Microdosing Psilocybin 101: What is Psilocybin? Is It Safe? Is It Legal? Is it Right for Me?
There tends to be a bit of fear and some misconceptions around microdosing psilocybin, so this episode is a Microdosing Psilocybin 101 overview that addresses the most common questions people have when they are curious about working with this type of plant medicine.
In this episode, I’ll answer the most common questions I get asked about microdosing psilocybin, including:
00:00 — What is psilocybin?
03:26 — Is psilocybin safe?
04:06 — Is psilocybin legal?
04:30 — The war on drugs
10:04 — Can I drive, work, and parent while microdosing psilocybin?
10:52 — Can I have a bad trip on psilocybin?
12:26 — How quickly does psilocybin help you make a change?
15:59 — How psilocybin supported my physical health
There is a lot of misinformation out there. I encourage you to use this episode as a starting point for rethinking how you think about sacred medicine.
What is Psilocybin?
Psilocybin is the psychoactive ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms. There are more than 200 strains of hallucinogenic mushrooms.
Is Psilocybin Safe?
Yes, psilocybin is safe.
Psilocybin isn’t toxic, the lethal dose is extraordinarily high, and it's not physiologically addictive.
ER admissions with psilocybin are negligible, especially compared to alcohol, marijuana, and opioids, which are a huge portion of our healthcare burden.
While psilocybin is generally safe and gentle on the body with few contraindications, you need to use it responsibly.
Just like any other substance, it has the potential to be psychologically addictive. In episode 3 of Aliveness, I discuss the concept of using microdosing for transformation versus microdosing for symptom relief, and I share how the container you create is a key piece of responsible use.
Is Psilocybin Legal?
The legality of psilocybin depends on where you live.
In some areas, it may be legal. In other jurisdictions it’s not legal, but it’s decriminalized. In others it is illegal entirely.
I never suggest that anybody break the law. If you decide to microdose with psilocybin it’s important to understand your local laws.
It's important to consider the war on drugs and understand the context for why many of these laws around psychedelics were created, how these laws can perpetuate harm, and how we can advocate for change in laws.
To summarize, the war on drugs is racist, unjust, politically and economically motivated, and unscientific.
When we hear that a forageable mushrooms is a scheduled substance, we have to think critically about what may have influenced those laws.
I highly recommend the War on Drugs by David Farber if you’re interested in a comprehensive perspective.
Can you Work, Drive, and Parent When You're Microdosing Psilocybin?
When you get the dose right, you can go about your normal day-to-day life without any psychoactive effects.
With the correct dosage, you shouldn’t feel or see anything. The medicine is working behind the scenes and you're gaining little (and big) insights throughout your experience.
Can I Have a Bad Trip When Microdosing Psilocybin?
People often worry about bad trips, but they're very unlikely when you microdose because you're taking a small dose.
In general, people worry about bad trips because they've seen people taking psilocybin recreationally and having unpleasant experiences. (Note: when people use Psilocybin recreationally, it’s often a much larger dose than we’d ever use in a microdosing protocol.)
With microdosing, we’re working with intention and being mindful of the setting in which it's in. That creates a completely different experience than using psychedelics recreationally.
Most of my clients are over 35 years old, many of them in their forties, fifties, sixties, and seventies. Many of them have never had experience with psychedelics in any capacity, and they have all these fears and concerns when they begin.
As they take this step into working with the medicines, I see them being astounded by the beauty and the power of this work to support them in being the fullest and best of who they are.
How Quickly Does Psilocybin Work to Make Change?
I'm pretty used to the pace of change of people. As a therapist, you get used to the various cadences, and you have a sense of where people are at in their nervous system and their thinking, and you have a sense of how they're shifting.
When I started working with psilocybin, I had to recalibrate.
I used to use a technique from my therapist days where I would say something that my client had said during the last session and when I started working with microdosing clients, the person would look at me like I was insane — like who said that?
That’s how much they changed between sessions.
It's truly amazing how quickly people grow and change when they work with these medicines with intention and do the work.
I see them connecting with their spouses, with their children, with their work, and very quickly the sessions become more of a reporting, “look what happened.”
This impact flows out to their communities, and to the world.
These medicines are an accelerant to our dreams. They support us in becoming who we want to be in this lifetime.
Is Microdosing Psilocybin Right for Me? What’s Next After Learning Microdosing Psilocybin 101
If you’re now feeling more comfortable with the idea of microdosing and want to explore more deeply if it’s right for you, I invite you to download my free guide where I walk you through additional questions that will support you with knowing if a microdosing practice is right for you as well as the more specific questions about what your first microdosing experience will look like so you can know what to expect.