YOGA WITH A SIDE OF SHROOMS
Why is everyone acting like psychedelics are already legal?
Happy Friday, friends!
This weekend I have a feature dropping in the Los Angeles Times about a mushroom yoga class. It’s really about how a grey market psychedelic culture is taking off in California, even though these substances are not even decriminalized (yet). People are wilding out—selling shrooms online, holding psychedelic events out in the open, and even inviting journalists like me to write about them. There’s a veneer of legitimacy around all of these happenings; the shroom gummies at the yoga class looked like they belonged on a shelf in Erewhon. But what are the real implications and risks? I talked to underground entrepreneurs, psychedelic therapists, business consultants, and even an ethicist to get to the bottom of it.
Since the article is currently behind the LAT paywall, I’m sharing a short excerpt with ya’ll below.
Also, next Monday, I will be in conversation with New Yorker writer Emily Witt at Skylight bookstore in LA. Emily’s new book Health and Safety is literally the talk of the town right now, and it’s druggie rave reporting at its best—a cool, precise, and emotionally devastating take on New York nightlife in an era of political decay. If you’re in LA, I hope you’ll come join us!
Further below, a trip report from my recent excursion to a pop-up ketamine clinic in Echo Park where the psychedelic soundtrack actually blew my mind. Details about that unusually cool clinical ketamine experience, along with the playlist, after the jump!
This week’s Rave New World is free and accessible to all. Please consider throwing us some coins to keep the lights on—it would truly make my day :)
The fate of magic mushrooms in California is unclear. Some wellness businesses are using them anyway.
On a scorching Saturday afternoon in June, a handful of people slipped into a nondescript downtown L.A. studio with tinted windows, just across the way from Walt Disney Concert Hall. In the lobby, shelves displayed serums, candles and natural deodorants next to black boxes filled with magic mushroom gummies. A greeter ushered attendees into a dark windowless room with yoga mats on the carpeted floor, asking each person: “Would you like some mushroom tea?”
They were there for a yoga class hosted by Personalized Wellbeing, a Los Angeles-based company that provides a range of wellness-based services that support psychedelic experiences. The mushrooms were provided by Psilouette, a brand under the Personalized Wellbeing umbrella with a line of gummies, teas and cacao butter squares containing magic mushrooms. Psilocybin, the active compound in psychedelic mushrooms, remains illegal federally and in the state of California. But in Los Angeles’ growing illicit market, Personalized Wellbeing and Psilouette are notable for their sleek branding and brazenness. Tickets to the mushrooms-enhanced yoga class were offered online for $100 per person, and a publicist for the company invited journalists to cover the event, two of whom were in attendance.
“I thought I was the only person who likes doing drugs while doing yoga, but it’s a thing,” joked Personal Wellbeing founder Derek Chase, who walked around the studio bare-chested with a tumble of blond hair dusting his shoulders. Once everyone was at their mats, staff members began distributing gummies to guests.
The class is part of an occasional series that Personalized Wellbeing offers to the 25,000 people on its email list, according to Chase. Although the class is private, the company sells mushroom gummies and other products on the Psilouette website, and claims to ship worldwide. They’re not alone in the wellness community, as substances like psilocybin and LSD become increasingly mainstream, destigmatized and easier to access, wellness enthusiasts have begun incorporating them into their self-care routines.
“I thought I was the only person who likes doing drugs while doing yoga, but it’s a thing.”
— Derek Chase, founder of Personalized Wellbeing
Personalized Wellbeing’s shroom yoga class is part of a broader trend of psychedelic-enhanced experiences catering to the curious and health-conscious; in Colorado, where psilocybin has been decriminalized at the state level, wellness center 4 Winds Farm offers psychedelic retreats for women. In the 2020 Netflix docu-series “The Goop Lab,” staffers from Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellness company went on a retreat in Jamaica to eat, pray and drink mushroom tea. It’s not uncommon to see the cryptic phrase “gummy optional” when signing up for a sound bath in certain parts of Los Angeles.
“We’re going to start to see [similar] events sprout up because the results are really effective,” said Chase in a phone call before Personalized Wellbeing’s yoga class. “I think people are losing the fear [of psychedelics] and are looking for ways to experience the products.”
But are companies like Personalized Wellbeing putting themselves and their customers at risk by acting as if magic mushrooms are legal? In recent years, California lawmakers’ attempts to legalize psychedelics have repeatedly failed. In August, the FDA also rejected Lykos Therapeutics’ proposal to legalize MDMA-assisted therapy, citing concerns over clinical trial designs. The decision sent shock waves through the psychedelic industry, suggesting substances might not be legalized for the masses as soon as a growing number of companies and investors in the space would like.
Nevertheless, consumer demand for psychedelic experiences remains, and players in an illegal market who were once cautiously discreet are becoming bolder…
📝 TRIP REPORT
Behind an unmarked door on Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park, a secret is hidden in plain sight. Peering through frosted glass behind a pulled-down grate, you might spot two handsome doctors playing Steve Roach’s ambient electronica as they inject ketamine into people’s arms. Los Angeles Community Ketamine Clinic pops up once a month in an acupuncture studio, and relies entirely on word-of-mouth. While most luxury clinics cost thousands of dollars, LACKC does group sessions for up to three people at a time, which allows them to offer their services for around $200 a pop.
“It’s sort of an anarchist art project,” said co-founder Matt Baldwin, a psychedelic therapist who used to play in punk bands and has released squiggly tape machine music on Leaving Records. When he learned that I was a music journalist, Matt even stopped by my apartment to drop off a zine he’d made about music for psychedelic therapy.
In addition to making ketamine therapy more affordable, providing an actually-good psychedelic soundtrack is the emphasis of LACKC, and both Matt and his business partner Mark Shortt are adamant that music itself is the medicine—the psychedelics just open you up to it.
My previous experiences with ketamine therapy have been underwhelming, and there was one journey in particular that I almost ended early because the New-Age-into-dad-rock music was so cringe. So when a prick in my arm and the smell of an alcohol swab signaled the beginning of my trip, I was relieved to hear Steve Roach’s Structures from Silence, and Don Slepian’s “Sea of Bliss” through the headphones I’d been provided with as aI sank into an other-space that felt like the backstage green room of reality. “The music is so… good…” I croaked, pulling the blindfolds off my face and gazing around the room still cross-eyed. Later, Matt told me that he’d curated the playlist purposely to soothe the fear I’d expressed about “jumping off the cliff of consciousness.”
Increasingly, researchers and facilitators are paying attention to the role of music in psychedelic therapy. In the same way that music that resonates with your tastes can be the key to a profound experience, experiments have shown that bad music can also trigger a difficult trip. I’m excited that more musicians are exploring the possibilities of making music for psychedelic therapy, and that ketamine clinics like LACKC are making these services more accessible and appealing to the creative class. If you have some cash to spare, I recommend checking them out… you probably already know you love listening to ambient on ketamine, but doing this in therapeutic setting—where there are literal doctors checking your vitals and giving you blankets lol—feels so much safer than a chaotic club environment. Why not try going deep?
💊 THE SCOOP
This is an insane story of political intrigue revolving around ICE’s involvement in cocaine drug trafficking that reporter Penn Bullock—who happened to be my gay husband in high school—has been excavating for almost a decade (and it shows). It’s finally out on Rolling Stone.
Another wild story that probably deserves a Hollywood retelling is this tale of a shroom stock company with a shadowy criminal leader that finally got caught by the SEC for fraud.
As the psychedelic industry course corrects after an initial period of overhype, researchers are wondering if the effectiveness of psychedelics on depression has been overblown.
Bloomberg reports on the closing of Watergate and Renate, beloved party institutions in Berlin, and speculates on what this means for the city’s club culture.
No Tags, a podcast by dance music journalists Chal Ravens and Tom Lea, turns the mic over to Vivian Host, a longtime DJ and deep scene legend who happened to be my former boss at VICE. They discuss the current state of the LA party scene, as well as its nitrous-fueled punk and rave history, San Francisco’s 90s free parties, and Vivian’s take on how raving has evolved over the last two decades. This one is a must-listen for the heads.
🎉 CALLING ALL RADIO HEADS
dublab is celebrating its 25th anniversary with not one, but TWO parties—last week’s bash at Zebulon saw a thousand-person line stretching way out the door, while this Saturday’s celebration features a fun assortment of b2bs with DJs that the station has appointed its next generation of talents. As a bonus, the party is taking place at my favorite new ultra-cozy underground loft in LA, Porter Street Studio. Community radio is a tough game, so surviving and thriving for more than two decades is a real feat. With the recent amicable departure of longtime founder Ale Cojen—a fatherly figure whose tireless stewardship ensured the station’s longevity—dublab is certainly at a crossroads, and it’ll be interesting to see what the next chapter of the beloved station brings.
Thanks for the Steve Roach nod. Always appreciate the specific music mentions.