Will psychedelic mushroom vacations come to the U. S.?

The palm-fringed beachfront and breezy cabanas at MycoMeditations are the stuff of glossy travel brochures, but the barefoot vacationers roaming the Jamaican retreat center this winter are seeking a different kind of trip entirely.

They’re here for facilitated sessions using psychedelic psilocybin mushrooms. One of a handful of established psilocybin retreat centers in the world, MycoMeditations was founded in 2015, and in the years since has seen surging interest in the reputed mental health benefits of psychedelics. Often, it’s from people surprised to find themselves seeking help from a mysterious fungus at all.

“In my life I had never done any psychedelic,” said Jessica Young, a 41-year-old executive from Atlanta, who flew to Jamaica for a MycoMeditations retreat in November 2019. “It’s pretty out of character for me.”