Magic Mushrooms: the heroic dose


The term “heroic dose” was coined by Terence McKenna and consists of 5 grams of dry mushrooms (Psilocybe Cubensis) consumed in a specific kind of Set & Setting. The phrase is specific in that it is reserved only for this brave method of consumption. The rules are simple: 5 dry grams consumed alone, in the dark, in silence, with your eyes closed. McKenna used massive quantities of Cannabis – which however are not prescribed by his “heroic dose” instructions. In fact, I don’t consider that particular substance necessary unless at a certain point you really want to extend the experience. The heroic dose produces its effects for as long as 6 to 8 hours; I don’t think many people would feel the need to draw out an experience such as this, which is already pretty long and taxing. As time dilates during a trip of this kind, one’s suggestive perception of the time frame becomes far beyond that of ordinary measured time.

Obligatory warnings

Here, I must strongly recommend you read the WARNINGS, being that they are particularly necessary to this article. I have a duty to say that I don’t recommend that anyone try this, and also that it isn’t a route that will work for everyone. But the spirit to challenge the real limits could find more answers here in this blog than anywhere else, answers which more often than not dream unknowingly. The noble discipline of the exploration of consciousness has ancient origins. It has never been an easy task, let alone a recreational one, so refrain from the literature which proposes it as an alternative to the latest videogame.

What kind of mushroom?

What mushrooms are we talking about exactly? Psilocybe Cubensis, a variety of psychedelic fungi whose principal ingredient is psilocybin. Lighter mushrooms exist, as do stronger ones – keep that in mind, and know what you’ve got on your hands, when reading about quantities.

The Cubensis are the most commonly found – though they contain less psilocybin than the spindly Semilanceata which are also found growing in Italy –  and contain far more psilocin (the active ingredient in which the psilocybin is converted into a psychedelic substance) than Semilanceata. Prior to conversion, psilocybin has no effect, being nothing more than an inactive precursor.

Courage and Recklessness

The term heroic presupposes courage and therefore understanding – and in fact without the latter, the former is not courage but recklessness. What do you absolutely need to know? Fundamentally, just two things: yourself, and the magic mushrooms. If you really want to go crazy you’ll need to consume 5 dry grams with no experience. That may very well be the worst experience of your life, which you’ll only recount if you regain your powers of reasoning once the effects have worn off. And that is by no means guaranteed.

5 grams or “committed dose”?

The heroic dose is the result of a journey undertaken which could come in at 5 grams of perhaps even more – or you may stop well before then. Indeed, the quantity McKenna describes is not firmly restricted to 5 grams. For some, it could be higher or lower depending on their individual tolerance levels. I personally know people who never achieve that quantity at all! On other occasions, McKenna has tended to use the term “committed dose” – the dose, in other words, which humbles you and inspires your respect – which probably fits more with the definition of “heroic” than the figure of 5 grams. This quantity is a defined reference and identifiable for anyone early in their own journey of discovery with mushrooms. But once it has been reached, you could discover that that level of intensity no longer seems that heroic, because your courage will hardly feel challenged if it stays in your new comfort zone. At the moment, 5 grams are a medium-sized dose for me. Even though I never take mushrooms lightly, consuming that quantity doesn’t quite make me feel heroic.

Feel what’s right for you

A capacity for inner listening is vital to understanding what works for you, and it’s a test you need to do on multiple levels. Perhaps you hold it together well emotionally, but physically you could be causing yourself problems. When a certain friend of mine consumes mushrooms, their inner “fire” increases, causing them literal fevers and other disturbances. Listen and know what is best for your body, and furthermore ask whether mushrooms are a path you can tread at all, or if there is another road more suitable to you. After two consecutive experiences with ayahuasca upon which I felt no effect, I understood that mushrooms were the route for me. For others, ayahuasca could attest to the exact opposite. The Plant can seem tougher and more challenging when making a comparison between the two – which one shouldn’t really do – with medium doses of mushrooms, but as soon as the quantity of mushrooms rises, the road of the fungus is decidedly more difficult. And why? The Plant puts you through the wringer physically as well as mentally; mushrooms, meanwhile, are more gentle on the body but relentless on the mind. Therefore, fungi can be much more difficult than the sickness ayahuasca makes you feel.

How to get to a heroic dose

The practical advice for finding that elusive heroic dose is simple: increase the quantity incrementally, in a slow, progressive manner. Such slowness allows you to ascertain how you’re reacting on an emotional and psychological level. If you consider that every experience will be unique and different to the last, you’ll need time to understand how to interact with the psychedelic depths. The first three or four times you consume mushrooms are just sufficient to glean your physiological sensitivity to the substance – and in time you’ll understand the rest. Above all, you’ll grow to understand if you gradually feel better as you dive or not. Normally, experiences vary from the sublime to the problematic, but if you see a prevalence of problematic occurrences, you have to take heed. To explore this further, read this article.

Set & Setting

The Set & Setting requirements for a heroic dose are very specific – being alone, being in total silence, etc. – but it falls within the general rules which should always be applied to every one of your experiences. You’ll find an article on this very important topic HERE.

No sitter

You won’t have a sitter for the heroic dose, but this doesn’t exclude the possibility of having someone be nearby, or even in the same house, who you can contact if you feel like you’re in trouble. A big help when you feel like this is to reach for some music. If at the moment of maximum intensity your thoughts start to torment you – for example, your mind starts to loop or fixate on something – and you don’t feel capable of activating your , you can use music to distract yourself (at least until you feel ready to re-enter into the silence once more).

The internal witness

The internal witness is like a part of you – they are not your body and not your thoughts. If you’ve arrived at a heroic dose, you’ve probably experimented previously and found that they’re there when you feel dissociated from your thoughts and manage to observe them as if you were a “third party”. In that moment when you’re observing yourself, this is called the internal witness. During the times when your emotions and thoughts are stimulated, taking shape as a whole that feeds itself (kama-manas), it’s difficult to move in the internal witness. The witness exists in ordinary states of consciousness too, but most of all during an intense experience, when identifying yourself with what you’re experiencing is in danger of being more than you think you can handle. If you are experiencing it, this means you can take it, but at that moment you don’t think you can. Perhaps you’re beating yourself up about it, having doubts about the amount you’ve taken, fearing for your health. Together, these amplify one another and can start to drag you into a crisis.

A bad trip

Cases such as this are in line with the start of what people call a “bad trip”, on which you can find more concrete information in my book. Put on the music you’ve prepared earlier, lie down and breath slowly into your abdomen; rinse your face with fresh water. Choose a technique and you’ll find your calm returning. The principle is simple: don’t run from your thoughts, don’t oppose them – simple substitute one for another, because resistance will only exacerbate what you’re experiencing.

Darkness and silence

Why alone, in silence and in the dark? These are not rules put in place to make life difficult. On one hand, they contribute to the intensity you experience, which doesn’t allow you to engage with people or situations; on the other hand, they allow you to delve deeply into yourself without distractions.

Effectively, even turning on music is a distraction. Indeed, it makes sense only if you don’t, but you have to have it on hand as a getaway because your objective is to explore only as far as you intend to. If you’re about to deviate from the heroic dose instructions, try to think about how you’ll be disappointed that you ran like hell as soon as you heard a “boo!” Overcoming the challenges will drive you forward and ultimately teach you something. To win the battle against the difficulty it can sometimes be enough to know that you have help if you need it. You’ll then pass the critical moment without giving in and find yourself in an utterly different phase of the experience, in which the bad trip has vanished without a trace.

Dangers and Fears

Is there any danger in taking the heroic dose? For some, naturally, there is – I can’t dispute that – but even for those who face no mental or physical danger, caused by Set & Setting mishaps or medical side effects, there is one obstacle that tries to get in the way each time: fear. You’ll find yourself confronted with two fears, which ultimately are no more than fears but are nonetheless intense and important. These are the fear of suffering or dying, and the fear of going mad. Make sure to read this article to find out more on what you can do about this, and what you shouldn’t do.

Indispensable resources

To go forward despite fear, you’ll need a couple of things. The first is trust – easy to say but harder to put into practice – and also a good foundation of experience in psychedelic trips. Experience is not theory, but first-hand repeated knowledge, through which you have properly understood that you’ll be confronting something within yourself, because the voyage will comprise “your business” alone.

Trust is about a transpersonal vision of life. If you understand that life itself loves you, you’ll also know that what you’ll be presented with – during the experience but also during life in general – will be for your own good even if there comes a moment when it seems like a problem.

The other aspect of trust that you need, complementary to the first, is trust in the fungus. After all, the fungus is not just a chemical substance, but much more than that. The chemical is a key which allows your brain to open a new frequency in reality, opening and amplifying. The director of this expansion is a benevolent force which I call Spirit, but if you think of it as something else, that works just fine and won’t make much difference. The important thing is that the chemical is the lowest level of interaction the substance has with you, and there are many other levels involved. In my book, explore this aspect in great detail. Here, I will just say be cognisant of the fact that “something” is accompanying you at each moment of the trip. You are never utterly alone.

Self-mastery

You reach 5 grams, then you proceed with higher doses – for example 10 grams or more, a process which demands an active, even manly, attitude, and great focus. To what end? Well, it’s simple: you need to understand how to move mentally and emotionally through a “heroic” psychedelic voyage. It’s an important concept, albeit a subtle one. You can move within the experience, but can’t use any force of opposition – i.e. you can’t say not this or not that. You need something closer to the will of carrying out work on yourself rather than on the experience. Let me clarify this with a practical example.

8.5 grams is a beautiful quantity, but this example holds true for lower and higher doses too. Decide to stay sitting or standing for the duration of the experience. The reason for this? You have to develop the will and the capacity to remind yourself of this intent no matter what you’re experiencing. These are high-quality goals, though if you do this because you’re desirous to control the experience it’ll never work and prove inadequate, leaving you more shaken than usual. The mushrooms will support you if you’re trying to evolve, just as they have no problem showing you your faults so that you can properly comprehend and grow past them. It is not impossible to stay in a meditative state for some hours under the influence of mushrooms. At first, they will do everything to floor you, but if you hold strong and fast, they will start to help you. And you’ll arrive at a certain point where being on your back or your feet will not only feel normal but you’ll need verification to confirm your actual bodily position at all.

During this meditative state, you can work on the creation of your internal witness, which entails maintaining this flickering presence in the midst of the chaos your strain and your visions create. With 5 or 12 grams, I can assure you that this will be a lot harder, but hold onto the knowledge that something is changing, and that it’s this type of experience that ultimately brings permanent benefits after the effects have run their course. It is said that you should develop an ability to “return inside yourself” on command, that the process is a collaboration with the fungus, per say, in which one lets go (posing no resistance) and he does the same with you when required.

A safe space and time

To plunge into these depths, you need a few other things – in particular, a space in which you feel protected and secure, not only from possible interruptions by family or friends, but above all from the little things. If you haven’t yet had any experience with mushrooms I’m sure you won’t appreciate this warning, but if you have a few excursions under your belt you’ll likely understand that all of your composite parts have to feel “reassured” to face such exposure – otherwise you could experience resistance, which as we’ve learned leads to suffering. While I can’t explore this topic too extensively here, there are dozens of pages dedicated to it in my book. Of course, no matter how much reading you do, I anticipate that you’ll need to translate that knowledge into a ceremony to truly understand.

The support of your subconscious

When we say “ceremony”, we’re not talking about religions or superstitions but of truths which have existed for millennia and speak to our deepest parts (whether that be one’s personal unconscious or that which we share collectively). A mushroom ceremony speaks the language of symbols and the subconscious, of images and emotions that are perfectly understood in the depths of our minds, which constitute the biggest portion of the iceberg. The personality with which one identifies is only the small section which emerges above the water; the other 90% is unknown and shrouded in mystery. Nevertheless, it is the part that really guides us in life. The ceremony works with this part of us, and as the expedition goes further you’ll need the right allies on hand, the most important of whom lie within you.

Working on yourself

As you up your doses, no experience with mushrooms should be done randomly. More and more, you must put yourself to the test, be that standing, sitting cross-legged, in silence or with music specially selected for a group experience or some other activity that requires some form of sacrifice. Let me be clear why the point is not so intuitive: when I exercise an intention – for example remaining seated, or on my feet, or to monitor the other people taking part in the trip in a group experience – I am not resisting the fungus. I’m not opposing that which is transporting me but in fact am doing something which takes a great deal of commitment and energy. It’s almost like performing a sacrifice – and in my day, as a matter of fact, we called it fioretto (“small sacrifice”).

It would be easier to let go, but I chose to make an effort because I know that I’ll learn something from it. The fungus will sense that your intention is “pure”, or rather that you’re not just doing it because you want to feel radical, man. Therefore, something clicks that allows you to stay seated, or stay standing up, or snap into action as soon as someone there is having problems. Strive to believe in that.

I know it might seem strange, being able to apply some form of will in these moments – sitting still, for example – but if you resist at the start, it becomes “easier” (for want of a better word) to continue. However, if you quit and lie down, he will continue the dance and you’ll only be able to sit up again after quite some time. Don’t get me wrong, it will always be easy for him to lead the dance even if you stay seated, but it is as if a little part of you has gathered around a point of greater awareness. I must confess, it’s hard to explain…

The effects of a heroic dose

The fungus only acts in one way: the goal of the first and most intense phase is to “unhinge” the brain. It reshuffles the mind so that nothing then remains of the base which dictated your ordinary way of thinking. If you’re fearful or you aren’t willing to truly give up those quotidian thought patterns, he will go forth despite that resistance. Every defiance (fear, resistance, etc. etc.) becomes a leverage point by which the fungus overwhelms you – and the more you resist, the more difficult the experience becomes. Accept, breathe, and let go.

The start

When dealing with this kind of quantity, the steep climb of the effect is very intense. One could compare it to throwing yourself from a rollercoaster or a rocket taking off. And indeed, this stage is often accompanied by a roaring in the ears as one starts to ascend to the giddy heights. In these moments, direction loses all meaning.

Rapidly, you find yourself entering a dimension in which you lose all notion of space and time. However, it’s more than not knowing where you are and how much time is passing. More than anything, it’s that “I” am no longer “I” – a disturbing and yet marvellous concept, depending on how solid you are interiorally. What feels incredible to me could be a nightmare for someone else. Thankfully, how it will feel for you is something you can discover progressively. Do not attempt to reach this stage without ample preparation.

I’m not looking to disappoint you if you’ve been expecting to hear nothing but amazing stories. There’s none of that here. You’re alone, in silence and in the dark with your eyes shut. Nothing is happening on the “outside” that can constitute a gripping tale. The thing of interest you must understand is what goes on “inside”.

The peak

What will you experience at the peak of the mushroom’s effects? Describing it in words is impossible. I’ve visited “places” I recognised, places I’d already been to during other experiences on mushrooms or on ayahuasca, and I was incredibly surprised at having forgotten them! I remembered them, and I realised that, sadly, I would not be able to remember or recount them once back on planet earth. I’ve felt a Love, which is not that emotion or feeling that’s felt in day to day life, but one that constitutes many things… How can I begin to explain it? What words can one use to describe the indescribable?

This whole phase of the trip is ineffable: you know you’re there but there isn’t much more to report. You are the knowledge of existing, and yet with no trace of mind or emotion. It’s hard to explain how I knew in those intense moments that I could have augmented the dose even further, knowing for certain that I would be safe and have no problems. The fear I feel always happens before the trip, never during.

The descent

And then the effect starts to decline. Arguably, this is when the most useful and interesting part of the experience begins – or at least you go through something that isn’t quite easy but possible to describe. The most obvious thing that happens is that your thinking no longer comes from the place it usually does. Furthermore, you can stop it as you please and, above all, you are not identified in it.

You see everything through a “magical”, expansive lense, but the things you see are interlinked with meaning you could have never imagined. You can lose yourself in a leaf, in the details of the floorboards, in the flame of a candle… all seems laid out before you, rich with connections and meanings normally out of reach. You feel one with everything, no longer separate. These are moments of great understanding and inner healing.

Stop the world

During this phase, we are in a realm that’s easier to understand for anyone who’s taken mushrooms in a lower dose. In my opinion, this is what so many describe as “the magic of mushrooms”, and interestingly it’s what Don Juan Matus, warlock and teacher of Carlos Castaneda, called “stopping the world”. Knowing it’s that which permits you to recognise it, and recognising it allows you to think that you’d be able to reach that place even in a state of regular consciousness – this, for me, is the essence of the magic mushroom experience. In other words, bringing the experience through into your quotidian life, knowing that certain states of consciousness can be acquired even on a regular day, without the help of the fungus.

The saints or extraordinary individuals who have, in my eyes, “stopped the world” manage to exist in that state we sometimes reach during magical experiences with mushrooms. They have reached it as a result of a path… a path that we too could take. Mushrooms illustrate this superior mental state to us. To experience and recognise that is a precious step forward.

Conclusion

I hope I’ve given you a starting point from which you can begin your journey to the heroic dose – and to higher doses in general. In my book, you’ll find a lot more on this topic and others in a way that’s more structured and complete. In addition, I dedicate a large portion to how exactly different ceremonial practices, both solo and communal, are done, and explain just why these are so useful and important.

Ceremonies are an essential framework by which one can be sure they’ll be safe and protected throughout the experience. Indeed, the use of symbols and rituals has great value for our subconscious, which we’ll have at our side as an ally as we navigate the most profound experiences ahead of us. As Terence McKenna is known to have said, one’s first contact with a substance should be a book on it, or rather to inform oneself. If you know what you’re doing, you’ll be better equipped to confront the challenging moments and, most importantly, be unhindered by dangerous ones.

If you enjoyed the post and found it useful, please buy me a coffee!
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DM Tripson

DM Tripson published his first short stories at the age of 15, sure that he would soon become a writer, but after a few decades spent doing something else he had given up. One day he discovered magic mushrooms, an extraordinary encounter of the kind that changes your life, in fact it is only with their help that he was able to write three books and dozens of posts on this blog!

61 thoughts on “Magic Mushrooms: the heroic dose

  1. “That may very well be the worst experience of your life, which you’ll only recount if you regain your powers of reasoning once the effects have worn off. And that is by no means guaranteed”

    One could only read such a thing and think “An editor interested in people scrolling further wpuld have ever said such a thing”

    1. Well said Nic, saying things as they are is not attractive. How many times have I thought that everyone should take mushrooms, but then I discovered that it is not true

  2. I wish I had read this before yesterday.

    I have always considered myself fearless, often reckless. I have consumed various doses of psilocybin throughout my years and never had a bad trip. The timing seemed perfect. I was alone for the night in my home miles away form anyone. I knew the experience would be intense but I naively had no idea just how intense is was going to get. I was a little apprehensive, and thought the cautious thing to do would be to take it early in the evening,

    6:35PM. I blend 5 Grams and add to a small cup. I squeeze fresh mandarin orange into the powder. I take a cold shower and put in comfortable clothing.

    7:00PM. Down the hatch. The sun was still out and I was going to sit on my front porch and wait for the first wave. I thought my love of nature would pacify me until I was ready for the darkness. I was wrong. As it came creeping in, I was excited, the world was morphing before my eyes and it was beautiful. I decided to walk around a bit in my yard. I wanted to see my horses and marvel. The trees started to become somewhat ominous as the experience intensified. The Earth made a pulsing sound.“Whoa! Holy shit.” I thought. I had never experienced anything like this. It was feeling like too much. I thought I’d feel safer inside. I bounced around from room to room, back porch, kitchen… none of which gave me comfort. I decide to lay in bed. My room isn’t completely dark yet. I close my eyes, cover my head with my blanket, and try to let go. I see the chrysanthemum. Here we go. I see the familiar place with columns of faces. The one from the Tool album artwork. It rejects me. I messaged a friend “I might need someone.” He asked me what was happening. “It’s too much.” The indescribable patterns were wreaking havoc on my confidence. When I closed my eyes it was like I was in a room that morphed and changed. It’s images were menacing, alien, like swirling melting columns of colors and patterns. There were creatures sliding around in there. They looked like kite shaped manta rays with spiked tails. Tentacles with teeth. Evil eyes peering from dark folds in the twisted landscape. Each deep breath excites them. They want me to stop breathing, I know it. I opened my eyes. The ceiling fan skipped and jumped around like a glitch. The hum of my window unit skipped. I don’t feel welcome here. This isn’t what I wanted. I need music. I reach for my phone. A message from my friend-“silent darkness.” I can’t!! I close my eyes. A wash of purple, then white, then colors I’ve never seen before. Purples good! Keep purple. It resists me. I have no control. Music! I reach for my phone again. Letters and numbers are unintelligible. With intense focus I’m able to type but it’s almost impossible. Panic is setting in.
    What time is it?

    8:00PM. Fuck. This is just beginning. Nausea is setting in. I go to the bathroom to throw up. Ignore the bugs on the toilet. I try to gag myself. My finger feels like it reaches my stomach. Each dry heave produces imagery that I can only describe as flower organs. A voice tells me that I’m flowering. I feel like I’m covered in mold. I’m so confused. I call my Dad. No answer. I’m going to have to call my wife. She’s a little annoyed but she can hear the panic in my voice so she’s gentle. She suggests putting on music and drawing. I can’t! She doesn’t understand how intense this is. I can barely make a phone call. I try to trace the patterns I see. It’s not working. This is too intense. I ask her if she can look up what to do. After what felt like hours she tells me I’m just going to have to ride it out. Try to put on some calming music and lay down. She’s with family and they can’t know about this. She has to go. She promises to check on me when she can and tells me to call my dad.

    8:30PM. He answers this time. He can’t believe I took so much. I tell him to stay on the phone with me, I need a tether, I feel my mind slipping but I can’t tell him that. I don’t want him to worry any more than he already is. My siblings and cousins happen to be there with him. They all try to help keep me calm. I ask if I should call 911. “NO! Don’t do that! You’ll be ok, you just need to try to relax. You’ll be fine. Put on some music.”
    Ok. I can do this. I go to YouTube and painfully type “soothing for psilocybin5 g ps” (???) I play the first thing I see. Hate it. Go back. I see purple and the word shaman in the title. That’s it! I’m greeted with a shaman with smokey imagery. Yes! I broadcast it to my tv.
    It’s working. I think. I text my dad that the music is helping. He replies “turn it up as loud as you want to.” I turn it all the way up. The shaman on my screen looks Native American. I feel a deep connection. Euphoria! Finally! I’m suddenly overwhelmed with energy. I don’t know it in the moment, but my mind has just broken. Enter the psychosis. AC off. I want to sweat. My sinuses are full. I feel like I’m full of poison. I’m a rattle snake. I go to the bathroom and dump the trash into the floor. I need a bucket. Shirt off, shorts off, I’m in my underwear walking circles in my living room around my trash can. Sweating, blowing snot, spitting, farting, stomping, shaking like a wet dog. I want to piss in the corner and mark my territory. I’m a bison. I’m connected to the land, to its history, to its spirit. I’m one with cattle and the coyotes. I have so much fucking energy. Epiphanies hammer me. My dogs bring me comfort. I’m one of them. We run around the house howling and barking. I’ve become wild. I continue to walk circles and yell at my living room.

    11:00PM. I can’t stop. I’ve gone insane. Between bouts of hysterical laughter, guttural yells, and random ticks, I’m trashing my house. Visuals are dampening. I’m feeling a little weak. I’m talking nonsense to my phone that’s recording.

    MIDNIGHT. I haven’t had water this entire time. I’m so thirsty. It’s like mana from heaven. I have bowl of fruit in fridge! Grapes. Strawberries, plums, oranges. They’re orgasmically delicious. I close down the back half of my house. As I walk into the living room the shaman is gone. He’s been replaced by fractal tunnel imagery with high tone frequency music. Perfect timing. Purple. Purples good. Lights off. Naked. Heavy blanket. Overwhelming peace. I feel like I had met myself for the first time. I made it: it’s over.
    1:00AM Rest.

    I woke up this morning with a pounding headache. Never been “hungover” from mushrooms before. I tell my family I’m ok. I need to share this with someone. This seemed like a great place. If you made it this far, thanks for listening. I’d love to hear your input.

    1. Thanks for your story, really impressive!
      5 dry grams of magic mushrooms can be a sweet and wonderful experience, as well as a nightmare, you are never sure what it will be like.
      In many passages of your narrative I could fully understand what was happening, for example when you felt your mind was slipping away or how you felt and behaved in the wildest phase after 8:30.
      I have experienced very similar situations too, the dose was higher and like you I was wrong not to have a sitter around.
      See the story of that incredible journey here: https://shroomcircle.com/en/02-02-2020-20-grams-a-voyage-to-the-other-side/
      When the doses are high it is important to build a “fence”, in my opinion the ceremonial context is useful, see this other article (https://shroomcircle.com/en/what-use-is-ceremony-when-taking-magic- mushrooms /) and I think you will agree with me; it is not a religious question, it is the intentional use of ritual and symbols to guide the experience and support you in moments of greatest difficulty (which with high doses can come at any time).

      Another very interesting thing in your history is music, a portal to move your mood in a desired direction. It took me years to compose playlists suitable for the different phases of the journey with mushrooms, if you enjoy reading my book you can discover much more, with a surprise in the final pages.

      Thanks for taking the time to write, I hope you will again!

    2. That was a great story. Thank you for telling it. I laughed for most of it after you finally played music.

  3. Documenting the psilocybin experience

    So how do I talk about this? I can only remember what I can remember. How can I describe it?

    So I finally took the heroic dose. Five grams.

    I made a tea which I steeped for about 30 minutes, then I massaged the tea bag, massage and squeeze several times. After that I ran it through a drip coffee filter. This was to remove as much of the mushrooms organic tissues as possible. Then I consumed it. It was a pleasant tasting slightly cloudy drink that went right down. The trip came on quickly, 20 – 30 minutes. Time? 2pm. What psilocybin does to time is amazing, stretching minutes into what seems like hours. My mind was driven to self-analysis. Vision was drastically altered. I began to feel spikes in body temp followed by freezing chills. The ever present nausea was strong but I didn’t throw up. I was extremely stoned. I felt as if I was laid on the sacrificial alter being examined by my creator. After about three hours the experience subsided to the point where I thought it was over. I sent my son home. Since Zach had left there is no longer any way to track time. A little while passed and then the mushroom returned orders of magnitude stronger. The room in which I was sitting became filled with light, streaming through the room in orange yellow streams, uni-directional, that appeared like circuits. It flowed through me. It seemed that my body was being re-wired. It went on for a long time. This made me very excited since that was what I was there for. I don’t know what happened after that but things got out of hand. I remember trying to use my phone but I couldnt focus on it, It made no sense to me. Everything was shot with prisms and the streaming light. My whole body seems outlined in light. My efforts to contact the outside world resulted in someone calling a ambulance. Apparently there was a lot that went on that I have no recollection of. I guess I was paralyzed on the bathroom floor, except for my mouth. Paramedics arrived and I instructed them to throw me onto my bed. They left after that. These things were reported to me after.

    Perhaps equally significant to me as the streaming light was the near death experience. I was flat out on the floor on my back. Paralyzed. But at peace. No pain, no discomfort. I stopped breathing and felt no effort from my body to continue breathing. I could not feel my heart beating. It was all peacefull. I felt an acceptance. I was calm and content with with the world. I just lay there waiting for what the mushroom would do. Death seemed immanent. I felt my life force diminish like a dying battery. Was it time to die? I felt fine with it. But I thought of my grandson. My pure and perfect grandson. I know that when he looks into deepest part of his soul he will find me there, as I find him in mine. I think that in the great genes lottery of our clan that he and I are a match. I must protect him.

    I make a effort, roll over, there’s my phone on the floor. I somehow manage to send a voice text to a friend, I tell them that I don’t thinks I’m going to make it. Tell them I’m sorry. She texted back: call 911. Fumbling with the phone I somehow manage hit 911. Yes, I ended up in a holding cell for drunks. I arrived there naked, no phone, no wallet, no clothes. I am stuck. There is no comfort there. Freezing cold, finally after hours someone brings me a blanket. I finally was rescued by my son who had woken to find messeges from my friend.

    Get this, 36 hours later I’m still seeing hallucinations.

    A horrible experience? No, it wasn’t all fun but I consider it be the most meaningful experience of my life.

    Will I do it again? Probably not. I’m 73 and this was my third trip on cubes.

    1. At a certain point in the reading it seemed to me that I had become you, you told a challenging story in a very light and serene way, this struck me a lot.
      Mushrooms sometimes give you that ability to perceive with a lot of detachment what you are experiencing, one part is inside the experience, for example of dying, and the other observes as if all this does not touch you directly, you feel that nothing ends there. I believe this is what makes the difference for the terminally ill, which reconciles them with the end of physical life.

      Thanks Steve for writing. I always have to be careful not to instigate the consumption of prohibited substances, but in all honesty I’m sorry if this will be your last experience!
      Let’s see if I can get you to reflect on some elements.
      I don’t know how many trips I made with mushrooms, but I think my third trip was with less than two dry grams; before reaching 5 grams I think I have done almost all the steps with increments of 0.25 grams each time, some doses I repeated several times, for example those around 3.5 grams and 4 – 4.5 grams, so that when it was time to take the heroic dose I was really ready.
      Almost all the journeys before the heroic dose I used music, especially for the first experiences it is an almost indispensable guide, as well as a portal to access dimensions otherwise difficult to encounter.

      Well, when I took five grams for the first time I don’t say it was a disappointment, but in my heart I was ready for anything, I expected to face storms and instead it was beautiful, intense but never challenging, which instead I experienced. when I took 20 grams – which I arrived at after some experiences with 12 grams dry, I was convinced that increasing 8 grams would not be difficult! Instead it could have ended as in your case or even much worse (see my article on this “journey to the afterlife”).

      I’ll tell you this to emphasize that the experience you accumulate over many trips is essential to be able to deal with certain doses, three trips and getting to 5 grams was a gamble, you have no experience yet, with high doses it is essential! 5 grams can be gentle and wonderful, but the same 5 grams can convince you that you are dying, and no one can be more convincing than these little mushrooms! Here only experience can help you, nothing else can prepare you for what you may be traveling in.

      Go back, start over from 3.5 and use the music, stay in the middle of nature, physically prepare to arrive at the moment of the experience in strength and rested, you still have so much to discover! 3.5 is not a small amount, even this quantity knows how to be challenging, but if you know how to do it you will see that it will be very useful for you to understand many things, and above all to gain experience. In my book there are references … hidden on the last page, to write to me and have the list of playlist tracks that I have selected over many years, music is essential for those who start, only after a long time can you be silent and in the dark without being afraid of yourself.

      I imagine that in your heroic journey there have been many magical moments – you said something – but if you try again with more preparation you will see that these moments can be the totality of the journey. You don’t bring home something good just with challenging trips, diving into Beauty is even better, you bring home something that is even more useful to you in everyday life and without having side effects – which sometimes there are with difficult trips.

      Please let me know if you want. All the best!

  4. If I may, it is completely stupid to embark on such an experience without having studied, at least, Stan Grof’s ‘Realms of the Human Unconscious’.

      1. I read this story and all other comments. I have never used mushrooms before bit somehow came across information regarding trails help for people with severe anxiety and depression. I really want to experience this solely to confront whats needs to be confronted for me to function properly again. My whole life I have controlled and kept myself together and i feel like I am at war with something inside myself and I have had enough. I confront it daily but it doesn’t leave and I want to have the journey of completely disconnecting and connecting at the same time. I dont want to use this to have fun. I want to confront myself or whatever I am hiding. It sounds strange but I cant do this in the “real world” i need to go beyond.
        It was recommended that I start with 2gram to see how I will react. I have a specific goal with this. In South Africa there are no trails so I am currently trying to get in contact with a clinical psychiatrist to be a sitter when I take the Heroic Dose.
        Any advise would be appreciated. I am not scared to experience this however I do respect the power of the mushroom

        1. Hi Nicole! I understand what you are saying, I would just like to point out that what you need is a path, not a drastic change. Of course the change can happen in an instant, but usually if it’s that fast it’s also very challenging. You can reach the heroic dose after having gained enough experience, it takes time and patience. Read the articles on this blog, especially on the ceremonial use of mushrooms, if you have the chance I heartily recommend my book! Let me know if I can help you. All the best 🙂

          1. Thanks DM, I spoke to someone with experience in this and she also recommended that I start off slow as it is a journey not a sprint. So I am going to plan and take it slow and eventually I will be comfortable enough to do what I think needs to be done. I will definitely read your articles and the book. It is very insightful

        2. Hi, Nichole. Contact me in south africa, and I can put you in contact with someone wou can properly guide you. 0832970395

          1. Dear Nicole, I don’t know Antoinette so I don’t guarantee for her, but I approve of the comment because maybe it’s an opportunity! How are you? I hope to hear from you!

  5. I spent the last 2 days absorbed in the recording of brother McKenna online, and found a beautiful 3+hr example that pulled his separate teaching into a pretty decent 26ish part analytical documentary.

    Even the deep explanation of such experiences can allow, at least the memory of such truth to be regained. So, I thank you dearly DM Tripson for your candour.

    I smoked, I recollect, to be around 0.2gms of pure DMT, through a glass pipe, in a modest ritual with 8 friends at the age of 20. We took turns to be reverent, as each smoked, lay comfortably, and covered our eyes with a towel.

    I had taken LSD and mushrooms, to a ‘heavy’ dose on a few occasions, but wow this was nothing to be debated. There was no opportunity for fear or elation, to simply proceed with love was the only thing on the table. I rebuilt reality with the help of Gaya, and enjoyed my work for a long time after. I.E I enjoyed my life on Earth a lot for many years.

    I’m 38 now, and thoroughly distressed at the daily grind of physical slavery for … 99.99999r% of humans, myself included. It has now become a call to the bosom of Gaya and all her helpers. The traditional communion is broken, like a child ignoring an aging parent. Though Gaya will always be, yet if ignored, be a barren planet is a planet with a lot of work to do…again! I would like to see a day when Mother Earth can just chill you know?! Breathe and float in her bubble bath of job done-ness.

    It seems to me, the depressed and ‘psychotic’ are sensitive to a distinction that lays deeper than human condition. A state of consciousness troubled without the game of spiritual tennis.

    As Autumn draws in, dazzling aspects of the Sun’s persuasion recede and we require light more radiant that ever. This conveniently is the time psilocybin becomes more content. As McKenna reminds us, “visual acuity is heightened” with the ingestion of said fungi. It could also be said that, our life itself is dark in the face of an unilluminated consciousness, that 99.9999999r of humans possess. The number is statistically correct so much as to say there is enough chilli in your curry per say. ( A little McKenna-ism if you can stomach it 😉 )

    So, the heroic dose is as advised…. completely subjective. And ill advised if the human, or the interested reader of this thread, is not fully prepared to address the reasons for meeting nature on her/its own terms. If you went for an interview with God, what would you ask for? As with anyone in a position above you in a hierarchy, the question should be humble. The question should be, please mentor me. Please show me the way I do not yet know. And please, Please, don’t hurt me by showing me. This is how I learn to be like you.

    Love saves all. Again and again and again and again and again and again….

    1. Thanks Rob! The ancient Romans said: “Amor Omnia Vincit” and it is so, simple and true. I did not answer you right away because I was away for two days, I attended a ceremony, we were 5 old friends, for this reason I was very calm, they have experience and so I was able to take 5 grams, the well known heroic dose ! Maybe I should write a new post, a challenging dose alone versus the same amount in the company of a group of good friends. I believe that both are useful, but the second one perhaps can teach more, even in everyday life we learn more in relationships with people rather than closed at home alone. I would not write it to make a ranking, but only to reflect on the differences, sometimes it is better by yourself, others instead it is better to compare yourself with persons who are your mirror.
      How much I miss McKenna, he was a truly extraordinary character, which is why I dedicated an entire chapter to him in my book. Cheers!

  6. I accidentally took over twenty grams. It was my first time and I didn’t understand the conversion rate on the scale. I put it in a coffee grinder then a glass added water and drank it down like a sludgy milkshake. I honestly thought I was taking 2.8 grams. (I know, this seems stupid but I had never seen a magic mushroom before and using that many did raise a red flag). A dose that large takes you far outside of the boundaries of anything human, I met the original intelligence that created all that is before the Big Bang it seemed. I am not a novice of altered states. I have been a frequent astral projector and lucid dreamer for 30 years. I have no fear of death but did worry that my partner would come home and find me and have to deal with that. I also remembered what Terrence McKenna said, “they can only make you think they can kill you”. This helped me. So because my high school let me down regarding the metric system I had quite the ride.
    I am 67 and this happened 8 months ago. I have spent much of my life exploring
    other realities via OBEs so it was not life changing in the way it might be for someone who has never ventured in to the deeper aspects of the self. I took the red pill long ago.

      1. Wow. Fascinating experience. I took a full ounce so It appears I dodged a bullet after reading yours. There would have been no chance of me tearing up the room. I was pinned to the bed. Getting up would have been impossible. I was home alone with eye shades and headphones but the music was irritating so they came off early. I had a driving mechanical sound in my head and the tunnel of fractals during the come up got monotonous. I had set an intention but that got set aside as my main attention was focused on trying not to die. Keep in mind that that I thought I had taken 2.8 grams. I didn’t realize what I had done until I realized how much an once was in grams. I felt fortunate to be alive when it was over and there were no physical or psychological issues. The feeling of being paralyzed not able to move was uncomfortable for obviously reasons. At one point I felt the mushrooms sort of say, “hang on asshole, you asked for this”. I found that somewhat comforting. Ok, they weren’t actually trying to kill me, that was good thing.
        The mushrooms want me to let go, or my ego to go away. I was too curious for that so I would try to hide and they would find me. I tried to think about my life but that was a silly exercise as it reminded me nothing is real. In fact when I went back in to the primordial state nothing had even been created, not even the universe. When I opened my physical eyes I saw the the structure of physical reality laid out in a lattice. I could go on but as you say, there is no way to describe the indescribable. Like you, I wouldn’t do this again. I didn’t mean to do it the first time. I have a very resilient psyche it appears.
        What you had sounds like the ancient Greek Elysian ceremony. “If you die before you die, when you die you won’t die”. As I mentioned I astral project a couple of times a week and go to the places we may end up when we die. I do what we might call rescues or retrievals, helping people who are earthbound post death to get to a higher frequency, to waste from the Bardo state. I do this in an out of body state. Been doing it for 30 years or so. The Monroe Institute actually helps train people like myself to do this effectively. When I went there in 1992 Elizabeth Kubler-Ross was in my class. Stan and Christina Grof were in my Gateway class before that.
        Me final note for you and your readers, dying is something you are doing every day and to have a successful transition means a lifetime of preparation. As you stated coming in to the human is a much harder transition for us make than what we call dying. When one crosses over not much changes. You take with you, what you have learned along with unresolved stuff and your present state of consciousness. You end up in a frequency that matches that. I recommend the books of Jurgen Ziewe to people who want to better understand the afterlife. As for this life, as you surmised we choose this learning environment for precisely the reasons you mentioned. Forgetting our true nature, our long history of lifetimes is a feature of the earth experience, not a bug.

      2. I am supposed to go on an ego melting trip next week. I have been microdosing for 8 weeks or more. I took larger amounts of Magic mushrooms recreationally in college but nothing since then. I will have someone with me the whole time and the first day will take a lower dose , skip a day, then the large dose. Any advice? Thank you!

        1. Dear Stephanie, what a busy schedule! Some advice? With a question like this you make me want to give you more than a few suggestions! I would tell you to read all the articles on this blog and / or my book. In a few days you have time to do both, but if you don’t like reading I’ll try to give you just one short and useful piece of advice.
          Taking a large dose of mushrooms with the intention of dissolving or killing the ego is quite risky. You need the ego! Why kill him? It would be better to tame it and use it, and this is the most useful thing to do: the ego is a bad master but a very good servant, it’s up to you to tame it. You cannot tame it by waging war on it, first you have to know it and then with the help of mushrooms you can put it on standby, experiencing the true magic of mushrooms, a state of grace without the little radio of thoughts always on inside your head.
          Read a little and let me know please, if I can help you it’s a great pleasure for me 🙂

    1. WOW~–What an experience you had! I am headed to a sacred journey retreat over the weekend where I will be experiencing shrooms, again. I have only experienced 3.5 grams a handful of times and would love to journey with 5g’s. But, don’t want to feel all the emotions/feelings associated with it. I want something profound to happen, but I don’t want to battle for that to happen… if you know what I mean.

      1. I wouldn’t recommend that you take heroic dose,if you’re not willing to experience every emotion imaginable plus some. A committed dose is just that, a commitment to receive whatever the mushrooms reveal to you. I hate the term “bad trip” they may be difficult sometimes, but healing the mind and expanding consciousness, in my opinion, is never a bad thing,difficult at times,but never bad. Though the experience may seem to last thousands of years,it will end,usually in 4-6 hours. When you decide to commit to a “heroic dose”, remember you WILL be ok and I hope you enjoy your time there,wherever there is.

        1. Hi JT, I just wrote a post about bad trip but it is not translated into English yet, it will be ready in a few days and I think you will like it. If you can please let me know. Greetings!

          1. Hi again, I am the original commenter there named Starr. I ended up journeying with 4grams in November 2021. It was with a group of people where there was a lot of connection and it was bit overwhelming. I also ate waaaaay too much like an hour beforehand and purged big time. I even experienced Hapeh with the shrooms and that was such a beautiful feeling. I have also sat with 3.5grams many times now. I am gearing up to attend another ceremony this weekend and keep going back and forth about whether to sit with 5grams. Yes, fear is here. I had such a vivid dream last night where I saw 10-12 red and white mushrooms floating in the sky as well as 15-20 different moons moving across the sky. I would love and appreciate the mushrooms to reveal some things to me, but not hurt me. That is my intention. I would appreciate some feedback, things to consider, and just really your thoughts after reading my comment.. I felt really good about sitting with 5grams this morning after the dream, but now after reading stories and “warnings,” etc, my fear is back to being the gate keeper. I would be grateful for any words of wisdom that you may have for me. If you wouldn’t mind also sending your response to my email, that would be much appreciated, just to make sure I get it.

            With deep bows of gratitude for your time.

            — Starr

          2. Dear Starr, welcome back! To give you adequate answers, I would sincerely recommend you to read my book, I know you would like it and it would be of great use to you, but let’s see if I can say something also for the benefit of those who read us besides the two of us.

            Mushrooms amplify what you have inside, and if you reread what you’ve written you find clues as to what to do next. Let’s see together. You have taken 3.5 grams several times and you did well, but now you are talking about 5 grams: isn’t that an increase in quantity a little too big? I had gone from 12 grams – large quantity – to 20 grams, large quantity a little more! No, wrong, the difference was too much, I would have had to get there in 10 ceremonies, increasing each time by a little.
            This is the first thing: from 3.5 I would go to a maximum of 4, perhaps a little less. At 5 grams I would get there in no less than 5-6 experiences, in this type of exploration there can be no rush.
            Another interesting clue that you see when reading your message: the idea of ​​taking 5 grams scares you a little, no matter if the apparent cause is reading warnings or experiences on the net. If fear resounds in you, it means that a part of you still does not feel safe, I would listen to this part.

            My standard dose for years was 5 grams, many times I have taken much higher doses, alone in the dark and in silence, but recently 3.5 grams dry has been the hardest experience of my life, I have put my all into it to get to the end without despair. Read my last post, I believe you will understand me.
            I would tell you only this: be cautious and do not rush, increase a little each time and experiment with different moods before increasing the dose again. Better to have a solid inner foundation than to overestimate yourself or underestimate mushrooms.
            Hope this answers your questions! All the best 🙂

  7. Hi, I am soo glad I found your page before going for it!
    Thank YOU and thank you all for sharing your experiences in the comment section.

    My beautiful golden teachers are growing as I write these lines and I am so very excited.
    It will be my first time but God knows they have been calling me for a while now.
    There is a voice and inner knowing telling me to go for 5 grams already.
    But there is also a cautious voice telling me to do more research…and I found you:)

    Another problem I need to find a solution rather quickly is how to dry and store them without a dehydrator. I thought having them fresh (10:1 ratio) but how should I keep the rest? would simply leaving them in the open and let air dry even work?

    I will dive deep in your articles but I would appreciate any words that you would be compelled to share with me!

    1. Dear Aydan, thank you very much for your appreciation!
      Hope you were thinking about 5 grams fresh, not dried! To enjoy the magic of mushrooms you need to get informed and know how to do and how not to do. I hope the articles will help you, I would like to suggest my book as well, try to check it out.
      How to dry them? You put them on a cardboard on a radiator, or in a low temperature oven on parchment paper with the door half open, check and turn the mushrooms often. Do not dry the mushrooms in the sun, they will spoil and will no longer work. You could also use drying salts – Epsom salts for example – but honestly it’s a system that I don’t like because so many have written to me about problems with this method.
      Finally, it is essential that the mushrooms are dry as crackers, as soon as you try to break them they break; if, on the other hand, they are still barely flexible, they are not dry enough. If you don’t dry them well, they won’t keep well and lose potency. Let me know how it goes. Ciao!

  8. Hey DM Tripson, thanks for sharing the knowledge in a clear and structured way!
    Yesterday I had a trip and I’d like to share it here because I want some external opinion about it, if you can.

    First of all, I bought 4g and received 5g, in 5 separated portions of 1g each.
    My plan was to take 4g, so I took 3,5g and waited for 30min to take 0,5g more. (+ orange juice)

    When it hit about 30min later, I was so so so happy and feeling blessed, I was alone in my house and I felt I was having contact with God, I started to cry tears of real joy because of all the bliss in my life.
    And then I was in the bed and I felt something telling me that with 4g I could only reach to that point, and I couldn’t enter in the Mother Ship, so It says for me to take the other gram that I received for “free” that I hadn’t asked.

    From that moment I was totally out of control, in pure joy, I felt that something told me to call to a Friend to come to my house, and I was reluctant to do that, I didn’t want to bother him, but this voice insisted, because that friend was in my life for that, and God brought him to my life. So I called him and explained it for him and he came to my house just to observe me.

    From this moment I returned to my bed with the earphones listening to Vivaldi and blindfolded.

    So I was sure that my body would be ok, I entered on the trip. I had so many thoughts related to your text, but one for me was the opposite:
    The trip didn’t humble me, I felt the trip was trying to awake me and turn on my ego, and I’ve never read a comment about this anywhere, it’s usually the opposite.
    I had so many emotions related to that I was the earth and everything was connected to me. I felt whole. I started to understand the nature of roots and how’s everything linked on my life.
    This experienced felt like it was long waited for earth, and also at the time I called my friend, inexplicably another friend of him, who takes Ayahuasca, said that he’s coming to visit him this month.

    Could you help me deciphering this? Did I get it wrong?

    To summarize it, I felt I should standup and start acting, and I will piss off a lot of people, but I’m here for that.

    I’m very used to have lucid dreams that happen to become truth, and I’m sure this experience wasn’t like the dreams I usually have.

    1. Hey Tarcisio, thanks for writing! I don’t know what to say or how to decipher what you said. My impression is that you are covering with your mind what you have experienced during the journey.
      Pay attention to the mind, be especially careful not to identify yourself with your thoughts, because you are not your thoughts; mushrooms can help you experience this.
      At one point you say “I felt the trip was trying to awake me and turn on my ego” and I get the impression that you are using the words in a somewhat equivocal way. The ego is always there, it is standard equipment on this planet, the difference is if you are identified or if you see it and can observe it, or at least notice its influence on you. Identification is the key word. I also recommend you to read my book, I am sure it would be useful to you. All the best!

    2. Having voiced in your head or having voices tell you to do something period, that is called the devil. I don’t care what anyone says. A mind altering substance lets your guard down and you are inviting (not purposely I’m sure) other entities from other detentions in.. So, you better figure that out and get yourself protected.

      1. Hearing voices in your head is generally not a good thing. When it comes to entities it is important to remember this: you cannot make contact with entities if you have no resonance. For better or for worse they can interact with you only if you offer a point of contact, otherwise it is not possible; most of the time the resonance is unconscious, but knowing that it works like this gives you back power and choice, you are never a victim but always “co-responsible”.
        Thank you for writing!

  9. Check out Kilindi Iyi, the OG of mega dose shroom. 20 grams of cubensis equals a total life paradigm shift. Build up to it though. Not for the faint of heart.

    1. Hi Jbot, I was thinking about Kilindi Iyi when I took 20 grams, read here: https://shroomcircle.com/en/02-02-2020-20-grams-a-voyage-to-the-other-side/

  10. I’m about to embark on growing mushrooms, with the intent to use them as a means of therapy. I suffer from anxiety & possibly PTSD from childhood trama. I bought some LV-LSD online, and took 1 tab last Saturday night. Not the experience I was expecting, instead I itched for over 11 hours straight. The bottoms of my feet, between my toes, and fingers. No relaxing, no visuals, nothing…Not sure what was going on, allergic reaction? I have no desire to repeat that again, so I’m stuck with 9 tabs. Have you ever heard of such a thing? I can’t find much of anything online. Once I harvest my mushrooms I’ll take a small dose to test out my reaction…will I have bouts of itching with shrooms? I hope not…I really don’t want to go back on medication, as I’ve been off these meds for around 3 months preparing to start my journey…any thoughts would be appreciated.

    1. Hi Tommy, I’m sorry your experience was so annoying, but I’m afraid the problem is in the substance you took. Trust only what you have done in person, not what you buy online and offline! Buy a substance test, Ehrlich Reagent Test Kit is fine for tryptamines, and use it. This is the first step, but perhaps not necessary if you are growing your own mushrooms, an often illegal but beautiful activity. The experience with mushrooms begins with the relationship that is created between you and these magical creatures, seeing them born and grow is part of the work we do on ourselves.
      How to recover from anxiety and PTSD? Mushrooms are not a magic pill, they do not heal you just by eating them, but if you are doing therapeutic work then they will help you so well that it will make you understand why they are called “magic”.
      I wrote a book on this topic, how to prepare and integrate psychedelic experiences, but it is not yet translated into English, it will be ready in the next few months, this is a text that I would have recommended to you without doubts, it seems made for you. Read the other articles of this blog, you will find many food for thought, read my book on magic mushrooms, you will see how the mushroom ceremony can help you get inside and get to know yourself better.
      I do not know where you are and what you do, in order not to be mistaken the best advice I can give you is to find a therapist who will help you and who also supports you with the help of magic mushrooms, I hope this is a possible choice for you. I wish you all the best!

  11. Hello, first of all thank you so much for taking the time to write up this article and provide people with a user guide and some basic info on how to use mushrooms.

    I wanted to take the heroic dose. I live on a farm where liberty caps are growing like wildfire at the moment. I decided to pick as many as I could and eat them fresh. They measured out at 170g (wet).

    I basically thought that I was losing my mind and thought I died. I woke up from it all having realisations that had never happened before and very profound thoughts about life.

    Firstly, is there a way to channel all this new wisdom and thoughts/feelings to make sure I embody them?

    Also is there a chance that I took so much that they were actually poisoning me?

    Hope you see these questions, thanks!!

    1. Hi Donald, glad you are back and doing well! Liberty Caps are usually counted and not weighed (you don’t always have a digital scale in your pocket), over 100-150 pieces is considered a challenging dose. I can’t translate the weight to number of pieces, but 170 grams wet is roughly between 12 and 15 grams well dried, an absolutely huge dose! These little mushrooms are more potent than Cubensis, no wonder you thought you were going to die 😀
      I advise you to have a sitter next time, with such high amounts it is easy to lose contact with the shared reality, the risk in these cases is to get hurt – it happened to me with 20 grams dry, maybe you read my post.
      Do not fear for your physical health, mushrooms are safe, there is no physical consequence for what you took.
      Your question is important, in fact I have written a book dedicated to preparation and integration, the latter is what you need now…but my book is only in Italian at the moment. You are lucky because I am finishing the editing and very soon it will also be available in English. If you want me to notify you, write me an email to my address, you can find it here in the blog. If you urgently need to integrate something, I renew my invitation to write to me privately. All the best!

  12. Thank you so much for this article and thanks to all the commenters for their testimonies, it’s all been super helpful for me to digest. The following is a prelude to my journey on shrooms, specifically, a 5g trip on Golden Teachers, which was a wonderful experience. I will then go into my experience on shrooms in a bit more detail. Thank you, in advance, for taking the time to share with me.

    A few months ago, I was with my wife in her home country of Ecuador; we were with a tribe in the Amazon rainforest where I had my first psychedelic experience. I was fortunate enough to be involved in a ayahuasca ceremony, led by one of the tribe’s shamans. The trip started with a sort of prayer, or call to their ancestors and then we ingested some liquid tobacco, intra-nasally (not the most pleasant part of the experience). This really wakes you up and clears your sinuses, if nothing else, it makes you ask the question, “who the feck came up with this idea?”.
    Before I go on with this experience, I should say that it was recommended to me, that a day prior to the ceremony, I should fast food, and drink sparingly. We then drank a bowl full of the prepared ayahuasca liquid. An unpleasant, but necessary, part of the ayahuasca journey is that your body needs to physically purge itself of the ingested ayahuasca liquid, typically in the form of vomiting or… you get it. I didn’t experience much heavy visual hallucinations, other than light acting… differently; everything, and I mean Everything, had this outline of pure white light that would move and shimmer if I looked around, or moved. I would walk, looking down at my feet and with each step, the outline of white colour around my feet would be kicked out in-front of them. This was, all things considered, the least intriguing part of the journey.
    At some point during the trip, I became hyper aware of my thoughts, especially the toxic thoughts moving through my head, things like anxiety and paranoia – “oh god, I wonder what people are thinking of me”, “are they looking at me?” amongst other toxic, personal thoughts. Something really incredible then happened to my consciousness… it… separated. It diverged into three distinctly separate parts. One part was my thoughts, one part was what I understand to be myself, then there was this other part that was guiding me through my thoughts, which I now understand to be my Internal Witness. It was a beautiful experience in which this thing guiding me, my internal witness, who I met for the first time during that trip, showed me how these toxic thoughts weren’t good for me and it left me with this simple and unforgettable lesson:
    “When the rat and the snake come looking for something, just let them look. Don’t roll around with the snake, or chase after the rat, just let them come and let them go.”.

    I feel like, this journey, in many ways primed me for my heroic dose of shrooms. Just a quick disclaimer, this was not Terence McKenna’s set and setting for the heroic dose, this was 5g ingested, in my living room with the blinds up, psychedelic visuals on my TV accompanied by very trippy music. I was fortunate enough to have my father minding me through this, who also brought the Golden Teachers with him… somewhat of an early Christmas present, I’ve been told; certainly a gift that will stick with me for quite some time.
    We prepared a tea with the shrooms, but after about half an hour of no effect, I just threw the lot down the hatch, with half a glass of water, shortly after which, the effects ensued. The journey was a much more visually hallucinogenic experience than the ayahuasca. After a while of getting lost in the psychedelic visuals on the TV I looked away to find that the visuals had sort of spilled out of the TV onto the walls and just about everything. I looked down at my carpet and it appeared to be breathing, and wriggling in patterns. Geometric patterns were appearing everywhere, even out of a plain white wall… it’s quite extraordinary really. Looking outside at the beautiful array of autumnal colours was fantastic, each leaf, an eye staining back at me, which filled me with a sense of warmth and just made me smile. The sky was dotted with clouds that appeared as the faces of hindu gods, morphing every now and then into a baby’s face, or a screaming head, all of which I just found fascinating. I felt during the journey that my reach in consciousness had greatly expanded and, this is going to seem totally insane, and you’d be quite right to think so, however, i tried reaching out into space to communicate with something, and at one point, I felt as though an alien was introducing me to a baby they’d just had, and it just wanted me to see how beautiful their baby was. It was beautiful, the celebration of life is a beautiful thing.
    We were listening to a song during the trip in which there was a lyric that said, “reverse skydiving”, to which my dad responded, “what even is reverse skydiving, is that like going from the ground, up?”… in that very moment it was as if I reverse skydived from where I was sat up into the stratosphere, it was incredible. I felt like slowly, I became more adapted to that state of consciousness and in doing so, I became more lucid and the visual hallucinations became less intense and I was just left with this feeling of being heavily stoned. This part of the journey lead to some really deep thoughts and profound conversations and insights.

    My journey with shrooms was a beautiful one, but I will say this; the capacity to relinquish this false sense of control over reality that we have, is really crucial, not just in these trips, but in life too – this turns out to be my biggest take away from this journey. So, I will leave you then, with the culmination of these insights and wish for you, the reader, a life filled with wonderful challenges, mysterious adventures and eternal lessons:

    “He who attempts to grab the reigns of the tides, and change the direction of the waters will certainly lose himself, for he has been fooled by a sense of control that does not exist.”

  13. I’ve taken shrooms before a few years ago, about four time. The doses ranged between 2 grams and 3.5 grams. I plan to take 5 grams (dried) next week. My intention is to improve my self-confidence. I have not heard that shroom trips help with that. Can it? If so, is there any advice how to prepare to work on my self-confidence with a trip?

    1. Dear Gavin! Please wait, first of all you need to work on your ‘confidence’ with mushrooms before you get to 5 grams dry! Yes, you took them a few years ago, but the time that has passed requires you to approach this high dose, which you have never taken, in progressive steps. The risk is that you will have a more challenging experience than you can imagine, you need experience in order not to have serious problems, and experience you build up over time by using mushrooms regularly, always with impeccable set & setting.
      I don’t think you have read my book dedicated to understanding and using magic mushrooms, at least see the reviews and I think you will be pleased if you do.
      I’m here anyway if you need, cheers!

  14. I don’t know if this is just me, but I really think my phone should be nowhere near me while experiencing something so spiritual.

  15. I took 7g of APE yesterday and it was my 3rd time taking shrooms. The first time 1g about a month ago, I didn’t feel anything. The 2nd time 3g and it was 2 weeks ago, I saw things melting and heard noises but felt that it wasn’t enough. I was craving a deep spiritual experience so I decided to do it again yesterday with 7g, dried shrooms.

    My experience can be described as a rollercoaster with an overload of sensorial stimulations; sounds, colours, patterns, everything was moving in a chaotic way. But it was fun. I could feel the spirit of the mushroom, he was childlike and playful. He wanted to me to remember that living on earth is just like playing a VR game, just try to have fun. At some point I felt like he wanted to take over my body and did some silly moves. I was moving like a worm and then like a cat in my bed. I looked totally ridiculous, thank God nobody saw me :))
    I also had a lot of flashbacks, old and recent memories but they didn’t have any special meaning to me.

    All in all it was a fun experience but wasn’t deep or spiritual as I expected. I had had lucid dreams and OBE experiences that felt more spiritual to me, maybe that’s why…

    I’ll try Ayahuasca next and hopefully it’ll give me some clarity into my purpose here on earth. It’s the burning question that I’ve been having since I was a kid…

    1. Hi Birdy, 7 dry grams of mushrooms the third time was like a round of Russian roulette, you got off easy-but I say this not knowing if you had psychedelic experiences with other substances, LSD for example.

      Mushrooms or ayahuasca give you what you need and not what you want, you might not like this “rule” but I am convinced it is for the best.
      If you take 7 grams and then go to bed it is difficult to have a mystical experience, if you want it you had better create a ceremonial setting-I go into this in depth in both of my books, I would recommend you read one of them, choose the one that appeals to you the most!

      With mushrooms it is possible to have experiences on your own, with all the necessary precautions, while with ayahuasca I strongly advise against it, in that case the ceremonial setting and the presence of a shaman are necessary in my opinion. It is of paramount importance to have an impeccable shaman and not just a facilitator, otherwise it is better to give up and wait for the right opportunity.

      In your message you don’t mention music, I don’t know if you listened to it during your journey and what you heard; to orient the experience toward a mystical and spiritual dimension, a very carefully chosen selection of songs is essential. I wish you the best 🙂

  16. All the sources I’ve read before stated that there is practically no toxic physical dosage, could you expand on your comment:

    “Perhaps you hold it together well emotionally, but physically you could be causing yourself problems. “

    1. Hi Siebe, when I read your comment I jumped in my chair! But when I then reread the paragraph in which the sentence is inserted I was reassured; in fact I am not saying that mushrooms are toxic but to feel if mushrooms are a good way for you; the LD50 (Lethal Dose 50% i.e. the percentage of risk of dying) of mushrooms for an adult weighing 70 kg. is equal to more than 2 KG. of dried mushrooms, so it is true that physiologically they are safe, or at least psilocybin is! A friend of mine turns red, several others after the experience, sometimes even during, have severe headaches, symptoms that show a physical reaction to which one must pay attention. Maybe for the headache it might help to drink a lot of water, but I know that in some cases hydrating was not enough.
      These are not necessarily signs of dangerous incompatibility with mushrooms, but they might lead one to think if this is a suitable path, maybe other Master Plants are better for us.
      Whether mushrooms are dangerous to health I have addressed it in other posts on this blog, if you read them you will find all the information you are looking for, many more insights are in my books.
      If you have more questions, I’m here! Thanks for writing 🙂

  17. I had my first experience with psilocybin today. Prepared myself many weeks before hand with reading different kinds of texts on Reality Sandwich and some on your blog, listening to a few books about psychedelics and doing a couple of tarot readings that unreservedly said – “Go for it!” Had arranged with two sitters (male and female), who both of them had previous experiences with psilocybin and who would sit with me in a confined space where I could lie down on a very soft bed with eyeshades and headphones. I had prepared with a somewhat adjusted 8-hour playing list from Spotify called “Psilocybin Journey”. The evening the day before I had a light meal and only some water and herbal tea when I got up this morning. Gulped down 3 grams of ground dried Psilocybe Cubensis with some orange juice with extra lemon in it. Prepared the bed and settled in with headphones and eyeshades. I had no other intention than exploring and the mindset of “Show me what I need to know!”.

    What went on for the next four hours was a strong SENSUAL experience where I shook my body, mostly legs and pelvis, and where tension and relaxation alternated and I could follow along/hook on to the music (or not – I always felt that I was in control). Lots of yawning, deep breaths. The bed responded nicely to my shaking. A bit like being immersed in water. Everything was enjoyable, full of pleasure (but there was nothing sexual about it), simple and brought smiles to my face all the time. Tension-Relaxation-Vibration-Breath-Pleasure-Smile. It almost felt TOO easy (I had to remind myself to be careful with what I wished for though, when such thoughts surfaced).

    I had the impression that any sensory information that I would have confronted would be filled with pleasure, even listening to very aggressive and violent music (I didn’t try that though). The music stopped for a while and the silence was equally pleasurable.

    Initially I had vague distant visual experiences in tortuous serpentine spiral patterns, but this stood back for the purely sensory sensual pleasure-filled experience. I was constantly aware, able to watch myself, reason with myself, interrupt/disrupt the experience if I wanted to (for example I got up to pee a couple of times). It engaged the BODY, but deeper emotions and thoughts seemed unaffected. I had the impression that with more substance (psilocybin)/shaking/breathing, I could have dived deeper.

    Writing this 14 hours after the journey begun I am having a headache and feel a little “slow” in my body. Feeling grateful to have had an “easy” start, but of course thirsty for more when the time is right. Ordered your two books a couple of hours ago. Thanks for an interesting blog!

    1. Very good Tomas! Every experience is different and not necessarily visual, just as you experienced on this trip. No dose is too high if the set & setting is appropriate, you did well to prepare in this way.
      The general rule for anyone making their first experience with mushrooms is to find out their sensitivity, that’s why I would like to tell you that you took a risk, for some people 3 grams is a very large amount while for others it is not, and you couldn’t have known that before you started; but by setting up the set & setting so well you were safe anyway.

      The kind of experience you had definitely had the influence of the kind of music you listened to, you will find out by listening to more playlists. Thanks for the trust, my books I am sure you will enjoy, and you will email me soon, I am sure!

      To avoid headaches, or reduce them as much as possible, drink lots of water, it helps.

      You are right, if you increase the amount it also increases the intensity and depth, BUT be careful, never underestimate the power of 3.5 grams of dried mushrooms, I would recommend staying with these amounts several times, you will experience very different inner situations that will help you to gain experience; at the beginning you need information about what to do and what not to do, but after that what allows you to get more and more inside is only and only experience.
      Thank you for sharing, I look forward to hearing from you 🙂

  18. Took 8 gms once and went to Circus World. Not what I would call pleasant but I got a short story out of it as well as a couple of paintings.
    I find 3 1/2- 4 gms dried to be just about right and have been doing that once a week for the past 6 months to keep the PTSD at bay. Works.

    1. Wow, taking 8 grams and going somewhere is quite a feat, I would be very curious to see the paintings. I agree with you, 3.5 to 4 grams is a suitable amount to work on oneself, intense experience but not excessive. Have a good continuation 🙂

  19. I did 5 grams of penys envy a year ago and now i am a buddhist, during the moment of hallucinations i felt that i had no body and everything was just mind and i saw a buddhist image, and i was the image until now i feel that this was the teaching. I’m not sure if it really happened, but I felt totally at peace, without any kind of desire, I wasn’t even human. Before this, let’s say at the peak, I had a lower level epiphany, such as the fact that we never died and we only transformed and we had to be attentive to what we were transforming into. that we died millions of times every microsecond in an unimaginable pain, that we fled from what we most despised but this had already reached us and the best thing was to try to reduce the rush to avoid pain.

    1. Dear friend, thank you for the account of that moment of such important transformation for your life, but I would like to add a few thoughts for the benefit of those who will read your story and my commentary.
      I always say that “if you are a goat, after the mushroom experience you are still a goat!”
      But then how is it that you come back from your inner journey (there is no such thing as hallucinations with mushrooms, there is a post dedicated to this topic in my blog) and decide to follow Buddhist teachings? Before the journey you had ideas, concepts, thoughts, and knowledge related to the topics covered by Buddhism, which does not mean that you knew Buddhism, only that you already had some familiarity with those existential values and themes. Then your unconscious-personal and/or collective, and/or your Spirit, received support from the Mushroom Spirit and showed you what you experienced.
      In order to receive certain understandings or teachings, you must possess an inner “vocabulary” that allows you to describe to yourself what you are experiencing.
      A “nose” that creates scents has no better sense of smell than I do, he has the vocabulary that allows him to describe (to himself and then to others) the olfactory notes he perceives, and this vocabulary gives him the ability to discriminate with greater definition the scent he is smelling. I know “noses” who drink, smoke, eat spices and obviously have sex, and none of these activities that should disturb their olfactory perception is actually a limitation.
      The same goes for inner experiences, if you know what Awakening is then when you experience it you will recognize it, otherwise you will experience it and think it is “magic,” wonderful but unexplainable, so that when you return from your journey inevitably the memory will fade from your memory!
      Taking mushrooms without preparation and study will not turn you into a Buddhist, but if after the mushrooms you start studying, then you can begin to have transformative insights from the experience you had.
      Thank you, all the best 🙂

  20. What i want to see covered is how do you stay in the experience when you need to urinate every 10min.

    1. Hi Dude, maybe this problem could be a contraindication, unless you wear a diaper!
      Honestly, it’s hard to imagine going to the bathroom every 10 minutes, but if you like a challenge, why not? Good luck!

  21. Hello, I’d like to get your opinion on my experience.

    a little bit of context first, I had several experiences before this one with lower doses with wet (fresh) magic truffles (the highest was around 20 grams chewed directly). I’ve handled all these doses well.

    This last trip was an attempt at a heroic dose, with 40 grams of fresh (wet) truffles. Following a guide online this was supposed to be more than what’s needed for a heroic dose. (These truffles are provided by what’s called a smartshop here in the Netherlands, legal stuff).

    I had done my research before doing this, set and setting, calm music, a trip sitter, a blindfold, and fasted for a whole day. Thought I was ready.

    I had made them into tea, quickly after less than 30 minutes of drinking the tea, I started feeling the effects. First I had started seeing visuals and feeling as if the mushroom is talking to me. This didn’t last long, soon after I called my trip sitter back in and asked them to stay with me.

    I don’t remember much afterwards, I talked a lot to my trip sitter about some things, but later on my trip sitter said that I was unresponsive. I had stared at them without saying anything or responding to them.

    To me the whole trip felt like it was 5 minutes although it was almost 6 hours. It felt like I had blacked out for the majority of it which had confused me. All I can remember is that a few ideas stuck to my mind. Like the mushroom telling me there’s no meaning in life to look for (although this was not my intention of the trip). The other thing which I think my mind refused to accept was that, for whatever reason, I felt that the mushroom had told me that all humans are the same, we all spend our lives worrying about things and as we do life runs by without us noticing. And that I am not as special as I thought. (Me having a big ego absolutely rejected this idea)

    I could not remember much more, I was glad the trip had ended when it did. I should say that the majority of the time I thought my brain had been stuck on a loop that I couldn’t get out from (I experienced this with lower doses). Right before starting to sober up, I was almost convinced that my brain was broken and I am stuck here with it. I could not say that I enjoyed the experience neither.

    I was also not sure of the dosage, usually all I can find online is dry mushroom dosage, and what is available to me is only wet truffles. So I had to approximate the dose using online guides.

    Thank you for answering all these questions.

    1. Hi Sub-zero, the dose of fresh truffles you took corresponds to approximately 7 grams of dried mushrooms, definitely a challenging step from the approximately 4 grams of dried mushrooms you took (20 grams of fresh truffles). The increase in quantity must be slow and progressive, almost doubling it has made you reach places where your consciousness has become completely disoriented, too different from the state of ordinary consciousness.
      Increasing the quantity not only leads to greater intensity, but often you find yourself in something that I might call “other dimensions”, increasing the dose does not lead you to go down inside yourself by sliding down a slope, but rather to go down steps, and each step is another floor compared to the floor where we live every day.
      Furthermore, taking it in the form of tea increased the speed of onset of the effects, I would say that you were unprepared and went through the experience without being aware of it – I’ve seen it happen a few times, thank goodness you had a sitter.
      With high doses it is not difficult to experience thought loops, perhaps your memory refers to something similar to this phenomenon, which you described as if your entire brain had gone into a loop.
      This is my impression, I hope it makes sense to you. Consider that before arriving at 5 dry grams (the heroic dose) I had a lot of experiences, I spent a lot of time between 3 and 4 dry grams, to experiment with all the possible experiences with these doses, sometimes they are introspective, others very visual, other times very demanding and others in pure joy… to increase the dose you need experience, and you gain it through many journeys.
      Consider that in this way I had managed to repeatedly take 12 dry grams, every time very well, but when I increased by 8 grams and reached 20, the pace was longer than my leg; you did something like that but without traveling enough – read my account of that trip here on the blog.
      Be safe, all the best!

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