Guide to Microdosing Mushrooms
You’ve probably heard about microdosing by now, and maybe you’re considering trying it yourself. You can microdose just about anything, but if you want to learn more about how to microdose shrooms, keep reading. In this guide, you’ll learn all about psilocybin mushrooms, how much is a microdose of shrooms, and why people choose to microdose. Plus, we’ll talk about some of the latest research on the benefits of microdosing mushrooms.
What Are Psilocybin Mushrooms?
Psilocybin mushrooms, also known as magic mushrooms, are a psychoactive type of fungi. There are dozens of strains of psychedelic mushrooms, and they can have varying potencies. Eating psilocybin mushrooms can lead to altered senses, such as enhanced colors and distorted visuals, to full-blown hallucinations in larger doses. When taken in larger quantities, the effects can include a confused sense of reality, loss of coordination, and ego death. However, in smaller quantities, like microdoses, psilocybin mushrooms offer subtle – yet profound – therapeutic effects for many people.
How Long Do Psilocybin Mushrooms Take To Kick In?
It usually takes about 30 minutes to digest psilocybin mushrooms and feel the effects. However, keep in mind that a microdose of mushrooms should not produce noticeable effects. Instead, the effects are sub-perceptual. They still work within your body, but you shouldn’t feel high or altered. Instead, people report an improved feeling of wellness or clarity. Some strains of mushrooms can provide an energizing boost.
What Are the Best Ways To Ingest Psilocybin Mushrooms?
First and foremost – please use caution if foraging. Learning how to identify mushrooms can prevent you from making a terrible mistake. Most of the time, people eat dried mushrooms. When microdosing mushrooms, capsules, or portioned chocolates are an easy way to obtain consistent doses. All you have to do is grind up the dried mushrooms with a coffee grinder or high-performance blender until they become powdered.
Using a capsule filling machine (or by hand), fill the capsules with the powdered mushrooms. You’ll need a small digital scale to tear the weight of the empty capsule so you can measure it against a filled capsule. This will help you keep the doses consistent for all caps.
If you don’t want to go the capsule route but still want to microdose mushrooms, consider brewing a mushroom tea or simply eating them dried. Some people dislike the bitter taste and chewy texture, so adding them to other foods can be helpful.
Some people have a hard time digesting mushrooms, and they can cause an upset stomach. To help combat this, you can try lemon tekking. This involves soaking the mushrooms in freshly squeezed lemon juice for ten minutes before eating them. The strong acidity of the lemon juice breaks down the cell wall, speeding up the time it takes to turn psilocin into psilocybin. Not only does it lighten the digestive load, but it helps the mushrooms kick in faster.
How Do You Dose Psychedelic Mushrooms?
Although there is no universal standard on psilocybin mushroom dosage, there are some guidelines that can be helpful when learning how to microdose shrooms. Remember to go at your own pace, and if you are sensitive to other substances, you might also be sensitive to psilocybin. The goal of microdosing mushrooms is not to get high, so less is often more in this case.
What Is a Microdose?
So, how much should you take if you are microdosing mushrooms? A mushroom microdose is considered somewhere between 0.1-0.2 grams. That’s one-tenth to one-twentieth of a gram. When first starting out, you might even want to start with 0.05 grams on the first day to make sure you don’t experience any uncomfortable effects. On your next dose, bump it up to 0.1, and see how you feel. This is a perfect dose for many people, yet others prefer more. Remember, the goal is to take a small yet substantial dose that doesn’t produce any physical side effects. If the walls start breathing, you’ve taken more than a microdose.
What Is a Macro Dose?
Beyond a microdose, there are varying degrees of doses that all go by different names. There is a mini dose, moderate dose, mega dose, or macro dose. Sometimes referred to as a ‘heroic dose,’ a macro dose is five grams of mushrooms. Do not attempt to take this amount unless you are quite experienced with psilocybin and have a trip sitter with you the entire time.
A macro dose is entirely the opposite of a micro dose, and your entire sense of self and the world around you may shift to an unrecognizable scene. Now, this might be incredible and breathtaking, or it may be extremely uncomfortable for many hours.
How to Microdose Shrooms
Before you start a microdosing protocol, decide what kind of schedule you’d like to follow. There is no one right way to microdose, but there are a few popular options. For example, taking your dose every third day is believed to prevent tolerance and provide the most long-term results. However, other proponents of microdosing suggest that there is no harm in taking a dose daily and pausing for 30 days after you’ve been microdosing for 90 days.
The brass tax of it is that there is still not enough conclusive evidence that suggests exactly how to microdose shrooms. It’s a personal matter and one that should be decided on an individual level. Maybe you’d like to take them for two days, then break for one. Or, perhaps you only want to dose every other day. Tap into your intuition and determine the best path for you. You might find it helpful to keep a diary of your schedule and monitor your results over time.
What Are the Benefits of Microdosing Mushrooms?
Organizations like the John Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, and the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) are coming to similar conclusions in the early stages of their research. Psilocybin is gaining momentum as an option for patients with treatment-resistant depression. There is also significant evidence that veterans and others with post-traumatic stress disorder may find relief from symptoms with psilocybin mushrooms.
While these may be the cornerstone breakthroughs we’re looking for with psilocybin, there are plenty of other benefits that can improve our daily lives. Many people are finding relief from stress and anxiety and getting better sleep because their mind is less entrenched in circular, worrisome thoughts. Those microdosing mushrooms for a month or more report a greater ability to tackle complex problems. This is largely due to the enhanced creativity that lends a hand to divergent thinking.
Overall, anecdotal evidence largely returns to the overall mood and outlook improvement after microdosing. Although the dosage is minimal, it’s enough to make you feel better. And with continued usage, others are reporting ongoing improvements across other avenues of their lives as well.
The future of microdosing psilocybin mushrooms is on the verge of massive impact. Although cultivation is illegal right now, It won’t be long before this medicine is available to a larger audience, and the stigma behind magical fungi will be a thing of the past.
