I Was a Middle-Aged Psychonaut

One of the most memorable times I did hallucinogens in my teenage years resulted in being convinced for ages that the original Disney Lion King movie was merely an hour long. And I don’t know what it says about me that I opted to watch a Disney movie, tripping my face off, and then drove (!!) to a nearby Waffle House for coffee and eggs. I know it at least says “my god teenagers really do think they are immortal, don’t they?”

My experience with hallucinogens was strictly limited to LSD, never magic mushrooms. I have no idea how in a small Southern city surrounded by farmland I was never offered them, but there you go. I honestly have no idea how LSD was plentiful back then either. 

Truthfully, I’m a little scared of them. Stories about bad trips seem to be the norm when you think about trying them again, and so you shelve the idea. But now that the microdosing hallucinogens is a wellness trend, a productivity tool, maybe it’s the dose that determines your ultimate experience? Maybe it’s worth looking into?

The decision to try psilocybin microdosing this July was prompted by reading an extraordinary book by Ayelet Waldman, as well as a friend who was doing it and loved the results. If you were to ask me what I’m looking for out of this experiment, I’d say: “Clarity, maybe? More of a subliminal mood uplift?” I am not particularly interested in more “classic” effects of a magic mushroom trip at this stage, and the dose I’d be on isn’t close to giving me that anyway. 

I’ve long been a fan of the late Terence McKenna, one of the original psychonauts of the 60s and 70s, and while I won’t be joining him in his love of a “heroic dose” of hallucinogens, I am willing to see the possibilities from his point of view. So for the next 30 days, using the James Fadiman protocol, my 125 mg microdosing schedule will look like this:

• Day 1 – Microdose
• Day 2 – Transition Day
• Day 3- Regular Day
• Repeat

Cards on the table time. I did try a recreational dose of a magic mushroom chocolate bar when I was in Washington, DC, but as I already really stoned beforehand (edibles and flower), I can’t say for certain if I felt anything at all. 

I’ve been wrestling with cannabis consumption question for this 30 day experiment, and I don’t know where I’ll land with it. I take a tolerance break the first full week of every month, so we’ll go from there.

Because I am excited about doing this, I invite you to watch me check in daily on Instagram. Have you ever microdosed magic mushrooms or LSD? Do you have any advice? 

Drop a line in the comments!