‘I’m a lighter me’: Can Mike Tyson and psychedelics help boxers with brain trauma?

The peyote cactus is central to many of the rituals of the indigenous Huichol tribe of Mexico. The bright colors and dreamy symbols of their yarn paintings are said to be inspired by the hallucinations experienced by ingesting the mescaline-rich plant in shamanic rituals.

“They do these beautiful creations with beads, paint and sculpture. [By taking] peyote they say they communicate with the gods for the design. I respect that,” says Mauricio Sulaimán, the Mexican-born president of the World Boxing Council [WBC].

It’s a statement that may help explain the WBC’s recent and, some may argue, unlikely partnership with Wesana Health, the Chicago-based biotech company that is developing psychedelic medicine for the treatment of repetitive traumatic brain injury.
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