Here’s a conversation I had recently, at a dinner party where I was sat next to an [exceptionally]-well-funded tech CEO:
TECH CEO: Have you ever done Ayahuasca?
ME: Nah, the whole vomiting-and-shitting-on-yourself-in-front-of-other people thing has never really appealed.
TECH CEO: Oh, that’s just your ego. And the whole point is to dissolve your ego.
ME: [reflectively] You know, I feel like I’m in a pretty good place with my own ego. Haven’t always been, but right now we’re on good terms.
TECH CEO: Oh, you’re definitely not. Not if you haven’t done Ayahuasca. You have no idea what that even means.
ME: [forces polite smile] I take it you do a lot of drugs?
TECH CEO: Oh, yeah. I’ve got a schedule. But, it’s, like, critical to my success. My Board agrees – they totally back me up.
ME: Oh?
TECH CEO: Yeah, one of my board members is actually the one who introduced me to my Shaman. They all recognize how much drugs have helped me to be a better leader.
ME: How’s that?
TECH CEO: Well, the Ayahuasca obviously helped me let go of my tendency to operate from a place of ego – to see myself as a part of a bigger picture, you know?
ME: Sure.
TECH CEO: And MDMA has really helped me with empathy. Like, people used to tell me I needed to think about others’ feelings, and I was like, what does that even mean? But once I started doing MDMA I was just like ohhhhh…. I see. I still have to work at it, but I can appreciate how people feel now, and that it makes a difference in outcomes if I care.
ME: That makes sense.
TECH CEO: And, of course, psychedelics. Acid and shrooms both. I don’t know how anyone even questions their benefits anymore.
ME: What do they do for you?
TECH CEO: I mean, physically, they just open your channels so you can see more. Like, you’re not making things up, you’re just seeing the unseen. So, you, like, become sensitive to energy with and between people and, like, this whole world where possibility exists.
ME: That sounds great.
TECH CEO: Yeah, it is.
ME: So, just to recap, your Board supports you taking drugs because they make you a better leader by helping you be less egotistical, more empathic, and more sensitive to subtle dynamics between people and within opportunities writ large?
TECH CEO: Yes, exactly.
ME: interesting.
TECH CEO: (using new-found skills to detect I have another thought] What?
ME: Well, it makes me wonder…. why didn’t they just hire a woman?
Zing!