What We Learned From Bryan Johnson’s Magic Mushroom Experiments
A few weeks ago, Bryan Johnson – the guy who’s spent millions trying to reverse aging and famously got blood transfusions from his son – downed 5 grams of mushrooms, strapped on fancy brain-scanning headgear, and livestreamed the whole thing while vibing to Grimes.
It was bizarre. But also potentially one of the most important self-experiments in the emerging field of psychedelic longevity research.
This Mushroom Makes You See Tiny People And It’s Baffling Scientists
Colin Domnauer, a PhD student at the Natural History Museum of Utah, recently published a fascinating piece about Lanmaoa asiatica, a mushroom that's been causing what scientists call "lilliputian hallucinations" across multiple cultures for potentially thousands of years. And it's be one of the most intriguing mushroom stories I've come across.
Could Magic Mushrooms Have ‘Woken Up’ Our Ancestors?
There’s a theory about human evolution that sounds like it was conceived during a particularly good mushroom trip-because, well, it kind of was. Terence McKenna’s “Stoned Ape Theory” has been dismissed as psychedelic fantasy for decades.
But new research in neuroscience and epigenetics is forcing scientists to take another look at the wild idea that psilocybin mushrooms actually helped make us human.
“What else could have had this kind of influence on this rapid neural evolution?”
33 Religious Leaders Took A Heroic Dose Of Magic Mushrooms, For Science
Nearly a decade ago, researchers Roland Griffiths, Stephen Ross, and Anthony Bossis did something unprecedented. They recruited 33 professional clergy members from Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism, gave them high doses of psilocybin (the active compound in magic mushrooms), and tracked what happened to their spiritual lives over the next 16 months.
The results, published in 2025 in Psychedelic Medicine, are striking.
Other Mushroom News
Zombi Fungus - Scientists have discovered a gruesome spider-killing mushroom from brazil
Sweet Spot - New study suggests that a moderate 10mg dose of psilocybin reduces OCD symptoms
Get Dirty - The mix of fungi and bacteria living in your local soil is the single biggest factor for protection against childhood allergies
Gut Health - New review reveals mushrooms restore the conditions your microbiome needs to heal
Ergothioneine - Unique compound found in mushrooms protects your brain from Alzheimer’s by boosting NAD+
Liberty Cap - How the UK’s favourite magic mushroom shaped British counterculture and changed the world