Pollan agreed.

It’s a complicated concern for two people who have just published books about the benefits of psychedelics. They worry about the ayahuasca retreat gentrification even as they usher more people in the door.

Boyle, who wears a goatee and shaggy hair, does not worry as much about this as his Berkeley friends do. Nor does he share the same shamanic spiritual experiences or drug-related wellness goals. “Me, I was just a druggie — I wasn’t looking for enlightenment,” Boyle said. “The LSD we took, the mescaline and so on, it’s just bought f rom some guy on the street corner, we didn’t know what it was.”

The ‘Goop-ificatio n’

The new psychedelic movement — in which microdosing is for productivity — would not approve.

And the booming wellness industry is ready with promises of what psychedelics can do for you (spoiler alert: almost everything). Goop, Gwyneth Paltrow’s health and beauty brand, now regularly features pieces with voices touting the health benefits of the drugs, claiming MDMA makes talk therapy more effective or ayahuasca increases a person’s appreciation of nature.

“The Goop-ification is happening,” Waldman said. She seems skeptical.

Waldman took on the soft but authoritative voice of a yoga instructor as she jokingly described how psychedelics might be rebranded.

“You know you take your jade egg, roll it in a little acid, and you shove it up your —,” Waldman said, making a swift upward motion with her hand as everyone around the table laughed. “Absorb it through your mucous membranes and it gives you a kind of extraordinary experience.”