Jada Pinkett Smith was the first to introduce psychedelic drugs into her family, according to her 24-year-old son, Jaden Smith.
“I think it was my mom, actually, that was really the first one to make that step for the family,” Jaden Smith said of Jada Pinkett Smith, 51, while speaking at the Psychedelic Science conference in Denver on Friday, according to USA Today. “It was just her for a really, really long time and then eventually it just trickled and evolved and everybody found it in their own ways.”
Reps for Jada Pinkett Smith and Jaden Smith did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
The 24-year-old said the drugs, which are mainly illegal in the U.S., have given him more “empathy,” especially with his siblings.
“Siblings can argue so much and fight so much, and lord knows me and my siblings have done so much of that in the past,” Jaden said of his sister Willow, 22, and his half-brother Trey, 30. “But the level of love and empathy that I can feel for them inside of the (psychedelic) experiences and outside of the experiences has been something that’s profound and beautiful.”
Jaden Smith, right, says his mom Jada Pinkett Smith introduced psychedelic drugs to their family. (The Chosunilbo JNS/Imazins via Getty Images)
He said that doing the drugs together helps them “open up our minds to get out of the old ways of thinking that got us into lots of these arguments and open it up so that it just releases and makes room for you to work it out and massage it out until it’s completely gone.”
Psychedelic drugs like ayahuasca, LSD and MDMA remain illegal in the U.S. federally, although Oregon and Colorado have decriminalized magic mushrooms.
Psychedelic “experiences can positively alter one’s emotional process in two primary ways: increasing one’s ability to be in direct contact with the present moment (instead of being caught in emotions of the past or anticipation of the future) and enhancing experiences of positive emotions,” according to an article published by UC Berkeley.
Jaden Smith said his family has found emotional benefits from using psychedelic drugs, including having more “empathy.” (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
However, the drugs can also have harmful effects like psychosis, sleep disruption, short-term depression and memory impairment, according to the National Institutes of Health’s website.
In 2021, Jada and Jaden discussed using mushrooms on her since-canceled show “Red Table Talk.”
“I was introduced to plant medicine 10 years ago to deal with my depression,” the “Girls Trip” actress said at the time, “and it knocked it out.”
Jaden told his mom during the show that he first tried mushrooms out of “curiosity” but then had an “experience where I learned what ego was for the first time.”
He added, “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.’”
Jada Pinkett Smith said she used mushrooms to help her through a period of severe depression. (Amy Sussman/WireImage)
Jaden said he believes psychedelic use when guided by a professional can “tear down that wall” of past trauma or other struggles to help someone have a “mystical experience.”
Jaden’s father Will Smith described experiencing a “hellish” trip while on ayahuasca 14 times in Peru more than 10 years ago.
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“I started seeing all of my money flying away, and my house is flying away, and my career is going away, and I’m trying to grab for my money, and my career and my whole life is getting destroyed,” he told David Letterman on his show “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.”
Will Smith said he believed he could hear his daughter Willow, who would have been about 11 at the time, screaming “Daddy, help me!” but he couldn’t see her and imagined he was running to find her while everything else ceased to matter.
He said eventually during the trip he became “totally calm” and “I realized that anything that happens in my life, I can handle it. I can handle any person I lose, I can handle anything that goes wrong in my life, I can handle anything in my marriage, I can handle anything that this life has to offer. That’s part of the psychological training that happens in ayahuasca.”
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Quarterback Aaron Rodgers also spoke at the Denver conference and has advocated for psychedelics, according to USA Today.
