While psychedelics have been in the spotlight for their potential to treat various medical indications like PTSD and anxiety, their potential to amplify creativity and artistic vision have long been largely overlooked. A growing number of professionals are leveraging the visionary qualities of psychedelics to achieve personal and professional breakthroughs in deeply meaningful and idiosyncratic ways.
In my work interviewing and documenting mushroom entrepreneurs around the world, I have repeatedly found that people who cultivate a relationship with psilocybin mushrooms and learn how to channel the insights from their journeys into direct action are the quietly shaping extraordinary pursuits and achieving high profile results informed by their personal relationship with the mushroom.
The idea of the mushroom as an animate, intelligent being capable of symbiosis with humans is one that has been proposed by luminaries like Terence McKenna and Kilindi Iyi, but the idea is still a bit farfetched for some. For others who have recognized this quality in their own lives, a personal relationship with psilocybin mushrooms has become a launch pad into previously unimaginable success.
Music industry mogul and serial entrepreneur Edward Crowe is one such person that I’ve come across in my work with Mycopreneur. In a landscape full of people talking about microdosing mushrooms for mental health and impending FDA-approval of a patented psilocybin analogue, Crowe occupies a unique niche in the growing psychedelic space where he eloquently shares his solo high dose mushroom ceremony process and tracks how insights from his sessions in the forest translate into real world success through his portfolio of companies.
“One of my mantras is to sweep the parking lot until you own the building,” says Crowe.
“My process with mushrooms has been the cornerstone to my personal development and the calibrating instrument for my internal compass. They show me where I need to go, and help me map out the steps I need to take to get there” he continues.
As the manager for the hit rapper Yelawolf, Crowe has been instrumental in helping guide the momentum behind the artist into continually heightening worldwide success. Crowe and ‘Wolf’ signed a management deal in Switzerland in 2021 and over the last five years have built a dynasty together from their homebase in Nashville. Yelawolf recently performed at a festival in New Zealand for the first time, and is slated as the top name on the bill behind headlining act Sublime on the forthcoming Sublime Reef Madness festival cruise to the Bahamas in November of 2026. In the U.S., Yelawolf and other artists Crowe manages such as emerging star J. Michael Phillips have sold out numerous back to back tours playing 2,000+ cap venues.
Yelawolf’s success in the music industry has paved the way for the Slumerican label that he founded – which Crowe manages – to extend into arenas ranging from fashion to film and beyond. The Slumerican crew recently featured in the western film ‘Day of Reckoning’ which climbed to the #1 spot on HBO Max globally in late 2025. The Slumerican clothing line has been modeled by high profile artists ranging from British pop icon Ed Sheeran to Jackass star Bam Margera and many more.
“Mushrooms are very serious business for me – I treat them with respect and reverence. As much as they provide value for me, I feel that I need to also provide value to them, which I do by following through on the insights from my experiences and making a meaningful impact in the world between trips” Crowe shares.
Crowe retreats to a wooded spread he owns out in the country outside of Nashville to embark on solo high dose mushroom trips in pursuit of clear thinking and a peaceful mind. He starts his doses at 9 dried grams, and ranges to a 14 gram dose depending on the circumstance. His rationale for the 9 gram starter dose is that this is the amount that allows him to effectively purge, or release pent up energy and emotions accrued from months out on the road on tour and navigating the opportunities and pitfalls of the business world.
Alongside the rising profile of his artistic pursuits, Crowe also recently launched a cigar company called Murder Cigars. The brand was welcomed into the cigar industry at the annual Smokonos Cigar Festival in the Pocono Mountains in Eastern Pennsylvania last year, with major players in the industry personally dropping by the Murder Cigars booth to tell Crowe and associates about the buzz the fledgling brand had generated at the event. Murder Cigars even recently hosted their first professional fight event, building inroads between industries while keeping their finger on the pulse of the entertainment and lifestyle industries.
The connection between psychedelics and creative problem solving has seen a surge of interest lately with events like the Imaginarium conference at UCSD. While media narratives and psychedelic conferences have largely been dominated by the medical potential of psychedelics, interest in these long misunderstood molecules as a means of catalyzing creativity and helping people access high level problem solving skills is starting to be recognized on an institutional scale. The first ever study on the ability of psilocybin to unlock problem solving, creativity, and insights is currently underway at University of Texas Austin.
While academic and research interest into the underlying neural mechanisms for how psilocybin and other psychedelics might work to amplify creativity and insightfulness is emerging, many professional creatives, artists and entrepreneurs are already keenly familiar with this dynamic and pouting it to work at the highest levels of their personal and professional lives.
“Mushrooms help me get my mind right, and everything else stems from that” says Crowe as he lights up another Murder Cigar and prepares to switch lanes into his position as a music manager. While the research data will take some time to come into the public eye, the proof that psilocybin mushrooms can be an invaluable instrument for helping level people up in the world is already in play thanks to luminaries like Crowe.
Dennis Walker is a mushroom multimedia producer best known as the Founder of Mycopreneur. His work is known for blending satire and in depth reporting, and has been featured in Rolling Stone, Forbes, Wired, Vice, and many other international publications. Walker frequently appears as a keynote speaker, emcee, and stand up comedian at conferences and festivals around the world.
