A multi-million dollar quest to reverse aging has landed on an ancient tool: psychedelics. Bryan Johnson, the tech executive who tracks thousands of personal biomarkers, told the All-In podcast his latest experiment suggests compounds like psilocybin and 5-MeO-DMT are powerful longevity therapies.
Johnson's approach is clinical. He administered three high, 25-milligram doses of psilocybin in a controlled setting, measuring the impact on his physiology. The results went beyond mental quiet. His blood glucose, previously in the top 99.5th percentile for optimal health, dropped to the 99.9th percentile - a shift he claims is harder to achieve than with the diabetes drug metformin. The intervention also altered his gut microbiome and reduced systemic inflammation.
Bryan Johnson, All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg:
- It had this metabolic reset in the brain where my blood glucose before this was in the top 99.5 percentile of all the population.
- After it went to the top 99.9 percentile. Like to move my blood glucose from that level is very, very hard.
The biochemical mechanism, Johnson argues, targets the brain's default mode network - the neural circuitry responsible for self-referential thought and ego. With age, this network hardens, narrowing perception. Psychedelics temporarily dismantle it. Following a 5-MeO-DMT experience he described as a blast into "raw consciousness," Johnson reports lasting changes: waking up laughing like a child and resolving conflict without adult defensiveness.
Johnson's core argument is a rebrand. He positions high-dose psychedelics not as medicine for the mentally ill, but as a preventive maintenance protocol for high-performing, healthy adults. The quantified data, he believes, can move the conversation from spiritual anecdote to a biomarker-driven case for resetting the biological clock.
