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- Clinical trials show psychedelics can greatly lower symptoms of depression and anxiety that haven't responded to other treatments.
- People still use microdosing often, even though there's no clear proof it helps with productivity or mood.
- Patenting psychedelics brings up ethical worries about taking from cultures and companies controlling old practices.
- Psychedelics might boost the brain's ability to change and connect, but we still don't know if this makes people better in real life.
- Christian Angermayer uses biotech companies to promote psychedelics as tools for a future where humans are enhanced.
Christian Angermayer thinks psychedelics can save humanity. This is a big statement from someone who has put his money—and himself—into the idea of making humans better. Through his fund, Apeiron Investments, worth billions, and companies like atai Life Sciences, Angermayer wants a future where plant medicines meet new biotech. But as the use of psychedelics grows with help from Silicon Valley, we have to ask: are we starting a new time of inner change, or just buying into a nicely marketed idea?
The Billionaire Who Sees the Future and Is Betting on Mushrooms
Christian Angermayer is more than a rich business person—he wants to change what it means to be human. With Apeiron Investment Group and many other businesses in psychedelics, biotech, crypto-finance, and living longer, Angermayer is building a future where the human mind and body aren't just treated, but made much better. His main company for mental health, atai Life Sciences, has millions of dollars in funding and is key to his bigger idea of human progress.
Angermayer recently put $22.75 million of his own money back into atai. This shows he plans to stick with this for a long time. He sees psychedelics not just as ways to fix problems for one person, but as important technology for the future of people (Rogers, 2024). Many scientists and business people are getting involved in the psychedelic market, but Angermayer is going all in. He wants better mental ability to be normal, not rare.
The “Next Human Agenda”: What Does Making Humans Better Mean?
Angermayer's main goal is based on something he calls the “Next Human Agenda.” This way of thinking challenges usual health goals like stopping sickness or living a long time. Instead, it supports actively improving physical, mental, and emotional skills. Simply put, it's not just about living a long time—it's about living better, thinking smarter, and having a stronger sense of things.
This idea covers everything from drugs that improve the brain to devices that link the brain and computers. For Angermayer, making humans better includes both medical treatment and personal choice: helping with depression and boosting how much you get done, cutting stress and making awareness wider. It's about making tools that take us past just working okay into states of doing really well, being successful, and even feeling connected to something bigger.
An example of this idea is Angermayer's support for the Enhanced Games—an event like the Olympics where using substances to perform better is allowed and even praised. He says banning drugs that improve physical or mental function is like holding back progress. In his view, getting better with the help of science isn't 'cheating'—it's using our creative abilities as a species.
Psychedelics at the Center: From Old Medicine to Smart Drugs
Christian Angermayer didn't find psychedelics when he was young and trying new things. Instead, he came to them later in life, carefully and on purpose, using them as part of a plan to try and reach higher states of awareness. His own experience made him believe that they are not just tools for healing old hurts—they are potential helpers for everyday function, clear thinking, and feeling things more deeply.
For thousands of years, people have used psychedelics in many cultures—from the important rituals of the Mazatec people in Mexico to ayahuasca gatherings deep in the Amazon. These were seen not as drugs, but as special plant medicines that connected people to nature and the divine. But today, in the hands of people from Silicon Valley with big ideas, psychedelics are becoming nootropics: tools to help with focus, lasting effort, and coming up with new things.
This change makes psychedelics easier for modern people to get. But it also makes people wonder: is the sacred becoming less sacred? Can the deeper wisdom of these substances last when people see them as just ways to get more done?
atai Life Sciences: Is It the Main Biotech Company for Psychedelics?
Since it started in 2018, atai Life Sciences has become one of the most active and well-funded companies working with psychedelics for medical use. Angermayer’s company owns or works with many smaller companies creating test compounds—many of which come from or are like traditional psychedelics such as psilocybin, DMT, and ketamine.
One of atai's goals is to create drugs approved by the FDA that use the power of psychedelics to treat conditions that have been hard to help with usual methods—like depression that doesn't get better, addiction to opioids, PTSD, and general anxiety disorder. The company currently has patents on different man-made versions meant to control how long or how strong a psychedelic experience is, so they can be used more safely in clinics.
Angermayer recently raised his ownership to 22.3%. This shows that atai is more than just a company—it stands for his belief that using psychedelics with therapy will be as common in the 21st century as using antibiotics was in the 20th.
Mental Health and Mushrooms: Do They Really Help?
The possibility that psychedelics can help with mental health has moved from being a strange idea to a main topic. Many clinical studies show that compounds like psilocybin and MDMA can cause major psychological changes. Johns Hopkins University and Imperial College London have led several important studies:
- A 2020 study from Johns Hopkins found that two doses of psilocybin, along with talk therapy, quickly and lastingly lowered depression symptoms in 71% of people in the study.
- MDMA-assisted therapy is in the final stages of testing and the FDA has called it a "breakthrough therapy" because it works well for treating PTSD.
- Other tests suggest these substances may help a lot with worry about existence, especially for patients who are dying and thinking about death.
How they work is that psychedelics seem to break up stuck brain patterns often seen in anxiety and depression, leading to a state where the brain can change more and feelings can be released. But these compounds are still listed as illegal drugs in many places. This limits research and makes it harder to share what is learned.
Going Past the Line: When Therapy Becomes Enhancement
When people talk about psychedelics, the line between treating sickness and making someone better than average becomes a big topic. Healing a mental health problem is widely seen as a good thing—but what about using these substances to go past feeling just okay? What if they could help a healthy person focus better, be more creative, or understand their feelings more?
Christian Angermayer is okay with this unclear line. For him, there is nothing wrong with making oneself better with chemicals—especially if trying leads to progress, understanding, or a better life. As biotech companies make versions of traditional psychedelics that don't cause trips, the area between medicine and making someone better gets less clear.
But critics warn of money problems and ethical dangers. If only the richest can pay for personalized brain improvement, are we heading toward a two-level society—those who are “upgraded,” and those left behind?
The Science (and What We Don't Know) About Making Your Brain Better
People often tell stories about psychedelics helping with art ideas and big emotional releases. But there is not much hard science proving they work as "smart drugs." In controlled studies, microdosing has shown little benefit, often no different from taking a fake pill.
Key findings include:
- Brain scans show psychedelics can boost overall brain connections and lower activity in the "default mode network," which is often linked to depression and rigid thinking.
- High doses of psychedelics seem to cause "ego dissolution," an experience connected with being more open and creative.
- But lasting improvements in thinking skills—like better memory, quick thinking, or constant productivity—have not been shown in controlled settings.
There is reason to hope, but also reason to be careful. For every story about microdosing helping someone remember things better, there's another study saying the results are not clear.
Changing the Mind Like a Computer: Popular Ideas and Risks
The group of people who try to change their own bodies and minds—a mix of tech workers, people who try things on themselves, and health fans—has welcomed psychedelics. They see them as part of their larger goal to make human performance just right. Microdosing, or taking very small amounts of LSD or psilocybin several times a week, is probably the most common idea.
Supporters say it makes mood, focus, and creativity better, and lowers anxiety without causing hallucinations. But there is little scientific proof. Most studies on microdosing use small groups of people, rely on what people say about themselves, and are affected by people expecting it to work.
And we still don't know much about what happens to the body over a long time. Also, with laws changing, many users risk legal trouble or using substances without a doctor watching.
Business and Money: Who Will Own the Future of Psilocybin?
Turning psychedelics into a business has caused strong arguments among scientists, activists, and groups of native people. As biotech companies ask for patents for new ways to make them, man-made versions, and ways to deliver them, questions come up: can something natural be owned? Who makes money from the psychedelic experience?
Groups like the Indigenous Peyote Conservation Initiative and the National Council of Native American Churches want to protect sacred practices. Critics say Western investors are taking sacred medicines and renaming them to make money for a few, while ignoring the groups who kept these practices alive.
Angermayer thinks that getting patents for new ideas is how things grow. But people who disagree say that company control of medicine might limit access, stop traditional practices, and make an experience that was once full of cultural details all the same.
The Spiritual Side vs. the Silicon Valley Mind
One of the biggest disagreements in the modern wave of psychedelic interest is the clash between old spiritual traditions and the future-focused view from Silicon Valley. Angermayer himself is an example of the latter—practical, not religious, and doubtful of old religions. He once said the belief that death is final came from “medieval Christianity,” which he claimed used the idea of death to control people (Rogers, 2024).
Biotech companies try to measure the psychedelic experience with body data and combined therapies. But old traditions stay based in mystery, rituals, and being connected to the community. There's a chance that turning compounds into pills takes away their context, making deep states of mind just something to check off on a list of chemicals.
Also, native cultures don't see these substances as tools to "enhance" things. Instead, they see them as ways to feel humble, connect with ancestors, and find balance with nature.
Ethics and Access: Will Psychedelics Be for Everyone?
As therapies based on psychedelics get closer to being approved by the FDA, ethical problems about who can get them grow. Will treatments cost thousands per session, making healing too expensive for those who need it most? Therapy with psychedelics often needs many hours of sessions with trained therapists—which cost a lot and there aren't many available.
We don't know yet if insurance will cover it, and programs that offer lower costs based on income are rare. If this field isn't careful, psychedelics could end up causing the same unfairness seen in the rest of healthcare—where new ideas are only for the rich.
A fair future would need rules, financial help, and training systems that make sure groups who have less power are not left out of this change in mental health care.
A Mushroom Revolution: The Role of Mycology Companies
Not all progress in psychedelics is directed from the top. A strong movement is also growing from the ground up, led by teachers, therapists working outside the system, regular people doing science, and mushroom growing fans. Companies like Zombie Mushrooms make learning materials, growing kits, and public research to help everyday people understand what fungi can do.
These efforts stress helping yourself, being in charge of your own healing, and respecting the environment. Unlike biotech companies focused on growing big and getting patents, grassroots groups often support making these substances legal, getting help from other users, and sharing the money made from psychedelics back with communities.
This approach, spread out among many people, balances the push from corporations. It may offer a way for people to get involved with psychedelics in the future that is more ethical, lasts longer, and includes more people.
Is This a Psychedelic Change or Just a Tech Dream?
The modern movement around psychedelics has a lot of promise—and danger. On one side, we are finding powerful ways to heal, be creative, and even feel more care for others. On the other side, appealing stories about "upgrading humanity" risk making the very practices that ask for humility, looking inside oneself, and feeling connected to others just another product.
Christian Angermayer's big idea for a perfect future is inspiring, but we need to question it carefully. Psychedelics might open up amazing states of mind. But without rules to protect people, respect for cultures, and fair access, this change risks becoming just another place where only the privileged benefit.
The Future of Psychedelics and What Humans Can Be
Behind the labs, investment papers, and talks that sound like TED talks is a simple truth: psychedelics show us who we are as a culture, what we care about most, and our values. Christian Angermayer believes they are part of humanity’s next big step—and he might be right. But the challenge isn't just making the brain better. It's also about keeping the heart in mind: respecting old ways, making sure everyone can get them, and seeing these substances not just as things we use—but as things we need to take care of.
