Business Tripping: Tune In, Turn On, Drop $3.5K for a Psychedelic Weekend

Every era, it seems, requires its own kind of drug. The greed-is-good ethos of the 1980s made cocaine the narcotic of choice. The more recent imperatives of ever-greater productivity made milder, legal stimulants all the rage. And now, as opportunities and challenges posed by artificial intelligence take center economic stage, increasing numbers of financial and business executives are reportedly moving to expand their creativity and capacities with the aid of psychedelic substances.

Apparently book clubs and painting classes only go so far in their intellectual benefits.

The embrace of mind-altering drugs by business grandees was the focus of a report by Bloomberg Monday. It detailed the whys, wherefores, and excessive saliva — seriously — of increased psychedelics consumption. The movement is being encouraged and overseen, the article said, by largely self-anointed gurus of the mind-blowing “unregulated $5 billion field of executive and life coaching” sector.

Among the adepts described was a “56-year-old co-founder of a hedge fund” who told Bloomberg he’d turned to ketamine and meditation sessions after clinical treatment for stress and work had failed him.

“It helped me to change my mindset and realize that my life isn’t tied to my P&L,” or profit and loss results, he said. That’s a kind of getting-real awakening most people experience by having children or agonizing through a prolonged wait for biopsy results rather than downing drugs — and without the secondary salivation effects of ketamine lozenges that require “spit cups.”

The article recounted several group sessions under “executive coach” supervision — apparently without fear of reproach from colleagues or bosses, so long as it’s off the clock. It also described talks given about psychedelics at meetings of international private associations like the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, which limits membership to owners of businesses with at least $1 million in annual revenues. One Colorado weekend session was priced at “$3,500-a-head” — pun doubtless intended.

Another involved a New York coterie led by a Drexel Burnham Lambert and Bear Stearns veteran. Bearing in mind the spectacular and scandalous ends of these firms, he might not boast the CV of someone you’d entrust your brain chemistry to, especially if you consider yourself a savvy business insider. Still, many executives do just that, justifying those drug-enabled flights by citing the altered realities of our era.

“Adderall, caffeine, and stimulants helped with getting things done, but with the advent of AI, productivity is becoming less valuable,” Bloomberg quoted 33-year-old Paul Austin as saying. Austin is the founder of the Third Wave “psychedelic guide” training business, which opens minds and lightens wallets by up to $14,000 per certified course (by what authority is unclear). “Psychedelics can help with the kind of divergent, creative thinking that’s more required now.”

But psilocybin, ecstasy (MDMA), and what was described as the mind-altering “toad-venom derivative 5-MeO-DMT” carry risks beyond excessive drooling.

For starters, while psychedelics are increasingly decriminalized, either in practice or in legal fact by individual states, Bloomberg notes that seizures of those substances, which are still illegal under federal drug laws, “soared 247% from 2017 to 2022.” Also spiking are “hospital visits related to hallucinogens [which] rose 54% from 2016 to 2022” in California alone.

If that isn’t enough to dissuade aspiring entrepreneurs from looking to serious psychoactive compounds to help develop their thinking, keep in mind that Elon Musk– someone whose non-business actions don’t encourage a lot of emulation — is reportedly a habitual consumer of psychedelics.

Meanwhile, said Sandra Dreisbach, co-founder of the Ethical Psychedelic International Community, effects of the drugs can induce behavior some people may wind up regretting.

“They make you more vulnerable and suggestible to others,” Dreisbach told Bloomberg. “People can be inclined to quit their job, leave their significant other, or make huge shifts of lifestyle.”

As a result, she counsels people to avoid making any significant decisions for a week or even a month after taking psychedelic trips. Just how useful will that precaution be to someone in the fast-moving business world?