Kimbal Musk says he took ayahuasca and 'felt the voice of God'
- Kimbal Musk said he "felt the voice of God" after a near-death experience and later taking ayahuasca.
- Elon Musk's younger brother broke his neck in a ski accident when he was 37.
Kimbal Musk takes a slightly different stance on God than his older brother.
Elon Musk's younger brother, who is far more private than the Twitter owner, told Dave Asprey, a wellness-company founder and biohacker, in a recent interview that he "felt the voice of God" later on in life. While Elon Musk has said he's "not religious" and has questioned whether life is a simulation and "may have no meaning," Kimbal Musk said he believed in the "soul and spirit."
"I had two different lives," Kimbal Musk said. "I had a very serious accident when I was 37, and prior to that accident, I was much more, like you described, very much a hard-line techie."
In 2010, he broke his neck skiing. The Tesla board member said he was paralyzed for three days before a doctor performed surgery to fix his spinal cord. (In 2020, Kimbal Musk shared a photo on Facebook from the ordeal.)
"I'm not a religious person. I don't subscribe to any of the religions, but I felt the voice of god. I felt a deep resonance in me," the younger Musk told Asprey, adding that he wasn't sure at the time whether the surgeon would be able to heal him.
Kimbal Musk cofounded a restaurant, The Kitchen, which serves locally sourced food, in 2004, but he said his injury experience changed how he approached running the business. He's also the cofounder of two other food-related companies, a nonprofit called Big Green and the urban-farming startup Square Roots.
"It was in that moment where I said, 'God, if I am healed, I will really dedicate myself to food in a way that would make the planet a better place,'" he said, adding that the experience made him more "soul- and spirit-oriented."
He said he had a similar spiritual experience later on in his life when he tried ayahuasca, a plant-based psychedelic known for its hallucinogenic properties. The drug is traditionally associated with spiritual ceremonies but has more recently been used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder.
Kimbal Musk said the drug released a chemical in his brain that simulated the feeling of dying and that the experience was similar to when he broke his neck, calling it a "great way to go in and talk to your own spirit."
"It was like, 'Oh, wow, the voice of God is back,'" he said. "It was a powerful experience for me, but I didn't necessarily need it that second time. I already had it, and it's the meeting of souls and spirits I now apply to the food I cook my family." (You can watch Kimbal Musk talk about the experience in the video below. The topic comes up at the 40:48 mark.)
Kimbal Musk is far from the first to associate the drug with the feeling of dying or increased empathy. He did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment on his experience.
The restaurant founder has been associated with psychedelic drugs in the past. Elon Musk's biographer, Walter Isaacson, said Kimbal Musk tried to persuade his older brother to attend an ayahuasca ceremony in 2020. He has also been known to attend Burning Man alongside Elon Musk, and The Wall Street Journal recently reported he took ketamine recreationally at a party with his older brother.