Famed mycologist Paul Stamets hosts talk on the magic of mushrooms at GoPro Mountain Games in Vail

For decades, Paul Stamets has been spreading the spores of the mycology scene into the mainstream. Among his numerous other credentials, he is the owner of a multi-million-dollar mushroom supplement brand, the author of “Psilocybin Mushrooms in Their Natural Habitats,” has appeared on “The Joe Rogan Experience” numerous times, and even has a character from the Star Trek universe named after him.

Meanwhile, over the years at the GoPro Mountain Games, the CoLab stage has become the artists’ cornerstone to the “Athletes, Art, Music and Mountains,” tagline with creatives, influencers and thought leaders echoing inspiration in Solaris Plaza. A place to share big ideas, the concept stepped into another realm last week as Stamets took the stage to tell everyone how mushrooms can save the world. And he didn’t hold back on psilocybin.

“This is a much more profound subject than any of us realized,” he said.

“I know this is a controversial subject, but I have no fear of talking about it because I know that this is a deep truth,” he told the large crowd spilling out onto East Meadow Drive. Later, he surveyed that same crowd to further destigmatize the discussion. “How many people here have not taken psilocybin mushrooms? You can raise your hand, there’s no shame,” he asked the crowd before tallying the results.

“Four people out of 200,” he announced.

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While psilocybin may be a controversial subject in other states, Stamets’ presentations took place in a much safer space. Colorado voters approved the Natural Medicine Health Act in 2022, which made Colorado the second state in the country to decriminalize the use of psilocybin by adults over 21. Since then, health professionals across the state have also embraced the natural psychedlic’s properties, known for helping treat depression and other mental health issues. In spring of last year, Vail Health kicked off their own study of the drug’s effects on depression, marking a shift in attitude toward psilocybin within established healthcare providers as a valid form of treatment not only for depression, but other mental health illnesses.

“It upregulates your immune system,” he said. “When you are depressed, you’re immunologically depressed. It’s an inflammatory state. It’s a slippery slope into disease.”

Among those diseases is addiction to other drugs, Stamets added.

“It turns out that those who have used psilocybin have a strong disassociation with opioid use disorder. And so it’s being studied now in many universities and institutions for using psilocybin for breaking addiction to opioids,” he said.

It’s not all about medical treatment either. According to Stamets, psilocybin is the answer to what he calls a “crisis in creativity.”

“I think psilocybin creates geniuses. I think psilocybin we know is neurogenic. We know that psilocybin increases neuroplasticity,” he said.

Stamets’ talk spanned cultural and indigenous histories as well as deep scientific knowledge that left the crowd spellbound. But much like how he describes his topic of choice, it also left many with a growing sense of wonder that what we just heard was merely the skimming of a much deeper discussion.

“Think of the implications. We are just at the beginning of our understanding of knowledge of the deep well of nature that loves us, that wants us, support us, we need to do our jobs as better citizens,” he closed.