Just last week we reported on Bryan Johnson, the billionaire entrepreneur turned self-imposed guinea pig in his quest for eternal life . If you’ve been following the ever-escalating saga you’ll know that the latest step in his youth-hunt is taking high doses of psilocybin, the psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms.
But he didn’t just take almost 5g of magic mushrooms (which is known as a ‘heroic dose!’)
He also live-tweeted the whole thing.
A Different Kind of Experiment
Unlike the rest of us — who might have our first psychedelic moment in a dorm room or at a festival —Johnson did it in peak biohacker form: under medical supervision, in a legal setting, with a professional facilitator, and with a co-founder (Kate Tolo) on standby to live-document everything from his water fascination to his salad-based revelations.
The dose?
4.67 grams of magic mushrooms, equating to 24.9 mg of psilocybin, the same range used in modern clinical trials.
But unlike how you or I might trip, it was a clinical journey. The kind aimed squarely at ego dissolution.
And by the looks of it, the ego… dissolved accordingly.
“This Trip Changed Me”
When Johnson resurfaced (and, crucially, was handed his phone back), he declared:
“Yes, this trip changed me. Probably not as you’d expect.”
For someone known for his ironclad routines, chemical precision, and spreadsheets for every bodily function, Johnson’s trip veered in an unexpected direction: emotion, perception, and connection.
Through Tolo’s posts and his later breakdown, we get a glimpse into Johnson 2.0, at least momentarily freed from the quantified-self hamster wheel.
Some highlights:
- He became absorbed in the feel of water, and got… poetic about it.
- He experienced child-like sensory wonder, amazed at the texture of a blanket and the novelty of rubbing his fingers together.
- His heart rate (normally tracked, scrutinised, and interpreted) simply… existed without his awareness. This alone seemed revolutionary for him.
- He felt an unexpected emotional bond with the internet, declaring: “Feels like family. You’re a**holes and terrible. … Still love you all anyways.”
Psychedelic Insights, Biohacker Style
Then came the “trip report,” Johnson’s attempt to summarise the ineffable in neat bullet points.
He described his sensory perception as being “reset to youthful levels,” like his consciousness had hit “factory settings”— a phrase remarkably in line with therapeutic psilocybin research, where participants often report feeling emotionally or perceptually renewed.
Once he moved past the sensory realm, his mind launched into existential territory: death, the flaws of modern society, AI, Ozempic, the nature of desire, and his personal theory that body positivity “isn’t real” because no one truly wants to be overweight. These views, predictably, set the internet ablaze — though it’s good to remember that it can take a little time to separate the psychedelic-insight wheat from the psychedelic-nonsense chaff.
But the key takeaway wasn’t the hot-button commentary, it was the tone. Johnson wasn’t positioning himself as the lone architect of a new human future. He was exploring, curious, less rigid, more… human.
Psychedelics have a way of doing that.
A Post-Trip Identity Crisis (Kinda)
Another interesting twist came days later, when Johnson posted a travel update from Washington, D.C.:
“A pair of underwear and toothbrush would be so much easier. Sometimes I think you’re right and this whole thing has gotten out of control and I need to chill.”
This sent the internet into what can only be described as a collective spit-take.
Was the king of quantified optimisation rethinking everything after a single mushroom trip?
Users chimed in with predictable glee:
- “That’s the psilocybin talking.”
- “One mushroom trip and he realised it’s all really not that serious.”
- “They tend to open people up to different ways of living.”
Suddenly, Bryan Johnson’s “Don’t Die” empire looked a little shakier. Or at least, more self-aware.
It wasn’t the first hint, either. Months before, he’d admitted he might sell his company because running it was a “pain-in-the-a**.” After spending $2 million a year trying not to age, the vibes were starting to shift.
But Was He Serious? Not Exactly.
When speculation peaked, Johnson clarified:
“I’m playing with this post, making fun of myself… this post is play and not serious.”
But if there’s one predictable side-effect of psychedelics, it’s that they often sneak a little introspective truth into the joke drawer.
Even if he’s still fully committed to his journey, something in his tone seemed softer. Less rigid. More open.
The Bigger Picture: Psychedelics & Purpose
From a psychonaut perspective, Johnson’s experience echoes what countless psychedelic users report:
- A heightened sensory world
- Increased emotional openness
- Dissolution of rigid thought patterns
- A reevaluation of priorities
- The ability to laugh at oneself (sometimes for the first time in years!)
Psilocybin isn’t magic in the “instant enlightenment” sense. It’s more like holding a mirror to your inner world. And for someone whose whole life revolves around optimisation, it’s fascinating to see Johnson confronted not with metrics, but with meaning.
