30 Days Of Microdosing With Homegrown Psychedelic Mushrooms: Part III
[Reading time: just enough to pretend you are doing some work related research ]
*If you’re doing something digital I guess
Does creating magic technically makes me a magician?
As a pragmatist I knew the process of going from grow kit to microdose would require time and patience. My enthusiasm and impatience had me watch my grow kit each day, maybe my willpower could make it grow faster… I added a daily prayer to Demeter, just in case.
Even with a grow kit, you need to do your due diligence to actually get some results; good growing conditions, attention to detail, hygiene and a little bit of love. This insightful process cultivated not only mushrooms, but a deep respect for harvesting produce. Once my mushrooms had sprouted and actually started to grow, the process became thrilling as they had started growing a few centimetres overnight.
Over the years I managed to kill the occasional cactus, so I really had to step it up here. Carelessness would result not only in death, but it would mean I had to start over, which would severely hinder my tight schedule. In this case it meant being home every day, airing out my mushrooms, in order for them to not get contaminated or create an unwanted mold.
About a month in, I harvested my first batch of magic mushrooms. I reset the grow kit and set it up for round two. Up next? Drying out the first batch of home grown mushrooms, reading up on dosages and creating the end product: microdose capsules.
When a microdose is more of a fun dose…
What makes for a perfect microdose? That depends on your bodyweight and sensitivity. A full psychedelic trip is between 1,5 & 2 grams of dried mushrooms. A microdose should be about 10% of that, so between .15 and .20 grams.
Working with the whole product in a DIY setting made dosage a bit more of a puzzle. How strong is the strain? and how can I create an average strength? Although the whole mushroom contains psilocybin, the psychoactive part is found mostly in the stem. This part of the stem colours blue and will bruise even more when you tear it open, showing you its potency.
To create an even dose, I took the dried mushrooms and blended them into a powder. While my ways have evolved since then, I just needed to get started, so my kitchen blender turned into a mushroom grinder. Note to self: floating magic mushroom dust does create a fun-dose.
Although I officially hadn’t started microdosing, creating the microdosing capsules turned out to be a very fun process.
The experiment was starting to feel a bit more Escobar now, sitting there at the kitchen table with my microgram scale and plastic gloves, manually filling and weighing capsules. Blending the mushrooms into powder allowed me to get an average strength per gram. In order to figure out how strong your homegrown mushrooms are, there technically is only one thing to do: Test. But, I didn’t have time to do a full or half trip, so I decided to just go for it and start with .125 grams per capsule.
When is a good time to start microdosing?
One of my biggest takeaways is scheduling. If you have any time management skills and a relatively flexible job, you can get creative. If you’re in the life-saving industry, maybe wait till your holidays start. I made sure I had enough space in my schedule, allowing me some wiggle room in case the trial turned error. Psilocybin does build up a tolerance, so in order to keep the microdoses effective, I chose a one day on, two days off cycle. There are different options in cycling, like every other day, or the Paul Stamets stack: 1-4 to 5-7, more on that here.
Alcohol, Drugs & Data
Besides the practical prep, I also did some work beforehand, as psilocybin is not some magical pill that takes away your troubles overnight, figuratively speaking. The physiological effect of connecting certain receptors in your brain can be felt immediately and works like a mood enhancer that can magnify anything you’re feeling. So, I needed to set my intentions and clarify my goals for this cycle. What did I need? And where would the microdosing be able to help? I was keen to unleash more creativity, start writing freely and I wanted to become more present and less stressed.
Now, how would I know if it was in fact the psilocybin that is boosting my productivity? And could there be some sort of manifestation or placebo effect? Although you won’t know 100% what is causing which reaction, turns out you don’t need to run a lab experiment to know that psilocybin is active in the body, you will know.
In order for me to track the effects and to actually notice a difference, I decided my journaling practice was key. I had to be consistent and track within certain parameters: create specific questions to answer each day to actually track what was happening inside the head and body.
Besides journaling there were two other factors really important to keep track of what was happening: data & drugs. To not fuck up the effects of the microdoses I figured I had to stay clear of other drugs and alcohol. Data could have been a really interesting parameter of this 30 days microdosing experiment, however my sober stretch also positively influenced those results. I tracked, but not obsessively and left the data as is.
So, this simultaneously turned out to be my first 30 days sober experiment, not a difficult one but a big realisation of how carelessly I was consuming alcohol. Being sober for 30 days made it easier for me to track the physiological response, while also making me feel really healthy and rested. A triggering response & question I got often: ‘Then how will you know it’s not the sober living that is making you feel this good?’… Fair point, how would I know?
