What is Microdosing?
Wondering how to microdose mushrooms? Firstly, what is microdosing?
Microdosing is where a person consumes small amounts of psychedelic substances. These substances vary greatly. Even psilocybin mushrooms can vary in strength from one species to the next. Magic mushrooms can even change strength within the same species.
As far as microdosing goes, some people prefer psilocybin, which can be found in Magic Mushrooms. Other microdosers go for LSD, and some go for small doses of mescaline.
Even marijuana can be microdosed. For the purposes of this post, we’re going to roll with how to microdose psilocybin.
Why do people microdose?
People have reported that microdosing helps with focus, productivity, anxiety, addiction, memory loss, and creativity, to name a few.
If you’re having difficultly finding the right dose, check out the microdosing table below. Knowing how to microdose magic mushrooms properly will help you get the most out of your experience.
People microdose for a variety of reasons, the effects can vary from person to person and shroom to shroom. The psychedelic active ingredient in magic mushrooms is Psilocybin.
Psilocybin has shown to have effects like increased creativity, focus, and productivity. Steve Jobs even admitted to microdosing LSD for creativity and productivity, and that’s a man who got a lot of shit done.
Studies conducted over the last 10 years have seen some promising results for the positive effects of psilocybin on mental health. In a study performed by Johns Hopkins, psilocybin resulted in highly significant improvements in depression and anxiety.
Researchers followed up after four weeks and found that 71% of the participants had a “clinically significant response” to the treatment. 54% no longer showed signs of active depression. Not only that, but 80% of the patients found that their results lasted for over 6 months.
Other Psilocybin Studies
Other studies have seen similar effects including a study conducted on smoking cessation. The users often reported feeling more connected to themselves, to nature, and that the experience gave them clarity about their life purpose.
As well as studies, the internet is full of people who say they reap the benefits of microdosing psilocybin. Not only that, but magic mushrooms are considered non-addictive.
Upcoming studies by John Hopkins are also looking to determine the effectiveness of psilocybin as a new therapy for opioid addiction, Alzheimer’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (formerly known as chronic Lyme disease), anorexia nervosa and alcohol use in people with major depression.
(Source: The Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research)
If you’d like to participate in some of these studies, you can search for them on clinicaltrials.gov which is a government website that lists all of the current and upcoming studies that pharmaceutical companies are recruiting for.
how to microdose Magic Mushrooms: How Much to Take
So, how to microdose magic mushrooms? Depending on the mushroom and your tolerance, a microdose is anywhere from 0.05 grams to 0.25 grams. One easy way to remember is that a microdose can be one-tenth of a macro dose–that, however, is not always the case. Dosing is a very personal thing, and psilocybin effects everyone a little differently.
Macro and microdoses of psilocybin:
Microdose: 0.05 – 0.25 grams
People who microdose have mentioned a boost in creativity, mood, and general mental health. A microdose can make you feel slightly lightheaded, in which case, you might want to try a lower dose. Microdosing shouldn’t make you trip.
Macro Dose Lite: 0.5 – 1 grams
Depending on your tolerance and the type of mushroom you take, a light macro dose should give you a body high. It may come with some light visuals.
Macro Dose: 2 – 3 grams
This is considered a full trip with pretty nice visuals to boot.
Hero Dose: 3 grams +
A Hero Dose is usually a dose taken when you’ve already had a trip or two and/or you have a guide. Doesn’t mean that you have to have any of those things, necessarily, it’s just a considerably stronger trip than the usual dose.
How to microdose Magic Mushrooms
So, you’ve got your dose down, you’ve decided if you’re going to buy or grow your magic mushrooms at home, now what? How to microdose magic mushrooms? Well, you’ve got options.
If you have dried mushrooms, you can make your own microdose capsules by using a grinder and an at-home scale to weigh out the dose. The magic mushroom won’t fill an entire capsule, so you can finish it off with another supplement. Lots of people fill the rest of their microdose capsules with other brain (nootropics) and/or body-enhancing mushrooms like Lion’s Mane or Cordyceps.
You can also buy pre-made microdosing capsules from a reputable source (I’m not condoning this but, you know, whatever floats your boat). Some people have had great success finding microdosing capsules on sites such as Reddit and Etsy. Just sayin’. You can also buy dried shrooms or spores. It’s entirely up to you. For the dried or powdered, measuring is always a good idea. Lots of people try to eye it, and that’s the kind of thing that could really mess with your day (this comes from experience–try sitting in a Zoom meeting while you’re tripping balls).
How many times a week should you microdose?
There are a few schools of thought on this one. One of the most popular is “The Stamets Stack,” named by its founder; the iconic mycologist, Paul Stamets. He is a hero. As an aside, if you’ve never seen his documentary, Fantastic Fungi, or his Ted Talk, 6 Ways Mushrooms Can Save the World, they’re both well worth a watch.
How to Microdose Psilocybin: The Stamets Stack method
If you’ve been looking into how to microdose psilocybin, you’ve probably seen The Stamets Stack method. So, what is The Stamets Stack method?
Paul Stamets uses a very specific formula and dosing schedule. To his microdoses, he adds Lion’s Mane mushroom for enhanced cognition, hericenones and erinacines mushroom extract–also for increased cognition, creativity and neurogenisis, and Niacin for neurogensis as well as a more thorough and balanced distribution throughout the body.
Many in the community believe the Stamets method to be best for seasoned microdosers and Fadiman’s schedule (below) to be good for beginners as well as non-beginners. My personal favorite is the Stamets method because of the additional nutrients added.
The image below shows the amounts of psilocybin mushrooms that Paul Stamets uses for his microdosing schedule.
Stamets Stack Microdosing schedule
DAY 1-4: Microdosing days
- 0.1-0.2 grams of dried magic mushrooms
- 500mg of Lion’s Mane powder
- 50 –200 mg of niacin (not the non-flushing. The flush you get with regular niacin is an important part of this method).
DAY 5-7: Non-microdosing days
CYCLE: microdose for 4 weeks
RESET: take a break from microdosing for 2-4 weeks
Note: The reason you take a break is to make sure that you’re not building up too much of a tolerance to the psilocybin.
How to Microdose Psilocybin: The Fadiman Protocol
The Fadiman Protocol, named after Dr. James Fadiman, is a 3-day cycle. You also dose for 4-8 weeks and then take a break for 2-4 weeks.
In 1966, Dr. Fadiman published a study called ‘Psychedelics in the problem-solving experiment’. The experiment honed in on the positive effects and uses of LSD on mental state including creativity, performance, depression, and more.
The Fadiman experiment is one of the most well-known studies into the effects of hallucinogenic drugs. Even with these intriguing results, the FDA banned all research into psychedelics just after the study was published.
Around the time Fadiman was getting into his research, Nixon started his War on Drugs. Nixon was ill-informed and he went hard on tarnishing the good name of shrooms. For that reason, there was a ban on medical research from 1970 until just recently.
In the meantime, Dr. Fadiman continued on, collecting thousands of reports from microdosers around the globe. The evidence, while anecdotal, came back with overwhelmingly awesome responses.
The Fadiman Protocol Microdosing Schedule
Fadiman’s Protocol uses 10% of recreational macrodose (see microdose chart above). But, how do you use the Fadiman Protocol for microdosing psilocybin? Here’s how:
DAY 1: Microdosing day #1
2 & 3: Non-microdosing days
DAY 4: Microdosing day #2
5 & 6: Non-microdosing days
CYCLE: 4-8 weeks on
RESET: 2-4 weeks off
Having said all of this, microdosing is unique to each human. How to microdose psilocybin is up to your own personal preferences as well as your tolerance, etc. One thing to remember with microdosing is that you’re not actually supposed to feel like you’re tripping.
Some people feel a little lightheaded and others feel nothing when they microdose. For some, microdosing has been said to cause increased anxiety and others have reported (anecdotally) that it relieves anxiety. If you’re feeling anxious while microdosing magic mushrooms, that might mean it’s time to dial down the dose. Ultimately, it usually takes a little experimentation to get the right dose.
Ted Talks About Magic Mushrooms
If you like watching TedTalks and want to find out more about the effects of Psilocybin, here are a couple of great ones:
- The science of psilocybin and its use to relieve suffering by top psychopharmacologist Roland Griffiths.
- The neuroscience of psychedelic drugs, music, and nostalgia by Psychedelic Neuroscientist Frederick Streeter Barrett.
- Psychedelics: effects on the human brain and physiology by Simeon Keremedchiev.
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