DOSE:

0.25 - 0.40 g

oral

Mushrooms - P. cubensis

(dried)

BODY WEIGHT:

75 kg

My 2022 Psychedelic Review - Installment #5.

This is the fifth installment in my 2022 Psychedelic Review:

I decided to give microdosing a try. My Psychedelic Sabbatical has been fueled by a hearty-sized collection of appropriate materials, both natural and synthetic… But we’re getting down to the bottom of the bag, so to speak. Fortunately for me, my bag has something like 21g of mushrooms at the bottom of it.

[15 September, 2022, and onwards…] Microdosing P. Cubes – I started out with 0.4g of caps, went for a very strong 2-hour Thai massage and was getting beautiful colors with eyes closed, with great, bright splashes of red, blue, yellow, purple, pink, and green when she would really jam into my muscles, releasing tension, etc. It was a very pleasant experience – however, while sipping tea after the session, watching the wallpaper dance and jive ever so slightly, the obvious thought “This is clearly not really a microdose” came to mind, and I smiled. Outside the air felt nice, my vision was enhanced a bit and I had energy. All in all it was a very comfortable evening…

After two days off, I took another one, 0.25g this time. Again, very slight but definitely noticeable effects. Two more days off, then 0.21g… I guess a true microdose, a “subperceptual dose” is going to be even less than that… I sort-of interrupted the regimen for the 2C-B Museum Dose / Acid Tolerance experiment [see installment #4 of this series], and I began to take microdoses of mushrooms again three days later, this time with 0.22g – a small stem, so maybe 60% of the psilocybin content in caps (?).

What are the objectives of this? Well, “they say” that microdosing makes you feel better, simply put. No, I’m not going to “learn to code” – fuck Silicon Valley up their asses, ha-ha. But I just want to see what happens. I already honestly feel a lot calmer and more balanced since I started this year’s psychedelic drug intake. I’m more patient, ruminate less on irritating or sad thoughts, etc. My day-to-day way of thinking is more cool, more relaxed, etc. I started to notice this early on, after the first couple 2CB & shroom sessions of this series, which I guess were 4 or 5 months ago now [I didn’t write dates on the earlier experiment notes – kicking myself now for this glaring omission].

I’ve had a few of the BIG, borderline-mystical experiences with psychedelics, but that was a long time ago, when I was in my early 20’s. The “oneness of everything” feeling hit me like a ton of bricks, while I was taking a stroll in the park by the Lehigh River, in Pennsylvania, back in 2006. Trying to remember the dosage – it was probably roughly 1/16th of an ounce (1.75g) [I *think* my friend and I bought a half and cut it up into 8 pieces, for three trips together and one each separately]. That was when I learned to “let go” and go with the flow of these types of experiences. It was an invaluable lesson, and I’ve never forgotten it. I’m not sure if I’d really classify it as a ++++, but it was definitely an impossible-to-describe-in-words feeling, where I consciously thought about all that “we are all one” shit, and at the same time didn’t think about it because I already knew that I already knew that I already knew it…

I’d tripped a handful of times before that, but that was the first real breakthrough experience, and it wasn’t a big dose at all, less than 2 grams if my recollection of the splitting up of the mushrooms is correct. I remember a HUGE, beautiful orange cap being in there, maybe those were especially potent compared to what I’m working with now? Maybe the novelty of the experience plays a part – when you’re first getting used to psychedelics, the effects hit you harder? Hoffman took LSD into his 90’s, so it obviously doesn’t “stop working” as you age, but it definitely works differently.

I don’t feel like I need to have a big ++++, and I definitely don’t need a lot of physical side-effects, so experimenting with microdosing seems like a good use of the remainder of my stash. Not to mention, it’ll make the materials last a lot longer… Here’s what I’m after:

Reduction of physical pain: This is a problem I’ve had since I was a teenager, due to scoliosis. I take opioid painkillers and I’m not even the least bit apologetic about it either! Ha. Tramadol & Kratom, with the occasional Codeine supplement, are totally sufficient for control of the chronic pain, but they do cause tolerance and dependence, duh. I don’t fuck with oxy or dope because I have no need to. Hard opioids are totally appropriate for people with much harder-core pain than I have – legalize it!!

Anyway, let’s see if the microdosing has any effect on my day-to-day pain levels, and maybe it’ll decrease my daily dose of pain pills. I don’t take a shitload, but still when you’re on prescription drugs for a long time, you’re always thinking ahead – taking 3 pills per day makes you run out significantly faster than 2 per day, 5 pills per day makes them run out much faster than you think! So, if you can get by with 2, or 1, great! The pills are cheap and easy to get here [without a prescription in Thailand], and I don’t have any negative feelings about my use of them, but it’s always better to take less pills and get the same effect [those last five words are key].

Depression / Mood: I’ve been feeling really chill lately. However, I do know, from extensive past experience, what it’s like to be incredibly fucking depressed. But the depression was bad only during times when life was really difficult and unpleasant. These days things are better so I feel better – rocket science, I know! The American doctors (and many of the Thai doctors too, but to a far lesser extent) wanna talk about everybody’s “chemical imbalance” and put kids on SSRI’s, which I think we can all agree is not an appropriate first-aid protocol. Let’s see if I feel more smiley, or more sociable, or more engaged, or whatever. I’m glad I don’t have a serious depression to treat here – but I really wish I’d had access to and information about mushroom microdosing back when I used to be depressed. It would potentially have saved me a lot of time and helped me get on track a lot quicker… Legalize it.

Fertility / Sex Drive: Not sure if this is indicated in microdosing studies… Then again, it seems “they say” microdosing can “do just about anything”, and we hope to have a child in the next couple years or so. It makes sense to get things as healthy in the reproductive area as possible in preparation for this important task – if mushrooms don’t have any direct effect on sexual health, I’m sure that the generally more relaxed, focused and overall health benefits “they” claim microdosing offers can easily make one’s whole system work better, which includes strong sperm production, etc. A rising tide lifts all boats.

Focus: I read a lot, study a lot, and I’ve been building up a career as an English teacher in Europe and Asia for the past five years. The concept behind the Psychedelic Sabbatical is fairly simple: Take some time off from the hectic daily grind, and focus on some creative projects, self-education, writing, music, etc, etc. Housing and other expenses are reasonable here in Thailand, so it isn’t too nerve-wracking to take time off from a full-time job like this. The idea of a sabbatical is to improve oneself with personal time, hence the term “re-creation”.

I’d like to get a little bit more retention and concentration while studying, reading & writing. Let’s see if this has any effect on that? I’m kinda lacking motivation in some ways lately too, not in a bad way, just kinda lazy. Maybe this’ll help with that? The slight, kinda unusual stimulant feeling from psilocybin is welcome when a very small dose is taken in the late afternoon. Keeps me from falling asleep too early in the evening, I think.

Sleep Quality: This is a big issue for me. I get tired early, can barely keep my eyes open a couple hours after dinner. Sun always sets at the same time here, roughly 6-7pm, relatively close to the equator, so my circadian rhythms are totally set to that. But for a long time, I was also waking up early, exercising at 5am after a perfectly fine eight-hour sleep, etc. These days I don’t have much energy early in the morning, and I frequently end up sleeping a lot longer. I still get out plenty and get lots of sun and exercise, so I feel okay, I just need better quality of sleep.

Most people with insomnia have a hard time falling asleep at night. I have a different type where I fall asleep easily, but wake up several times in the night, and it’s really annoying. I also switched my tramadol time from morning to late night – if I wake up at say 2am, feeling uncomfortable, I’ll take the pills then go back to sleep and I’m still feeling them when I wake up again later… This helps a lot with sleeping, but probably contributes significantly to morning lethargy. In the past I’ve done stuff like put caffeine pills right next to the alarm, etc. But it’s really difficult to remember to set that stuff up at night, and sometimes even more difficult to convince myself to take caffeine and force myself to wake up after 8 hours of sleep, when sleeping for a few more hours seems so much more appealing at the time. No matter how much I think about it during the day, my train of thought is always totally different in the middle of the night.

Weed brownies help a lot – My wife makes them out of Thai Stick [the real-deal, 100% sativa, outdoor grown marijuana from the hills of Thailand. It is really cheap – I bought a kilogram brick (2.2 pounds) for less than $250. I have plants in my garden which are almost seven feet tall – the seeds came directly out of the kilo brick. They sell weed everywhere here, now that it’s legal. This isn’t dirty brick weed, it’s much, much nicer – Cheech & Chong, old-school shit]. I smoke joints like they’re cigarettes, and it definitely helps me fall asleep, but the smoked weed doesn’t last long enough to keep me asleep all night. The brownies last a lot longer and give more of a “messed-up body-high”, which is great when you want to lay down for eight hours! Let’s see if we can get a consistent good night’s sleep, say two weeks in a row – I can’t remember the last time I was able to do so. If it works, the microdosed shrooms surely will play at least some substantial part in the cocktail of natural sleep-improving meds.

Melatonin doesn’t do shit

My ex-girlfriend’s baby-daddy was a truly horrible human being and he’s the first person I ever heard utter the word “microdose”, about 10 years ago. It obviously didn’t work for him, he’s a fucking piece of shit, ha-ha. The pop-culture view right now seems to be that these medicines, and especially microdosing, can make you into fucking superman. Faster than a speeding bullet, stronger than locomotive, smarter than Mark Zuckerberg’s lawyers… I don’t expect anything that magical, but then again, I don’t really know what to expect, so that’s why I’m gonna find out.

I think it’s safe to say that “I prefer to feel it a little bit”, and that massage treatment was really nice on a little under half a gram, so here’s what I think my ideal protocol would be:

On Sunday & Wednesday take a 0.1g-0.2g dose, and go about my day, then on Friday take a 0.4g-0.8g dose and go for the two-hour Thai massage. All doses taken mid-late afternoon, at least two hours after lunch. This should be the most pleasant way to do it… And I guess you’re supposed to try it for 4-8 weeks, then take a couple weeks off. I have enough P. Cubes to stretch them out for quite a long time, at those dosages. The only synthetic I have remaining is the ACO, so I’ll save that for later next month. And I don’t think I’ll order anything new for a while…

Aftereffects…
Two weeks into the microdosing experiment and I’m feeling okay. I plan to write a bit more about this interesting and timely subject in a few more weeks’ time, so that I can get a real feel for what, if any positive effects from neurogenesis I can physically and mentally detect in myself. If nothing happens at all, it’s not a big waste of material – Mushrooms are very easy to grow, I’ve grown them myself in the past, and people sell them pretty openly in Thailand. At the time of this writing, Khon Kaen University is running a series of legit psilocybin tests, and there’s a good chance the government might drop psilocybin, psilocin, and other related compounds from the narcotics list, as they have done with kratom and marijuana. There are indigenous strains of psychedelic mushrooms that grow – literally in cow shit – in Thailand. These mushrooms, along with a rich variety of other plant medicines, are listed as Traditional Thai Medicine, by the Ministry of Health. Mescaline is also not illegal in Thailand, and Peyote cacti are very easy to buy and grow (albeit slowly). People collect them because they’re so beautiful. Most Thai cactus enthusiasts actually either don’t know what mescaline is or don’t have any interest in actually eating a cactus for any reason…

…Growing one’s own shamanic garden, and collecting a wide variety of chemical teachers is not too dissimilar from buying a wine fridge and keeping great bottles to age for years and years – which is another thing I plan to start doing pretty soon! When I was in my early 20’s, I remember really enjoying the recent vintages of red wines from South Africa – particularly 2005. I told myself I should keep the bottles to age them, but of course I ended up drinking them all really quickly. Today, those bottles are worth hundreds of dollars in some cases, and they can be tough to find! Call it maturity, or the mellowing of age – in the 30’s and 40’s guys are supposed to have at least learned some degree of patience! Ha! In the United States, where the legal drinking age is 21 years, there is a tradition among some cool fathers of buying a bottle (or a case) of wine from the year of the child’s birth and then cracking them open on his or her 21st birthday – the perfect introduction to a high-quality drinking experience. Me, I was getting fucking sloshed under the bridge, or in the tree-line, or in an empty house either abandoned or under construction. I got blowjobs in the bushes, open fields, and the back seats of compact cars. It’s no surprise that I was also abusing any psychedelics I could get my hands on at that time, in that country – there was just no concept of moderation, nobody interested in teaching us teenagers about having higher quality experiences.

It’s a real shame – but hopefully with the recent resurgence in interest among the general public about psychedelics, the situation will reverse and these amazing molecules will slowly but surely become easily, cheaply, and above all safely produced and marketed. Growing Peyote, like the Native Americans, and having the patience to hold out until they’re really ready to go, or even something much shorter-term, like sticking to a microdosing scheme, is a symbol of a much better attitude towards drugs in general. I wish I’d learned to appreciate this sort of thing much earlier in life, but hey better late than never…

Exp Year: 2022	ExpID: 116721
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 38
Published: Oct 23, 2022	Views: 1,498
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Mushrooms - P. cubensis (66) : Various (28), Retrospective / Summary (11)