The sight of Bryan Johnson broadcasting his mushroom experience live

A Decade of Grimes and the Pursuit of Immortality

At 18, I snagged an inexpensive ticket from my college Facebook group to catch Grimes at a local music festival. That sunny day, I watched in disbelief as a man, clearly under the influence, repeatedly attempted to scale a fragile young tree for a better view. Despite his persistence, the tree was far too delicate to support him, and I was both captivated and unsettled by his relentless, physics-defying efforts.

More than ten years later, I found myself witnessing a strangely familiar scene. Once again, Grimes was performing—this time as part of a livestreamed DJ set for Bryan Johnson, an entrepreneur and investor. Johnson, having consumed a substantial 5.24 grams of psilocybin mushrooms, was publicly testing whether psychedelics could help him achieve his dream of eternal life.

Bryan Johnson, who amassed his fortune by selling his company Braintree, is on a highly publicized mission to outsmart death. He shares every step of his journey online, from receiving plasma transfusions from his son to swallowing over a hundred supplements daily and even injecting Botox in unconventional places. His eccentric quest doubles as a promotional campaign for his ventures: Kernel, a neurotech startup, and Blueprint, a brand selling supplements and health foods.

Image Credits: Bryan Johnson's livestream on X

Johnson turned his psychedelic experiment into a spectacle, complete with playful graphics reminiscent of old Windows desktops. Before the event, he and Blueprint co-founder Kate Tolo joked about making the stream as big as the Super Bowl, complete with commercials. What was once a private college ritual—getting high and listening to music—was now a very public, and oddly uncool, demonstration of pushing human boundaries.

Over a million viewers tuned in on X, either live or later. As Johnson consumed the mushrooms and donned Kernel’s imposing black helmet to track his physiological responses, a lineup of commentators—collectively worth billions—joined the stream to commend his boldness.

While some see Johnson’s antics as elaborate, almost vampiric performance art, many in Silicon Valley hail him as a trailblazer.

Marc Benioff, Salesforce’s founder and CEO, drew parallels between Johnson and the biblical figure Jacob. On the stream, Benioff reflected, “My Bible study today was about Jacob’s Ladder… Jacob has this profound experience, communicating with God, ascending and descending the ladder, and realizing the land he’s on is sacred. We’re still searching for those bridges, and I think that’s what Bryan is attempting… This isn’t just for fun.”

Image Credits: Bryan Johnson's livestream on X

Naval Ravikant, the influential investor and AngelList founder, dubbed Johnson a “one-man FDA,” lamenting that regulatory hurdles slow scientific progress. His comments echoed Marc Andreessen’s earlier manifesto criticizing “social responsibility” and “tech ethics” as obstacles to innovation.

“Bryan’s attitude is, ‘Forget it, I’ll do it myself, I’ll legitimize it, I’ll popularize it, I’ll experiment, and I’ll lead the way,’” Ravikant remarked. “I hope he lives long enough to share the secrets. That’s what we want—thousands, even tens of thousands, of Bryans out there doing this.”

Ironically, Johnson missed much of this praise—he had slipped on an eye mask and wrapped himself in a weighted blanket, detached from the five-hour event he orchestrated.

“I think he found it a bit taxing to have a microphone and focus on what to say during a livestream,” said Ashlee Vance, a journalist chronicling Johnson’s quest to defeat aging.

Exploring Psychedelics for Longevity

Johnson’s meticulously documented mushroom journey is his way of investigating whether psychedelics could play a role in extending life—a topic already being explored by scientists in academic studies. He’s hardly the first to consider hallucinogens as a therapeutic tool.

Back in the 1960s, Harvard psychologist Timothy Leary championed psychedelics as a means to expand consciousness, sharing interests with today’s tech elite: space exploration, intelligence enhancement, and life extension—summed up in his acronym “SMI²LE.”

During Leary’s time, psychedelics were central to a cultural movement focused on artistic and musical innovation. Leary mingled with icons like Allen Ginsberg, Ken Kesey, and the Grateful Dead (then known as the Warlocks). Kesey, who volunteered for early psychedelic experiments, became a key figure of the era, his adventures chronicled in Tom Wolfe’s “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.” Even John Lennon’s “Come Together” was originally written for Leary’s political campaign, though it ultimately opened the Beatles’ legendary “Abbey Road.”

The Modern Longevity Experiment

Now, generations later, Johnson is livestreaming his psychedelic experience as he discusses “longevity escape velocity”—the hypothetical point where humans stop aging.

“Time moves forward, but your biological age remains unchanged,” Johnson explained. “That would be the greatest achievement for humanity.”

“In other words, we’re aiming to make Bryan Johnson effectively immortal by 2039,” Tolo added, sitting beside him for the duration of the stream.

“We’re sharing this protocol openly so everyone can join us,” Johnson said. “Psilocybin is just one step as we explore which therapies might slow or even reverse aging.”

Johnson and Tolo frame this mushroom experiment as a pivotal moment in the pursuit of eternal life. The setting, however, isn’t a psychedelic den or a research lab—it’s a nondescript room, resembling a corporate meeting, with Johnson bundled in a weighted blanket and eye mask. Benioff quipped, “We’re missing a great sponsorship opportunity with a sleep mask company.”

Image Credits: Bryan Johnson's livestream on X

Eventually, Johnson emerged from his cocoon, and Tolo struggled to collect saliva samples before fitting him with the large black helmet to record his brain activity as he gazed at the wall.

This is Johnson’s vision for the future of longevity—a beige room filled with laptops and biometric devices, as some of the tech world’s wealthiest figures watch his every move.