“Come watch me trip balls,” Bryan Johnson, the “Don’t Die” longevity entrepreneur, declared on X a few days before he live-streamed himself consuming a high dose of psychedelic mushrooms at a psilocybin center in Oregon on Sunday.

It was the second act of his blunt new investigation into whether using psilocybin could improve nearly 250 well-being biomarkers, including various measures of brain connectivity, cortisol levels and testosterone.

“There is a potential for psychedelics to play a more important role in all of our lives, and wouldn’t it be great if it was also a longevity therapy,” Johnson proclaimed on the stream. Before eating the mushrooms – which have been legal at licensed facilities in Oregon since 2023 – on Sunday, Johnson measured his brain activity using a $50,000 helmet manufactured by Kernel, a neuroimaging company founded by the 48-year-old. He also took saliva samples and temperature readings. (After his November 9 trip, he shared a lot of information about the state of his erections, but more on that later.)

Then he drank more than five grams of powdered mushrooms mixed with lemon juice, for extra strength. Johnson grimaced, and a bizarre new era of vibrant celebrity psychedelic exhibitionism was born—one that arguably ran counter to the introspective nature of the drug. The five-and-a-half-hour live stream, which has been viewed more than 1.1 million times, also featured Johnson’s 20-year-old son Talmage, whose blood he has injected in his efforts to stay young, journalist Ashlee Vance, a DJ set by Grimes, and Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff. YouTuber MrBeast, while pictured on a cartoonish poster advertising the event, didn’t show up, which most extremely tall people would probably consider a blessing.

Observers have noted that live streaming an intense psychedelic trip may not be beneficial as it can lead to fragmented attention and performance stress. Johnson apparently acknowledged this before taking the mushrooms, saying, “I think the biggest question is, can I not go off the rails?”

“If the whole world can watch you, it might not facilitate the best outcome,” says Rayyan Zafar, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Psychedelic Research and Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London. “Bryan’s setting speaks more to ego enrichment than ego dissolution and is characteristic of many of his pseudoscientific pursuits. These kinds of experiences are often best kept with an introspective and internal focus.” (Ego death, where one’s sense of self dissolves, is an experience some people seek when taking various psychedelics.) Jamie Wheal, the author of Reclaiming the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex, and Death in a World That Has Lost Its Mindwas more blunt in his assessment, telling WIRED the project was “a circus of self-indulgence” and an exercise in “digital narcissism.” He asked: “Is this the psychedelic renaissance that all the supposed freedom fighters and prisoners of conscience have been pushing for?” (Asked if he wanted to respond to criticism of his methods, Johnson told WIRED, “Whoever said that, I wish them well.”)

But while someone tripping balls on camera may seem performative and not particularly riveting — at one point, Johnson plays with a slinky after declaring “everything alive” — his broadcast can also help reduce stigma surrounding drug use. “I think it’s all well and good to show people what the experience is [of taking psychedelics] seems like, to demystify it to some extent, to show that it can be beneficial,” journalist and former psychedelic industry consultant Hamilton Morris said on the live stream; Morris hosted the Vice show. Hamilton’s Pharmacopoeiawho depicted him using drugs on camera.