Tag Archive for: psilocybin

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Top Integration Tips for Psychedelic First Timers

Integration is key to moving forward on the psychedelic path. Although some shifts may happen organically, a lot of it will need deliberate and intentional work.

As I tweeted a while ago:

integration tweet

Returning to twitter after my recent digital detox, I asked the psychedelic twitter crowd:

What would your #1 integration tip for psychedelic first timers be?

There was a great thread which covered many areas important to integration and included: self care, quality rest, community, selective sharing, facing what came up, avoiding distractions, remembering your why, and setting intentions.

Answers came from knowledgable people around the world, including Psychedelic anchor David Wilder, Canadian author James W. Jesso, and mental health writer Sam Woolfe, so I thought I would share some of my favourites here…

Top Integration Tips From Twitter

Take Time Off

Give yourself plenty of time and space to process the experience. During that period, make self-care your top priority.

 

@think_wilder
Turn your phone off, have 2 days. One day for the experience and one to reflect and rest the day after. Remember to breathe and you’re likely more resilient than you give yourself credit for.

@DecrimNatureMN

Get Quality Rest

Get a good night’s sleep after the experience, so enough sleep (7-9 hours) and good quality sleep (avoid cannabis, alcohol, and benzodiazepines, as these can interrupt REM/deep sleep, which are both involved in memory consolidation). The more you remember, the better.

@samwoolfe

Stay with the Experience

Don’t distract yourself for the days after. Instead feel & embody all of the emotions that come up after the experience.

@patti3001
Take time to feel into the emotional impressions left in you by the most significant moments of your journey, really feel into them, and then let yourself wonder about it. Journalling in this context is great, but be mindful to whom and how (and if) you choose to share the story.

@jameswjesso

Find Community

Beforehand, glean information from those you really trust about their experiences. Just like you know who to talk to in your circle about music or whatever, so to for the psychedelic journey. Also, integration can take forever so expect decades not weeks.

@ddaardvark
Find some like-minded people to work with and start a journal or diary for your deepest thoughts. Be prepared to be vulnerable but don’t be afraid of it

@society_welsh

Remember Your Why

Remember why you tripped. Beginning to think about what you wanted from the psychedelic can be an important first step towards using the feelings and thoughts that came up in order for you to transform your life.

@doubleblindmag

Set Intentions

Don’t be afraid of what the mushrooms are showing you. Listen to your mind & heart and proceed accordingly. Set intention. Everyone has their own journey

@TheDailyShroom

You can read the full thread on twitter here. Thanks to all the contributors and commenters.

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dose dosage psychedelics

The Importance of Dose

A reader recently commented on a post that they tried microdosing but it didn’t work for them. My first question was, how much did they experiment with the dose?

Finding the right personalised dose can take a lot of trial and error. We are all different and effects can vary substantially between individuals. This is true not just with microdosing but also higher doses and I think that finding the correct dose is an oft underestimated key to using psychedelics.

Consider this:

A medicine can be a poison depending on the dose.

The exact same substance, the same chemical compound, one that could heal you, could also kill you, depending on the dose.

Suffice to say that dose can completely change a drug’s effects.

Though the psychedelics psilocybin and LSD are incredibly non-toxic, meaning that a fatal overdose is basically impossible, one could still consider an experience to be ‘poisonous’ in so much that it has negative effects on a persons psyche or wellbeing.

Dosage is, I venture to say, the number one reason why people have bad trips. Set and setting has been mentioned, say, people at festivals or parties around large groups of people, loud music, a lot of stimulation. But what about if they had taken a much lower dose? Would it have been overwhelming? Mightn’t they have gotten the enhanced party experience or mind opening adventure they were after?

I have had my own too-much experience at a festival, and whilst it was big flashing lights and lack of a quiet space to lie down that could seem to be the problem, I could have had a more pleasant experience by simply being careful with the amount I was taking. Not everyone wants to have a peak mystical experience or deep inner journey, sometimes people just want to enhance their experience of something else they already enjoy. Much in the way coffee would enhance a workday, a mini or museum dose might enhance a party, concert or brainstorming session.

Dosage is More Important than Set and Setting

As has been said by the late, great Boston psychonaut Kilindi Iyi, at very very high doses of magic mushrooms, set and setting doesn’t make any difference whatsoever. So that would mean that dosage is the most important factor in a session.

Though this is on the extreme end, I think it illustrates a good point. Dose is, in my opinion, too often and too easily overlooked when it comes to taking drugs.

Consider for a moment the difference between:

  • a shot of vodka vs. bottle of vodka
  • one tiny puff of weed vs. a huge bong rip
  • a bump of ketamine vs. a big line

Very different experiences.

So how to get it right?

Here’s some practical tips when it comes to exploring substances.

Practical Tips on Dosing

Use scales

Invest in a good set of scales and use them carefully. Especially important when using potent psychedelics that are active in very small doses like 2C-B, or those with higher toxicity like MDMA. Eyeballing can be horrendously inaccurate.

Know the dose for specific route of administration

Don’t confuse the intranasal dose with the oral dose, for example. Those can be very different things.

Start out small, increase the next time

Research is good but I’d generally say that its always good to start lower than you’d like and work your way up.

“Those who received a small taster before a higher dose were observed as being even more likely to reap the benefits than those who were only given the higher dose.”

About study participants from John Hopkins’ psilocybin study – Link

The great Czech psychedelic pioneer Stanislav Grof used a step up approach in his psycholytic psychedelic therapy work. After some sessions to build trust between the therapist and patient, he would start patients on 100 micrograms of LSD, and gradually work them up on consecutive sessions until an optimum dose was reached. 

Make use of boosters

You can use a booster. This means adding a second dose on top of the first to boost the effect. The key to getting the booster right is the timing. If you add too early, before the first dose has reached its peak, you risk taking too much. If you time it too late, you miss the chance of adding to the peak of the first dose and just extending the session – or having a second peak that is similar to the first. To counter this, take note of the time when you take your dose. Then consider setting an alarm as a reminder to check in with how you feel and to then make a decision on whether or not to take the booster.

With psilocybin taken on an empty stomach (no food for 2-3 hours before), the region of 60-80 minutes after the original dose is generally a good time to take a booster.

Use volumetric dosing for microdosing LSD

Volumetric dosing enables you to be very accurate and precise with dosage when you have paper tabs of LSD. You can find a guide on how to here.

Keep a drug journal

Logging and tracking have become quite a thing in the self-improvement field and for good reason. By tracking our behaviours we get good solid data that we can assess objectively. Using only a scale and a notebook, you can track and log your ingestions and doses and make notes on the effects, gaining precious personalised data. 

Maybe you’ve heard of a food diary to raise awareness of what you are eating. Or a smoke diary for people trying to quit. Logging and tracking raises awareness of our behaviours, feelings, triggers and patterns.

Keeping a drug diary has to have been one of the most useful things I’ve ever done in regards to learning about my relationship with different substances and what doses work for me. The data has been invaluable for deciding doses and finding my sweet spot for different applications and activities. I know my optimum kratom dose to enhance focus on a work day, my LSD minidose for a day out, and my MDMA dose for a session with friends, including booster and timing.

If you wanna know more about drug journaling, take a look at taking drugs like a nerd.

Don’t underestimate the dose. Better yet, overestimate it.

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psilocybin magic truffles
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How to Get the Dose Right with Psilocybin Truffles

One of the most important factors leading to a beneficial magic truffle session is finding a dosage that is well calibrated to your intention. I would argue that it is of equal importance to the set and setting when it comes to a positive outcome.

As magic truffles are kinda new in the psychedelic world compared to classic magic mushrooms, the doses are not well understood.

Below, I’ll share my calculations to match the doses of synthetic psilocybin used in 4 major and influential studies to the corresponding dose of magic truffles. Synthetic psilocybin is easy to measure and dose compared to raw mushrooms, and is therefore used exclusively in clinical trials. Below, I share my calculations.

psilocybin magic truffles

Doses Used In Clinical Research

1. Psilocybin-occasioned mystical-type experience

Psilocybin-occasioned mystical-type experience in combination with meditation and other spiritual practices produces enduring positive changes in psychological functioning and in trait measures of prosocial attitudes and behaviors – Roland R. Griffiths, Matthew W. Johnson, William A. Richards, Brian D. Richards, Robert Jesse, Katherine A. MacLean, Frederick S. Barrett, Mary P. Cosimano, and Maggie A. Klinedinst (2018)

Participants tripped twice, with a month between each session, with:
(1) high dose of 20 mg
(2) high dose of 30 mg
Doses calculated per 70kg bodyweight.

Study paper

2. Psilocybin with psychological support for treatment-resistant depression

Psilocybin with psychological support for treatment-resistant depression: an open-label feasibility study – Robin L. Carhart-Harris, Mark Bolstridge, James Rucker, Camilla M.J. Day, David Erritzoe, Mendel Kaelen, Michael Bloomfield, James A Rickard, Ben Forbes, Amanda Feilding, David Taylor, Steve Pilling, Valerie H. Curran, David J. Nutt (2016)

Participants tripped twice, with a week between each session:
(1) low dose of 10 mg
(2) high dose of 25 mg
Doses regardless of bodyweight.

Study paper

3. Psilocybin produces substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer

Psilocybin produces substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer: A randomized double-blind trial – Roland R. Griffiths, Matthew W. Johnson, Michael A. Carducci, Annie Umbricht, William A. Richards, Brian D. Richards, Mary P. Cosimano and Margaret A. Klinedinst (2016)

Participants tripped twice, with 5 weeks between each session:
(1) high dose of 22 or 30 mg
(2) very low (placebo-like) dose of 1 or 3 mg
Doses calculated per 70kg bodyweight.

Study paper

4. Psilocybin in the Treatment of Tobacco Addiction

Pilot Study of the 5-HT2AR Agonist Psilocybin in the Treatment of Tobacco Addiction – Matthew W. Johnson, Albert Garcia-Romeu, Mary P. Cosimano, and Roland R. Griffiths (2014)

On a 15 week course participants tripped 2-3 times:
(1) moderate dose of 20mg at week 5
(2) moderate or high dose of 20 or 30 mg at week 7
(3) optional session with either 20 or 30 mg at week 13
Doses calculated per 70kg bodyweight.

Study paper

Converting to Fresh Truffle Weight

magic galindoi psilocybin truffles 15g packet

One 15 g pack of truffles

The exact psilocybin content of truffles is, as far as I can find, unknown, but going off of the calculation that 1 g of fresh truffles will contain between 0.75 and 1.75 mg of psilocybin (link), we have a reasonable window with which to find a comparable dosage of fresh truffles. Keep in mind that potency may vary by strain and that individual tolerance varies depending on both physiological and psychological factors (more on this another time).

The information below is presented as a rough guide and calculated with fresh truffle weight. (If your truffles are dried, the equivalent dose will be significantly less. Fully dried truffles are approximately ⅓ the weight of fresh truffles. So for example, if the fresh truffle dose was 13g, you could calculate 13 / 3 =  to get a dried truffle dose of 4.33 g.)

The best way to find the dosage right for you is through personal experience. Start low, document your sessions, and gradually work your way up.

If you are considering to go DIY and organise your own session at home or without a sitter, remember that the psilocybin sessions in the research studies mentioned are accompanied by psychological support before, during, and after each session.

Pure (Synthetic) Psilocybin Doses Converted to Truffle Weight

10 mg psilocybin – Low dose

10 / 0.75 = 13.33
10 / 1.25 = 8
10 / 1.75 = 5.71

6 – 13 g fresh truffles

–

20 mg psilocybin – Moderate dose

20 / 0.75 = 26.66
20 / 1.25 = 16
20 / 1.75 = 11.43

11 – 27 g fresh truffles

–

25 mg psilocybin – High dose

25 / 0.75 = 33.33
25 / 1.25 = 20
25 / 1.75 = 14.29

14 – 33 g fresh truffles

–

30 mg psilocybin – High dose

30 / 0.75 = 40
30 / 1.25 = 24
30 / 1.75 = 17.14

17 – 40 g fresh truffles

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Final Thoughts

Generally speaking, I’d recommend lower doses for recreational trips, creative thinking, and active problem solving, and scaling up to higher doses for therapeutic experiences, deep inner journeys, and peak mystical experiences.

Safe journeys!

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psilocybin magic truffles microdose scales
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Taking Drugs Like A Nerd

Taking drugs is widely considered a cool and badass thing to do. Wild, crazy, indulgent, rock’n’roll. Certainly not something that should be done in a nerdy way. But, (and thats a big ass but) I would like to tell you why taking drugs like a nerd is actually a very good, nay, a great, worthwhile, and even honourable thing to do.

I will present my argument in two parts:

  1. What it means to ‘Take Drugs Like a Nerd’
  2. Outcomes of Taking Drugs Like a Nerd

Los geht’s!

What It Means To Take Drugs Like A Nerd

In the simplest terms, it means honouring your inner research scientist. Donning a metaphorical lab coat and experimenting with your mind and experience through the means of first person large scale bioassay. 

Here is what it means in more concrete terms:

  • Taking them in a comfortable and controlled environment
    i.e. at home (as opposed to a party, club or festival), being very selective of company, wearing comfortable clothes.
  • Being well prepared
    Coming to the session fed, rested and generally in a good mood.
    E.g. having a healthy, light meal approx 2 hours before an MDMA roll.
    Having basic cosy-time-at-home supplies ready to hand.
    See: A Simple Checklist for Psychedelic Therapy Sessions At Home
  • Taking a well considered and accurately measured dose
    That means using a set of scales, rather than eye balling it. And choosing the dose based on what you are looking for from the experience.
  • Following a set procedure for ingestion
    AKA taking the drugs in a particular and conscious way
    E.g. putting on certain music and stating out loud your aim (much as toasting a “cheers” is a way of expressing good intentions before drinking)
  • Logging and tracking ingestions
    Making a note every time you consume, including substance, quantity, route of administration, and time of ingestion.
  • Taking notes on inner experience
    Occasionally writing down your thoughts and feelings as they come to you, with timestamps.
  • Not mixing with booze or continually boosting
    Not taking more doses to increase or extend the high through the night.
  • Having certain rules for the session
    Such as no breaking things or calling exes.
  • Doing a simple evaluation the next day
    To improve the future sessions. Evaluation on how the session was conducted rather than the introspective content. Can be done using a simple WWW-EBI-AN structure (what went well, even better if, additional notes).
  • Filing your records of experiences and evaluations
    This will be useful for integration work.

Outcomes of Taking Drugs Like A Nerd

A More Comfortable Experience

Drugs by their nature change the landscape of our reality. Via physiological and neurochemical manipulation, they change our perceptions, feelings, and ultimately our experience of being a human in the world. To varying degrees, depending on the substance and the dose,  they can trigger quite radical and rapid shifts.

At its best, this can be exciting and awe inspiring, but at its worst, overwhelming and extremely uncomfortable.

Taking drugs like a nerd helps to counter the possibility of negative outcomes that can sour an experience and make it not only less enjoyable, but even have long lasting negative consequences.

Increased Access To Insight

Ah insight, that juicy stuff that helps us gain deeper understanding. Deeper understanding of ourselves, others and the realities we live in. Why is insight a good thing? It can help us to navigate the journey of our lives, make better decisions, be better people, and have a deeper sense of appreciation for the richness and complexity of the great mystery of the universe.

Improving How You Take Drugs

The notes you’ve taken and evaluation will help you refine your protocol and how you use drugs. You’ll glean useful info on things like how long it takes the drugs to hit you and how different doses effect you. Over time you’ll also notice patterns on how your sessions vary with different kinds of music, company and activities.

Being Responsible

Taking care when taking drugs means taking responsibility for your own safety and wellbeing. Family and friends who know about your hobby don’t need to worry about your safety, and neither do you. By doing geeky things like time stamping ingestions, you won’t prematurely take a booster and end up overdosing. You also won’t end up in hospital and place extra strain on the health service of your country.

Minimise Damage and Disruption

Being nerdy and so controlled about taking drugs means that occurrences like knocking things like glasses or lamps over are less frequent. It could also be that someone is hyped up and decides it would be fun or somehow necessary to smash or destroy things. (I mean tbh, it is fun, but dealing with the consequences isn’t). If you think that sounds crazy, well, powerful mild altering substances are crazy. Tao Lin deciding to smash his laptop whilst on shrooms because he felt the evil of technology (documented in his book Trip) is a perfect example which springs to mind.

Geeky drug taking can also mean minimising disruption to your non-drug taking self. To illustrate, lets begin with a typical day-after scenario of a Saturday night MDMA sesh.

You wake up tired and groggy late in the day, still dressed in the now smelly clothes from the night before and in desperate need of a shower. You instinctively know that you’re not only running behind and missing one of your precious days off, but at a distance that you can’t make up. You also have the added bonus annoyance of figuring out how the hell you’re going to resync your sleep schedule so you don’t feel like total shit at work on Monday.

Let’s contrast this with the end of a nerdy session and the day after.

After having enjoyed the wonders and magic of your chosen substance, the effects begin to subside and you land gently, helping your body to recover with a nutritious meal that you’ve already prepared. You put on a JJ Cale album to listen to whilst you clear up your space and then run a nice warm bath. Finally, upon leaving the tub, you stick on a movie to snuggle down to as you drift off to sleep. Boom, you wake up the next day refreshed with a cheeky and knowing inner wink. You can enjoy a leisurely brunch and coffee in the sunshine whilst you consider your plans for the Sunday. Life is difficult as you have two equally good options of catching up with a friend or sticking on an episode of Midnight Gospel.

Depending on your substance, dosage and length of session, you may even be fit to go to work the next day. Imagine that, the joys of drugs on a weeknight with no negative consequences. It’s a beautiful thing 😉

Social Progress

Geeky drug taking is geared towards self betterment and becoming a more connected and healthier individual. And healthy not in spite of fact that you use drugs, but actually because you do.

By being a responsible consumer of drugs you are contributing to changing the cultural and public perception of a drug user. Through your example, friends and acquaintances’ image of a drug user will begin to shift from that of a reckless and unhealthy burden on society to that of a thoughtful and responsible, well-functioning individual . Through your example, you will gently tug at the thread of the negative and deeply ingrained culturally conditioned stereotype. Through your nerdiness, arguments for decriminalisation and legalisation become stronger and we will get closer to sensible drug policy. Legalisation would mean easy access to quality controlled drugs – yes, imagine that.

Take Drugs Like A Nerd… With Me!

I’ve been taking drugs like a nerd since 2011 and it is my no.1 tool for personal growth. I believe it could be the same for many others and enjoy sharing knowledge and offering guidance on how to best utilise these incredible tools.

Best way to stay in touch is to join my newsletter, info below.

Be safe, explore well!

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trip home session checklist
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A Simple Checklist For Psychedelic Therapy Sessions At Home

The headphones/eye-mask direct-your-attention–inwards whilst–listening–to–a–playlist–of–music method for psilocybin sessions is the standard in psychedelic research but becoming increasingly popular outside of clinical studies too.

Looking for music for your next experience? See my post: 6 Music Playlists For Psilocybin Journeys
headphones eye mask psychedelic therapy equipment

Two key pieces of equipment for a standard therapeutic journey

Whilst this is certainly not the only way of having a fruitful psychedelic session, it is an excellent one and one that I myself use regularly. It is also the basis for how we conduct our psilocybin truffle ceremonies with New Moon Psychedelic Retreats in the Netherlands.

However, with COVID-19 bringing our retreats to a screeching halt, I’ve realised that if I’m to continue my mission of increasing access to psychedelic experiences, I need to get back to handing over the tools and techniques needed for them out to the world through that incredible medium whose potentialities and capabilities are now being rediscovered and ever expanded; the internet. So, expect a rekindling of this site and a growing database of resources coming your way whilst retreat work takes a back seat.

 

trip home session checklist

Today, I’ll share a simple checklist for things you’ll need to have ready for a psychedelic therapy session at home. I use this list myself every time I do a session, so you know it’s good to go 😉

If you’re new to psychedelics, Tripsafe’s How To Take Shrooms is worth your attention.

Use wisely, be safe, don’t break the law, and all the other usual disclaimers and warnings.

I wish you the best on your journey.

Simple Home Session Checklist

☐ The material

☐ Water (2x bottles)

☐ Snacks (Fruits, nuts, chocolate)

☐ Notepad & pen

☐ Tissues / handkerchief

☐ Headphones (charged if wireless and/or noise cancelling)

☐ Charged music player with music/playlists downloaded offline and ready

☐ Eye mask

☐ Extra blankets/sleeping bag ready

☐ Vomit bucket

☐ Food/meal for afterwards

Home Psychedelic Session Checklist Mockup

Printable PDF version available for download here (Follow link then click download button towards the top right)

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