Wealthy NYers Experiment with Psychedelic Drugs for Mind Expansion & Healing

By: Sid Owsley

Psychedelic drugs are making a coming a comeback among older and wealthier New Yorkers, according to a New York Post report.

Beth Landman writes that, “Traditionally the domain of Timothy Leary acolytes and, more recently, Burning Man and Coachella attendees, psychedelics are now mainstream and upscale. Wealthy New Yorkers are traveling to South and Central America for luxe ayahuasca experiences, dropping shrooms in the Caribbean or on dates in the Hamptons, and seeing psychiatrists who use ketamine, the only psychedelic that is legal in New York. (Psilocybin mushrooms are legal under medical supervision in California and Oregon and decriminalized in several other places in the US.)”

One couple interviewed for the article, Suzie and David Stadnyk, decided to try tripping as a way to celebrate their 60th birthdays. They traveled to a five-star resort in Costa Rica where they experimented with ayahuasca and enjoyed gourmet meals, luxurious massages, and tropical dance parties.

The Stadnyk’s described their experiences under the influence of ayahuasca as the best experiences of their lives. They felt safe since they were under strict medical supervision as they took the drugs. Mr. Stadnyk told The New York Post that he was able to meet his childhood self during the experience and make peace with his past.

Last month in St. Tropez, the mental health nonprofit called Aurora Institute, co-founded by German billionaire Christian Angermayer, hosted a star-studded “evening of discovery” looking at the science behind psychedelics with Queen Latifah, Cameron Winklevoss and Robbie Williams in attendance. Actress and comedian Ali Wong has written openly about regularly doing shrooms and ayahuasca with her husband, while Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, recently credited “magic mushrooms” and ayahuasca for providing him with the mental clarity it took to score a $200 million contract extension. The wealthy and powerful are totally tripping.

At the end of July, Dr. Lea Lis, a psychiatrist, opened the Hamptons Insight Center, where she treats patients with ketamine. “Traditional psychotropics like Prozac or Zoloft weren’t healing patients; they can be a Band Aid, but psychedelics have offered the new frontier of mental health,” she said. “A lot of people are doing them recreationally illegally, but this is all legal.”

LSD, mushrooms, and other traditional substances like ayahuasca offer people the chance to go deeper into their own minds and heal the pain from their past.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellbeing website Goop.com promotes a fancy ayahuasca retreat in Costa Rica, Joe Rogan often lauds DMT in his podcasts and Tesla founder Elon Musk has posted that psychedelics make a ‘real difference to mental health … we should take this seriously’, Daily Mail pointed out.