How To Prepare A Microdose
Microdosing psilocybin mushrooms involves the consumption of small, subperceptual amounts of these substances with the aim to enhance mood, creativity, focus, and overall well-being, potentially helping individuals confront and treat mental health concerns while integrating a higher level of consciousness into their everyday lives.
Introduction to Microdosing Psychedelics
Diving into the world of psychopharmacology, we encounter an intriguing practice known as microdosing. Microdosing is defined as the consumption of subperceptual amounts of a psychedelic substance. This means taking just enough to experience subtle positive effects, but not enough to induce a full-blown psychedelic trip.
Definition of Microdosing
A popular substance for this practice is psilocybin, an active compound found in certain types of mushrooms. Microdosing psilocybin involves consuming small, subperceptual doses of these “magic mushrooms” with the aim of enhancing mood, creativity, focus, and overall well-being.
The key term here is subperceptual. A microdose should be small enough that you remain generally sober throughout the day – it’s not about having a mind-altering experience, but rather subtly shifting your mental state towards positivity and productivity.
Potential Benefits of Microdosing
The potential benefits of microdosing are as diverse as they are promising. It appears that microdosing psilocybin mushrooms can help individuals confront and treat mental health concerns while integrating a higher level of consciousness into their everyday lives.1
However, like any form of treatment or self-improvement practice, it’s important to note that the benefits are highly dependent on individual physiology. In other words, everyone responds differently to microdoses based on their unique body chemistry.
Despite this variability, many individuals who have incorporated microdosing psilocybin mushrooms into their weekly routine report experiencing higher levels of creativity and energy, improved relational skills, and reduced levels of anxiety and stress.
Perhaps even more encouragingly, anecdotal evidence supports the idea that microdosing mushrooms can lead to significant improvements in mental health. These include reduced anxiety levels and positive effects on people struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), treatment-resistant depression, or any major depressive disorder.
To add some scientific heft to these personal stories, a 2019 study found measurable increases in connectedness to others and the world around us, contemplation or mindful awareness, creativity, focus, happiness, productivity, and overall wellbeing after just 6 weeks of microdosing.2 This suggests that the practice may have far-reaching implications for our understanding and treatment of various mental health issues.
Understanding Psilocybin and Its Effects
Let’s delve deeper into the science behind psilocybin, the psychoactive compound at the heart of microdosing. By understanding how psilocybin interacts with our brains, we can better understand why it might have such profound effects on mood, cognition, and overall well-being.
How Psilocybin Works in the Brain
Psilocybin belongs to a class of substances known as serotonergic psychedelics, which includes other compounds like LSD. These substances have a powerful impact on our brains’ structure and function.
They stimulate neuritogenesis and spinogenesis–the processes by which neurons grow new dendrites and axon terminals.3 This means that these psychedelics can essentially help our brain cells to sprout new connections, akin to the branches of a tree reaching out to form new contact points with its neighbors.
Psychedelic mushrooms work their magic by triggering these signalling pathways, creating new neurons that increase the points of contact between them. This can replace dead or damaged brain cells and strengthen overall neural connectivity. It’s like giving your brain a tune-up or renovation, stimulating growth and development where it might otherwise be lacking.
But that’s not all. Serotonergic psychedelics also influence what neuroscientists call the Default Mode Network (DMN).
This part of the brain curates our sense of self–our memories, desires, and general understanding of who we are. By reducing activity in this area, psilocybin can help us break free from rigid patterns of thought and behavior.
When psilocybin is ingested, it is converted into a substance known as psilocin. This compound stimulates a specific type of serotonin receptor located in our prefrontal cortex–the 5-HT2A receptor. Activation of this receptor leads to stimulation of brain activity, growth, and connections.3
The Historical Use of Psilocybin Mushrooms
The use of psilocybin mushrooms has deep roots in human history. Far from being a modern invention or fad, these fungi have been used for their psychoactive properties for millennia.
In fact, evidence suggests that humans have been using psilocybin containing mushrooms for over 7000 years across different cultures worldwide. From the ancient tribes of Central America to the indigenous cultures of Siberia and beyond, these powerful organisms have played an integral role in spiritual practices and healing rituals.
The history underscores just how long humans have been intrigued by–and benefiting from–the effects of psilocybin. As we continue to study this ancient practice through a scientific lens, we may find even more ways that this fascinating compound can enhance our lives today.
Preparing for Microdosing
Venturing into the world of microdosing involves much more than simply ingesting a substance. It requires careful preparation and a keen understanding of safety and responsibility. Let’s explore these aspects further.
Setting an Intention
One of the first steps in a successful microdosing journey is setting an intention. This means having a clear idea of what you hope to achieve or gain from the experience. Are you seeking to enhance your creativity? Improve your focus? Alleviate anxiety? By defining your goals upfront, you can significantly enhance the results of your microdosing regimen.
Ensuring Safety and Responsibility
Psychedelic microdosing holds potential for medicinal applications such as mood improvement, stress reduction, and promoting healthier lifestyle habits; however, it is crucial to keep in mind the following health and legal considerations.
Contraindications and Health Considerations
Working with any amount of psychedelic medicines in a responsible way involves careful consideration of your individual health status. It’s crucial to discuss with a trusted healthcare practitioner about your medical history and any medications you’re currently taking that may interact with psilocybin.
Before starting to use psilocybin, thoroughly check if there are any contraindications related to the medicine that you’re using or your physical or mental condition. For instance, it’s generally not recommended to mix psilocybin with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).4 Some people have successfully overcome their dependence on antidepressants by using psilocybin, but they had typically tapered down their SSRI dosage over several months before embarking on their microdosing journey.
While it’s important to note that psychedelics are not generally addictive, rare instances of negative or adverse effects from microdosing mushrooms or other psychedelic drugs have been reported. Particularly, people with color blindness sometimes report minor visual hallucinations or lingering “after-images.”
Legal Considerations
Legal considerations should also be part of your preparatory process. As of now, psilocybin mushrooms are only legal in Oregon and Colorado at the state level in the United States. While certain cities have decriminalized mushrooms, it remains illegal to buy, sell, or consume them outside these jurisdictions. On a federal level, psilocybin remains classified as a Schedule I substance.
Therefore, before embarking on a microdosing regimen, it is imperative that you understand the local laws and regulations regarding psychedelics in your area. This serves as an essential element in ensuring both personal safety and responsible usage.
Determining Your Dosage
Before embarking on your microdosing journey, it’s crucial to determine the optimal dosage that will yield the desired effects without overwhelming your system. This is a highly personal process and may require some experimentation.
Finding Your Personal Threshold
The first step in this exploration is to find your personal threshold – the dosage that yields perceptible yet sub-psychedelic effects. The general rule of thumb is to start by taking 0.1 grams of the psilocybin mushrooms on day one. If the effects aren’t felt as desired, you can incrementally increase your dosage by 0.05 grams on each subsequent microdosing day until you reach your threshold.
Finding your threshold isn’t a race; it requires patience and attentive observation of the experiential effects. An important part of the microdosing process is calibrating the dosage to be a perfect fit just for you. This calibration can take up to several microdoses, so it’s better to start low and then patiently work upward until you find your psilocybin sweet spot.
To aid this process, keeping a journal can be enormously helpful. Make notes about any positive changes in emotional awareness, mood, energy, creativity, or other sensations associated with microdosing. After completing a cycle (typically a few weeks), if you didn’t note any positive shifts, consider increasing your dose by 0.01-0.03 mg and starting again.
Guidelines for Dosage Amounts
When it comes to specific amounts, microdosing mushrooms typically involves taking approximately one-tenth of a standard psychedelic dose. This translates into somewhere between 0.1 – 0.3 grams of dried powdered psilocybin mushrooms per dose.
Remember, these are guidelines and not hard rules. Each person’s response to psilocybin is unique, and factors such as body weight, metabolism, and brain chemistry can all play a role in determining how much you should take. Always listen to your body and adjust accordingly as you find your personal sweet spot for microdosing.
How to Prepare a Microdose
Creating your own microdoses involves a meticulous process that includes drying the mushrooms, turning them into powder, measuring the dosage, and packing it into capsules. Let’s break down each step for you.
Drying the Mushrooms
The first step in preparing psilocybin mushrooms for microdosing is drying them. Drying eliminates moisture and prevents bacterial formation. There are various methods to dry them – you can leave them out on a towel, put them in front of a fan, bake them on low heat in an oven, or place them in a box with Epsom salts.
The full drying process involves an initial phase where the mushrooms are placed under a dark cloth or in front of a fan for a few hours until their texture becomes gummy and their appearance wrinkly. Then, a desiccant must be applied — this could be an Epsom salt-based mixture or simple silica gel packets. It takes a few weeks for the mushrooms to reach the desired state of dryness.
Whether you have fresh or dried psilocybin mushrooms, they’ll need to be dried first before microdosing. If you’re starting with fresh ones, place them in a food dehydrator or on a sheet pan in an oven set at around 150°F until they’re dry and brittle.
Making the Mushroom Powder
Once the mushrooms are fully dried, both whole mushrooms and mushroom truffles can be ground into powder. This can be done using a spice or coffee grinder. It usually takes less than a minute of pulsing to grind it finely. After grinding, allow the dust to settle in the chamber before opening it—usually after about half an hour.
Measuring the Powder
An electronic scale accurate up to 0-1 gram is handy for measuring the exact quantity of mushroom powder needed for your doses. As an example, turning 2 grams of dried whole mushrooms into fine powder yields up to ten doses each weighing up to 0-2 grams after powdering.
Filling the Capsules
At this stage, you’ll need empty capsules and a capsule filler. The capsules can be filled with the required quantity of mushroom powder. For example, if your normal dose weighs between 0-1 – 0-3 grams then your starting point could be anywhere within these limits depending upon your body weight.
Those weighing below or around one hundred pounds may want to start with the lower limit while those around two hundred pounds may feel comfortable starting at the upper limit. However, kitchen scales often aren’t precise up to .1 gram, hence they may not register weight till at least .5 grams, which might turn out to be too much for a single dose.
Integrating Microdosing into Daily Life
Once you’ve prepared your microdoses, the next step is to incorporate this practice into your daily life. This involves determining how often to microdose and exploring complementary practices that can enhance the experience.
Frequency of Microdosing
When it comes to the frequency of microdosing, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. It truly depends on what works best for you individually. However, there are a couple of widely followed schedules suggested by psychedelic researchers James Fadiman and Paul Stamets.
Fadiman’s protocol suggests taking a single microdose, followed by two off days without dosing.5 On the other hand, Stamets recommends a more intensive regimen involving serial doses with fewer off days in between.6 These different approaches highlight the importance of tailoring the schedule to your personal needs and lifestyle.
Complementary Practices
To enrich the microdosing experience, you might consider incorporating complementary practices like yoga into your routine. Yoga is an effective way to connect with yourself, promoting a flow state and peaceful mindset that can synergize well with the effects of microdosing.
Yoga’s focus on breathwork and mindfulness naturally complements the increased emotional awareness often associated with microdosing. It can also help ground any new insights or perspectives gained during this transformative process, making it an excellent ally in your microdosing journey.
Remember, integrating any new practice into your life requires patience and flexibility. Listen to your body and mind as you explore these practices, adjusting as needed along the way.
Popular Microdosage Protocols
There are several popular protocols in the world of microdosing, each with its unique approach. Two of the most well-known are the Fadiman Protocol and the Stamets Stack. Let’s delve into what these involve.
The Fadiman Protocol
The Fadiman Protocol is named after James Fadiman, a renowned psychologist and psychedelic researcher. This protocol involves a three-day cycle: on day one, you take a microdose of psilocybin; on days two and three, you don’t dose at all.
This pattern allows your body and mind to rest between doses, helping to prevent tolerance buildup. Moreover, it provides an opportunity to gauge and compare differences between your sober state and your dosed state. This introspective comparison can offer valuable insights into the effects of microdosing on your cognitive function, emotional state, and overall well-being.
The Stamets Stack
The Stamets Stack is named after Paul Stamets, a leading mycologist and advocate for the medicinal use of mushrooms. Unlike the Fadiman Protocol which solely utilizes psilocybin, the Stamets Stack involves “stacking” or combining several supplements to create a nootropic stack—a combination designed to enhance cognitive function.
The stack includes 0.1 gram of Psilocybe cubensis mushroom, 5-20 grams of whole or powdered lion’s mane mushroom (or alternatively 50-200 mg of lion’s mane extract), and 75-200 mg of niacin (vitamin B3).6
This unique blend leverages the potential synergistic effects of these ingredients. Psilocybe cubensis is known for its psychoactive properties; lion’s mane has neuroprotective benefits and can boost cognitive function; niacin aids in increasing blood flow and enhancing the bioavailability of the other components.
Each protocol offers a distinct approach to microdosing. You may find one more suitable for your needs than the other, or you might even develop your own protocol based on these foundations. The key is finding what works best for you personally as you navigate this transformative journey.
Conclusion: Encouraging Responsible Intentional Use of Psilocybin Microdoses
As we wrap up this exploration of psilocybin microdosing, it’s essential to emphasize the importance of responsible and intentional use.
Psilocybin mushrooms, like all psychedelic substances, are powerful tools that can offer profound insights into our minds, enhance creativity, and aid personal growth. However, they also warrant a high degree of respect and caution.
When microdosing, it’s crucial to start with small doses and gradually adjust based on your observations and experiences. Remember to consider important health and legal considerations before beginning your microdosing journey.
Moreover, integrating practices like yoga or meditation can enrich the experience by fostering a deeper connection between body and mind. And for those willing to delve deeper, exploring higher dose mushroom ceremonies or cultivating your own mushrooms can provide additional layers of engagement with this remarkable organism.
In essence, psilocybin offers an intriguing avenue to self-exploration and personal development when used responsibly and intentionally. As we continue to learn more about its potential benefits through ongoing research, it’s exciting to imagine the doors that this humble fungus might open in our understanding of consciousness and the human experience.
Remember, as with any journey of self-discovery, the key is to approach it with curiosity, respect, and an open heart.
Disclaimer: Emphasizing Legal and Health Considerations
As we conclude this exploration of psilocybin microdosing, it’s crucial to underscore the legal and health considerations associated with this practice.
While the potential benefits of psilocybin are increasingly recognized by scientific research, its possession and use remains illegal in many parts of the world. In the United States, for instance, psilocybin is classified as a Schedule I substance at the federal level. Therefore, it’s essential to familiarize yourself with local laws before embarking on a microdosing regimen.
On the health front, each individual’s response to psilocybin can be unique, influenced by factors like body weight, metabolism, and brain chemistry. It is highly recommended that you consult with a trusted healthcare practitioner about your medical history and any medications you’re currently taking that may interact with psilocybin.
Moreover, people with color blindness or those taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) should exercise caution as these factors can influence your experience with psilocybin.
This blog post is intended as an informational guide only and does not advocate for illegal activities or unsafe practices. Always prioritize safety and responsibility when exploring new avenues of self-discovery and personal growth. Your well-being is paramount.
References
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9246852/
- https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0211023
- https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.724606
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37291890/
- https://microdosinginstitute.com/microdosing-101/james-fadiman/
- https://microdosinginstitute.com/microdosing-101/substances/lions-mane-stacking/
