What is microdosing? It’s the practice of taking small amounts—1/10th or 1/20th of a traditional dose—of psychedelic substances like magic mushrooms or LSD. Why would someone want to microdose? The list of possible reasons is too long to list here, but people are microdosing for just about anything you can imagine these days. The simple answer is that many people believe psychedelics offer therapeutic or medicinal benefits. In other words, it makes them feel better. And they want those benefits without the need to get high or having a full fledged “trip”.

Why are people microdosing magic mushrooms?

It’s similar to the role CBD plays to cannabis. There are therapeutic benefits to cannabis and the CBD it contains, and isolating CBD from THC allows some of those benefits to be accessed without the THC high. Microdosing effectively does the same thing, but instead uses dosage as the means to achieving the benefit without the high. People say these “tiny amounts” won’t get you high, but…

…what if you get it wrong somehow?

As a Gen X’ er, one of my last memories of magic mushrooms was the dude at the party with a handful of shrooms saying “here, eat some of these.” And shortly after, I was wishing I hadn’t listened to him. Before I even considered microdosing or taking magic mushrooms again, I needed some assurances I could do it with no unpleasant surprises.

My multi-year journey developing certainty on that has left me with some useful results, and that’s why I’m here sharing them with you, fellow Gen X’er! I’ve tested, made mistakes, documented, tested again, and put together what I consider a pretty good method for dialling in a “safe zone” for consuming microdoses of magic mushrooms. And also mini or social doses, but more on that in Part 2 of this post of magic mushrooms.

One of the biggest challenges to the dosage question is that we’re all so different. Different tolerances, different metabolisms, different minds. So any dosing model is going to have variances depending on each individual. I approached it by using things I already understood well as benchmarks. Those were caffeine, and alcohol.

I like to drink coffee everyday. I guess that means I’m addicted to it. But like 90% of humans on this planet, it works for me and I like the way it makes me feel and think. And I know my caffeine tolerance, where too much becomes counterproductive to what I want. For me, 1 or 2 coffees, in the first half of the day, is just right. If I push it to 3 or 4 cups, or too late in the day, I start feeling too “buzzy” and it becomes a distraction to my work.

So my goal was to find my magic mushroom microdosing equivalent to coffee. How much magic mushroom would be productive and get me the benefits I wanted, but not be distracting? There was only one way to find out! After a bunch of experimentation, I found the perfect protocol for me, my sweet spot. While your outcome might be different than mine, I hope my approach can be of value as you explore and find your own “sweet spot.”

Step 1: Find your magic mushroom perception level.

This means the amount of magic mushroom required before you feel something tangible and noticeable happening afterwards. Whether you prefer being slightly above or below that level doesn’t matter. Finding it is the objective. Think of it like room temperature. Some people like it noticeably warm or cool. Others want temperature where they don’t notice it at all. Either is fine.

Here are my own personal observations using coffee as the benchmark. From what I’ve heard from others, I’m pretty average in my magic mushroom tolerances:

• 25-50mg of magic mushroom – no perception (no coffee)
• 50-100mg – no coffee. Ok, maybe just a tiny hint of perception, depending on how full my stomach is. Fuller stomach usually means less perceptible effect for me.
• 100-150mg – 1 coffee. Perceptible, but mildly. This is my sweet spot microdose for a work day, and it doesn’t interfere at all.
• 150-200mg – 2 coffees. Fully perceptible, medium strength. I’m energized and ready to roll. Maybe a little more chatty and bubbly.
• 200-300mg – 2-3 coffees. Fully perceptible, strongish microdose. I enjoy this range, but it really depends on what I’m doing. Boring spreadsheet work would be too hard to stay focused on. Playing or listening to music, building something, cooking, hanging with friends on the beach, or watching a movie would all be good activities.
• 300mg and over – Full perception. Moving from coffee to alcohol. (See part two of this series).

Now the thing to remember is that your own equivalent ranges will likely be a bit different. The key to ‘no unpleasant surprises’ is to start right at the bottom with 25-50mg, and gradually work your way through the spectrum as far as you’re comfortable with. The beauty of all this is there is no right or wrong amount, as long as it’s working for you.

Step 2: Find your ideal microdose frequency.

This means how often you like to take a microdose. And like with the perception level, there is no right or wrong answer. Just what works for you. With one one caveat: because your tolerance will increase the more often you microdose, avoid overdoing the frequency, or the benefits may reduce. Standard guidance says let your body “reset” back to baseline on a regular basis. That means 2-3 days of no microdosing for most people. There are several protocols out there that are designed to help with this. They are:

• Stamets protocol
• Fadiman protocol

You’re trying to find the optimal number of days per week to microdose that works best for you. That might be 5 on 2 off, or every other day, or every third day.

Bluemasi includes a handy microdose journal with every order, giving you a place to record dates, amounts, and what you felt.

So the final thing before you begin is, how do you accurately dose out a tiny amount of magic mushroom like 50 mg? With a very accurate scale that goes easily into the triple decimals (eg. 0.000 mg). I’ve bought more scales than I care to remember, and most of them were junk and not accurate enough for my purposes. But I’ve got one now that I’m happy with.

All of bluemasi’s products are dosed precisely to the thousandths of a gram. We measure everything individually, right down to the teabag. So when you buy a package of our teas with 200mg per bag for example, you can rest assured that’s exactly what you’ll get. It’s a lot of work, but it’s what our customers like and we think it’s well worth the effort.

That’s it for this first microdosing overview, stay tuned for Part 2 of this blog which will cover social dosing.

Your friends along the way,

Bluemasi