In this episode, we explore a somewhat esoteric aspect of our lives. H and I had experience with the psychedelics in a form of psilocybin mushrooms. The goal, for me at least, was to continue the search for and to investigate the nature of consciousness. I have been a meditator for almost 4 years now, and most of my insights in this area of my life were greatly influenced by the American philosopher and Neuroscientist, Sam Harris. I use his meditation app to start my day every morning, and I have consumed tens, if not hundreds of hours of the content on his meditation app on topics ranging from moral philosophy, to living a good life all the way to Buddhist teachings and Eastern Philosophy in general. He is one public intellectual who has had the most influence in my life in the recent years, especially after I officially became an atheist. He introduced me to what spiritually means and looks like outside of organised religion, what has come to be known as secular spirituality.On the other hand, H’s curiosity was sparked by his encounter with Will Smith’s ayahuasca story in his auto-biography as well as Bill Burr’s magic mushroom experience that he shared in his latest Netflix special, and other people who had claimed to have had a spiritual experience from ingesting these compounds.We spend the greater part of the first half of this episode, sharing our subjective experiences, or trips as they are colloquially referred to. We had a whole build up to our respective experiences, and naturally, we did a lot of research too. Was the experience as pyrotechnic as we had anticipated? Have you ever wondered what sex is like while on a psychedelic trip? There is some ground-breaking research at the moment taking place in the states on these substances, decades after they were banned even for purposes of scientific research. The research so far is proving the tremendous psychological benefits that these substances can have, and the health of many addicts and mental patients they have managed to restore, even on patients with mental pathologies that had proven to be resistant to pharmaceutical drugs and therapy.Later in the podcast, GT, whose life is self-admittedly a mess of a different kind, finally joins us after a weekend of binge drinking, and he tries his best to convince us that he is sober. We then proceed to do our favourite thing; we judge him relentlessly. He had actually convinced me to take out that part of the podcast because he felt like he was not his best self, but I convinced him otherwise. You can listen and be the judge.Okay, maybe it’s about time we did a bit of psychoanalysing here, are we maybe jealous that GT is having too much of a good time for our liking down in the mother city? I mean the guy is living the life of a rock star down there, in this episode, we even find out that he may or may not be Mamokgethi Phakeng’s Ben 10, and she is essentially the one funding this unruly lifestyle of his. On the other news, at our Alma Matta, Wits university, a lecturer by the name of Jeremia Lelosa is embroiled in a scandal for allegedly scamming a couple of people, including his colleagues there at Wits and one of GT’s friends. GT gives us all the scoop in this controversy, Wits has since suspended the lecturer pending investigations. We also have a voice note from the lecturer himself, that he had sent to this friend of GT, so, you cannot afford to miss that part of this episode.