Entrepreneur says taking magic mushrooms can help solve business problems

The creator of a new social networking app has some novel advice for his fellow entrepreneurs: consume the psychedelic fungi known as psilocybe mushrooms.

"It completely changes how you think," Evan Reas of Circle told Business Insider on Wednesday. "About your problems, about yourself, everything. It forced me to ask, 'Is what I'm doing important?'"

Magic mushrooms, as they are commonly called, can produce profound changes in consciousness. The illegal drug alters mood, sensory perception, time perception, and the sense of self.

On his personal blog, Reas said the alteration in consciousness produced by psilocybe mushrooms had pragmatic benefits.

"Since you you think about things differently, you look at problems or questions in a new light and come up with profoundly different solutions than before," he wrote. "When you work on a problem for a long period of time, you build up biases and filters and it becomes harder to get fresh thoughts. Mushrooms eliminates those biases."

Psychedelic substances are no stranger in the tech industry. Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs said in 2005 that doing LSD was one of the most important experiences in his life. Douglas Englebart, the father of the computer mouse, also experimented with LSD, as did Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

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