Corpse pose hits differently on a gram of shrooms.
This sentiment was shared by myself and the ten other people lying down in a dimly lit downtown yoga studio following a guided sequence of beginner-level asanas (poses), all under the influence of psilocybe cubensis. Among the psychonaut yogis was a licensed therapist who had never done mushrooms but was curious about them. At the end, a sound bath was performed.
The environment was calm and inviting for a good trip.
We all showed up at a hot yoga studio next to a vegan restaurant in a plaza in the shadow of the Walt Disney Concert Hall for the inaugural magic mushroom-assisted (not hot) yoga class from Psiloutte, one of L.A.’s first mushroom gummy companies offering psychologist-backed psilocybin edibles in neat packaging. Their next endeavor is breaking into guided therapy in the name of mental well-being.
The official class name was “Entheogen-Assisted Somatic Release Yoga, with Dr. Bianca Hur, PsyD.” She is a pro-psychedelic Clinical Psychologist based in Orange County who describes her approach to therapy as being an “eclectic approach” that caters to her “client's specific needs and personality.” It cost $85 a person and lasted about two hours. It began with a microdose and personal consultation to determine the right dose. We were given a choice of gummies or a hot tea, which tasted like a yeastier version of lemon tea. Mushrooms naturally taste citrusy.
“Have you done mushrooms before?” asked Derek Chase, Psiloutte’s founder and CEO, who also created these classes, as soon as I walked in through the front door and took off my Doc Martens. I said ‘yes,’ and he asked me if I wanted half a gram or a whole gram. I said, “fuck it, full.” Chase was as giddy as to take some shrooms and start the class as everyone else. After me was a lady who actually opted out of taking any shrooms at all but still joined the class. The vibe in the room and yoga studio was the same as the hundreds of other yoga classes I’ve done in my life; the lingering aroma of B.O. was already starting to overcome the small space, but if you’re a yogi, you know this is all part of the deal.
I Ubered there and purposely planned nothing else after the class. All of Psiloutte’s standardized, double-tested gummies, which the company ships nationwide, were displayed in the waiting room. Chase is years ahead of the impending competition as legal cannabis becomes more saturated with companies. Brands are starting to turn to magic mushrooms for the next big cash crop.
I loved the idea of what yoga-on-shrooms could be. Still, I was highly skeptical because, at surface level, mushroom-assisted yoga with a sound bath sounds like an episode of Saturday Night Live’s “Californians” skit. It also made me think of a part of L.A.'s toxic wellness culture more associated with privilege.
This experience was also so far removed from the sacred spaces that hallucinogenic mushrooms have held in Indigenous communities like Oaxaca for generations, plus I was the only Latino in the room. Still, I was used to code-switching and remained open-minded. I’ve done yoga—all types on and off—for almost two decades and know firsthand its healing power on your physical and mental health, especially if you do it consistently. I’ve also personally felt the benefits on my mental health after taking a more traditional, “to the dome-style” macrodose.
Eventually, I stopped tripping on myself. I gave in and slowly sipped the mushroom tea, washing down every little bit of grit at the bottom of the cup. I texted my wife that I was starting the sequence.
The class started with an informative presentation on a monitor about mushroom studies meant to provide a sense of security to anyone doing it for the first time, and was still a little nervous about the whole experience. About 15 minutes later, that gratefulness quickly turned into euphoria.
For the first 20 minutes, I felt the same throughout each pose, but somewhere during the seventh sun salutation in between, I started to feel really, really connected and highly grateful to my muscles, nerves, and bones.
Off I went.
As soon as I felt the mushrooms kicking in, I immediately turned my phone off to shut down that information portal and not get distracted by the bright light the screen emits with every notification. All the while, Dr. Bianca’s flow of yoga poses felt effortless and fluid.
When corpse pose came around, I closed my eyes and started to go inward, which is what a yoga instructor will likely tell you in this guided meditation part of a yoga class, except this time, I could go into myself and not think about what I would eat after yoga. I felt every tight muscle along the back of my shoulders sink to the ground, down to my sacrum, and to the back of my ankles—as well as every ligament in between.
For a few seconds, I think I transformed into a blood cell, traveling to the end of every single vein in my 6’2 body at lightspeed to ensure everything ran smoothly. Then I turned into a neuron that did the same kind of inspection of every nerve ending, down to my fingertips and the follicle of every single strand of hair at the top of my head. The colors in these visuals were dark purple and red; my body’s own version of getting sucked into a black hole is what I can best describe it as.
I returned to physical myself, felt the air fill my lungs, and slowly breathed it back out, seeing my uneven chestcage move with my breathing. I felt a similar endorphin release at the end of a hot yoga session and smiled. My eyes got a little teary as I thanked my body for being alive and being able to do most poses after living on this earth for 35 years. This mini-trip was nearly identical to the stuff I see when I do 5x the amount in my annual heroic dose in the mountaintops of Oaxaca’s Sierra Sur, and the benefits. Except I only needed three hours or so and not a whole day.
However, just as I started to enjoy the mushroom yoga, the experience was over sooner than I knew it. Just as it was getting good.
After the ending sound bath, which felt even more amplified and cosmic under the shrooms, we all sat up from the provided yoga mats. I was still lucid, like everyone else, so we were all on a similar wavelength. Dr. Bianca asked if anyone wanted to share their trip, and curiously, the woman who didn’t take any mushrooms at all opened up about it first, saying that she saw the most beautiful visuals. No one seemed to think it was funny that the person who ultimately didn’t take shrooms was the one who opened up first. “She fed off the group energy,” said Chase. Everyone else eventually chimed in in a round table of observations.
Chase and his staff grow all the mushrooms, telling me the specific variety I sipped on in the tea are known as “shaktis,” which are in the albino lineage and express an unusually high percentage of “psilos.”
Some stayed a little longer, hanging around the yoga studio. I was still slightly shroomed out of my mind, so, sitting down on a bench in the waiting room, I continued my enjoyable reflective state, chatting with Chase as he checked in another batch of strangers showing up for a regular hot yoga class that followed our own. I didn’t turn my phone back on for another 30 minutes. Chase joked between people he checked in, “I know, right? I don’t want to talk to people yet, either! Yoga has been a tool I’ve used for about ten years now and is the foundation of my sobriety from alcohol, which will be six years in December.” He thanks his yoga habit for being able to deal with “his feelings in a sustainable way.”
Thanks to the light dose, I maintained most control and did not delve too profoundly inward into my trip. I never felt paranoid or like I was verging on a bad trip.
Why did Chase start a formal shroom yoga class? He kept it honest:
“The real genesis of this idea came from my own drug use, which I’ve learned over the years can be enhanced by the setting, and more so the actions taken while dosing. Whether it's cannabis, mushrooms, or anything in between.”
Chase and his staff grow all the mushrooms, telling me the specific variety I sipped on in the tea are known as “shaktis, which are in the albino lineage and express an unusually high percentage of “psilos.”
After the trip, I felt happy that more people dealing with whatever they were dealing with would have access to this medicine via mushroom yoga. A standard definition you hear in yoga studios from instructors worldwide is how yoga is the “union” of mind, body, and spirit.” This is taught in the Yoga Sutras, a Vedic text translated worldwide and acts as the playbook for yoga. When you realize this, it makes all the damn sense in the world and all of its dimensions to combine the two tools in one euphoric experience.
Mushroom classes are just the beginning for Chase, who would like to host these classes weekly if possible while also adding cannabis-assisted yoga and MDMA-assisted yoga in the future.
“We’ve not collected testimonials, but clients have been asking to return,” says Chase. “The feedback is that the sessions are a break from the typical fair of breathwork and meditation that, generally speaking, are not super engaging or immersive. Our approach brings the heat on both the therapeutic nature and excitement around altering one’s state of consciousness with mushrooms.”
In other words, Chase may be onto something here since the worlds of the yogi and the casual psychonaut are known to cross occasionally.
“These sessions are our trial vehicle for those considering higher dose experiences for truly life-changing results; while a psycholytic—a general form of therapy was mostly used to treat patients with neurotic and psychosomatic disorders—dose is a great start, higher doses and more preparation and integration services are warranted,” Chase advises.
As for the legality of hosting these classes, Chase still stands by the quote that he gave to L.A. TACO earlier this year in Hadley Tomicki’s article that was banned from Instagram: Chase feels that the DEA is not currently hung up on prosecuting plant-based or natural psychedelic offenses, making it a low-risk offense that his two legal teams could turn into a relatively small punishment, especially given his adherence to doing things responsibly, as opposed to how it is done throughout the black market.
Mushroom classes are just the beginning for Chase, who would like to host these classes weekly if possible while also adding cannabis-assisted yoga and MDMA-assisted yoga in the future.
When asked how to sign up for an upcoming class, which is limited to no more than ten people right now, Chase responded, “Subscribe to our newsletter!”
For more information on taking a mushroom yoga class, you can sign up for the newsletter using link above, call directly at (802) 755-7371, or email Psiloutte at brian@personalizedwellbeing.org.
