đź’§ Is ayahuasca a performance-enhancing drug?

PLUS, Mega doses of mushrooms and healing women in the forest

Author

Mary Carreon // Senior Editor
04 Nov

Happy Monday and welcome back to The Drop In, DoubleBlind’s psychedelics newsletter delivering news, culture, events, and tips straight to your inbox! It’s officially November. The clocks just fell back in the US, and the American presidential election looms over us like a bad acid trip at a haunted circus — evil clowns and all. If you’re feeling dysregulated, find a tree to sit under and meditate or read a book or let the sounds of your favorite album wash over you as you unplug from the internet. 

Today’s featured story is a controversial piece about ayahuasca. Can it be used as a performance-enhancing drug? Some top professional athletes unequivocally say yes. But the jury is still out. While Aaron Rodgers—formerly the Green Bay Packers' golden boy QB and now the New York Jets' resident shaman—is famously open about his love affair with the Amazonian plant brew, let's just say it hasn’t exactly transformed him into the football deity New York was hoping for. You can find this story below!

Today’s newsletter is packed with lots of fun content, including an interview with mushroom legend Ayana Iyi, the late Kilindi Iyi’s first wife; a story about archeologists finding 2000-year-old psychedelic seeds; a product to help induce psychedelic orgasms; and a guide to Nexus flipping. We also highlighted Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh’s obituary written by our friends at RollingStone. (RIP!)

Stay grounded, friends 🫶

Mary CarreĂłn
Senior Editor

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Is Ayahuasca a Performance-Enhancing Drug?

Top athletes say the Amazonian plant medicine can be used to train at the highest levels, but is it true?

In 2022, NFL quarterback Aaron Rogers credited his back-to-back MVP awards and Superbowl trophies to ayahuasca. Now, many top athletes in the NFL, NBA, NHL, and even PGA are turning to ayahuasca as a performance enhancer. 

It’s definitely raising some eyebrows in the plant medicine communities. Is there really a connection between healing and performance? 

From the outside, professional sports appear all external, but the reality is, the internal mental game is at least as important as the physical. (Remember gymnast Simon Biles bowing out of the Tokyo Olympics to protect her mental health?) The constant pressure, intensive schedules, and psychological stress demand mental and emotional resilience.

As it turns out, there is a surprising connection between resilience, recovery, and physical strength. Our emotional baggage and traumas can quite literally slow us down and hold us back. If we are emotionally reactive, triggered, we lose the ability to be in the moment the fullness of our presence––we have less access to our capability and skill. 

Despite the controversy, using plant medicines as a performance enhancer, may, in fact, be as old as the medicines themselves. At low doses, psilocybin sharpens sensory perception and enhances muscle coordination––ideal for hunting. Ancient shamans used plant medicines to predict where to find game. Indigenous Amazonian tribes traditionally use Kambo, derived from a tree frog, to be better hunters. 

We wonder… is professional sports really so different? Read the full story here.

Our Latest

Ayana Iyi is a living legend in Detroit’s psychedelic scene. She was the first wife of Baba Kilindi Iyi, a “master of the mushroom” who pioneered mega doses of psilocybin—50 grams or more! We interviewed Ayana about her journey with mushrooms, healing women in the forest, and her deep connections with Baba. Read the full interview here.

It sounds like a tech-bro fantasy tweeted out by Elon Musk, but VR may be the key to understanding transformational experiences with psychedelics. Read this mind-bending article here.

The fullness of a psychedelic experience is difficult to capture in words. Film—with all its textured imagery, atmosphere, lighting, and characters—can do it better than any other medium. Check out a few of the most creative and iconic psychedelic scenes we love.

& More Must-Reads

  • Pharma companies are developing all kinds of patentable synthetics that mimic magic mushrooms. But in the race to commodify and mass produce this sacred medicine, are we losing something important? What about the spirit of the mushroom itself? Read the full story here.

  • Hidden inside an ancient hollowed-out bone, archeologists excavating a 2000-year-old Roman site in the Netherlands found something curious: psychedelic seeds. It seems the Romans took their drugs with them in their conquest of distant lands. (honestly, we probably would have too.) Read the full story here.

  • If you’ve ever felt that your mushrooms were talking to you, you were probably right. Research shows that mushrooms have what appears to be their own language. Now they’re hooking mycelium up to electrodes to see if we can have a conversation. But what happens when we connect the mushroom to ChatGPT? Get the full story here.

Join Us

Join us for a free webinar with the godfather of Microdosing, Jim Fadiman.

In the last 5 years, the phenomenon of microdosing has exploded into mainstream awareness. And it’s all thanks to one man: Jim Fadiman. His book The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide was the first-ever discussion of how to use sub-perceptual doses of psychedelics to enhance your life.

But a lot has changed since 2011 when he published. Get Jim’s latest thinking on how to use microdosing for health, healing, and enhanced performance. He will be joined by researcher Dr. Conor Murray, Ph.D. founders of the Microdosing Facilitator Training, Danielle Nova and Adam Bramlage, DoubleBlind’s Senior Editor Mary Carreón, and host Monica Cadena.

It starts Sunday, November 17 at 6 PM PST. 

Best of all? It’s FREE for anyone to join.

Register to join the webinar here.

Learn with Us

📉 As more and more mainstream adults take psychedelics, drugs, and plant medicines may be becoming less cool. Research shows teen use falling as adult use rises. Does this mean the next generation will rebel against their parents with underground Tupperware parties? Read the full story here.

💊 You’ve probably heard of candy flipping (MDMA + LSD), but have you heard of Nexus Flipping? Here’s what you need to know about this potent psychedelic combo.

đź‘˝ The dark winter months are a great time to make a cozy nest, eat a giant handful of mushrooms, and talk to hyperspace elves. (or, you know, heal deep traumas and discover your inner divinity.) But before you dive off the deep end, read our guide to the art of tripping solo.

DoubleBlind Supports

PRE-ORDER: Grandmothers Wisdom Project is a collective of women devoted to the restoration and continuation of the essence of the feminine spirit. From Tibet to South America and everywhere in between, their work brings together the most revered indigenous wisdom traditions around the world. 

Now in their 20th year, they are just about to release a beautiful and inspired new book Grandmothers’ Wisdom: Living Portrayals from the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers.

At DoubleBlind, we believe in reciprocity—the idea that everything in the world is interconnected and that we have a responsibility to uplift a psychedelic ecosystem that centers equity, inclusivity, and healing for all. Through our work, we hope to help our community participate in this effort with us.

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Do Psychedelics Make You More Creative?

We certainly think so, and so does Laura Dawn. Laura is a leading female voice in the psychedelic space, focused intelligently on using psychedelics to enhance creativity and leadership. 

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Around the Web

  • Mushroom music…. in space! Musician and producer of psychedelic therapy music Jon Hopkins just released a new collaboration with NASA. Watch out his video "Forever Held" here.

  • The looming possibility of a corporate-controlled psychedelic industry doesn’t exactly feel great. So… what if we nationalized psychedelics to protect the public? Read more about this intriguing idea in Jacobin.

  • Grateful Dead bassist and co-founder Phil Lesh, ascended to the land of the eternal jam last week. The Grateful Dead were one of the greatest, most enduring psychedelic cultural forces of all time, and Lesh was right at the heart of it. We pray the angels can sing something more than just major chords. Read his obituary in Rolling Stone.

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