Brian Johnson has discovered Shrooms, and he really wants you to know it

“Come and see me “Journey balls,” Brian Johnson, the entrepreneur behind the longevity podcast Don’t Die, announced on Channel X two days before he livestreamed himself consuming a high dose of psychedelic mushrooms at a psilocybin center in Oregon on Sunday.

This marked the second chapter of his exciting new investigation into whether psilocybin use can improve nearly 250 biomarkers of health, including various measures of brain connectivity, cortisol, and testosterone levels.

“There is a possibility that drugs could play a more important role in all of our lives,” Johnson announced on the live broadcast. “Wouldn’t it be amazing if it was also a treatment for prolonging life?” Before eating the mushrooms on Sunday — which have been legal in licensed facilities in Oregon since 2023 — Johnson measured his brain activity using a $50,000 helmet made by Kernel, a neuroimaging company founded by the 48-year-old. He also took saliva samples and temperature readings. (After his trip on November 9, he shared a lot of information about his erection status, but more on that later.)

Then drink more than five grams of mushroom powder mixed with lemon juice to increase effectiveness. Johnson smiled, and a strange new era of celebrity drug parading was born, one that arguably ran counter to the introspective nature of drugs. The five-and-a-half-hour livestream, which has been viewed more than 1.1 million times, featured Johnson’s 20-year-old son Talmage, who had his blood injected in his efforts to stay young, journalist Ashley Vance, a DJ from Grimes, and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. YouTube user MrBeast, while appearing on a cartoon poster advertising the event, did not appear, which most tall people would consider a blessing.

Observers have noted that live streaming an intense psychedelic trip may not be beneficial, as it may lead to distraction and performance pressure. Johnson seemed to acknowledge this before eating the mushrooms, saying: “I think the biggest question is, can I not get off track?”

“Enabling the whole world to monitor you may not facilitate the best outcomes,” says Rayan Zafar, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Drug Research and Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London. “Brian’s setup is more about ego enrichment than ego dissolution and is a feature of many of his pseudoscientific endeavors. This type of experimentation is often best done through introspective, inward focus.” (Ego death, where one’s sense of self dissolves, is an experience some people seek when taking many psychedelics.) Jimmy Whale, author of Reclaiming Ecstasy: Rethinking God, Sex, and Death in a World That Has Lost Its Mindwas more brutal in his assessment, telling WIRED that the project is a “circus of self-indulgence” and an exercise in “digital narcissism.” He wondered: “Is this the narcotic renaissance that all the activists and supposed prisoners of conscience sought?” (When asked if he wanted to respond to criticism of his methods, Johnson told WIRED: “Whoever said that, I wish them luck.”)

But while someone stumbling in front of the camera may seem performative and not particularly attention-grabbing — at one point Johnson plays with a glamorous girl after declaring “All’s Alive” — broadcasting it could also help reduce the stigma around drug use. “I think it’s all well and good to show people what the experience is like [of taking psychedelics] “It seems to be to demystify it somewhat, to show that it can be useful,” journalist and former psychedelic industry consultant Hamilton Morris said on the live broadcast; Morris hosted Vice. Hamilton PharmacopoeiaWho filmed him using drugs in front of the camera.