Now, approaching 30 and in the throes of a new entrepreneurial effort, Gillespie has found himself turning to psychedelics for guidance once again. After abstaining from the substances through much of his early career, he became intrigued by microdosing, or the practice of taking a low dose of the drugs in an attempt to improve creativity, productivity and general well-being.
Even though there is little data to back up these claims, the concept of using psychedelics to enhance personal and professional performance has been rising throughout the past few years.
This is particularly the case within Silicon Valley, which has long embraced these ideas. In his book on psychedelics, How to Change Your Mind, Michael Pollan traces this history back to the 1950s, when engineers used LSD’s hallucinogenic effects to visualise new concepts, such as computer chips. Tech titans including Steve Jobs are also known to have dabbled in psychedelics. Jobs reportedly even once disparaged fellow founder Bill Gates as “unimaginative”, noting he would be “broader” if he took LSD (Gates has, actually, alluded to his own LSD use).
A guided trip
For Gillespie, finding an effective way to use psychedelics was difficult – he describes his early attempts at microdosing as “flailing”, saying he had a tough time determining how much of the drugs to take and how to best take advantage of his altered state.
“Finding that right balance and that right place in my life took a little help,” he elaborates. “And that’s where Paul [Austin] comes in.”
Like Gillespie, Austin’s first psychedelic experience happened in his late teens – a psilocybin trip. Later that year, he took LSD “maybe 20 times”. Psychedelics have been a fixture in his personal life ever since, and he sees educating others about them as his professional mission.