Apple Pioneer Bill Atkinson Was a Secret Evangelist of the ‘God Molecule’

Bill Atkinson was a computing pioneer who, successful nan 1980s, efficaciously made Apple computers usable for mundane group by transforming codification into windows, menus, and graphics.

But fewer group cognize that later successful life he was a concealed advocator of what’s wide considered nan world’s most potent psychedelic: 5-MeO-DMT.

The hallucinogen, besides called “the God molecule,” is simply a compound recovered successful nan venomous secretions of nan Sonoran Desert toad named Incilius alvarius (it’s commonly called Bufo alvarius) and is known to bring astir ego death, a full dissolution of nan senses, and a euphoric emotion of existential connectedness, each successful a astir 20-minute trip. Atkinson, who died from pancreatic crab connected June 5 astatine nan property of 74, was a personnel of a close-knit, backstage online organization of 5-MeO-DMT enthusiasts called OneLight, wherever he went by nan othername “Grace Within.”

Several of Atkinson’s friends and chap psychonauts show WIRED their “beloved” Atkinson played a cardinal domiciled successful helping group entree smaller doses of 5-MeO-DMT, which tin beryllium made synthetically, arsenic he believed it would maximize nan benefits of nan perchance vulnerable supplier while minimizing harm. “The aforesaid imaginative mind who affected individual computers truthful profoundly continued to power quality improvement done his efforts to make nan occurrence of ‘bufo’ safer and much manageable,” says friend Charles Lindsay, an creator who has worked pinch nan SETI Institute, which useful to find signs of extraterrestrial intelligence. “He genuinely pushed boundaries. That requires a willingness to see what mightiness easy beryllium deemed ridiculous.” Or, he adds, “risky.”

Many group person reported benefits to their intelligence wellness acknowledgment to smoking 5-MeO-DMT, and biotech companies are preparing precocious tests to trial nan supplier arsenic a curen for slump and addiction. Former heavyweight champion boxer Mike Tyson, longevity guru Bryan Johnson, and podcaster Joe Rogan person told of transcendent, life-changing experiences nether nan power of nan powerful drug.

But 5-MeO-DMT remains forbidden successful nan US, and while underground options exist, group often spell to legal centers and retreats successful Mexico to return beardown doses.

Atkinson took “many hundreds” of 5-MeO-DMT trips, according to friend Jamis MacNiven, nan laminitis of popular Silicon Valley diner Buck’s of Woodside. “Nobody deed it harder than Bill,” he says.

The 5-MeO-DMT experience, pinch its daunting ego decease awaiting wrong seconds of smoking nan molecule, tin beryllium discombobulating, and a sometimes fraught play afterward tin lead to superior destabilization and lasting trauma. Comedian Chelsea Handler had a “scary” trip, which she said near her “feeling arsenic sick arsenic I’ve ever felt.”