I Tried Psilocybin for Science (Livestream Highlights)
In this live‑stream, Bryan Johnson ingests a high dose (≈5.3 g) of psilocybin as part of a self‑experiment to explore whether the compound can act as a longevity therapy. The session is overseen by Dr. Carl Seeger, a longevity physician, and is documented with an extensive biomarker panel (249 markers) and real‑time brain‑oxygen imaging using the Kernel device, which Bryan founded. Throughout the trip, Bryan narrates his subjective psychedelic experience—vibrations, visual vividness, loss of inhibition, and a sense of deep connectivity—while his son Talmage, guests Ashley Vance and Ryan, and the research team provide commentary and emotional support. The discussion weaves scientific rationale (pre‑clinical data suggesting psilocybin can reverse cellular aging via epigenetic re‑programming), pharmacokinetic details (Tmax, Cmax), legal context (Schedule I status, potential re‑classification), and historical/cultural perspectives on plant medicines. The stream aims to demystify psychedelics, showcase rigorous measurement, and spark public dialogue about using psychedelics for healthy aging rather than solely for psychiatric disorders.
Chapters
It's a really big dose. What's it like seeing your dad do a psychedelic? Yeah, my whole body's vibrating. I just need to say it's hit motion down. Woo woo. Wow. She feels so still. Your face is dancing pretty insane. Insane situation. Can you believe it? That this is actually happening? People wondering if we were trolling them and well, here we are. We are doing an experiment to see if psilocybin is potentially a longevity therapy. We will see. This is dose number two of three doses total. How are you feeling about this? Like, are you ready? You know, honestly, I'm really nervous because last time I did this, my inhibitions were just washed away and I was willing to think and say pretty much anything. Where normally you have these checks in your brain where you have a thought and it's like, should I say that thought? Is that an appropriate thought to say? And you can stop it. And when, when you're deep within the mushrooms, you really don't have those inhibitions anymore. And so if I go off the rails, I'm probably just gonna put a face mask on and lay down. Yeah. All right. I think we have Dr. Carl Seeger. He's been helping us with this protocol. He's a longevity physician. This type of experiment is kind of what you to start happening. There's some pre clinical trials that show high dos psilocybin can reverse biologic aging in human cells. Why are you doing these magic mushrooms? Like what is your purpose for this trip? We're trying to say what therapies in the world could actually help us slow down our speed of aging and reverse aging damage. Now we don't know if psilocybin will be that, but we're wanting to explore it. So today we're measuring through this experiment 249 biomarkers. It's the most quantified psychedelic experiment in Brian Fields. We started Kernel seven years ago. What is Kernel? We took advances that were happening in LIDAR and consumer electronics and we made kind of a pulse oximeter on steroids that's able to measure the oxygen in your brain. And so you can kind of map out what parts of the brain are active at what given time. And then you can use that to start to look at things like brain health or signatures of drug interactions or mental states. And yeah, we're gonna do about 30 minutes of baseline measurements now, from saliva testing to thermal body heat measurement to blood pressure and then also kernel. Any parting words? Good luck. I'll see you on the other side. That's perfect. How Are you feeling great? I'm really excited. I mean, I'm ready for this. I was feeling nervous. I don't feel it anymore. I'm gonna go prepare this. I'm going to take all of the lower one, the 4.67 grams, and then I'm going to add an additional 0.56 grams so that it equals 5.3 grams. 4.67. We're at 4.9. We're trying to hit 5.23. Hey. Uh. Oh. Five point. 5.32. That's all right. Do you want to take a little bit out? I. I think you should take a little bit out. As you guys can see, I'm a little bit more conscious of. I want Brian to. Hey, good job. Cheers. Mushroom up. Mush them down. Lemony. Lemony. All right, we're gonna put some more lemon in there to get all the little second bits. We only need a second mushroom time. Our second. Get the remaining mushroom up. All right. Oh, God, it's so funny. Okay, we have a special guest. Oh, okay. Yes. Hey, Talmage. Oh, hello, you guys. This is my son, Talmadge. How are you doing? I mean, what's it like seeing your dad do, you know? Psychedelic. Sometimes people ask me, it's like, oh, what does your dad do? And I feel like I never really know what to say. Yeah. And I think I have something in my toolkit now of like, oh, he. He, like, occasionally, like, trips balls on X in front of hundreds of thousands of people. I don't. I don't think a lot of people can say that. It's so fun to watch. Like, it's like, it's all played to me. It's so fun. It's so funny. Talmage really is a phenomenal son. He is overjoyed when I experience something that I'm happy about. So, Talmage, I love you very much. I think you're really an amazing person. I feel lucky to be your dad, and I'm so happy that we're doing life together. Could not have said it better. I love you too. I have, like, no trepidation about seeing you do this. This is. This is amazing. When's the next thing, you know, like, top it off? Totally. I'm excited. I'm. It's like, I get to interact with the child. You maybe, like, the roles are slightly reversed, and I'm in a bit of a parental role, and you're in the. In the childlike role. Yeah, that could be possible. Yeah, that's entirely possible. What do you feel it's just like this. The setting of consciousness just to starts to change. Like you perceive things. Like the filter is different. Yeah, that's right. We have another guest on the call. Ashley. Ashley Vance. When Brian and I first started blueprint and started publishing online and nobody was paying any attention, and then Ashley comes along and writes this banger article that blew up. I did think it would blow up. I'm not sure I could have even imagined it would. It would blow up kind of on the scale. Yeah. I just need to say it's hitting. I mean, it's like so many thoughts and the thoughts that I have make their way to the front much faster. Yeah. There's very few checks right now in place of like. That's not a good idea to say. There we go. That's all. I love that laugh. So you peak in another hour and a half. Wow. Yeah. Okay. My body feels so nimble and supple and loose. Whoa. Now that the whole. The whole room is not pulsating, really, what are you seeing? Everything's. Everything's alive. I love it. Dad, are the. These are the plants speaking to you. Oh, that's so nice. They're close by. They need to be watered. The soil looks a little dry. Well, actually, no, no, if you. If you stick a finger in there, they've been watered recently. This is nice. Okay. They're taken care of, I think. So when I initiate a conversation with you, I have to like preload all these models of like load human model of interacting with someone else. You know, I can feel the brain structure itself in anticipation for conversation. Whereas before it just runs on autopilot. But now you see the modeling, the structure of the mind happen in real time. Can I show you something? Yes. We've got some fun. Oh, that is so fun. How satisfying is that? I mean, that's cool. Yeah. This is a thing where. Yeah. Just being mesmerized by how the metal feels. Yeah. Everything now I see colors and everything. Yeah. My whole body's vibrating. Wow. Just feels so still. You don't want to speak because speak detracts from the beauty. It's like this lower dimensional expression and sensory experience is so much more rich. Oh, this is strong. The visuals are so cool. Yeah. Your face is dancing. I mean, this is. It's a really big dose. Mm. The first dose was 25. This is 28. But it definitely is like knocking me out. It pulls you deep into the experience. You want to hang out deep in the experience. I can feel the strain. It just asks for silence above All. Yeah. It's like demanding you to go inward. Yeah, I think this is a good time. Why don't you lay down for a little bit and just enjoy it, and then we'll come and check in with you in a little bit. What do you think about that? Yeah. All right. Next part of our journey begins the. I guess we're kind of like the educational portion of the show. Possibly. I'm not sure. I guess Brian can't hear us, so can kind of speak freely without worrying about kind of what's going on with him. Hamilton, for this type of dose, are there any normal stages, time, stages of progression in pharmacology, you have these measures, Tmax and cmax. This is like the time to the highest concentration of psilocin and blood plasma. And tmax is like 1.5 to 2 hours after oral ingestion of psilocybin. So he's nearing. Tmax would be the stage. I had a family member addicted to heroin, and I learned about ibogaine, which is a really potent psychedelic, on a Tim Ferriss podcast, and was deeply intrigued because it seemed like maybe this was the only tool that might help people get rid of their opiate addiction. And so I hosted a dinner with a group of Navy SEALs because we learned from these Navy Seals, they'd go to Mexico for one treatment and come back kind of cured of all of their ailments, whether it was ptsd, depression, addiction, traumatic brain injury. Gould Dolan, who's a researcher at Berkeley, who has a theory that these. These tools work by opening critical periods, is testing this hypothesis by treating people who are stroke victim victims with psilocybin and seeing if they can regain motor control. And I love that because I think it moves this conversation out of the subjective psychiatric domain into, like, did they get back motor control or not? And I think that will be really cool. Currently, in the United States, on the federal level, pretty much every major psychedelic drug is a Schedule 1 controlled substance, meaning that they occupy the most restrictive schedule that definitionally states that they have no medical value. The hope is that through medical research that we can start to chip away at that a little bit. And on a federal level, some of these compounds, the main ones being MDMA and psilocybin at the moment in the United States, can be reclassified in such a way that they can be prescribed by physicians. I think it's fine and good to show people what the experience is like, to demystify it to some extent, to show that it can be beneficial. I think if, you know Brian in real life, you know, like, what a generous, wonderful human he is. So I am, like, deeply appreciative of the people like Brian who are, like, busting open the Overton window on what's acceptable to talk about, to research, to film. So what I'm hopeful about, this kind of experiment we're all participating in today is that it'll shift the conversation on psychedelics from tricky psychological disorders to can this tool help healthy people live healthier, more productive, meaningful lives? And I think that's really exciting. What exactly is happening? That's all we want to. Brian. Are we on the right zoom? I don't think I'm going to have a good answer for you on that. Man. Brian's tripping out. I think there's a lot of discovery happening every week right now in factors and molecules that can change gene expression profiles that actually cause cellular rejuvenation, which fundamentally and functionally is the root of all disease. Is this epigenetic aging or epigenetic dysfunction? So as time goes on, the epigenome shifts around, and there have been studies which Brian and I have talked about that have shown that some of these compounds in these psychedelic substances actually change the gene expression profile, and as a result, can have rejuvenating effects. We're in the beginning of incredible moment where, you know, we are able to regenerate parts of our body rather than take that traditional approach that we've kind of been conditioned to think about. And so the magic cure that we're looking for for aging is the molecules that we can apply to any cell in our body that would cause that cell to. To go back to being young again, to putting all of those molecules in the right place on the genome, because the DNA doesn't get that damaged. It's actually the epigenome. There have been a series of papers where they've identified compounds that you can find in these mushrooms that Brian's taken today that may actually have this effect that reset the epigenome and make the tissue youthful again. This may be a natural molecule that we've identified that is an incredible part of this. I think the other part that's incredible is the spiritual, religious part. You know, I think that my interest in what I was going to ask Brian, but I don't think I'm going to be able to based on what's happening. That idea that there's a connection between this religious, spiritual, you know, decades of meditation practice, religious practice, spiritual practice, and the connection back into where we're talking about science and we're still trying to find those bridges and where are those bridges? And I think that, I think that's what Brian is probably trying to do. I'm not going to put words in his mouth, but I think he's trying to find the link. He's not doing this, I think for recreational purposes, I would say. I really appreciate that. Brian is a one man fda. He's like, screw it, I'll just do everything to myself and I'll legitimize it, I'll popularize it, I'll experiment with it, you know, God bless him. I hope he survives for a long time and then give us the cheat codes. That's really what we want. There should be a thousand, Brian, there should be 10,000 Brian's. In terms of mushrooms in particular, these so called plant medicines have been around with humans for as long as humans have. They're a core part of human civilization. A lot of the ancient cultures have some history of psychedelics. Whether it's. There was something in Greek mythology, I forget what it was. The cult of Pythagoras did it. There was something in Indian mythology with soma mushrooms, obviously LSD in the 60s or the hippies, et cetera. So I think mushrooms are fascinating. They've put people into highly natural psycho spiritual states. Yes, you can get there through meditation, but in this modern life, who's got time for that, right? So these are kind of like a cheat code and I think they're interesting for people to try. They seem relatively harmless, especially in small quantities. And yeah, Brian's taking a heroic dose, but I think it's still not going to poison him or anything. And so these are among the oldest living things on earth and humans are relatively new. So I'm not surprised that if you eat their sprouting bodies, AKA the extruded mushroom, that you have some kind of a communion with nature. Because maybe this is the way of some part of nature communicating with us. Obviously very fanciful. I just told Brian that we have to do measurements. It's now time for peak measurements. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. You signed up for this. All right, guys, we now have Dr. Sega back. Hi, Carl. Hey, how are you? You guys look like you're having a great time. I'm so happy for you. Brian. What's going on? There's a lot going on. Hey, Carl. Hey, buddy, how are you? Okay. You look pretty awesome. Thanks. Yeah. Pretty insane situation. Yeah. Look, we've got another guest. Hey, Ryan. Hey, Brian. Family thought together might be able to just lean on your side. And. That's an appropriate thing to say. This is. This is what I thought was going to be the most challenging of all this. Honestly, right here. Collecting your spit at peanut. How you don't. Wait, don't spill the spit. No, don't drop the spit. Whatever you do. How you doing with that? Good. I mean, that's liquid gold right now. It's kind of like, I gotta chew or something like that. I think they're there. They're just. We can't see them. Oh, yeah. Come up, guys. Try and. We're here. How you doing? We're here. We're just trying not to distract you. Yeah. Here. You have to burn it. This is so funny. Yeah, this is what happened last time. And we take so long to get the measurements. Keep going. You can do it, Brian. I believe in you. Which Grimes. This is where you need a DJ set. Something to really encourage. Bring the whole family back in. Yeah. Okay. I think. I think you need more. Oh, yeah. Wait, wait. Don't spill it. I really. No, no. I just have motor control. I definitely am aware of, like, the. How much. Yeah, I'm not gonna spill it. Okay. Okay. Next we're. Oh, that was so bad. That was so long. 0.33. You got this. Thanks, Carl. Ryan, do you have any words for me? Focus. Thanks, Ryan. Oh, you guys. Ryan. I felt. Ryan, I felt like. That was like a. You wanted me to get a bad score. That really got to me. It was a 0.4. Yeah. That was my worst score. That was my worst score. Hey, guys, come back. Yeah. It's because he can't see you. He thinks that you're not there. Sorry, John. Okay, I'm going extra quick. There's damage. We can hear you. Hey. Hey, dad. You seem very giddy. Yeah, I'm having a good time. He probably just peaked. Really? Yeah. Talmage. I have outsourced the whole situation. I'm just pure experience. How's that? It's the best. It's the best. Now you guys here, it's like. This is like peak life. Dad, I love you so much. Thank you, son. I love you to death, you know that. I love seeing you so happy. I love seeing you so relieved of stuff, you know? I mean. Yeah. There you are, just floating along. How did you feel about connectivity? I was telling Talmage that's been a lot on my mind from last time is you seem to really be overcome by all connections. By the connectivity of everything. People, places, things. Yeah. Yeah, I guess, like, it just overjoys me that you guys are here with me. Like, it just. Talmadge, I love you so much. Talmage, I love you so much. I love you, too. Go. Go. I found it so funny. It felt like, maybe this is, like, my misread, but he asked. He asked you a question, and, like, you just answered a completely different way. I just love being with you guys. It wasn't like. It was like you just, like, he asked the question, and you were like, oh, it's like when. Like, a parent's talking to a little kid and it's, like, completely somewhere else. That was my experience of it. Oh, tell me. Even you right now, your body language and like, every. Like, you're. It feels like you're a child right now. You have, like, this. This glow, this smile, this like, you just got out, you came out the womb type of situation. Talmage, I love you. I love you so much. It brings me so much joy. Yeah. Like, so parents, this is, like, it's worth it. Kids suck on so many levels. Like, they. They're, like, so painful on so many levels. Like, they ruin your life on, like, every possible layer. And also, they're, like, the most majestic creations in our reach. And tell me to see your face, like, oh, my God. I'm just. I'm so happy, Dad. I love you so much. Like, we've done the hard work in our relationship. I just. I have deep love for you, and I see you as a person. I see you as a human. No judgment, no filters. I see you. I see you're a majestic being as a person. Well, I love you. You know that? It's a. It's incredible to be in your life. Everybody around you will tell that you are. You're the light that keeps on giving to all of us. And we even like you more on shrooms. Oh, man. It looks very. It looks very good on him. Thomas. That's just exactly the bundle of whatever he was as a boy, you know, just here, there, and you could just see it shine on his face. It's nice. This. I love it. You feel like you're in time out? Yes. Okay. Head forward. Okay. I can do this. You got it. Wait, let's see. Let me get situational awareness. All right. All right. We appreciate you all. Talmage. We love you. I want to say to the public, we love you, too, but I feel like, you know, it's like, you could say. You could say. You could say I don't know you, but I actually do feel like. I mean, like Brian said, it feels like we went into this, thinking we're all connected and that we want you guys to have a really good experience. I'm. I'm high. All right, bye, you guys. Bye, guys. Thanks for hanging out today. Bye.
