The CEOs are tripping. Can psychedelics help the C-suite?
A growing cottage industry is dedicated to the theory that mind-altering drugs can improve business leadership.
“Who feels nervous about tomorrow?” Murray Rodgers asked the entrepreneurs who came to a recent psychedelic retreat he led in Western Canada. Three hands shot in the air. The New York Times
Burrowed in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies is a wooden house, a retreat centre made of pine and spruce and filled with mushroom carvings, tapestries of periwinkle and indigo paisley, books about The Indoctrinated Brain and other paraphernalia nodding to the promised transformation: enter as a chief executive, emerge as an enlightened one.
When a group of executives wearing hoodies and leggings arrived on a Tuesday evening in October, they vibrated with the nervous energy of summer camp drop-off. They were gathered for a retreat called “The Psychedelic CEO”, which they had agreed to let me observe.
