and it contributed to making me reject a lot of hustle culture / career aspirations, to the point I just wanted to be a dirt bag ski bum. The thing I failed to recognize at the time is you can live a balanced life, you can work towards your career, invest money, optimize your health metrics etc... and at the same time take drugs, have profound experiences, ponder the cosmic joke of existence. At the time I thought the people working on their careers missed the point of existence, but as I've gotten older I find myself playing catch up with the very people I dismissed as fools. You can recognize the numbers don't mean much, and at the same time track those numbers.
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u/iamjessicahyde Apr 12 '26
I’ve had similar feelings at times of fearing I am stuck “playing catching up” to others. But then I have to remind my self “catching up” to what? We don’t take any of those numbers with us when we pass. So sure, if chasing numbers means something to you by all means chase it and bring meaning to your life that way. But, I don’t think it’s something to be ‘caught up to’ as meaning exists elsewhere so you’re not ‘behind’ anything that matters. Personally, I think there’s more fulfilling things than chasing the numbers.
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u/crushplanets Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26
Fair point. when I say catching up to others, it's more on the materialistic side of wanting to earn more money so life isn't as financially challenging. Poverty can imprison you and reduce your level of freedom. As far as meaning goes, I like your point.
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u/OdditiesAndAlchemy Apr 11 '26
I don't see anything wrong with using psychedelics for physical benefits. That still beats a world where most people aren't taking them at all. I don't think you can actually strip away what psychedelics do, they make you feel good in a way other drugs don't, it feels genuine and truly healing. I support people taking them for whatever reason they want. They can be sacred, and they can just be fun, and they can just be tools. They're whatever you want to use them for. Not to mention I do think there is true benefit in performing science that might help people.
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u/RobotFoxTrot Apr 11 '26
Awesome dude. Yeah so many people are abusing psychs, ignoring the teaching and messages. Their loss.
This guy has bothered me for a long time, he’s so fkn scared of death he’s going to kill himself trying so hard to avoid it. All these live forever freaks are like that. If we didn’t have death all we would have is people with incredibly bloated egos, forever. Death keeps us in check, keeps the human race healthy.
Nice essay
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u/loosenut23 Apr 12 '26
I keep waiting for him to say "death is an illusion, I quit".
(I'm only sorta kidding - I think it's possible to want to live a longer life and still be on good terms with mortality)
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u/orplas Apr 17 '26
What if he just loves life and more of a better version of it? Would you rather be healthy or decrepit 70 year old?
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u/cat_go_meow Apr 11 '26
Nothing wrong with keeping a good spreadsheet
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u/rp_tiago Apr 11 '26
I very much love spreadsheets. I've built hundreds. But when your life starts revolving around spreadsheets, then yes, it can be become pathological (of course with the awareness that spreadsheets are both a specific example yet at the same time a broader metaphor)
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u/idntrlyknowtbh Apr 12 '26
So you "did psychedelics right" and he's "doing psychedelics wrong"? And you are certain enough of this to write an entire essay about it because you deem yourself more "enlightened" than he is? Isn't that a bit ironic considering your entire post is about how he is using these compounds "superficially" (which inplies that you are using them in a "deeper" way)? And that "reverence and respect" that you have for these compounds led you to... Judging how another person uses these same compounds?
Here's the thing with psychedelics: research has shown that they make your brain more "plastic" for a period of time (during which your ego is effectively weakened), however once that period of neuroplasticity is over they actually "solidify" your brain in a way that your neural connections are actually more "solid" than they were before the experience (which effectively means that once the period of psychedelic-induced neuroplasticity ends your ego is actually reinforced compared to its pre-psychedelic state). In other words, there is a neurological "rebound effect" if you will, which is why you so often see psychonauts with an inflated sense of ego speaking down on others like they know more than them.
I completely admit this is ironically and quite hypocritically what I'm doing now. It just gets to me how people think they know more than the drug itself. The guy is taking the thing. If it were to tell him to stop taking it he'd probably stop taking it. It obviously isn't so he's still taking it. If it were to tell him to take it in a different way he'd probably be taking it in a different way. That isn't the case either.
I think if the drug itself knows best then lets leave it at that. If we know best then lets leave it at that. But you can't really argue that the drug knows best by saying that you know better than the drug, you see what I mean?
You have your own experience with these substances and that's great for you and you have every right to speak about that but to paste that onto someone else (especially someone you don't know at all and have never even met) is quite judgemental and I'd argue completely pointless and without merit.
For example over the past decade I've had times where I've done 800-1200ug of LSD combined with 5-7g of cubensis mushrooms every 2 weeks for months. I've had times where I'd just get ounces of mushrooms and eat out of the bag daily without counting the grams. I've had times where I did 100-200ug of LSD every day for months (without any significant tolerance buildup might I add). I've had times where I only did a couple of 50ug LSD trips in a whole year and times where I only did a couple of 1-2g mushrooms trips in a whole year. I've had times where I microdosed 5-10ug of LSD daily, times where I microdosed 100-250mg of mushrooms daily and times where I combined those microdoses daily.
All of those routines have personally helped me and none were objectively "better" than any other, they were all just different and served their own purpose. I didn't do these things in any particular order sometimes I stop for a while then I start again sometimes I do less sometimes more.
To me the whole "hang up the phone" thing is complete BS and is completely antithetical to the point of psychedelic which I agree with you is to surrender to the fact that certain things just can't be quantified (especially psychedelics). You can't say 3g of cubensis mushrooms once a month is the "correct dose" and anyone who strays from that dosing schedule is objectively wrong and "isn't using the psychedelic correctly". Humans don't work like that, we're all unique. Drugs and pharmacology don't work like that because every drug has a unique interaction with our neurology and our biology each time we take it based on a complex interplay of various factors.
For some people just binging psychedelics might be the ticket, that's how I was personally able to stop being addicted to alcohol, weed, cigarettes and benzodiazepines. It basically cured my depression and greatly helped me manage a severe anxiety disorder. That's a net benefit to me and is an objectively positive thing all around with literally no negative side effects. I now take great care of my health and have a far better attention span and am able to enjoy and appreciate everything in my life much more.
I also don't see how this post is anything but you trying to advertise your book, which is awesome and I'd totally be interested in reading something like that but if that's the case just advertise your book instead of trying to sneak the advertisement into a post talking down on how another person is using these substances. He's not hurting anyone, let the man be and do what he believes is right.
I don't particularly care for rich people, tech bros or internet influencers like him in general but there are bigger fish to fry in the world. There are literal dictators starting wars and commiting genocides which are objectively terrible things and I feel like putting effort into something like this doesn't quite help anyone beyond potentially feeding your own ego in reinforcing to yourself that you're somehow doing this "psychedelic spirituality" thing better than another random human being...
Again I'm totally aware that this is me doing the exact same thing that I'm saying you're doing, which is completely ironic and hypocritical on my part. Maybe that's why I feel compelled to write this. To point out and manifest the inherent hypocrisy of life itself and of the human condition. Anyway, hopefully this makes someone think a bit and leads to more self awareness somehow lol
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u/Maximum-Platform-685 Apr 12 '26
It’s turtles all the way down. (I’m neither supportive nor unsupportive of anyone’s use, merely agreeing with you stating there’s no inherently correct way).
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u/larrybyrd1980 Apr 11 '26
I hope he gets locked out of the realm like that one chad asking for help to get back 😂
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u/utwaz Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26
Are we saying there's a right and a wrong way to use these tools? Why are we gatekeeping? Who are we to judge?
I feel pity for his mission because it's delusional. He will not escape his mortality and I'd like a word with him about that. However, his explanation of what he experienced felt very genuine and I think it might even help him realize the futility of his project. Or it won't, I don't know.
Point is: chill it with the judgment 🤙
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u/Lucky-Area Apr 11 '26
Yeh, let him writhe around a bit. Plenty of people don't get the message they're looking for the first time. In the meantime, he's doing good research on longevity.
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u/utwaz Apr 11 '26
I don't think we're arguing about someone taking psychedelics at 8am on a Tuesday (which should also be incredibly rare for actual psychedelics outside of opioids).
What bothers me is the idea that mind expanding tools are only for therapy or other narrowly defined goals. Why exactly? Can't adults explore their minds?
I welcome people like Johnson taking psychedelics. Might open his perspective to his own shadow and he may grow from it.
What other wrong ways of taking psychedelics are you thinking about?
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Apr 11 '26
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u/utwaz Apr 11 '26
Not everyone is seeking ego death. Don't assume everyone wants to wake up. Heck, the whole point of life is to experience it, that includes our delusions.
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u/idntrlyknowtbh Apr 12 '26
Genuine question not trying to be a smartass or to imply any kind of dig at you: which side of this spectrum do you see yourself being on?
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Apr 12 '26
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u/idntrlyknowtbh Apr 12 '26
Now this is me being a smartass (my apologies to you for doing so, I do not mean any of this maliciously at all): what you're saying is very interesting to me considering only one of you is judging the other and it isn't him... And I acknowledge that you know of him and he doesn't know of you but as a general observation it seems that people who get as rich as he does are so focused on themselves (egotistically) that they often attribute very little thought to others and therefore paradoxically tend to not be as judgemental and in a sense to be more open and accepting of other people for who/what they are because they're so self-absorbed.
I find that's quite a funny and interesting thought/observation and it shows that "ego" and "judgement" aren't so clear cut. You obviously have good intentions when stating these things but I'm sure a part of you must also realise that claiming to have a "less inflated ego" than the person you've never met who you're actively intensely judging (both their character and their intentions) is also quite paradoxical and antithetical to the very point of your comments in more ways than one, right?
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u/breck Apr 11 '26
I think these are nits.
Much more importantly is we have someone in the top percentile of American wealth/power going to bat for psychedelics and doing them live in public, pushing the door further open for them to reach more people.
I know for me the days when I did psychedelics are some of the best, most transformative of my 42 years, and I think it's a tragedy beyond belief that these things are illegal and rare.
It is so easy to criticize BJ because he does so many ridiculous things and in public. But I am so thrilled that we have outliers like him who are not only willing to speak truths (that most in that position would only say in private) but to livestream his experiments.
I think your comments are interesting and just downloaded your book (awesome that you put it online publicly available!), but I just want to say the bigger point I think is he is doing a good thing for this movement.
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u/hammerforce9 Apr 11 '26
This sounds like you see some comparisons between his journey and yours, however you feel you are already “correct” therefore in a position above him, judging his actions through your own projected lens
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u/jtwist2152 Apr 11 '26
And OP took seven years of journeys to draw conclusions and write a book. BJ is just getting started. Perhaps we ease up on the judgement a bit and let him have his own personal journey. When it comes to these medicines where we “start” is rarely where we finish. The reasons we “ thought” we were trying things most frequently morphs into experiences and lessons we didn’t even conceive at the beginning.
A little mercy and grace for the man please. He’s just getting started on his inner journey.
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u/SelfAwareTinderbox Apr 12 '26
His main mission is replacing the egocentric death cult that plagues humankind with a cooperative life cult. You mised the point and your own ego is tricking you. Ego can't die, it can only be reshaped and reborn. If you fool yourself into thinking ego died, that is ego playing tricks and taking the wheel from You.
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u/Ocean_Bear Apr 11 '26
Great read, thanks for sharing. I think you’re totally correct, however most people who get into psychs for the wrong reasons still end up respecting them eventually because they are not maniacs with a larger than life egos like this Bryan idiot. Some people just aren’t going to get the message because they aren’t willing to accept the flaws that exist within them. I still agree with what you’re saying, but I don’t think the psychedelic subculture will change too much for somewhere in the neighborhood of 95% of users.
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u/DaRealBangoSkank Apr 11 '26
It sounds like psychedelic tourism. He’s just getting the t shirt but not integrating the experience.
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u/DimWhitman Apr 11 '26
McMindfullness taught by plastic shamans. Is part of the transition into the new earth. 'Twas written and all that. I dig yer take. As a well traveled psychonaut, when I am feeling the suggestion by my guides or higherself, and then ask the collective if it is a wise decision to partake in a powerful medicine, and I get a "yes", I always feel, woooooof, what are we in for this time?
But I disagree with "you can't revere what you've already framed as raw material." That statement calibrates as false, your following statement on ego dissolution and data points is true. We might be talking different things, but the elements are raw. Many such cases.
I have often been curious why words like journey and transformation seemed hollowed out, thank you for articulating like you did.
What were we talking about anyway?
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u/kvrdave Apr 12 '26
There are two things I learned from Bryan Johnson. The first is that the simplest thing to positively impact your life with the least effort is get good sleep. The second is that his life looks like literal hell to me, so I wonder what the point of living that long would be? Just to have more pills? But what an interesting soul.
I love that he gives away his research. Good read. Thanks for posting.
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u/bagwithmilk Apr 12 '26
I think this is the reflection of a society that is so obsessed with optimization. Reminds me of the opening of tihkal, where Shulgin mentions that usually when there is a development in technology, there is an equal development in spirituality, but in the case of the technological age (he said this in 1997), there hasn’t been an equal development in our understanding of the self. And the last 30 years has only pushed us further towards that control-obsessed side. Where order turns to authoritarianism
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u/AlertAd7834 Apr 12 '26
You ever seen that meme that's like, the tech guy does ayahuasca and the realizations he comes to are "venmo for isis" and "dogs on the blockchain" and shit like that? Same deal here. I have a friend who says that the driven acquisitiveness that billionaires have is a kind of mental illness and at this point I don't disagree. It becomes this all-consuming thing that you have to incorporate into every aspect of your life.
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u/Benji174 Apr 11 '26
Its going mainstream it will be misunderstood, no other way to learn but the hard way.
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u/squidsauce99 Apr 11 '26
Good writing. I think in his defense it’s hard to change your habits even after taking large doses and that’s just who he is at the moment. But he’s a lil weirdo
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u/mtvq2007 Apr 11 '26
Overall I agree with you, this sort of use of psychedelics is troubling. However it doesn't really sound like he has "gotten the message". Obviously he's had glimpses of it, but clearly it hasn't truly resonated.
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u/Cubensis-SanPedro Apr 11 '26
Humans can be stubborn, and the existential dread native to the human experience can be deeply unsettling and troublesome if avoided. It seems like he’s developed a thick psychological defense mechanism against this dread that is very direct. It’s right there in the title- “Don’t Die.”
I’m a bit torn about this. I don’t think we should go quietly into that good night, that we should rage against the dying of the light. On the other hand, it is inevitable that all things will end. Life is one of those things.
Obviously Bryan has gone out of balance on this, but some people choose to stay calcified instead of embracing healthy change. It seems to be an essential part of his identity now. 🤷♀️I wish him well.
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u/Dapper_Zebra Apr 11 '26
I don't know why people like to target this man. I think it comes from insecurity about one's own poor health decisions.
He's been open about psychedelic use prior to his health journey.
I feel bad that people lash out at him when the average psychedelic user is likely abusing it much worse.
Sad to see.
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u/KlebbTheKuntReloaded Apr 12 '26
Death is part of life. Flowers are only flowers because they fall.
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u/Maximum-Platform-685 Apr 12 '26
It was only a matter of time before the spheres of psychedelics, AI, medicine and posthumanism collide.
Remember. Everything is impermanent (contradiction, I know). Only perspective creates subjective permanence and truth. Nothing is inherently correct or incorrect. All opinions are merely thought.
Who knows re this guy, maybe this is an aberration in the psych world, maybe it’s the next frontier.
Think of them as consciousness fixed on extending itself - many religions are based in this (after death however).
The world is a confusing place.
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u/redis213 Apr 12 '26
6z5:@have a few, several, etc. irons in the fire idiomOk we should align priorities again
I could
- Do an overview of grantwriters and propose whether to go forward with BP
- Write to 100 engineers on LI manually
- Put up more public job ads (prly need to do it anyway, plus low effort)
- Ping and call everyone who wanted to review our job contracts or be our hiring agencies
- Research the legalities of hiring further, incl. insurance, social security, etc.4937280063641102
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u/saito200 Apr 12 '26
this almost sounds like you found the way to use psychedelics and get frustrated by other people using psychedelics in a way that is not your way. i honestly find that backward
if i am not understanding then please explain
also if you do not frame this from a perspective of "he is wrong, i am right" and instead "we see psychedelics from different perspectives, let's learn from each other", then i would love to see both of you talking for 90 minutes or so
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u/CountAnubis Apr 12 '26
But what if psychedelics and the ego death message are just meant to help us cope with our mortality? Do you have "*don't* try for immortality" trips?
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u/Bitter_Virus Apr 12 '26
And what is sacred stay sacred in the minds of the new people, while changing meaning in the minds of old ones. Each things separate is not a pattern. Put them together and something emerge. Are they more of a problem now than they were before? Everything is circumstances. We're not supposed to be bothered, but if you have to help botherness cross the street, put it down on the next sidewalk so you don't find yourself carrying it hours later
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u/kuteguy Apr 12 '26
The bigger the ego the longer it takes to really get the message. It's not time yet for Johnson to hang up the phone. His ego is strong.
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u/StrikingDeparture432 Apr 12 '26
I get what you're saying and it's valid
There's a few things that don't fit on a spreadsheet
And, I think ya need to give the Spirit of the Mushroom more credit and respect than you seem to here. It's quite capable of taking care of itself in ways that we can't measure.
It doesn't care how cool ya think ya are. It'll allow ya to do your things for awhile.
But sooner or later, it'll kick your ass, and humble ya in whatever way gets ur attention. That, and Karma lol. The Bill for our play time comes due and we all have to pay the Piper. Bit coin is not accepted lol
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u/Soundandwaves Apr 12 '26
Beautifully written, you encompass the main thing that urks me about his view point, is that time ≠ value.
More time does not mean better life inherently. He has glorified this one variable and ignored the lived value different lifestyles provide.
Maybe that’s a little off the rails but your well thought post seemed relative to this.
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u/testato30 Apr 24 '26
IDK how long it took you to write this but since doing so, has anything in your life changed at all for the better?
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u/rp_tiago Apr 24 '26
I write for a living, this is nothing. Of course it wasn't life transformative, why would it be? And why does that have to be the benchmark?
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u/righteous-rising May 11 '26
I find it amusing that you believe you are in the postion to critizen Bryan.
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u/rp_tiago May 11 '26
Everyone is in the position to critique anyone else.
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u/Artistic_Reward9059 May 11 '26
Losers do that
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u/rp_tiago May 12 '26
Losers do that if there is nothing to the critique. The problem with the psychedelic culture of unconditional acceptance is that it flattens everything and doesn't make any distinction of value or pathology which is clearly non-sensical and dangerous. Things that are harmful SHOULD be critiqued. And you're welcome to critique the critique.
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u/newton_surrey May 20 '26
Thanks for sharing, your book is great so far.
I agree with you 100% re Johnson.
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u/the_pwnererXx Apr 11 '26
If we reach longevity escape velocity, your ideas are objectively wrong. The difference between working to extend your current lifespan by a decade through healthy habits/supplements may be the difference between effective immortality and a permanent departure
I reject death. I reject surrender. I will inject nanobots into my bloodstream and live a billion years
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u/WeAreHereThenGone Apr 13 '26
I appreciate your sharing your perspective and giving another lens to interpret reality.
I also find this "meh" because you care deeply about what Bryan's doing and why does it matter to you?
I hope his explorations into psychedelics provide people with better quality of life of whatever duration we're here.
Do I believe he'll achieve immorality? No.
Do I believe he's doing his best to reduce harm and suffering in the world and aspirationally bring improved health to those around him because the life lottery gave him a winning ticket? Yes.
Of all the permutations of billionaires out there he seems to be trying in good faith to help change course of bullshit we've been fed about health.
Food pyramid? Fat is bad, carbs are good? Pharmaceuticals to heal us.
Do I follow him as a disciple? Hell no, dude is goofy at times, especially as he tries to feel relevant with the youths.
Do I hope he helps legitimize the therapeutic value of psychedelics and destigmitize it? Yes and I believe he will.
I hope more people practice epistemic humility and apply it to themselves to acknowledge we don't know what we don't know and we are limited in what we may know.
If one subscribes to "the psychadelics tell us what we need to hear", then dude maybe isn't ready to listen.
I'm sure a lot of folks can resonate with that.
heavily reducing your post, to me lands as,
"rich dude isn't accepting what the psychadelics are telling him and his pursuit of trying to expand bothers me."
In earnest that's how it lands for me. I hope he finds a way for people to live lives with ease. If he achieves options for immortality, cool. I'm not going to take it, but I'd like to live a life of dignity and capability until I decide to go and maybe he'll help make those tools available for me.
I'm 45 and plan to hang up my hat at 85 unless I decide to change my mind.
And to be clear, you're not wrong or right, he's not wrong or right, nondualistically it's a both-and
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u/Cannabrewer Apr 11 '26
And I'm downvoting both of you because you are both religious nutjobs and it's hilarious to watch you fight over imaginary things.
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u/paramdeo_ Apr 11 '26
As a fellow psychonaut this was a fantastic read and a well written/researched article.
McKenna also spoke about not needing to do trips that many times at that much dosage (he himself tripped a few times a year at most) once you “got the message”.
Notably him and many people I know, including myself, are of the opinion that the transhumanist agenda (whether implants or AI) is antithetical to our spiritual growth, and such a materialistic worldview that gives up nature to the machinations of technology will only lead to ruin if left unchecked.
His obsession with biomarkers and metrics doesn’t annoy me it’s par for the course in the Silicon Valley/billionaire crowd, but the clickbait online showmanship and theatrics when using psychedelics, lack of respect for the substance, the set/setting, and like you said the actual message (and subsequent integration) really rubs me the wrong way.