Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s recent slew of unconventional decisions might be linked to a purported surge in his use of ketamine, as suggested by individuals familiar with his inner circle.
Earlier this year, we reported on the shocking news that Elon Musk regularly takes ketamine for his mental health, amid an outburst on Twitter (now known as X) where he bashed conventional medicine. While he quickly followed up by brawling with a podcaster, many assumed that his ketamine use was confined to his recreational life. Now, however, sources suggest it could be influencing his business decisions.
Renowned investigative journalist Ronan Farrow delved into the labyrinthine world of Musk in a meticulous exposé for The New Yorker, where he revealed not only that unnamed acquaintances of Musk believe his ketamine consumption has intensified over recent years but that this surge could be influencing some of his unorthodox decisions at X, formerly known as Twitter:
“Associates suggested that Musk’s use has escalated in recent years, and that the drug, alongside his isolation and his increasingly embattled relationship with the press, might contribute to his tendency to make chaotic and impulsive statements and decisions.”
Ronan Farrow
As reported by Futurism, ketamine researcher Amit Anand has said that prolonged engagement with the drug — colloquially referred to by some as “special K” — can result in marked impacts on personality and cognitive functions, especially when taken in larger doses that can lead to full-blown dissociation and even more concerningly…
“A sense of grandiosity and elevated confidence may manifest, driving impulsive and perhaps unwise behavior in professional settings. The repercussions can be contingent on the nature of one’s profession. While the risks might be manageable for a librarian, for a pilot, the consequences could be far-reaching.”
Amit Anand
While audaciousness and risk-taking are integral to Musk’s persona — as they are for many high-flying businesspeople — if these traits are being amplified by ketamine use the implications could reverberate significantly across the many organisations over which he holds significant sway.
With MDMA and psilocybin recently legalised for therapeutic use in Australia, this revelation comes at an interesting time. While it’s easy to criticise Musk over his drug use, there is a more progressive stance to be taken on this issue, whereby Musk’s ketamine use can be understood as tapping into a very hot debate around the power of psychedelic and psychedelic-adjacent drugs to provide new treatment options for stubborn mental health issues.
WATCH: Musk’s rival Mark Zuckerberg brawls with podcaster Lex Friedman.
Pioneers like Robin Carhart Harris have been extolling the virtues of psychedelic drugs for years, but recent research from the Mass General Brigham Hospital in Boston has pointed to ketamine’s specific potential to relieve depression: the hospital recruited 403 patients with severe depression who didn’t respond positively to standard treatments. Among the participants who received ketamine through an intravenous drip, 55% reported an alleviation of their symptoms over the following six months.
As Elon Musk continues to stir up controversy, it seems that his efforts to travel across the cosmos may be taking forms far beyond the bounds of SpaceX. Whether his psychedelic odysseys are a net benefit for one of the world’s most-loved social media platforms remains to be seen…