If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental health crisis, call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or the Crisis Text Line by texting \u201cHOME\u201d to 741741. In Canada, call Talk Suicide Canada at 1-833-456-4566 or text 45645 from 4 p.m.-midnight ET.<\/em><\/p>\n

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WAKEFIELD, Jamaica \u2014 The boxer felt broken. Every day, he was waking up in pain. Some days, it was debilitating headaches. Other times, it was his back. Or his fists. His ribs. His nose. On top of that, he had mood swings. Depression. Anxiety.<\/p>\n
Mike Lee didn\u2019t regret his career. He had been one of the best professional fighters in the world in his weight class. He\u2019d gone 21-1 professionally and fought in Madison Square Garden and in front of millions on TV.<\/p>\n
But it had been more than two years since he\u2019d been inside a ring, and every day was a reminder of the cost. At one point, Lee was taking eight prescription medications, all of them trying to help him cope. In his lowest moment, on a night when he was in the depths of an addiction to painkillers, he said, he contemplated driving his car into the median of a Chicago freeway at 140 mph. He was willing to do anything to escape the hell he felt trapped in.<\/p>\n
The impulse faded, but the pain remained.<\/p>\n
He was lost.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re in pain and you\u2019re stuck in a corner, you\u2019ll do anything to get out of it,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n
Now, he had come to a verdant jungle at the end of a dirt road halfway up a mountain.<\/p>\n
Psychedelic mushrooms, he hoped, could change his life.<\/p>\n
Lee was part of a small group \u2014 many of them retired athletes \u2014 who\u2019d traveled to Jamaica in March 2022 for a retreat costing as much as $5,500. They each had come to the Good Hope Estate, a sugar plantation turned exclusive resort, hoping to rid themselves of depression, anxiety, and chronic pain they had experienced for years.<\/p>\n
Sherece Cowan, a local shaman, prepares former pro boxer Mike Lee for a psychedelic journey during a March 2022 retreat in Jamaica. \u201cBlessings on your journey,\u201d she told the group.(Markian Hawryluk \/ KFF Health News)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Two psychedelic mushroom ceremonies and two therapy sessions awaited them at the retreat run by a Canadian company called Wake Network. The participants were nervous, but also hopeful.<\/p>\n
Along with Lee, there was a professional football player considering retirement and a former hockey star who had multiple concussions. They\u2019d come from all over North America, from different backgrounds and different sports, but they had a few things in common: They were vulnerable, and they felt that prescription medications had failed them. They didn\u2019t know what to expect, whether the treatment would work, whether they\u2019d return home with a solution or just more disappointment.<\/p>\n
Lee had learned about the retreat from a childhood friend who works as a doctor for Wake. Others had been recruited by Riley Cote, a former enforcer with the Philadelphia Flyers and now a psychedelics evangelist who is an adviser to Wake with an equity stake.<\/p>\n
Cote was once just like Lee. He used to love punching people in the face. He loved the way his hand landed with a thud when his knuckles connected with flesh and bone at a violent speed. Snapping someone\u2019s head back made Cote feel alive.<\/p>\n
\u201cI fought everyone and their brother in my career,\u201d Cote said. \u201cI would pick out the biggest guy I could find and challenge him. It was how I survived, how I made a name for myself. I was inflicting all this pain and inflammation on myself, always getting punched in the face, and I had to keep up with this macho type of personality, like, \u2018Oh, you can\u2019t hurt me. You can\u2019t hurt me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
He was no longer that person. It made him cringe to think about the man he once was, someone who drank excessively and used painkillers to numb his brain. There was a time when he, like Lee, was in a dark place, but over the course of several years, psychedelic mushrooms, Cote believes, helped bring him back into the light.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe world is in a crisis, a mental health crisis, a spiritual crisis,\u201d Cote said. \u201cAnd I think these are spiritual medicines, and I just feel like it\u2019s the right path for me. I don\u2019t think of it as anything more than my duty, my purpose on this planet is to be sharing the truth around natural medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n
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A Wake Network staffer adjusts an electroencephalography device that former pro hockey player Riley Cote wore during one of the Canadian psilocybin company\u2019s ceremonies involving psychedelic mushrooms.(Markian Hawryluk \/ KFF Health News)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
For years, whispers have circulated about an underground network of athletes \u2014 primarily ex-athletes \u2014 using psilocybin, the compound in magic mushrooms, to treat traumatic brain injuries, anxiety, and depression. Many of them, like Cote, view psychedelics as a miracle cure, the one thing they\u2019d been able to find that could help break a cycle of pharmaceutical painkillers and substance abuse. They gathered in small groups to ingest mushrooms in private or traveled to countries such as Jamaica where psychedelic mushrooms aren\u2019t prohibited.<\/p>\n
Now the use of psychedelic mushrooms is gaining traction in the United States. A number of cities<\/a> have decriminalized possession of psilocybin, and Oregon and Colorado voters passed ballot measures to legalize magic mushrooms under supervised use. Many researchers predict FDA approval of a psychedelic treatment will come within the next five years.<\/p>\n
But many of those same researchers warn the hype over psychedelics is outpacing the science \u2014 and that the treatment comes with significant risks for some patients. They fear that, unless research is conducted methodically and ethically, widespread use of psilocybin could result in a public backlash, as it did in the 1960s, relegating a promising treatment to the dustheap of banned substances.<\/p>\n
They are urging corporate entities like Wake, which are already positioning themselves to take advantage of the potential legalization of psychedelics, to go slowly, ensure the research is done the right way, and allow the science to catch up.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t do this safely, people are going to get hurt,\u201d said Matthew Johnson<\/a>, a psychiatry professor and psychedelics researcher at Johns Hopkins University.<\/p>\n
But many \u2014 including former pro athletes with battered bodies and brains \u2014 don\u2019t want to wait for the slow grind of clinical research. They need help now. The painkillers, the antidepressants, the countless different pills they were prescribed over the years haven\u2019t helped. In their minds, the stories told by fellow athletes who say they have benefited from psychedelics outweigh any scientific uncertainty.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you think of magic mushrooms, you think of hippies at Woodstock dancing around to music,\u201d Lee said. \u201cTo think about you\u2019ve got some of the best athletes in the world here that are dealing with some stuff and they\u2019re taking it, it makes you feel more comfortable. It makes me feel like, \u2018OK, maybe I\u2019m doing the right thing.\u2019 It\u2019s a healing medicine; it\u2019s not just a party drug.\u201d<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Cote, now 41, was a decent hockey skater growing up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, tenacious as hell from end to end and a tireless worker, but fairly average at handling the puck. He didn\u2019t score enough goals to rise through junior hockey the way some prospects did. Yet as he got older, coaches didn\u2019t mind as much. He had broad shoulders and a long reach. In an era of hockey where violence was still currency, he had found his golden ticket to the NHL: Cote would beat on people and get beat on in return. As a member of the Flyers, he saw it as his duty to uphold the traditions of the Broad Street Bullies, a group of players from the 1970s who were celebrated by the press for playing \u2014 and partying \u2014 hard.<\/p>\n
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In this November 2009 photo, Riley Cote, then a member of the Philadelphia Flyers, warms up to play against the Buffalo Sabres at HSBC Arena in Buffalo, New York.(Bill Wippert \/ NHLI via Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
He fought his way through the NHL for portions of four seasons, accumulating more than 400 career penalty minutes while scoring just one goal. Most of his fights were brutal, barbaric affairs. His highlight reel shows a hulking giant, his eyes filled with violence, the kind of goon who could break your jaw and laugh maniacally in the aftermath, blood dripping from his face down onto the ice.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was something I enjoyed doing, and I think it was just an element of competition for me,\u201d Cote said. \u201cAnd it was also probably something I was doing out of fear \u2014 fear of not living my childhood dream or letting my parents down or people down.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he medicated his pain nearly every day with booze. Beers were an appetizer on the way to doing shots at the bar. Shots often led to harder drugs. He and his teammates would stay out until 3 a.m., sometimes later, then try to sweat out the poison the next day during practice.<\/p>\n
After a few years, his brain started to fog. He got bigger and stronger through weightlifting, and he looked like a monster on the ice, but every hockey skill except his fighting deteriorated. As his career wound down, he said, it felt as if darkness was creeping in. He grew depressed. He was afraid of what he\u2019d become.<\/p>\n
Today, Cote bears little resemblance to that enforcer in the videos. Thinner and calmer, he teaches yoga classes in a Delaware studio three times a week. With shoulder-length hair, tattoos on his arms and chest, he speaks with a soft baritone voice. He seems more monk than monster.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look back and it just shows maybe how confused I was and what reality I was seeking, which was supposedly happiness and fulfillment within chasing my childhood dream,\u201d Cote said. \u201cBut it\u2019s hard for me to wrap my head around me doing that now, just knowing who I am now, and realizing it takes a lot of darkness to do what I did.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Cote is now a yoga instructor and a psychedelics evangelist with an equity stake in Wake Network, a Canadian psilocybin company.(ESPN)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Cote said he took mushrooms recreationally throughout his 20s, but never in a therapeutic setting or with the understanding they might help him process both his physical and emotional trauma. \u201cIt was just part of the scene or part of the party,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But when he retired in 2010, he felt like he was facing an identity crisis. He had been a fighter for so long, he thought that\u2019s all he was. How could a washed-up enforcer raise two daughters?<\/p>\n
He started reading. What he learned shocked him.<\/p>\n
Researchers had quietly revived the study of psychedelics as a medical treatment in 2000, and early findings suggested psilocybin often had noticeable benefits for people diagnosed with anxiety and depression. It helped some patients shed their addictions to drugs or alcohol. Other research suggested that psilocybin may actually be capable of reshaping the anatomy of the brain, restoring neuropathways, and helping heal traumatic brain injuries.<\/p>\n
For Cote, who was diagnosed with at least three concussions in his hockey career and probably incurred many more, it was transformative.<\/p>\n
Cote now recruits clients for Wake, which hosts immersive psilocybin retreats outside the U.S.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people come to these events and they\u2019re borderline suicidal,\u201d said Tyler Macleod, a Wake co-founder and its chief experience officer. \u201cThey\u2019re not fixed after one ceremony, but they\u2019re not stuck in the dark anymore. They wake up and they\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, I can navigate a relationship with my kids again.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The ex-athletes who attend these retreats are all struggling with something, Cote said. They need help. In many cases, they feel as if they have tried everything else. He asks why they need to wait when so many studies and anecdotes indicate positive results?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like with cannabis: How many stories did we have to be told before we had a medical program?\u201d Cote said. \u201cIt\u2019s just been roadblocked for so long.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Participants in a psychedelic retreat at the Good Hope Estate in Wakefield, Jamaica, swim in a river before consuming magic mushrooms in a March 2022 ceremony hosted by Wake Network.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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***<\/p>\n
In 1970, President Richard Nixon signed into law the Controlled Substances Act, legislation that divided drugs into five levels, ranking them based largely on their potential for abuse. Magic mushrooms were categorized as Schedule 1 substances, alongside heroin and marijuana, meaning the government believed they had no medical benefit as well as high potential for abuse. (Cocaine, oxycodone, and methamphetamine were all classified as Schedule 2 drugs.)<\/p>\n
Those decisions \u2014 which Nixon adviser John Ehrlichman later said were politically motivated \u2014 continue to have a ripple effect today. Research into psychedelic treatments was put on hold for 30 years.<\/p>\n
While the recent studies have been small in scope, they have shown remarkable effects. Prescription drugs approved for conditions such as anxiety or depression help at best 40% to 60% of patients<\/a>. In early trials, psychedelics have reached efficacy rates of more than 70%<\/a>.<\/p>\n
And unlike most prescribed medications, which stop working soon after patients quit taking them, one or two treatments of psilocybin can have lasting effects<\/a> of six months, a year, or even longer, according to one Johns Hopkins study. With minimal risk of addiction or overdose and centuries of use by Indigenous cultures, psilocybin is seen by many researchers as a potential breakthrough treatment with great benefits and few risks.<\/p>\n
Scott Aaronson<\/a>, director of clinical research programs at Sheppard Pratt, a nonprofit psychiatric hospital outside Baltimore, has been studying difficult-to-treat mood disorders for 40 years, starting with some of the early studies on Prozac.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a cynical, skeptical, sarcastic human being,\u201d Aaronson said. \u201cAnd I will tell you, I have never seen anything like it in all my years.\u201d<\/p>\n
But psilocybin is not without risks. It can exacerbate heart problems and trigger schizophrenia in those with a genetic predisposition, and the combination of psilocybin and lithium may cause seizures. Clinical trials have generally screened out patients at risk for such complications. Still, a significant portion of those who consume psilocybin, even without any of those concerns, have a negative experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt a high dose, about a third of people in our studies, even under these ideal conditions, can have what would be called a bad trip, some degree of substantial anxiety or fear,\u201d said Johnson, the Johns Hopkins researcher. \u201cA person can be very psychologically vulnerable. It can feel like they\u2019re dying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sometimes, though, even those \u201cbad trips\u201d can lead to help with depression or other issues, researchers have found, especially with follow-up help from a therapist to process the experience.<\/p>\n
The psychedelic effects of psilocybin can also disconnect a person from reality, which can lead people to do dangerous things, like running out into traffic or jumping out a window.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe very conception of reality and themselves in reality, like who they are \u2014 these things can be profoundly changed and it\u2019s not a good recipe for interacting in public,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n
Researchers also describe cases where psilocybin puts people with unresolved psychological issues into long-term distress.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why researchers are adamant that psilocybin should be administered in a clinical setting with trained therapists who can guide people through the experience, deal with negative outcomes when they emerge, and help people process and integrate their experiences.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDried magic mushrooms are mixed with orange juice at a psychedelic mushroom ceremony at a retreat in Jamaica hosted by Wake Network.\t\t\t\t\t\t(Markian Hawryluk \/ KFF Health News)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWake Network co-founder Tyler Macleod distributes doses of psychedelic mushrooms at a retreat in Jamaica in March 2022.\t\t\t\t\t\t(Markian Hawryluk \/ KFF Health News)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Clinical trials of psilocybin have relied on strict protocols, involving one or more sessions before the treatment to help the test subjects understand what to expect. The ingestion of the mushrooms is often done in a single day, with one or two therapists on hand. In the following days, the person returns for what\u2019s known as integration, typically a one-on-one therapy session to help process the experience and to begin the journey toward healing. Some trials add an extra day of therapy in between two treatments.<\/p>\n
Unlike with a typical medication, patients aren\u2019t sent home with a bottle of pills.The entire protocol is more like a medical procedure.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s a misconception that it\u2019s the psychedelic medicine doing all the work, not the therapy that comes afterward, said Jeffrey LaPratt<\/a>, a psychologist and psilocybin researcher with Sheppard Pratt. \u201cIt\u2019s really hard work and it takes vulnerability. It takes courage. It can be really painful.\u201d<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Former NHL player Steve Downie felt as if something in him was broken when he was invited to the Wake retreat in Jamaica. His days were filled with fog. He was living with depression, often unable to leave his home.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got tired of going to those doctors and tired of talking to them,\u201d Downie said. \u201cDon\u2019t get me wrong \u2014 I\u2019m not saying doctors are bad. I\u2019m just saying, in my personal experience, what I went through, it wasn\u2019t positive. And it just comes to a point where you got to try something new, and that\u2019s why I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also had trauma in his life he\u2019d never truly confronted. When Downie was 8 years old, his father died in a car crash driving him to hockey practice. Throwing himself deep into the sport was his only way of coping with his father\u2019s death. Like Cote, his teammate on the Flyers for two years, he played the game with reckless abandon, launching himself into violent collisions that left both him and his opponents bloodied.<\/p>\n
After a junior career marred by a hazing controversy<\/a>, Downie started his first NHL season, in 2007, with a 20-game suspension for a brutal check into the boards in a preseason contest that sent his opponent off the ice on a stretcher. It remains one of the longest suspensions ever issued by the league. In the hockey press, he was labeled a villain, a thug, a goon, and borderline psychotic. The words stung a little, even when he tried to laugh them off.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got no teeth, and I am small, so they can\u2019t be all that wrong,\u201d Downie said. \u201cRight? End of the day, it was a job. I did what I was asked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over his nine seasons playing for five NHL teams, he endured more concussions than he could remember. Deaf in one ear, on the verge of tears every day, and fairly certain he was drinking too much, Downie, now 36, would look in the mirror some days and wonder if he would be dead in six months. He didn\u2019t know anything about psychedelics, just that Cote had told him he would help when Downie was ready.<\/p>\n
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In this December 2014 photo, linesmen break up a fight between Brandon Dubinsky of the Columbus Blue Jackets (left) and Steve Downie of the Pittsburgh Penguins (right) during an ice hockey match in Columbus, Ohio.(Jamie Sabau \/ NHLI via Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u201cI called Riley and I said, \u2018I need something, man.\u2019 I got tired of going to doctors and talking to them,\u201d Downie said. \u201cA lot of the pills they give you, they eat at your brain. They don\u2019t really help you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Justin Renfrow, a 33-year-old lineman who played in the NFL and in Canada, came seeking clarity. He was considering retiring from professional football, something that both scared and excited him. He\u2019d been playing for half his life, and the game was a huge part of his identity. It was the last connection he had to his grandmother, one of the most important people in his life. She was the one who went on recruiting trips with him. After she died in 2021, Renfrow felt that a part of her was still with him as long as he played the game.<\/p>\n
But after a decade of playing professionally, Renfrow\u2019s body was battered. One of his knees was aching. He had come to loathe pharmaceutical drugs. He said he\u2019d been prescribed so many different drugs by team doctors \u2014 including stomach coaters and nerve blockers so he could take more painkillers \u2014 that his body started to experience terrible side effects. Once, he said, he had such a bad reaction to a combination of painkillers he\u2019d been given, he needed medical attention after he sweated through his clothes and began to have trouble breathing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just, \u2018We need to make the playoffs, so take this,\u2019\u201d Renfrow said. \u201cIt threw my body into a tailspin.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019d used psychedelic mushrooms numerous times, mainly as a way to cope with the pain brought on by football, but he\u2019d never used them as part of a ceremony or to be meditative. On this trip, he sought clarity. Was it time to walk away from football? He was passionate about cooking and thinking of starting his own show on YouTube. Maybe it was time to shift his focus and let football fade away.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got a lot of people who depend on me every day,\u201d Renfrow said.<\/p>\n
The ceremony, the athletes hoped, would guide them toward some answers.<\/p>\n
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Pro football player Justin Renfrow has his blood pressure checked by medical personnel from the Wake Network psilocybin company before ingesting psychedelic mushrooms at a ceremony in Jamaica.(Markian Hawryluk \/ KFF Health News)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
***<\/p>\n
The research into psychedelics is promising and exciting, but the effectiveness of mushrooms as a treatment isn\u2019t fully settled. But even if psilocybin and other psychedelics prove to be nothing more than a placebo \u2014 which some researchers say is possible \u2014 many athletes swear they are finding real relief from the anxiety, depression, and other traumas lingering from their playing days.<\/p>\n
With a potential multibillion-dollar global market<\/a>, there\u2019s also a huge financial incentive. Wake is just one of a growing number of for-profit startups backed by private investment money staking a claim in the psychedelic treatment space. They and others hope to open treatment centers or sell the drugs in the U.S. and Canada eventually. Magic mushrooms are illegal to produce, sell, or possess in Canada.<\/p>\n
During the Jamaica retreat, Wake leaders gave a presentation to participants on how they could invest in the company.<\/p>\n
Macleod said he grew interested in psychedelic therapy not as a business opportunity but after he lost his sister, Heather, six years ago to suicide. Losing her drove him to search for answers. His sister had been a competitive skier in Canada, but a series of falls led to multiple concussions, and throughout her adult life she had anxiety and depression. Traditional medicine repeatedly failed her, Macleod said. Every week, he finds himself wishing he\u2019d known then what he knows now and used it to try to save her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t tell you how many people come to me who are struggling like my sister was,\u201d he said. \u201cGod, I wish she could be here. I know that she\u2019d be cheering us on. I see her sometimes looking down on us and saying, \u2018Help other people who were stuck where I was.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Eager to bring psychedelic treatments to consumers, corporate firms often extrapolate research findings from tightly controlled clinical trials with carefully selected patients to promote broader use by the general population in almost any setting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe push for psychedelics generally is being driven by people that want to make money, much more than it is about scientists,\u201d said Kevin Sabet, a former White House Office of National Drug Control Policy senior adviser who\u2019s now president and CEO of Smart Approaches to Marijuana<\/a>, a political group opposed to marijuana legalization. \u201cWhy would we let the Wall Street investors, who are really the ones here trying to make money, be driving the conversation?\u201d<\/p>\n
Commercialization could be both good and bad for psychedelics. On the one hand, it could provide funding for research; on the other, the desire for a return on that investment could improperly influence the results and put patients at risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour business model isn\u2019t going to work well when someone\u2019s jumped out of a window and it\u2019s on the front page of The New York Times,\u201d said Johnson, the Johns Hopkins researcher.<\/p>\n
Clinical research must also overcome the mushroom\u2019s image as a party drug, something hippies share out of plastic baggies in the back rows of concerts. To change that narrative, Wake and other companies say, they are leaning hard into the science. This isn\u2019t thrill-seeking, they say, but legitimate medicine treating real psychiatric conditions. It\u2019s the same argument proponents of marijuana legalization made, whether they believed it or were using it as a means to an end \u2014 pushing to legalize cannabis as medicine before opening the floodgates to unfettered recreational use.<\/p>\n
Wake leaders, like most executives in the psychedelic space, have said they are committed to assisting research to prove to federal regulators that psilocybin is safe and effective. Blood and saliva samples a doctor collected at the Wake retreat, they said, would be used to identify genetic markers that could predict who will respond to psilocybin treatment.<\/p>\n
Wake\u2019s team had participants use a helmet containing experimental imaging technology that had been used in clinical trials to track brain activity before, during, and after psychedelic experiences. As part of the research, participants wore the helmet while playing games of Wordle.<\/p>\n
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Staffers from Wake Network record brain activity readings from former pro hockey player Steve Downie hours before he consumes psychedelic mushrooms as part of a retreat.(Markian Hawryluk \/ KFF Health News)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Many academic researchers wonder whether some companies are simply applying a veneer of science to a moneymaking endeavor, what many skeptics refer to as \u201cplacebo theater.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, Aaronson fears the field could soon be \u201cfull of hucksters.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem you\u2019ve got is that, not surprisingly, social media and communications works much faster than science does,\u201d he said. \u201cSo everybody\u2019s trying to get their hands on this stuff because they think it\u2019s going to be incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aaronson has designed clinical trial protocols for Compass Pathways, a competing for-profit company seeking to market psilocybin treatments, and has turned down other firms looking to create a footprint in the psychedelic space. (Aaronson receives funding from Compass to support his research but said he has no direct financial interest in the company.)<\/p>\n
\u201cI worry about who\u2019s backing the play from some of these companies and try to figure out what somebody is really after,\u201d he said. \u201cYou talk to people and you see whether there\u2019s a real plan to do research or there\u2019s a real plan to sell something.\u201d<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
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Participants in a psychedelic mushroom retreat take part in a yoga session at the Good Hope Estate in Jamaica in March 2022.(Markian Hawryluk \/ KFF Health News)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
A hum of nervous tension lingered in the air as the athletes prepared for the ceremony. At breakfast, there wasn\u2019t a lot of small talk. The attendees milled about, checking in with Wake\u2019s medical personnel to offer up their blood and saliva samples. Some participated in a yoga class in an outdoor studio that overlooked the jungle.<\/p>\n
Wake had hired a Jamaican shaman \u2014 a woman named Sherece Cowan, a vegan food entrepreneur who was a 2012 Miss Universe Jamaica runner-up \u2014 to lead the athletes in the ceremony. She asked to be called Sita and referred to herself as a plant medicine facilitator.<\/p>\n
She spoke slowly and deliberately, waving smoke from an urn as she urged participants to gather in a circle on the lawn of the estate. After drinking a 3- to 5-gram dose of psilocybin, which had been ground into a powder and mixed with orange juice, the athletes would slip into a dream state for the next four to six hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that you get all that you need. It may not be all that you\u2019re asking for, but I hope you receive all that you need,\u201d Cowan said. \u201cBlessings on your journey.\u201d<\/p>\n
A local musician began to play, his drums and chimes intended to enhance the journey. Most of the athletes lay on mats, as if sleeping. Cote sat in a yoga pose. Nick Murray, Wake\u2019s CEO, had asked Cote to wear special headgear \u2014 an electroencephalography device smaller than the other helmet \u2014 to measure his brain activity. Except for the musician\u2019s drums and chimes, it was quiet. The wind occasionally rustled the leaves on the trees at the edge of the property, but for the next six hours, inside the circle, time mostly stood still.<\/p>\n
Two hours into the ceremony, after the psychedelic had kicked in, whatever was taking place was occurring inside the athletes\u2019 heads. Cote, remarkably, was still holding his yoga pose.<\/p>\n
The stillness was broken when Renfrow stood up from his mat after three hours. He\u2019d worn a sweatshirt to the ceremony with his initials, JR, emblazoned across the chest. He peeled the shirt off his body in frustration and tossed it aside.<\/p>\n
Tears spilled down his face.<\/p>\n
As the ceremony wound down, the athletes began sitting up, and a few chatted quietly.<\/p>\n
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Riley Cote participates in a March 2022 mushroom ceremony in Jamaica.(Markian Hawryluk \/ KFF Health News)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Most weren\u2019t sure how to describe the experience. For some, it felt like a descent into the recesses of the mind, with colors and emotions swirling together. Others said they confronted traumas they thought they\u2019d buried, or emotions they wanted to suppress. They expressed feeling a connection to the other people in the circle.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the ultimate ego killer because, for me at least, it gives you incredible empathy that you\u2019ve never felt before,\u201d Lee said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re doing a journey with other people, you see yourself in them. It\u2019s almost like you\u2019re walking past a mirror, different mirrors. You see parts of yourself in everybody and you realize that we\u2019re all connected and we\u2019re all going through something, we\u2019re all in some sort of pain, and it humbles you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most of the athletes drifted off to be alone so they could scribble down their thoughts in a journal, per instructions from Wake staffers. There would be a communal therapy session the next morning.<\/p>\n
Each would be asked to share something from their journey.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
In the end, most of those curious about psilocybin simply want to know: Does it work? And how does it work? Scientists say those are difficult questions to answer right now.<\/p>\n
Researchers have discovered that classic psychedelics, like psilocybin and LSD, act on the serotonin 2A receptor, the same receptor targeted by the most common antidepressants on the market. But beyond that, the understanding of how they work to help people is, at this point, more theory or conjecture than scientific fact.<\/p>\n
Johnson, the Johns Hopkins researcher, said psilocybin helps increase openness in people, allowing them to step outside of their vision of who they are. Someone who is resigned to being a smoker who can\u2019t quit or a person with depression who can\u2019t find happiness can, under the influence of psychedelics, view themselves in a different way, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce they\u2019re outside of the mental trap, it just becomes so obvious to people with these different disorders that, \u2018You know what? I can just decide to quit smoking. I can cast aside my sadness,\u2019\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n
Studies with rats show that psychedelics also appear to increase neuronal connectivity in the brain, even after a single dose. That could help the brain recover from traumatic injuries or concussions, finding new pathways around damaged areas.<\/p>\n
The prevailing theory of how psilocybin and other psychedelics might help treat mental health is that they tamp down activity in the brain\u2019s default mode network. It\u2019s a set of regions in the brain that are engaged when people are ruminating about something and one of the few parts that is overactive in people with depression.<\/p>\n
They often revisit mistakes they\u2019ve made over and over again or continually beat themselves up about them, said LaPratt, the Sheppard Pratt researcher. That overactivity in the default mode network leads to repetitive patterns of negative thoughts \u2014 What\u2019s wrong with me? Why am I so unhappy? \u2014 from which the person cannot escape.<\/p>\n
People with depression often ruminate about the past; people with anxiety, about the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou may have something coming up and then the brain starts thinking, and again, like that broken record,\u201d LaPratt said. \u201cIt can be very easy to start thinking about how everything might go wrong and start catastrophizing.\u201d<\/p>\n
That repetitive thinking prevails in people with other conditions, too, including obsessive compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. It begins to affect their sense of who they are; they define themselves as their condition.<\/p>\n
But psychedelics seem to help people examine old traumas without falling back into the same kind of destructive loop. They can help people feel more connected to others. Depression and anxiety aren\u2019t simply erased, LaPratt said, but people can gain a new perspective on their problems and start to feel, maybe for the first time, that they can shake them off.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see increased openness and some motivation for changing behaviors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Psychedelics are mostly out of a person\u2019s system by the next morning, but, according to researchers, that increased openness can last for weeks or months without additional doses, providing a window during which they can begin to address their problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is maybe that we\u2019re helping people get to the point of being able to accept the things they can\u2019t change and to change the things that they can,\u201d Aaronson said, echoing the Serenity Prayer, often used in 12-step recovery programs. \u201cPersonal autonomy is taken away from people with depression. They don\u2019t feel like they can operate in their own best interest. They get caught in internal conflict. And I think this helps them get beyond that.\u201d<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
In the morning, the athletes gathered on a patio for a form of group therapy called integration. It was scheduled to last at least two hours. Macleod explained it was an essential part of understanding a psilocybin journey. Every attendee had an opportunity to share something from their experience, whether it was enlightening, confusing, uplifting, or a mixture of many emotions.<\/p>\n
Lee spoke about his anxiety, about trying to understand what his identity would be now that he wasn\u2019t a boxer. By walking away from the ring, he feared he was letting down all the people who supported him when he chose a boxing career instead of a job in finance after he graduated from Notre Dame. But now he\u2019d come to understand those were his own insecurities. He could walk his own path. He could help people experiencing similar physical and emotional pain.<\/p>\n
Renfrow took several deep breaths as he searched for words. For most of his life, he\u2019d viewed himself as a football player. But on his psilocybin journey, he felt as if members of his family told him it was OK to let go. When he stood up during the ceremony and peeled off his shirt with his initials, he said, he was symbolically letting go of something.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s OK to stop chasing the football journey,\u201d Renfrow said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to suit up this year and that\u2019s cool with me. I\u2019ll be able to figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
In saying goodbye to football, he said, he was saying goodbye to his grandmother.<\/p>\n
\u201cFootball was her,\u201d Renfrow said, and he began crying. \u201cWe went on all my recruiting trips. So I had to let her go with letting football go. And that was a big moment when I stood up. I had to let her go. So it was tough, but I had to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it was Downie\u2019s turn, he tried to defuse the tension by joking that it was time to go eat. He didn\u2019t want to open up to the group, he said. He\u2019d written some notes on a sheet of paper. His hands shook as he tried to read them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t drinking and I wasn\u2019t doing drugs for fun,\u201d Downie said, his voice trembling. \u201cI was numbing my brain because it was f\u2014ed. I couldn\u2019t turn out of my driveway for a year. I sat in dark rooms and I turned to drugs and alcohol.\u201d<\/p>\n
But on the psychedelic trip, he said, he was able to connect with his past. \u201cI\u2019m sitting there and I\u2019m going through my brain, I\u2019m talking to my dad, I\u2019m talking to my family members. I\u2019ve said sorry to everyone I could possibly say sorry to,\u201d he said. \u201cIt made me cry. It made me feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n
He realized, through the journey, he wanted to be a better man. His voice was shaking as he tried to get the words out.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of all this, I think what I\u2019ve learned is how to control what goes on. I do have control. I can control this,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m going to go home and I\u2019m going to identify and execute and be a better father and stay around for my kids, deal with my concussion problems as best I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
He turned to look directly at Cote, tears streaming down his cheeks from behind his sunglasses.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean this, bro, when I say you saved my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Downie\u2019s words gave way to silence, Lee stood up from his chair. He crossed the circle, walked over to Downie, and opened his arms wide. The two fighters, who came to Jamaica sad and broken, embraced.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
While studies have found<\/a> that psilocybin plus therapy is more effective<\/a> than therapy alone, it\u2019s unclear whether psilocybin alone, without the preparatory work or the integration afterward, has any effect.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a reason why people who go to raves and take psilocybin don\u2019t get cured,\u201d Aaronson said. \u201cPsilocybin is not an antidepressant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even within strict clinical trial protocols, the question remains whether psilocybin-assisted therapy works. Preliminary studies have been promising, but the numbers of test subjects have been small. Much larger studies are needed to determine both safety and efficacy.<\/p>\n
Still, that hasn\u2019t stopped psilocybin advocates from touting the research to date, implying it is more definitive than it is. Moreover, many mushroom evangelists attribute the positive effects from clinical trials to taking psilocybin in general, discounting the protocols used in the studies.<\/p>\n
The Wake retreat in Jamaica, for example, had the athletes take psilocybin in group ceremonies guided by Cowan, the local shaman, while the group integration sessions were led by an osteopathic physician. Neither was a licensed psychotherapist, Murray said. It\u2019s unclear whether the benefits of psilocybin therapy suggested by clinical research would apply to a group setting \u2014 for the dosing or the integration.<\/p>\n
$\"A$
Wake Network hired Sherece Cowan to conduct ceremonies with psychedelic mushrooms at the Canadian psilocybin company\u2019s retreats in Jamaica.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Murray, Wake\u2019s CEO, said that while clinical research strives to remove any variables, such as interactions between test subjects, Wake leaders feel the group setting offers benefits to its clients.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s that group feeling that, \u2018We\u2019re in this together. My divorce is like your divorce. I lost a brother,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s tough to put into a clinical trial.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wake had registered to hold a clinical trial in Jamaica, but Murray said the company ultimately decided not to pursue it, focusing on offering treatment instead.<\/p>\n
Still, Murray said Wake is contributing to scientific research: They collected the blood and saliva samples, and participants were asked to fill out questionnaires before and after the retreat to help assess whether the treatment worked.<\/p>\n
Murray said Wake uses the same clinically validated questionnaires used in a psychiatrist\u2019s office. \u201cSo, it\u2019s not theater. These are the actual tools that are used,\u201d he said. It would be hard with Wake\u2019s approach, however, to parse whether participants were helped by the mushrooms and integration or by other influences, such as being on vacation in Jamaica, being among a supportive peer group, or the marijuana many of them smoked regularly during the retreat.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to at least listen and take it seriously. There\u2019s anecdotes of people saying they would have killed themselves,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cSometimes you do see just the \u2018full monty\u2019 experience, where this person is just there on a dark, dark trajectory and their whole life changes. I suspect this is real. Something\u2019s happening with these athletes making these reports.\u201d<\/p>\n
Glowing anecdotes, particularly when they come from high-profile athletes or celebrities, carry weight with the public and help spur measures like those in Oregon and Colorado that are establishing pathways to psilocybin treatment regardless of what researchers or regulators think.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen people are upset and we\u2019re not meeting their needs, they\u2019re going to try things out,\u201d said Atheir Abbas<\/a>, an assistant professor of behavioral neuroscience at Oregon Health & Science University. \u201cHopefully, scientists can catch up to understanding why people think this is really helpful. And maybe it is helpful, but let\u2019s try to figure out if it is and how.\u201d<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s a danger in taking these stories, no matter how compelling, and extrapolating safety or efficacy from them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hard part is the plural of anecdote is not data,\u201d said Sabet, the Smart Approaches to Marijuana CEO. \u201cAnd the data isn\u2019t there yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
A year after the retreat, Downie, Renfrow, and Lee said they believed their psilocybin journey had helped them. It did not magically fix all their issues, but each considered it a positive experience.<\/p>\n
Downie no longer feels that he is stuck in a dark place. When he returned to Ontario, he said, his family noticed a difference right away.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat trip gave me a lot of clarity,\u201d Downie said. \u201cIt gives you directions. It kind of gives you answers internally. It\u2019s a unique thing I experienced. My year was definitely better than the previous year, that\u2019s for sure. \u2026 Do I think it could help other people? I would say yes. Did it help me? Absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n
No longer feeling like a prisoner in his house, Downie started a snowmobile camp that takes adults on guided adventures around Moosonee, near James Bay. It\u2019s something he used to do with his family before his hockey career took off.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not much to brag about, but it\u2019s the most northern you can go in Ontario in a snowmobile,\u201d Downie said. \u201cA lot of adults come from all over. It\u2019s a pretty cool experience. It\u2019s always been a passion of mine.\u201d<\/p>\n
He still has lingering issues from his concussions and suspects he always will.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is what it is,\u201d he said. \u201cWould I say it\u2019s getting better? It\u2019s a process.\u201d<\/p>\n
The most positive outcome has been the joy he\u2019s found in being a father.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy little guy is starting to fall in love with hockey, which is something I\u2019ve been waiting for,\u201d Downie said.<\/p>\n
Although Downie hasn\u2019t taken another psilocybin journey, he said he would be open to it.<\/p>\n
Renfrow emerged from the ceremony intent on retiring from professional football but three months later re-signed with the Canadian Football League\u2019s Edmonton Elks. This year, he joined the National Arena League\u2019s Jacksonville Sharks, in part to be closer to his son.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt that time, I thought I was going to quit football,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But he feels comfortable where he is and says he\u2019s fulfilling his goals, including hosting that cooking show<\/a> on YouTube he\u2019d hoped to do. And he said he\u2019s having fun again. He now turns to mushrooms whenever he has a big decision to make.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wholehearted believe in that and all the kind of guidance it\u2019s given me,\u201d he said. \u201cYou couldn\u2019t ask for a better thing, to have followed guidance from a mushroom journey.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lee moved from California to Austin, Texas, and now runs a CBD business with his sister. Finding his post-boxing identity has remained a process. In his psychedelic journeys at the Wake retreat, Lee said, he was never thinking about sports or boxing. His visions were all about family, God, the universe.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt kind of just makes me realize how much importance I\u2019m putting on something that my subconscious doesn\u2019t even care about,\u201d he said. \u201cMy subconscious doesn\u2019t care that I\u2019m a boxer, that I was a fighter and did this and did that. It\u2019s all kind of ego.\u201d<\/p>\n
The experience, he said, helped him understand how powerful the mind can be \u2014 that it can be a friend or a foe.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came away from it kind of realizing that I have all the tools to heal myself,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s huge. Because, especially for guys who have had concussions or athletes or what have you, you feel kind of isolated, you feel alone, you feel hopeless. So it kind of gives you a sense of hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
It allowed him to move beyond the need to prove himself, in the ring or outside it, to stop measuring his worth by his accomplishments. He\u2019s become obsessed with much calmer, nonviolent pursuits: surfing and pickleball.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can turn my brain off just like in boxing,\u201d he said. \u201cBut at the same time, it\u2019s easier on my body and just, I don\u2019t know, more fulfilling. I don\u2019t have to prove anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Jamaican trip is allowing him to move forward, to do the work necessary to heal.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of me went into it hoping that all my problems would be solved, but putting those expectations on it can be difficult,\u201d he said. \u201cAm I cured? No. But did it really help? And was it, like, one of the most profound experiences of my life?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d say yes.\u201d<\/p>\n
This article was reported and written by KFF Health News\u2019 Markian Hawryluk<\/a> and ESPN\u2019s Kevin Van Valkenburg. Researcher John Mastroberardino contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n
[Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong> As part of the reporting of this article, some members of ESPN\u2019s reporting team, under the guidance of Wake Network staff, used psilocybin. Wake Network was compensated, but not by ESPN.]<\/em><\/p>\n
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