When Chris, known on X as @Chompers2024, announced that he would livestream himself eating 19g of magic mushrooms—for the avoidance of doubt, a humongous dose—if his post received 100 likes, the replies were split. Some supported his noble endeavour. Others expressed concern for his health. Many decried his behavior as dangerous clout-chasing.
It will surprise no one who’s ever used the internet to learn that the post easily surpassed Chris’s threshold, drawing a few thousand likes and generating nearly 300,000 impressions. In fact, Chris—who says he started taking mushrooms to cope with his manic depression and PTSD—was so impressed by the reaction that he declared he would amp up his efforts, and gobble up another 10.5g of the psychedelic fungus.
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So it was that on Friday night, somewhere in the US, @Chompers2024 ate more than an ounce of magic mushrooms live on X, while sitting in his Tesla car.
It may sound like some kind of elaborate, life-threatening homage to the X- and Tesla-owning, pro-psychedelics tycoon Elon Musk, but Chris said he didn’t trip at home because he didn’t want his wife to find out. “The most shrooms I ate before this was about 10g, and I was tripping hardcore,” he explained to me. Despite going minorly viral and attracting so much attention that his X profile was removed, he claims his wife remains in the dark.
At least two people were directly inspired to join in with Chris. “Youve got this brother,” wrote one X user, alongside a photo of a bag of mushrooms. “im not gonna go ape shit like you but ill [take] a nice lil 3.5 wit ya.” Another said they would take 4g in solidarity with Chris. Others jumped into the replies, often just to raise their own profiles or promote their mushroom brands. Yet the madness raised a question: Are live-streamed psychedelic binges, sparked by random pied pipers, going to become A Thing?
“There has been an uptick in increasingly brazen viral marketing stunts pulled by manufacturers and sellers of psychedelics,” says mushroom industry expert Dennis Walker, of the Mycopreneur podcast. “It’s a cat and mouse game of people posting and getting taken down. I’ve seen these binge-level live-streamed doses several times across various platforms in recent months.” Walker says that one mushroom grower on Instagram, whose account is now inactive, recorded himself weighing out 100g of psychedelic fungi and then stuffing handfuls of it into his mouth, before the video cut to a scene of him being carried around by his friends. (Side point: remember when getting shitfaced on alcohol was actually cool?)
Alongside the goonish binges have been prominent endorsements. A retailer of DMT vapes teamed up recently with an LA-based influencer, who posted about the product to their 400,000 followers, Walker says. Meanwhile, both a boxer and a comedian have partnered with a mushroom chocolate brand. This month, on Logan Paul’s podcast, Mike Tyson pulled out a bag of mushrooms and said he never trains without them. Previously, he ate a handful of mushrooms—enough for a strong trip—on the podcast while smoking a joint. “It’s a fungus, it’s what we’re made out of,” Tyson reasoned.
During his five minutes of fame, Chris had the wherewithal to remember to shout out mushroom company Matrix Genetix—which encourages ‘shroom use on its Instagram. “The Matrix wants you busy, brainwashed, and bound to their system. It’s time to wake up and channel into the dimensions around us,” a recent post read. Neither Chris nor Matrix Genetix denied they had a business relationship, in correspondence with VICE.
There will be concerns that such marketing stunts, and binge-dose exhibitionism, downplay potential risks. The psychedelic mushrooms on sale in underground dispensaries and online are becoming increasingly potent, due to more advanced breeding methods amid a race to create the strongest mushroom. There are some varieties that are four times as strong as others. Yet at no point in recent history has the use of psychedelics felt so normalized.
“After decades of drug war propaganda demonizing psychedelics, the narrative has swung to the opposite extreme, with increasing claims that they’re among the safest drugs one can take,” says Dr Manesh Girn, a neuroscientist specializing in psychedelics at the University of California. “While safe in the sense of not being neurotoxic or addictive in the conventional way, these claims downplay the very real risks of psychological harm and destabilization. We need a balanced, evidence-based view that doesn’t trivialize these powerful substances.”
Concern is growing that as more people take psychedelics, many are experiencing distressing trips which do more harm than good. Some are left with persisting hallucinations, anxiety, and a sense of derealization. “For about 18 months, I awoke with the sun every morning full of a feeling of absolute terror,” one person told the authors of a study on bad trips last year. “Sometimes my anxiety would be so high in the morning I would physically shake.”
Speaking to VICE, Chris concedes that his journey with mushrooms, which began around a year ago, has possibly caused more issues than it has solved. “One day I had a meltdown and took too many mushrooms and I ended up totaling my car and I got arrested,” he claims. “I spent overnight in a jail cell.”
When Chris declared he’d eat the ludicrously strong dose of mushrooms on X, some warned that he might not survive. Others advised him not to do it alone. “Get a good trip sitter you trust,” one user said, “I went full berserk last time I exceeded my limits.” GIFs of rocket launches and advisories for people to fasten their seatbelts showered the replies to his tweets, but Chris appears to have emerged relatively unscathed.
“I went to lay down and then I don’t remember much,” he says. “I saw weird flashes of light and when I closed my eyes I saw crazy-looking patterns and shapes. It was a very wild experience. I slept the best that I ever slept in my life. Normally I wake up five or six times per night but I slept all the way through.” Unsurprisingly, he remains a firm advocate. “I love mushrooms,” he says.
The trip, however, was condemned in some quarters. “As a mycologist and myconaught [sic],” wrote “Mr Shire Genetrics”, “I have to say not only is this super wreckless. I am really ashamed of everyone who is egging this on. You all really disgust me. Psilocybin is about healing. This has so many levels of cringe and dude is happy he went viral. Smh.” Another gave Chris props. “Willingly deciding to see the aspects of the universe,” they wrote. “Ya gotta respect it.” Another rolled out the red carpet for his return. “Welcome back from your trip to gnomeland Chompers,” they said.
Walker laments how “a very American and capitalist sense of bravado where more equals better” seems to be invading the psychedelic space. “Large doses can potentially be great for some people and shouldn’t be considered as inherently a bad idea,” he says, “but the intersection of recording yourself on social media and marketing as a stunt around these large doses is a terrible idea.”
Follow Mattha Busby on Instagram @matthamundo
