Last week, Jaden, 24, told audience members at the Psychedelic Science conference all about his personal experience using psychedelics — which he claimed he was introduced to by his mom, Jada.
According to Entertainment Tonight, Jaden said, “I think it was my mom, actually, that was really the first one to make that step for the family.”
“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,” he said, going on to explain that using psychedelics allowed him to feel a new level of love for his sister, Willow, and half brother, Trey.
“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,” he said.
“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,” he added.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Jaden’s claim that his mom had been the one to introduce their family to psychedelics is one that took the internet by storm.
Well, when asked about Jaden’s claim last week, Jada told People that she’ll be explaining everything we need to know in her upcoming memoir Worthy, which is set to be released on October 17.
“It all gets answered in the book,” she said, before adding that the memoir will also explore all of the “assumptions” made about her and Will’s family.
“I think people have made a lot of assumptions. And you know what? Rightfully so,” she said.
“I have to take ownership of that, in regards to the narrative that I’ve participated in, the falsehoods about myself,” she continued. “In the book I really explain all of that extensively.”
While Jada didn’t explicitly discuss her thoughts on psychedelics in this interview, she’s certainly been open about her use of drugs in the past.
In fact, Jada spoke about the subject with Jaden himself on a 2021 episode of her Facebook show Red Table Talk, along with her mom, Adrienne Banfield-Norris.
Explaining that she was introduced to plant medicine a decade prior to help deal with depression, Jada told Adrienne and Jaden, “I struggled with depression for so long. And the thing about the plant medicine is it helps you feel better but also solves the problems of how you got there in the first place.”
“It’s all about where you’re sitting and why you’re doing it,” she added. “Every drug that’s on the market right now can be abused. You can use it for good too, you can use it recklessly.”
Explaining that he experienced ego dissolution — a state in which self-identity is completely lost — for the first time while on the drug, Jaden said, “It was always in my head talking, telling me what I was and what I wasn’t.”
“That was the moment that really changed me,” he continued. “You get to a place where you are blocked by something, whether it’s a trauma or your emotions or ego, not being able to express yourself.”
“Psychedelics are a way to tear down that wall and see what is beyond it. Doing it guided with people who are professionals really increases the chances of having that mystical experience,” he added.