5 ms·

This is my experience too. I’ve been microdosing about 1.3mg on and off during lockdown. The effects are subtle and hard to describe but I’d say it’s like ‘open

This is my experience too. I’ve been microdosing about 1.3mg on and off during lockdown. The effects are subtle and hard to describe but I’d say it’s like ‘opening your mind’ or reframing your point of view on things. Definitely different from other drugs which just pump you with serotonin

anonporridge 6y ago
It temporarily breaks you out of your established mental framework. It's as if your raw consciousness viewing the world without any of the filters that we all use to tune out the noise. That's why the experience can be overwhelming and chaotic and it's useful to be in a safe place with a trip sitter. I think the magic comes when you discover that something your default mindset was filtering out as noise is actually signal. With that insight, you can more easily make changes to your sober mindset.
- agent008t 6y ago
  That is interesting. So it is a bit like reducing your attention, and expanding awareness? What you described sounds very similar to the effects of mindfulness meditation. The idea in a sense is to increase awareness - that is, sensing the world as is, without the filters or influence of mental objects. The theory is that meditation can then help you free yourself of past negative conditioning that is no longer relevant and to be more present. It would be interesting to see more studies on both, but I understand that many things to do with the mind and subjective experiences are difficult to measure and therefore to study.
  - vmception 6y ago
    there is a suspected overlap that both communities talk about check it out
  - jack_riminton 6y ago
    Yes there are definitely parallels At a cellular level, it temporarily vastly increases the connections between the synapses. A lot of what your brain does is travel along well worn synaptic pathways, like running on autopilot. This is when you feel like you're in a rut, it's because your brain for efficiency reasons is just doing what it always does. The temporary frenzy of increased synaptic connections allows people to break out of those ruts
  - anonporridge 6y ago
    Definitely. Sam Harris' book Waking Up is what turned me on to psychedelics as a mind expanding tool rather than just a party drug, which I had little interest in. In it, he talks about how his early experiences with psychedelics turned him on to the fact there was something real worth pursuing in meditation and mindfulness beyond the superstitious bullshit. Most of the book is about using meditation as a tool for spirituality without religious baggage or supernatural explanations. The way he and others talk about it, is that psychedelics effectively force any mind into an objectively different state of consciousness. Even though it doesn't last long and the memory of it fades, just the awareness that radical mind shifts are possible is enough to help people take mindfulness practice seriously.
- Leparamour 6y ago
  >I think the magic comes when you discover that something your default mindset was filtering out as noise is actually signal. With that insight, you can more easily make changes to your sober mindset. Regarding microdosing (as described by the OP) this begs the question: Are there perhaps unwanted side effects for running your brain on permanent "debug mode"?
  - anonporridge 6y ago
    Hard to say. This is the first study I've seen that's tried to learn about microdosing. There's not a lot of good data on it, but it wouldn't be hard for me to believe that there are some side effects.
why_Mr_Anderson 6y ago
I'm honestly surprised that you are able feel any effect from such a dose. Based on what i've heard from my friend's uncle's guardener's grandmother's neighbour, this could very much be just simple placebo effect. You know you are taking mushrooms, which have no effect, but you 'feel' better.
- jack_riminton 6y ago
  No it's very much not a placebo, your mind feels very very different. Colours seem brighter, occasional giggling, a lot more creative thought
TurkishPoptart 6y ago
How do you measure this amount? If mushrooms vary in shape and size...do you have to ground them up and take gelcaps to measure this appropriately?
- jack_riminton 6y ago
  Yes you grind them up and then use a 0.1 mg accuracy scale

anonporridge 6y ago

It temporarily breaks you out of your established mental framework. It's as if your raw consciousness viewing the world without any of the filters that we all use to tune out the noise. That's why the experience can be overwhelming and chaotic and it's useful to be in a safe place with a trip sitter. I think the magic comes when you discover that something your default mindset was filtering out as noise is actually signal. With that insight, you can more easily make changes to your sober mindset.

agent008t 6y ago
That is interesting. So it is a bit like reducing your attention, and expanding awareness? What you described sounds very similar to the effects of mindfulness meditation. The idea in a sense is to increase awareness - that is, sensing the world as is, without the filters or influence of mental objects. The theory is that meditation can then help you free yourself of past negative conditioning that is no longer relevant and to be more present. It would be interesting to see more studies on both, but I understand that many things to do with the mind and subjective experiences are difficult to measure and therefore to study.
- vmception 6y ago
  there is a suspected overlap that both communities talk about check it out
- jack_riminton 6y ago
  Yes there are definitely parallels At a cellular level, it temporarily vastly increases the connections between the synapses. A lot of what your brain does is travel along well worn synaptic pathways, like running on autopilot. This is when you feel like you're in a rut, it's because your brain for efficiency reasons is just doing what it always does. The temporary frenzy of increased synaptic connections allows people to break out of those ruts
- anonporridge 6y ago
  Definitely. Sam Harris' book Waking Up is what turned me on to psychedelics as a mind expanding tool rather than just a party drug, which I had little interest in. In it, he talks about how his early experiences with psychedelics turned him on to the fact there was something real worth pursuing in meditation and mindfulness beyond the superstitious bullshit. Most of the book is about using meditation as a tool for spirituality without religious baggage or supernatural explanations. The way he and others talk about it, is that psychedelics effectively force any mind into an objectively different state of consciousness. Even though it doesn't last long and the memory of it fades, just the awareness that radical mind shifts are possible is enough to help people take mindfulness practice seriously.
Leparamour 6y ago
>I think the magic comes when you discover that something your default mindset was filtering out as noise is actually signal. With that insight, you can more easily make changes to your sober mindset. Regarding microdosing (as described by the OP) this begs the question: Are there perhaps unwanted side effects for running your brain on permanent "debug mode"?
- anonporridge 6y ago
  Hard to say. This is the first study I've seen that's tried to learn about microdosing. There's not a lot of good data on it, but it wouldn't be hard for me to believe that there are some side effects.

why_Mr_Anderson 6y ago

I'm honestly surprised that you are able feel any effect from such a dose. Based on what i've heard from my friend's uncle's guardener's grandmother's neighbour, this could very much be just simple placebo effect. You know you are taking mushrooms, which have no effect, but you 'feel' better.

jack_riminton 6y ago
No it's very much not a placebo, your mind feels very very different. Colours seem brighter, occasional giggling, a lot more creative thought

TurkishPoptart 6y ago

How do you measure this amount? If mushrooms vary in shape and size...do you have to ground them up and take gelcaps to measure this appropriately?

jack_riminton 6y ago
Yes you grind them up and then use a 0.1 mg accuracy scale