Jaden Smith joined his mother Jada Pinkett Smith for the latest episode of Red Table Talk, during which he spoke about his experiences with psychedelics.
The rapper and actor is among the guests brought on to discuss the topic of using drugs such as magic mushrooms for mental health reasons, and his grandmother Adrienne Banfield Norris also briefly spoke about her time using plant-based substances.
Jada started the conversation by bringing up recent studies on the use of psychedelics to treat mental health issues, and admitted she had used such drugs in the past to treat her depression.
“I had struggled with depression for so long. You know, I mean, crippling depression. So the thing about plant medicine is that not only does it help you feel better, but it helps you solve the problems of how you got there in the first place," she explained before directly asking Jaden what led him to experimenting with psychedelics.
"It started as pure curiosity. Not believing that mushrooms could actually, like, make you feel any type of way," he replied. Earlier this year, Jaden, 23, spoke about how those experiences influenced his project CTV3. As mentioned by Jada, recent research has shown mushrooms could be a huge step in improving mental health treatment in the United States.
"I had an experience, and during that experience, I understood what ego was for the first time,” the rapper/singer/actor told his mother and grandmother. “It was always in my head, talking, telling me what I was and what I wasn't. And for the first time, I had, like, an ego dissolution where I was like…that was the moment that really changed me. You get to a place in your life where you're blocked by something, whether it's a trauma, whether it's your emotions, your ego, and not being able to express yourself, and then I feel like psychedelics are a way to tear down that wall and see what's beyond it.”
While he spoke very highly of psychedelics, he did stress the importance of “guided” trips with those who have a bit more experience. “I'm trying to figure this thing out in my life and that's why I'm doing it, as opposed to, oh, you know, I just wanna...” he said, to which Jada added, “I just wanna trip.”
Jaden said the desire to just get high “can be dangerous,” and he personally thinks psychedelics should be utilized to “bring about profound change in someone’s life.”
Elsewhere in the episode, Jada and Adrienne also spoke to GoDaddy founder Bob Parsons, who said he’s had “life-changing” experiences on psychedelics.
