"I run nature retreats - magic mushrooms are the new booze"
Magic mushrooms are the new booze - with health-conscious people in their 30s ditching alcohol in favour of micro dosing psychedelics, it has been claimed.
Jack Hunt, 36, who runs an events company, was addicted to alcohol and cocaine for almost a decade.
And after a heavy summer of overindulgence in Ibiza he kicked his habit, and swapped booze for magic mushrooms - and hasn't got drunk since.
Now he says many of his friends do the same, ditching nights at the pub in favour of taking a dose of the recreational drug out in nature.
And the big blow out nights out have been replaced with ceremonies which Jack runs six times a year in rural locations for up to 250 people.
He said for him and his friends, it has "given them back control".
Last year the largest clinical trial of its kind found that two doses of psilocybin pills helped people with alcohol use disorder reduce drinking for at least eight months.
Advice website Frank warns side effects include nausea, vomiting, and distortion of sound and vision while eating a poisonous mushroom by mistake is also a big risk.
The drug is an illegal class A controlled substance in the UK.
Jack, from Kingston upon Thames: “My relationship with alcohol and drugs escalated badly, and probably piqued when I went to Ibiza in party season.
“But since discovering magic mushrooms - it has given me back control.
“I can enjoy a single drink whereas before I’d be on a mission to get totally out of it.
“In the UK everyone just drinks to oblivion.
“That isn’t a part of me anymore. I’ve freed myself from it.
"Mushrooms really are the new booze - they change your perspective for the better without making reliant on them."
Jack said he spent an entire summer drinking and doing drugs in Ibiza around a decade ago before deciding enough was enough and that he needed to fundamentally change his life.
“Once I came home I started reading up about psychedelics and my spiritual journey started,” he said.
Jack decided to "take the plunge" and began microdosing – taking very small amounts of the drug for a prolonged but mild effect.
Every few months, Jack takes a ceremonial dose of magic mushrooms, which he says acts as a "reset" on his brain.
Jack runs nature retreats with his company The Utopia Frequency, “mini festivals” where people go for therapeutic ceremonies as well as mediation sessions with DJs and music also on show.
He says they aim is to "create a space where people can release their childhood trauma and step into their true self."
Jack Hunt, 36, who runs an events company, was addicted to alcohol and cocaine for almost a decade.
And after a heavy summer of overindulgence in Ibiza he kicked his habit, and swapped booze for magic mushrooms - and hasn't got drunk since.
Now he says many of his friends do the same, ditching nights at the pub in favour of taking a dose of the recreational drug out in nature.
And the big blow out nights out have been replaced with ceremonies which Jack runs six times a year in rural locations for up to 250 people.
He said for him and his friends, it has "given them back control".
Last year the largest clinical trial of its kind found that two doses of psilocybin pills helped people with alcohol use disorder reduce drinking for at least eight months.
Advice website Frank warns side effects include nausea, vomiting, and distortion of sound and vision while eating a poisonous mushroom by mistake is also a big risk.
The drug is an illegal class A controlled substance in the UK.
Jack, from Kingston upon Thames: “My relationship with alcohol and drugs escalated badly, and probably piqued when I went to Ibiza in party season.
“But since discovering magic mushrooms - it has given me back control.
“I can enjoy a single drink whereas before I’d be on a mission to get totally out of it.
“In the UK everyone just drinks to oblivion.
“That isn’t a part of me anymore. I’ve freed myself from it.
"Mushrooms really are the new booze - they change your perspective for the better without making reliant on them."
Jack said he spent an entire summer drinking and doing drugs in Ibiza around a decade ago before deciding enough was enough and that he needed to fundamentally change his life.
“Once I came home I started reading up about psychedelics and my spiritual journey started,” he said.
Jack decided to "take the plunge" and began microdosing – taking very small amounts of the drug for a prolonged but mild effect.
Every few months, Jack takes a ceremonial dose of magic mushrooms, which he says acts as a "reset" on his brain.
Jack runs nature retreats with his company The Utopia Frequency, “mini festivals” where people go for therapeutic ceremonies as well as mediation sessions with DJs and music also on show.
He says they aim is to "create a space where people can release their childhood trauma and step into their true self."
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FunTranscript
00:00 Oh my goodness.
00:02 Which way shall I go?
00:06 If I go that way, I might be attacked by a gigantic pink elephant.
00:16 If I go this way, I might be abducted by aliens.
00:24 Oh wow.
00:31 Hello tree.
00:41 You must have been here for centuries.
00:45 Look at the fine detail.
00:48 Oh, it's magnificent.
00:51 Can I hug you?
00:54 Magic mushrooms.
00:55 Can it really help with depression?
00:57 I believe so, or I know so.
00:59 It certainly has helped for me over the years, and anyone that I've crossed paths with along
01:04 this journey.
01:05 The stories that I have heard are quite magical.
01:09 It is no wonder that they are called magic mushrooms.
01:13 You don't necessarily have to be suffering with depression to enjoy the benefits that
01:17 this medicine can supply you with.
01:20 Your energy just may be off.
01:22 Maybe you're stuck in a set of behavioral patterns that are keeping you locked in a
01:27 path that is not serving you.
01:31 Addiction is something that the magic can help with massively.
01:37 Getting stuck in loops is a conversation that many talk about within the trip itself, but
01:43 you could argue that we're all stuck in a loop in our everyday life.
01:49 I remember towards the latter part of my addiction, I could barely crack a smile during the week.
01:59 Life becomes quite the burden when you're constantly on a come down.
02:08 One of the most magical things that I think mushrooms can do for you is remove this idea
02:14 that you have of yourself, this character that we're all playing.
02:19 Do we even know who we truly are or are we just living a life that others want us to
02:25 be?
02:26 Do you just believe what others have told you?
02:34 Have the beliefs and the conditioning of your parents, school teachers, siblings, friends,
02:43 have they just formed this character that you're playing?
02:49 When you undergo psilocybin therapy and that idea that you have of yourself is removed,
02:58 dissolves right before your very eyes, everything that you know to be you doesn't exist.
03:07 It forms the question, "Well, who am I then if I'm none of those things?"
03:15 Hopefully it doesn't just supply you with the question, hopefully it supplies you with
03:18 the answer as well.
03:20 You start to realize that there is a separation between you, your thinking, and this self
03:26 that lives within you, this energy that you can manipulate.
03:32 You are in control of that energy, just most people don't realize that.