Some CEOs are getting into another kind of voyage altogether — one they can only take with the help of hallucinogenic psilocybin mushrooms — at a luxury retreat in British Columbia.
Married couple Gary Logan and Rob Grover launched The Journeymen Collective in 2018 and cater to an often select group of CEOs, athletes and celebrities.
They claim the experience makes “better leaders.”
“They’re more passionately and purposefully engaged in their business and as a function of that, profits take care of themselves,” Grover told the New York Post earlier this year.
“They have greater creativity in creating business plans, creating new businesses or amplifying an existing business. They have greater courage as well,” Grover insisted.
Each “trip” is guided, by a shaman, CNBC reported in a feature on the spaced-out spot.
And there are several packages to choose from: A solo four-day retreat, and get-aways for couples and small groups of up to four people. Packages start at a cool $15,000.
Some 60 percent of their clientele is from the US, another 30 percent hails from Canada and 10 percent are international.
The retreat is held in an 8,000 square-foot home with “views for days,” says Gover, as well as a saltwater pool and hot tub in open space surroundings. Food is mostly vegetarian and organic, notes CNBC.
There are two psilocybin “ceremonies” and two full days of “integration” when clients absorb and discuss their experiences.
“We work on the spiritual, mental, emotional and physical planes of what it’s like to be human. So we’re teaching people how to work with the medicine, how to continue working with it once [they] leave,” Grover explained.
Some clients return for more trips, typically in three years.
Clients are usually screened via two Zoom calls, so “we have a fairly good intuition as to whether or not we can work with people” before the retreat, Grover noted.
Research has revealed psilocybin to be a positive treatment for depression.
“Depressed people are continually self-critical, and they keep ruminating, going over and over the same negative, anxious or fearful thoughts,” David Nutt, director of the Neuro-psychopharmacology Unit in the Division of Brain Sciences at Imperial College London, told CNN.
“Psychedelics disrupt that, which is why people can suddenly see a way out of their depression during the trip,” he added. “Critical thoughts are easier to control, and thinking is more flexible. That’s why the drug is an effective treatment for depression.”
