“In my trips,” legendary former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson has told the New York Post. “I’ve seen that death is beautiful. 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 was speaking while in Miami for “Wonderhouse,” which has been advertised as “the largest psychedelic medicine business event, ever. The “toad” Tyson spoke of is the Sonoran Desert Toad. According to the Post, “its venom can be smoked to produce a short psychoactive trip.” Although he claims he “died” during his first trip, Tyson swears by the psychedelic.
“Before I did the toad,” he said, “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. We use our ego to subsidize that. The toad strips the ego.” According to the Post, the former fighter known as Iron Mike has tripped on toad venom over fifty times. “People see the difference,” claimed Tyson. “It speaks for itself. If you knew me in 1989 you knew a different person. My mind isn’t sophisticated enough to fathom what happened, but life has improved. The toad’s whole purpose is to reach your highest potential. I look at the world differently. We’re all the same. Everything is love.”
Though it at first may seem strange to have an iconic former athlete singing the praises of a psychedelic, Tyson has always gone his own way, both for better and for worse. The man has unquestionably shown physical courage over the decades, but he has also shown himself to be of the mind to try new things. He’s been a huge supporter of cannabis use for some time now, for instance, even going so far as to have his own brands.
Tyson is also willing to put his money where his mouth is. According to the Post, “he’s invested in Wesana Health, a biotech company that is using psilocybin as a treatment for traumatic brain injuries.” Although seeing the guy once known as “the baddest man on the planet” being a proponent of psychedelics may seem off, Tyson is taking the endeavor quite seriously “I’m fighting for psychedelics to become medicine you can buy over the counter,” he told the Post. “I’m not finished. I want to do more. I want to be the best I can be in this field.”