Bryan Jonhson has made a name for himself as a controversial figure in the tech world, but long before he was putting himself in hypobaric chambers, undergoing naked red light therapy, or applying ice packs to his testicles, he was just like many other businessmen.
People are often shocked to see before and after pictures of the man 'trying' to live forever, but then again, if you can afford to spend $2 million a year on staying young, you already have an advantage over most of us.
Known as the founder and former CEO of Kernel, Bryan Johnson has always been in the realm of tech, thanks to his company creating devices that monitor and record brain activity. He's also amassed a fortune as the founder of Braintree, with the mobile and web payment systems for e-commerce companies being acquired by Venmo in 2012, and that combined entity being snapped up by PayPal for a meaty $800 million way back in 2013.
These days, Johnson grabs headlines for his anti-aging 'Project Blueprint', as well as stories about injecting his son's blood or measuring his nighttime erection data. When not giving advice on how drinking coffee can potentially extend our lifespan, Johnson is diving into other experimental ideas, like the consumption of magic mushrooms.
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As part of the experiment, the biohacker took 5g of magic mushrooms to see whether it would aid part of his bid to live forever.
This was part of a trial where he was going to take 5g, once a month, for three months. Some were already concerned about Johnson's side quest, especially as American philosopher and ethnobotanist Terence McKenna once said that a 5g dose would be enough for someone to experience a full 'ego death'. McKenna prescribed the trip to those who wanted to seek enlightenment, but funnily enough, something tells us that Johnson might not continue with his experiment.
Explaining what he was up to on X, Johnson said that he was going to explore the effects of the hallucinogenic drugs on longevity by comparing them to 240 biomarkers: "We're casting this really wide net of can we catch anything that demonstrates some kind of rejuvenation or longevity effect?"
During the trip, Johnson's phone was confiscated by Blueprint co-founder Kate Tolo, who took over his socials following a 'heroic dose' of shrooms mixed with orange juice.
After Johnson downed the concoction live on X, Tolo wrote just an hour later: "Sense of time is definitely warped. He thinks more time has passed than it has. thinks he has peaked."
Things soon unravelled for Johnson, as Tolo documented his visual hallucinations, feeling like his face and the trees 'are alive'. Johnson wanted to retire to bed but wasn't allowed because she had to collect a vial of his spit.
This wasn't easy, as they'd just hit 'peak' trip, so it was hard to stay on task to also take blood pressure and conduct a brain scan while Tolo said he just wanted to "return to the playground."
In the aftermath of getting his phone back, Johnson posted a simple but ominous message on X that read: "Hey all, I’m just so happy to be alive."
With his followers and the general public alike demanding to know more, Johnson later wrote: "Yes, this trip changed me. Probably not as you’d expect.
"People assume I am fearful of death. I’m not. In my darkest days of depression, I reconciled with death. Need a few days to collect my thoughts. Will share more soon."
In a bizarre rant, he then seemed to point anger toward some of these very fans as he concluded: "You’re a***oles and terrible. You’re also…nah, just mostly a***oles and terrible. Still love you all anyways."