Dating Show Where Contestants Are On Shrooms To Launch This Summer

Wrong! 

Turns out you can’t keep a good TV executive down. A new show is hurtling towards our screen this summer — and its particular twist sure sets our hearts a-flutter! Love is Magic sends its 12 contestants to Jamaica to flirt with each other, kiss in the pool, break up, make-up — you know, the usual. But! All the contestants will be on magic mushrooms. 

 

Love is Magic

This groundbreaking show will be first of its kind to feature magic mushrooms or psychedelics. Eagle-eyed psychonauts will realize why the show is filmed in Jamaica. Apart from the incredible climate, it’s a country where psilocybin mushrooms and truffles are 100% legal. 

But, legal questions aside, why magic mushrooms? In recent years shows like Love Island have received flack for letting their contestants get too drunk — often ending in tears and confrontation. Surely a show where the very concept is that the contestants are not sober is asking for trouble? Well, actually, as those of you who are experienced with shrooms will know, they tend to produce the opposite effect. Magic mushrooms are well known for their abilities to make their users feel waves of love for life, the universe and maybe, just maybe, the people around them. That’s what the producers of Love is Magic are hoping anyway! 

The Show Is Based Around Real Research

And, it’s not going to be a psychedelic free-for-all either. The show is carefully structured around research into the effects of psilocybin. Focusing especially on studies that center around how it can increase feelings of open-ness and social connection. It is also following a growing zeitgeist, with psychedelic use rising by over 50% in young Americans. Many report this usage being triggered by the feelings of isolation caused by the literal isolation of lockdown. Using psilocybin from magic mushrooms and truffles, LSD or MDMA has helped them re-establish confidence in forming social relationships. They have also acted as a refresher for those that have stagnated from too much contact. (All of you who spent the entirety of lockdown with their significant other will relate!)

So far, so scientific. But this is still a typical dating show in the lineage of all the others. In fact, there’s $100,000 dollars to be won by the new couple deemed to be the most ‘magic’! 

How The Show Will Work

The way the show is actually going to work is so far semi-shrouded in mystery…They don’t wanna give away all their secrets before this thing premieres and ignites the Twitter, Instagram and blog-o-sphere. What we can reveal however, is that it will center around 12 contestants, each of whom self-identifies as ‘unlucky in love’. The show will take place over a couple of months, as the effectiveness of psilocybin decreases if taken too regularly. The makers state that the contestants will undertake up to 5 psychedelic experiences — from micro to macro-dose — hence the long season run.  

The contestants will share a holiday villa, and during the first week will meet and get to know each other through a series of challenges. On the third day they will be given a carefully measured dose of magic mushrooms —  enough to produce a mild trip experience. The next day they will share if they felt more open and connected to their potential partners. They will be led in meditation and integration practices by trained professionals, headed up by Dr. Sarah Khan. These trips will be offered every 2 weeks — and in the interim between these, the usual high-jinks expected in a TV dating show will resume — albeit with a slightly more hippy vibe (we assume). Activities will include paddle boarding, cooking romantic meals and performing dance routines inspired by mushrooms.

Will Shrooms Help Them Find ‘The One’?

We can also reveal that the final two couples will be offered the chance to take a high-dose immersive trip, monitored again by Dr. Khan, who will lead them through the experience. After a few days of integration, the couples will have to decide if they believe their chosen partner is really ‘the one’. 

The show is, of course, already baiting controversy, but the producers insist that Love is Magic is responsibly made, with all care and resources available to the contestants — as well as the option to opt out at any point. 

For many shroom-lovers this concept could jar with their psychedelic culture — it’s certainly commercial and populist in a way psychedelics have never been seen before in media. Only time will tell what this new visibility will bring for the shroom movement! 

For now, we really can’t say, but we can end on a quote from contestant Tyler Greenbach via the show’s promo clip (now on Youtube!):

“I really didn’t know what to expect, man. ‘Course I can’t give any spoilers but I gotta say, my whole perspective of life has shifted since the show. And I saw God! And some goblins… pretty cool.”

 Love is Magic starts June 2022.

Pssst! Happy April Fools! Did we get ya?