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# Bryan Johnson Says Psychedelics May Be Humanity's Answer to AI
- URL: https://ghost.psymposia.com/bryan-johnson-says-psychedelics-may-be-humanitys-answer-to-ai/
- Published: 2026-06-17T04:00:11.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-29T01:01:47.000Z
- Author: Mike Elliott
- Tags: Videos, #youtube, #youtube-transcript

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## Transcript

*This transcript was generated automatically from YouTube's captions, then cleaned up by removing filler words, repeated words and background sounds. It may still contain errors.*

[\[00:00\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=0s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) One investor told me that he even put it in the deal docs that, you know, if we invest, you're not going to do these psychedelics because they wanted to minimize that the risk profile. It's a thing. Maybe psychedelics can help us keep up with AI. I don't know. He called his son a blood boy. All right, I think we got one more chunk of content to get through here and that is our look at Brian Johnson on the AllIn podcast. Before we dive in, normie, do you want to let people know who the All-In Guys are? I think you might have a read on them. They are Silicon Valley billionaires that have a podcast and David Saxs has become very much in the Trump administration.

[\[00:51\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=51s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) And who's he talk who's Brian Johnson talking to in this interview? There's Freedberg. Yeah, that's David Freriededberg. Okay, so this is Brian Johnson talking to David Freriededberg. We just thought we'd run through a couple of clips from that conversation. This happened just a couple of days after Brian Johnson took his large dose of 5meod DMT on camera for everyone to watch. the event that shook the world to its Yes. How did you connect that psilocybin data to an effort in longevity or was this just like a random idea? Let's try it out. Yeah, it was. So, we saw some mouse data that it had these effects. It also showed reduced inflammation. So, we said like this is interesting because most longevity therapies do something with inflammation, right?

[\[01:39\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=99s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) Like inflammation is a killer. So, if you can lower inflammation, a very good sign. If you can do something that makes the brain more youthful and takes down those big ruts that's use also useful. What we found at psilocybin though is it had we found a first in human observation. It had this metabolic reset in the brain where my blood glucose before this was in the top 99.5 percentile of all the population. Okay. After it went to the top 99.9 percentile. Like to move my blood glucose that level is very very hard. And but basically like not like metformin where you're doing something on blood glucose. They just had a reset across the body also changed my microbiome. So we saw a full-on effect. So then we said okay if that had that consequence 5 MO may have some similar characteristics and so no one had done this in 5 MO before.

[\[02:27\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=147s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) Exactly. So there's like there's potent there's some animal evidence, but it's the similar dynamics of like can you take the brain and can you basically like smooth out the barnacles that accumulate and 5 MODMT compared to psilocybin like just absolutely like blasted \[laughter\] clean my default mode network. It felt like psilocybin clean dampens it like softens it but this thing just annihilated my default turned it off completely. Yeah, it just doesn't run the same way. And like for an example, like this morning I woke up catching myself laughing in a dream. I have not laughed in a dream. I don't even know when I've ever laughed in a dream, but that is after I woke up I was like that's really weird. Like I don't remember laughing. I looked it up and like that is a characteristic of a child, right?

[\[03:13\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=193s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) And so you are restored to this childlike state. And I mean the past couple days I have felt childlike. You know, yesterday morning I felt that, you know, that emergent excitement, the bubbling of like today is so exciting. I'm going to do new things. I'm going to have new experiences that you're just excited about all things. I haven't felt that. I don't even know it, you know, for so many years. So, like it really was profound on every layer. And I see I'm stumbling through. I don't even know how to talk about it yet. I Okay, so happen on any psychedelic. Yeah, this is literally this feels like that scene in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia when Dennis marries I can't even remember the name, but he comes up to Mac and he's just like, "This is crazy, man.

[\[04:01\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=241s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) I'm having feelings again like when we were kids. Do you remember feelings?" And Mac is like, "I have feelings every day of my life." Like \[laughter\] he was like, "This is so crazy. I woke up and I was excited for the day." Like well the other thing I thought was funny to stress here is like people like Brian Johnson they're obsessed with mouse studies and these animal studies and like yes they're like preclinical like indications that there might be something there sure but so many of these people love to just dive in based on mouse studies and mouse brains and also talking through the default mode network like that's a completely established bit of research psychedelics but yeah just blasted annihilated my default mode network.

[\[04:49\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=289s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) I think there's my brain right now psychedelic researchers out there who might have thoughts on that. But just thought that was a funny one to hear them discussing like they're the scientists. No, it's just I don't even know what to make of his the whole psychedelic thing. It just seems like it's an attempt for attention. I don't I'm super cynical about the whole thing. Well, and last week we looked at Christian Anger, who is kind of one of these biohacking Silicon Valley adjacent investor dudes talking about the appropriate place to be taking psychedelics and giving his corporellic pitch for psychedelics. If you want to play the second clip, James, I think Brian Johnson toes the same line as Christian Anger Meer here.

[\[05:35\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=335s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) Yeah. \[laughter\] I mean, how far do you take this? Yeah. Honestly, I am so encouraged by psychedelics. I, you know, like in the community where I hang out, psychedelics have always been understood as, you know, it's like a retreat or it's like a ritual or you go to like do various explorations, but never in the world of longevity. It's never been understood as that thing. And now after seeing the data, now I and of course you have to be very careful when talking about psychedelics because they're extremely powerful. It's not like go out and do them everybody, right? It's like it needs to be done properly with a licensed professional. It needs to be done carefully. The person needs to be in the right state. Like it is not to be taken lightly. But I am more interested than ever in psychedelic compounds.

[\[06:20\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=380s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) They're just uniquely powerful. So everybody needs to do these properly in a contained setting. Dude did it on live stream with his girlfriend as a script sitter for everyone to \[laughter\] watch. What do you think the chances are he's one of the top speakers at psychedelic science 2027? Without a doubt, dude's going to be there. We're gonna go back. We're going to go back to this and see if we're right. I Yeah. I think it's a good chance. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I'm trying to think of what the name of his psychedelic longevity corporation would be. Best I can come up with is like five me DMT or something. Flee talks. I don't think I have a clip of it, but he's like when we first get started getting into the corporate beat, Brian Johnson came up because I think he was partnered with Syon, right?

[\[07:08\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=428s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) With Cybin, he wore the helmet do the Colonel Flow helmet, which Yeah. Let me see. Have you seen James a picture of Brian Johnson with his Colonel helmet on? I have not. No, I'm excited. Let me see if I can pull this up. It was a consistently shar. made Cyburn look like a bunch of like unserious researchers like out of the gates. Yeah. Here we go. I'll share my screen real quick. This was like around the same time they were partnering with Simon and this article came out with him wearing his helmet. You see here, Bloomberg, Ryan Johnson, Colonel. There we go. Here he is with like his Colonel Flow helmet. Okay. So what does that do?

[\[07:54\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=474s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) You look really stupid. EEG helmet that he and his measures the barnacles on the brain. Exactly. Determines how many barnacles you got to get power washed off by psychedelics. But I \[laughter\] think that was like one of the same articles where he was pitching like, "Oh, we want to be doing we want to be measuring ketamine and psilocybin trips with our Colonel Flow helmets on." So, I don't know if Colonel gives you more of an idea of what his naming conventions might look like. \[laughter\] I'm so sick of hearing about him. I'm so sick of hearing about him. Oh my god. He's like one of those figures that it just you he won't go away. It's just No. Just always out there floating around the river. He's got enough money and like cache on the internet that he I think he's sticking around for quite some time here.

[\[08:45\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=525s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) Yeah. And I feel like a lot of these guys like I can like strongly disagree with them but understand how other people see their like charisma or whatever and that's like what they're following. But with Brian Johnson like I don't get why anyone follows this guy. Like I he has no personality like no like substance like everything he does is like a whisper in the wind. like what is getting him traction to keep showing up in my life? Same. \[laughter\] I think it's the same reasons that guys are attracted to any of these sort of role modely figures. They're like artificial role model that they develop social relationship with.

[\[09:32\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=572s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) Jordan Peterson, Tate. I'm not putting him in that same category, but it not in the at least the political category, but he's in that overall category of younger men feeling disempowered and they need they have a lack of a role model in their lives and these guys fill in for that. And I'm not saying that he doesn't offer or these guys don't offer interesting points of view or data or whatnot. I'm not dismissing him just completely, but the problem is when like you just you use him as a crutch and they become your soul's source of information, you know, and he's like I did watch his whole 5me DMT live stream for some reason.

[\[10:18\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=618s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) And there are points the dude is slightly endearing. He's a bit of like a puppy dog like in some ways like he loves his son. He really likes talking about how much he loves his son. And like there's things that are slightly endearing about him, but on a broad level, you look back at like the lawsuit he had with his ex-wife. Dude sounds terrible to this woman. And like he's got a lot of \[expletive\] in his past that's pretty not great. Is this the son that he took the blood from? Yeah, I think so. Blood boy. Yeah. So he's got his blood boy and then he doesn't do that anymore to my knowledge but yes he definitely did that and he what was the point I was trying to make is is slight he yes he's slightly endearing but also he is like a one-man clinical trial and persistently refuses to account for all of the other things he does in his life and his wealth for why he might be getting better than the average person would on the drugs he's doing and the routines

[\[11:20\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=680s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) He's doing and stuff like he's got time to exercise constantly and to try all these things and to eat the way he does and do all this stuff and it's like why would what is the point of any of it? It's like not applicable to most people in general. It's just a gives people that sense of power and taking control of their life that spun out of control or give them some sense of direction or Yeah. Which if we want to jump into the next clip, it's just kind of a funny one. Speaking of people losing control in their life of Freedelland giving a little description of some people that he knows who have taken psychedelics at number three there. There are lots of stories and friends that I have that and people that I know that have tried a heavy going to pause it right there.

[\[12:06\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=726s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) He doesn't know anyone like \[laughter\] the way that he just introduced that is like crazy. There's no way he actually knows people. Well, and the way that you are putting that, lots of people he knows. That was why I cut this because I went, he knows lots of people that this has happened to cuz wait till he listen to what he says. \[laughter\] There are lots of stories and friends that I have that and people that I know that have tried a heavy psychedelic like an Iawaska or something. They were the CEO of a company and then they quit their company and they go off to the jungle, leave their family, divorce their partner. such dramatic life changes because their perspective has been shifted so much. I wouldn't be surprised. He's these guys are very plugged into the Silicon Valley startup space.

[\[12:54\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=774s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) Yeah, they actually probably do know a lot of people \[laughter\] just lots of people I know left their families and gone. They're right in the middle of it. Yeah, that does sound like exactly the kind of thing a technocrat would do. So atic life changes because their perspective has been shifted so much that they re-evaluate what matters in life to such a degree that they give up a lot of the things that mattered before. Yeah. In the wake of that, there are people that feel they're a victim of that behavioral shift. The investors in the company, the employees, the family members, etc. Can you just talk a little bit about those broad risks because we've seen it and I'm and I don't know if you've seen the same but friends that have kind of like said I have this new perspective I'm giving up my life.

[\[13:39\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=819s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) I've seen the same thing and I one investor told me that he even put it in the deal docks that you know if we invest you're not going to do these psychedelics because they wanted to minimize that the risk profile it's a thing in your deal in an investment in you. No, I just spoke because I've been doing this. People bring this up as a topic of conversation, right? And so they say like, I see you're doing this for longevity, but you know, like I've seen so many examples where people put money in, then you lose the founder. Like they're off. Everyone's high and dry. They're gone. And so they were telling me that they put into dildocs that they can't do this for the duration of the company. And so it is a thing. And you know, I have nothing to say about it other than I know what happens. So they put in the deal that you can't do an illegal drug the entire time.

[\[14:26\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=866s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) They just unless you have a revelatory experience and decide money is not worth anything to you anymore. That's why they do it. I that honestly wouldn't surprise would not surprise me. No, I think it's legit and I find it a very funny state of affairs that we're in. No. Yeah. I like I honestly do think like what they're saying is something that happens. It's just so funny. The way that they phrased everything around it made it sound like the most madeup story I've ever heard. But like I feel like they maybe like both know someone like tangentially like maybe not like a close friend. They both know like someone who's done it is the way it sounded. But I mean like I've known people who have like taken psychedelics and decided to make I mean I decided to make drastic life changes.

[\[15:15\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=915s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) Like that's I took psychedelics when I decided to become a writer and you know like it was a little bit different at that point but I also like have known people who have been like you know this made me realize that I don't like my job and I want to leave it and sometimes that's a legit thing. They do like have legitimate reasons for it and it's really cool that they were able to come to that conclusion. Sometimes it's something that they rush into because there's a lot of language around psychedelics that makes you believe that everything that happens in a psychedelic experience is an absolute fact and a revelation that you need to take seriously. But y I mean I've had psychedelic trips where I thought I was I had linked minds with Duncan Trussell. Like I this happened to me like long time ago and I was like man I can't reach out to him because he'll think that's weird but I bet in a few days he's gonna DM me and \[laughter\] and it was like as soon as I like came down I was like man that was some crazy \[expletive\] I thought for a second there like but if I had

[\[16:15\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=975s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) Like this mindset I would just be like now we got to like make it happen. We got to make it connect because that must have been true. That must have been the case you know like totally sometimes you're just high you know. Yes. Well, and speaking of the radical changes in mindset that psychedelics might be able to help you with, if you want to play clip four, this is an application that Johnson thinks might be of use. I can already tell this is going to be the most infuriating one. Like things are changing very quickly. And so now you come up with this practical question. Can humans change fast enough in the world where AI is the dominant engine of innovation? And so in that case, like you may want psychedelics as your ally to say, as a human, I'm struggling to like move with the change. Yeah, I'm struggling.

[\[17:00\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=1020s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) Maybe psychedelics can help us keep up with AI. Yeah. I mean, they're not even hiding it, you know? Now, it's I mean, wasn't it I can't remember who it was, but one of the elitists had said something about how psychedelics can help humans in the future come to terms with less than ideal living conditions and working. Yeah, that was Christian Anger Meyer. Anger. Yeah, it sounds like Anger Meyer. It's that same thing of like this can make people become okay with everything being in hell instead of saying like maybe we could use this to think creatively about ways we could create not a hell. Yeah. \[laughter\] Just get your mindset up to speed. Yeah. Yeah. Is that what we got to worry about now or think about now? these self-optimate self- optimization guys like do micro dose for clawed efficiency improvements legitimately that was something that came up in the end of their conversation was other longevity techniques that

[\[18:02\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=1082s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) They're interested in and how far would you go Brian and boy like would you go like partial brain merge with like a robot would you do that and he's like yeah sure that sounds great and one of the things that comes up is like these mitochondrial therapies and that's the last clip I have if you want to play that. It's where he talks about kind of making these research things a family business. So this is off the psychedelics topic and onto some new longevity technique he's working with. We have our first mitochondrial therapy lined up. So how are you going to do it? You're like 99.9%. You need someone who's like 48.7%. For you it's like 99.9 to what? Like Yeah. Yeah. I have the mitochondria, you know, of a 48-year-old, right? So, like what if I That's right. Yes. You could go to your siblings child because the mitochondria has passed maternally cuz it's in the egg cell.

[\[18:54\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=1134s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) So, it's the mother's mitochondria. So, if you go down in the mother's line maternally, if you have a sister who has a kid, they're going to have very young mitochondria. You can take a little blood sample and then grow their mitochondria extensively and use that as a biological match to you. This is a perfect extension. I've had a blood boy as a son. Yeah. So now I'm just gonna go to the extended family and be like, "Guys, it's a family project." I didn't. Yeah. He uses the blood boy term. \[laughter\] I don't know why he called his son a blood boy. He needs harvests the mitochondria from his niece. That's the idea that Freedelland's pitching, which I think is very funny. They're talking like, "Hm, let's do clinical research pitches here on the Allin podcast." \[laughter\] He said, "I had a blood boy as a son."

[\[19:45\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=1185s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) Like his intention the whole time was a blood boy. That's why he had a son. It sounds like, \[laughter\] you know, the thing is like if you read, you know, books about the history of science and, you know, one of my favorite ones is the story, what's it called? The story of N, story of nitrogen. It's a social history of nitrogen and just gets into all the experiments and the wackadoodle \[expletive\] that like these scientists and these observations that they had and you know most of them are just totally wrong in every way. Maybe they contributed like it's like their contribution to the history of science is that they were proven wrong so other guys could like kind of go in a different direction you know but it's just filled with these I don't know anything about this mitochondrial thing if that's I know it's used for certain things but just figures like Johnson overall are just like history is littered with scientists like this or I don't guys like this you know right yeah Russ I think you need to make

[\[20:45\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=1245s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) A new sticker that says I have the mitochondria of a 45year-old. 48\. 48 years. How old is he? Is that even like impressive? He's 48\. I already looked it up. Oh, okay. So, he was just saying he has a normal miter. Okay. Yeah. He always looks like he has like puts wax on his face. He's always like really sweaty looking. Waxy vampire. Yeah. Has anyone seen his son in public? Like I just want to check. Yeah, his son. He had him on the 5me live stream. He kept wanting to talk to him while he was tripping. Trying to remember what his name was. I just want to make sure he like gets out every now and then. Yeah, Talmage. His name is Talmage. I wonder how he feels about being called the blood boy.

[\[21:31\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=1291s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) To be honest, he seems into it when he's on the stream with him and stuff. He seems totally on board with his dad's vibes. Does his son not have a podcast yet or anything like that? Incredible question. Incredible. Talmage \[laughter\] Johnson podcast. Talmage Johnson podcast. Boy pod. Well, he's already being known as the 19-year-old trying to become the oldest man alive. So, seems to be on board. Yes. No, they do all this stuff together. He seems either indoctrinated into it or into it out of his own valition. But yeah, man. If he ever breaks away from that and then starts a podcast, that's gonna be some good \[expletive\] Yeah, the only thing in the All-In podcast, the very end, they discuss a possible use case for psychedelics, which was like just to give Brian Johnson a little bit of credit, where credit's due.

[\[22:24\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=1344s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) I not the worst use case for psychedelics I've ever heard, which he was saying like as you get into your 50s, you get this mindset of like everything's out to hurt me, harm my body, etc. and psychedelics kind of gave me a refresh on feeling like I'm a young man's mind again. I have more of a oh, I can actually do this kind of mindset. And I'm like, you know what? If that were the only point he was making, I think I would be on board with his take there. But of course, he then splices in maybe it can help you catch up with AI and all of these other \[laughter\] other things in there with it. But I think that's one of the better use cases for psychedelics.

[\[23:09\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=1389s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) Honestly, I think that's a really good one. It's you know, I didn't really like I never had like a childhood like pure joy moment that I can remember. And that's like kind of how I felt for my first like psychedelic experience where I was like, "Yeah, oh, this is what like happiness as a kid without worries must be like, \[laughter\] you know, right?" And I think that that definitely can like, you know, powerwash some of the barnacles off your default mode network. But there's another sticker. Well, it Yeah, let's wrap that. All right. There's only so much I can by these thinking about these guys kills me. Hurts my soul. I know it. I know it. They're all slight variations of one another. It feels like this is a piece of bonus content from our Patreon channel.

[\[23:57\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvwcSAKZLA&t=1437s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) If you like what you see, you can check out more at patreon.com/psymposia.