As his boxing match with Jake Paul nears closer, Mike Tyson recently opened up about his training methods — which include the use of psychedelic mushrooms.
During a recent appearance on Logan Paul’s podcast Impaulsive, the boxing icon said that taking psychedelic mushrooms is “beautiful” experience while fight training. “I have to take them when I train. I always train with my mushrooms,” Tyson said.
When asked by Logan why he consumes them, Tyson explained, saying, “Cause I feel beautiful. It takes me to heaven, baby.” Logan then asked if Tyson will be “on mushrooms” when he fights his brother on Nov. 15, to which he replied, “Maybe. If I’m not on mushrooms I’ll be on residue of mushrooms.”
This isn’t his first experience with psychedelics. Back in November 2021, Tyson told the New York Post that after he tried smoking the venom from a Sonoran Desert Toad, he had a life-changing experience. “I ‘died’ during my first trip,” Tyson told the outlet at the time.
“In my trips I’ve seen that death is beautiful,” he added. “Life and death both have to be beautiful, but death has a bad rep. The toad has taught me that I’m not going to be here forever. There’s an expiration date.”
Tyson said he began smoking the toad venom four years ago, and has since taken it more than 50 times. Toad venom is classified by the DEA as a Schedule I drug, which means it currently has no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.
“I did it as a dare,” Tyson told the Post while attending Wonderland, a conference for psychedelics, microdosing and medicine, in Miami, Florida. “I was doing heavy drugs like cocaine, so why not? It’s another dimension. Before I did the toad, I was a wreck.”
“The toughest opponent I ever faced was myself. I had low self-esteem. People with big egos often have low self-esteem,” he added. “We use our ego to subsidize that. The toad strips the ego.”
