Bryan Johnson, 'Don't Die' Network State Guru, Under Fire

Bryan Johnson gained wide fame as the subject of a recent Netflix documentary. But now his carefully crafted image may be cracking

Gil Duran

28 Mar 2025 — 4 min read

Bryan Johnson, leader of the "Don't Die" cult.

Bryan Johnson, the leader of a cultish longevity movement called "Don't Die" – who claims he will live forever – is apparently less than superhuman. The tech millionaire, who openly embraces the Network State ideology and says he has created a new religion, is under scrutiny for using strict and sometimes coercive confidentiality agreements to control his public image and company narratives.

According to the New York Times, these agreements are now facing legal challenges, as former employees accuse him of using them to suppress concerns about workplace culture and product safety.

From the NYT:

The 47-year-old former Mormon missionary has become known for experimenting on his own body to defy aging, captivating the media and his nearly four million social media followers by receiving the blood plasma of his then-17-year-old son and repeatedly shocking his penis to increase his erections.

Johnson gained wider fame as the subject of a recent Netflix documentary. But now his carefully crafted image may be cracking:

For nearly a decade, Mr. Johnson has wielded confidentiality agreements to control his image and the companies he built atop that image. His employees, sexual partners, vendors and contract workers have all had to sign the documents, sometimes in exchange for settlements, severance or continued employment at his firms, according to people close to him and his start-ups, internal documents and court records.

Now those agreements, which were supposed to keep people silent on Mr. Johnson’s personal life and businesses, are backfiring as some of his workers band together to challenge them.

I encourage you to read the entire story. Here's a gift link:

I recently quoted Johnson in a piece I wrote about Peter Thiel and religion. Johnson, one of the more outlandish members of the Network State cult, claims he and his fellow tech bros are in the process of creating God:

We are creating God in the form of superintelligence. If you just say: What have we imagined God to be? What are its characteristics? We are building God in the form of technology. It will have the same characteristics. And so I think the irony is that the human storytelling got it exactly in the reverse, that we are the creators of God, and that we will create God in our own image.

Last September, I attended Johnson's "Don't Die Summit" in San Francisco. The summit was part tech conference, part cult gathering for wrinkle-averse people who think Johnson has the secret of eternal life. Wrapped in pseudo-scientific jargon and drenched in biohacker bravado, it sells the fantasy of eternal youth to an audience willing to pay for hope in capsule or powder form. Beneath the glossy talks and green smoothies lies a familiar Silicon Valley hustle: ego, control, and the illusion that death can be debugged.

Drugs apparently have played a role in the formation of this cult:

Mr. Johnson divorced his wife, with whom he has three children, and left the Mormon Church. He hired prostitutes, according to friends, former employees and court documents, and took drugs including acid, Ibogaine and DMT.

Mr. Johnson has not publicly addressed his use of acid, but is a proponent of psychedelics like DMT and has the shape of its chemical structure tattooed on his arm.

Don't Die and the Network State

As usual, the NYT can't bring itself to use the term Network State, but Johnson is an enthusiastic supporter of the ideology. He regularly pals around with leading Network State evangelist Balaji Srinivasan and has repeatedly vowed to create a "Don't Die Network State." He has also visited the Network State of Prospera, Honduras, to receive experimental longevity treatments.

Johnson even provided the food for Srinivasan's "Network School," a kind of cult sleepover camp for techies who wish to start their own countries. But the culinary adventure turned into a fiasco when people started hating on his "bunny food."

In an interview last year, Johnson listed his life goals:

One is start a company. Two is start a country. Three is start a religion. Four: Don't Die. Five: Become God.

More to come on this, but it's good to see these Network State characters finally receiving some scrutiny. Remember: These people currently control our government.

Time Magazine Examines Yarvin and the Dark Enlightenment

Mainstream media outlets are finally tuning in to the dangerous ideologies emerging from Silicon Valley.

A new piece in Time examines the Dark Enlightenment, which it portrays (stop me if you've heard this one before) as a dangerous, elitist ideology dressed up in Silicon Valley jargon. The story examines Curtis Yarvin, the false prophet of techno-authoritarianism who dreams of replacing democracy with a corporate monarchy – and whose biggest fans are tech billionaires like Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen.

Now, with Trump back in power and figures like J.D. Vance echoing Yarvin's rhetoric, this once-obscure movement is quietly infecting the halls of government—an authoritarian fever dream disguised as "efficiency." Read below:

Dark Enlightenment in the FT

The Financial Times also has a short piece about the Dark Enlightenment:

One of the most significant intellectual influences on key figures in the Trump administration is Curtis Yarvin, an American computer engineer-turned-blogger who believes that the game is up for US democracy and only a latter-day monarch or national “CEO” can save America.