\u201cI don\u2019t feel relief,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t think I really feel sad, either.\u201d Instead, explains Mackey, who recently stopped into Fortune<\/em>\u2019s New York office to discuss his new memoir, The Whole Story: Adventures in Love, Life, and Capitalism<\/em><\/a>, \u201cIt\u2019s like a child. When the child is grown up, I still love my child. But the child has its own life, its own destiny. And I\u2019m really proud of how it\u2019s grown up and how it\u2019s how it\u2019s leading its life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In his book, Mackey, 70, details the birth and early life of the company, from its humble hippie beginnings in an three-story Victorian house in Austin, Tex., to its phenomenal growth into a chain of 540 stores across the U.S., U.K., and Canada, purchased by Amazon<\/a> for $13.7 billion in 2017.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis was my last gift to Whole Foods Market,\u201d the Houston native says of his tome. \u201cThe idea being that this is our story, and not just this big corporation\u2014that it didn\u2019t start that way. It has a history and a personality.\u201d Writing it provided personal closure for Mackey. \u201cI got to relive a huge chunk of my life,\u201d he says, adding that he also decided to write the book because he wanted \u201cto inspire people.\u201d<\/p>\n As for what inspired the entrepreneur, the list is long\u2014and psychedelic drugs<\/a>, which make several appearances in the book, are high up on it.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPeople could get the wrong impression that I was tripping all the time, but that\u2019s really not accurate,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was always a spiritual thing for me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Mackey counts on one hand the times he\u2019s done psychedelics and recalls how each one was a revelation\u2014starting when he dropped acid with friends at 19, as a student at Trinity University in San Antonio. \u201cIt knocked me off my life path\u201d of becoming a doctor or a lawyer at the behest of his mom, he recalls. \u201cI had an awakening to the fact that there\u2019s a deeper spiritual reality \u2026 I started reading Eastern religions and Eastern thinkers.\u201d He began studying philosophy at the University of Texas, \u201cseeking the meaning of life.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Several years later, while high on MDMA (aka ecstasy or Molly) at a New Age gathering in Austin, he recalls, \u201cI realized\u2014and I\u2019ve never forgotten\u2014that love is the most important thing in life. There\u2019s just nothing that compares to it \u2026 And so that caused me to want to create a more loving culture and Whole Foods.\u201d Next came devotion to the New-Age bible A Course in Miracles<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> getting seriously into meditation, and, decades later, after reading Michael Pollan\u2019s How to Change Your Mind<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> going on a guided MDMA-psilocybin trip to help Mackey through the transition of leaving Whole Foods.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI got over some relationships that had been damaged that I was able to heal up. And it was a very, very smart thing to do,\u201d he says. Mackey also became committed to breathwork<\/a>, the yoga-rooted practice he had started exploring back in the 1980s, which has had a similarly deep impact on his psyche.\u00a0<\/p>\n Courtesy of John Mackey<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cBreathwork is a very simple, safe way to have a transcendent experience,\u201d says Mackey. \u201cPeople don\u2019t realize that just by breathing in the right setting, you can have a deeper connection to your soul.\u201d<\/p>\n Other epiphanies for Mackey fall under what he calls \u201cfood awakenings.\u201d The first was in 1976\u2014after moving into a vegetarian co-op, adopting a mostly vegetarian diet, and establishing his first health-food store. Another came in the early aughts when he went vegan, in part inspired by PETA and other activists targeting Whole Foods for working with a supplier involved in foie gras production.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a process,\u201d he explains of his move to veganism<\/a>. \u201cI was reading all these books\u2014The Suffering of Animals, Dominion: The Power of Man,<\/em> tons of others\u2014and a thought began to pop in my mind, from deep within my being, that said, \u2018Why aren\u2019t you a vegan? Why are you killing animals? Why?\u2019 And it never left. It just got stronger as time went on until I realized that I just knew that it was the right thing for me personally.\u201d<\/p>\n Now Mackey\u2019s excited to share his revelations with the rest of the world through his newest venture: Love.Life<\/a>, a brand of wellness clubs that will offer, among other treatments, meditation, breathwork, and psychedelic therapy\u2014as soon as that\u2019s legal.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOur first one will be in California. It\u2019s not legal there yet, but it\u2019s just a matter of time,\u201d he says. \u201cYou know why? Because the science<\/a> is pretty clear that a combination of psilocybin and MDMA is incredibly effective against PTSD<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Love.Life \u201cis a continuation of my own personal, higher purpose in life. It\u2019s part of my own hero\u2019s journey,\u201d he says, lamenting the idea that most people don\u2019t see a doctor until they are sick, and that our medical system generally \u201cjust treats symptoms of chronic diseases.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Mackey\u2019s idea is to create \u201cone-stop holistic health membership clubs,\u201d the first of which will open July 9 in El Segundo, Calif. On offer will be a panoply of treatments and activities geared toward wellness worshipers: a fitness center including Pilates and yoga; a spa with massage, facials, wraps, peels, cryotherapy, infrared saunas and hyperbaric oxygen chambers; and three pickleball <\/a>courts, as Mackey is a recent convert.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe very first time you play it, you will have fun, as the threshold for enjoyment is at the very beginning,\u201d says Mackey, whose other fitness go-to is long-distance hiking\u2014a passion that\u2019s only grown since completing the Appalachian Trail (twice) and the Pacific Crest Trail many years ago.\u00a0\u201cYou\u2019re immersed in nature for weeks at a time, and your your heart rate changes, your consciousness changes,\u201d he says, not to mention that \u201ca lot of my best ideas come when I\u2019m out on a hiking trip.\u201d<\/p>\n Love.Life will also have a medical center staffed with physicians trained in both Eastern and Western modalities. \u201cThe vision is, ideally, people will join, we\u2019ll take them through a battery of tests so we can establish a baseline health,\u201d he says. \u201cThe average person has no idea if he or she is very healthy, because the doctors say \u2018you\u2019re doing okay,\u2019 but we want to know exactly where you are.\u201d Test results will be used to create a precise, personalized health plan. \u201cIf they need to heal, we\u2019ll help them heal,\u201d Mackey says. \u201cIf they\u2019re looking for max performance, we can get them to max performance. If they\u2019re aging baby boomers, we can help extend their healthspan and lifespan<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Finally, there will be a health-focused restaurant\u2014which will not be plant-based but \u201cplant-forward,\u201d something Mackey explains as a sort of compromise.<\/p>\nTurning on and Tuning In<\/h2>\n
![\""The](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/3DJacket_THEWHOLESTORY.jpg?w=1440&q=75\"\/)
Enter Love.Life<\/h2>\n