Today on the podcast:
Rashad Evans is a former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion and UFC Hall of Famer.
Rashad knows a thing or two about the connection between mind and body, and the importance of having both in sync. He credits mushrooms for that one-two punch of focus + energy in training and competition, and then easing the transition from fighter to “just getting back to being me.”
He is passionate about transforming sports nutrition and transforming access to education so that others can have the same opportunities that he did.
Sports injuries and the lasting mental damage caused as a result can impact athletes for decades even after they’ve left the game. This is especially true in high contact sports like football and mixed martial arts. The conversation is now turning towards functional mushrooms and the health benefits they could be holding when it comes to supporting injured players.
Episode Outline
- 07:16 How Rashad gained an interest in functional mushrooms
- 11:58 Defining “functional mushroom”
- 15:03 Misconceptions around functional mushrooms
- 20:40 Spiritual dosages of psilocybin and the profound impacts it had on Rashad’s life
- 26:12 Microdosing psilocybin
- 31:02 The biggest lesson Rashad learned through his psilocybin experiences
- 38:19 What Rashad is most excited about in the functional mushroom space
- 41:53 The most underrated functional mushrooms (for gut health and recovery)
- 43:57 How long it took for Rashad to feel the effects of functional mushrooms
Key Points
- From lion’s mane to reishi to cordyceps, functional mushrooms help in improving the connectivity of your body and boost your neurological health. Because we typically live in toxin-filled environments, our neurological body is polluted, leading to the type of deterioration we call “old age”. Functional mushrooms have the ability to overhaul this process via neurogenesis and neuroplasticity.
- Spiritual dosages of psilocybin are experiences that must be lived to be truly understood and appreciated. These experiences bring to the surface truths about yourself and give you a new set of eyes with which to view them. Unlike therapists who interpret your story for you, using psilocybin ceremonially unveils your truth—and that truth does not need to be affirmed by anyone else. You make your own realizations, and those become your true north.
- Always do your due diligence and don’t rush into psilocybin just because you think you would benefit from it. Everything finds you exactly when you need it. Never jump into it out of pure desperation, because then you wouldn’t be ready for the experience. It’s a great sign once your mindset goes from “I need to do this,” to “I get to do this.”
Powerful Quotes by Rashad
- Once people realize that these modalities are really just another piece of the food kingdom that we’ve just neglected over time and have grown out of connection with, they’ll start to take control of their health in a different kind of way.
- Over time, after putting on a mask over and over and over again, you get so disconnected from the most important part of you, which is the part that will remain once you transition from this life. We get so connected to the fake, the false, the actor that we all have to play in life that we get afraid when that character is confronted with annihilation. We’re able to be manipulated and controlled by that fear.
- Psilocybin is like plugging into the internet, because all around us, everything is connected. Here we are in this body, and we’ve made ourselves an island.
- I foresee mushrooms as becoming one of the biggest industries in the future.
Guest Info
Rashad Evans