Your First
Magic Mushroom Trip
A Step-by-Step
Traveler’s Guid
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By David Hobby
This rst-timer’s guide is based on rst-hand experiences
and the observed experiences of the people I have
introduced to mushrooms. It’s designed to give you a
roadmap, answer questions you may have, and ensure that
you have the best possible initial experience with psilocybin.
Pictured on cover: dried psilocybe cubensis mushrooms, Golden Teacher varian
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What You Will Need
• A comfortable setting where you can rest undisturbed for
4-6 hour
• Dehydrated psilocybe cubensis mushrooms (pre-ground in
capsules, or dried whole mushrooms
• A scale that will accurately measure tenths of a gra
• Lemon juice to cover — maybe a 1/4 cup. It doesn’t need
to be freshly squeezed
• Fruit juice (or something similarly light) to get the initial
taste out of your mout
• Comfy clothes — sweats, cotton pajamas something
similar. Your sensory perceptions will be heightened
• Blanket and pillows (comfy, familiar
• Headphones, freshly charged if cordless, as you’ll be using
them for several hours.
• Smartphone, charged, and/or with an external battery pack
if your phone battery is old
• Eye shades of you have them, a hand towel if not, to block
out room light
• Light snacks (I like fruit, cheese, crackers, etc.) This will be
your as-you-go dinner after you come up.
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• Plenty of uids. You’ll need to hydrate throughout the
process, as the mushrooms are a diuretic. Gatorade, or
some similar electrolyte-replacement drink, will work better
than water to minimize any next day dehydration
• Ideally, you’ll want the next day after your trip to be either
free or light-duty. First, you may yet be dehydrated, which for
some people can cause headaches. But it also is helpful to
have a day set aside to intellectually and emotionally absorb
your experience. (More on that in a minute.
Safety and Dosage
Psilocybin is non-addictive. If you try to take it too often, it
simply doesn’t work.
In terms of toxicity, psilocybin is safer than many widely used
substances. Alcohol, nicotine, cannabis, and even aspirin
can kill you in smaller multiples of a typical dose. Caffeine,
for example, takes only 100X the typical 95mg-dose of a cup
of coffee to kill you. Whereas a fatal dose of psilocybin would
be about 1000X that of what you’ll be taking
A low-end moderate dose of magic mushrooms is about
1.75-2.0g per 140 lbs of bodyweight. This assumes a
homogenized batch of ground-up, dried psilocybe cubensis
“Golden Teachers.” Dosage is related to bodyweight, but not
directly proportional. For those between 140 and 200 lbs,
2.0g is an appropriate rst-time dose. For those under 140
lbs, 1.5-2.0g. And for those over 200 lbs, 2.0-2.5g.
These dosages refer to the entire body of fully dehydrated
mushrooms. The amount of actual psilocybin and psilocin (a
metabolite of psilocybin) present in this variety and amount
of mushrooms will be about 18-24 milligrams
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Setting
It is important to have a safe and comfortable physical
setting that is also free from any potential outside
interruption.
There are two schools of thought for your rst mushroom
trip. It can be indoors, and concentrate on internal
exploration. Or it can be outdoors, with a focus on
connecting with the natural outside world.
My suggestion is choose the indoor/internal route for your
rst trip: safe, comfy, and with easy access to a bathroom for
convenient bio breaks. Because you’ll probably need to pee
several times over the course of your trip.
Being in nature is a nice experience to leave for a later trip,
should you decide to do so. Nature adds another layer,
where the focus is more on dissolving the separation
between you and the rest of the universe. Indoors vs
outdoors are two very different experiences. And where a
natural setting is often considered to be an additive factor for
a mushroom trip, it also means you would be dealing with
two variables at once on your rst trip
Ideally, an experienced “sitter” is recommended for your rst
experience. That person is there to make sure you always
feel completely safe, and to help guide you through your
experience
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While you certainly don’t want to overshoot your desired
dose, you also want to consume enough to ensure you get a
meaningful experience.
Don’t Do What I Did
My rst trip was in 2014. It was a very pleasant, if a bit
confusing, day. I was outdoors, had no sitter, and took too
low a dose.
I went with a friend, a fellow rst-timer. We had mushroominfused caramels, each of which in theory contained about
1.75g of ground, dried mushrooms
But in practice, psilocybin mushrooms start losing their
potency at an accelerated rate once they are ground up and
exposed to oxygen. This is because of the greatly increased
surface area to volume due to the grinding. So our dose,
containing mushrooms which had been ground weeks
before, was likely effectively somewhere around a 0.5g-1g
equivalent
We were outdoors, tripping (very mildly) together, and
without a sitter. We were basically sitting in the grass,
experiencing borderline effects and sensing incredible
possibilities that for the most part seemed just outside of our
grasp
It wasn’t a bad experience. It just wasn’t a signi cant
experience. It was like, “What was that? Was that what we
were supposed to feel? I de nitely felt… something?
We were stumbling around the edges of a real experience,
as novices, outdoors, in public, with no guide
And to be clear: it was still great! But in retrospect, we would
have gotten a much fuller and far more rewarding
experience had we gone indoors, with a sitter, and with a
more appropriate dose. It would have been safer, less
confusing, and there would have been no doubt as to the
signi cance of our experience
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At this point, after 15 trips’ worth of experience, my advice
for beginners is to have your initial trip indoors, with a sitter,
to not be too timid (or reckless) when choosing a dose, and
to be well-prepared before you go
Advance Prep
In the days prior to your rst trip, try to keep an open and
positive mindset toward your upcoming experience. Most
regular travelers nd that it is bene cial to be kind to your
body during this period. Eat clean; focus on healthy, whole
foods as opposed to highly processed/junk foods.
In general, you’re simply taking some time to consciously
practice self-care. You’ll nd this is a theme with mushrooms.
In fact, I have come to think of the mushrooms themselves
as a particularly powerful and effective form self-care
For that reason, there is no need to be anxious. You are
working your way towards what can be thought of as a spa
day for your soul. Consciously practicing a few days’ worth of
self-care will pay dividends on your trip
The day of your trip, assuming an afternoon/evening
departure, eat a good lunch. Try to nish by 1:00pm or so.
This will leave time for your stomach to digest the food,
which will help you later to get a quicker and more
predictable intake of psilocybin into your system.
Enjoy a relaxing and uncluttered afternoon. Take a long walk,
in nature if you can. Let your mind drift. Be open
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Preparing Your Mushrooms
At about 3:30-4:00pm, place your weight-measured amount
of ground, completely dried mushrooms into a glass. (If I am
sitting for you, I’ll be happy to do all of the prep as well.
If you are using whole dried mushrooms, grind them nely in
a coffee or spice grinder. If you don’t have a grinder, use a
mortar and pestle. I use the coffee grinder container (or the
bowl of the mortar and pestle) as my glass, so as not to
waste any of the ground mushrooms.
If you are using pre-ground, pre-measured capsules, open
the capsules and empty the contents into your glass.
Because we’re going to “pre-treat” the ground mushrooms
with lemon juice, as you’ll see in a moment. Use a toothpick
or similar object to ensure the capsule halves are completely
empty
Cover your ground mushrooms with lemon juice, using about
1/4 cup, stirring the (frankly, gross) slurry occasionally. The
acidic quality of the lemon juice (pH= ~2.0) mirrors the
acidity of your stomach.
Notice the rather unpleasant smell. This stuff is not going to
taste good. But there’s a helpful trick to it, as you’ll see in a
moment
Over the next 25 mins, this soaking-and-occasional-stirring
process will “pre-digest” the mushrooms, which have cell
walls that are made of chitin. Our stomachs very much prefer
cellulose cell walls, and don’t do very well digesting raw
chitin. And it is the chitin, not psilocybin, that is the culprit
behind the nausea some people feel after ingesting
mushrooms. The lemon juice really helps. It will minimize, if
not eliminate, any feelings of nausea on the come-up.
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I’ve never felt any nausea when using this method. Some
people feel a twinge, but nothing really signi cant.
Ingesting the Mushrooms
After the dried mushroom powder has soaked in the lemon
juice for 25-30 mins, the slurry is ready. You’re going to down
the juice and mushroom pulp together in one quick chug.
The powdered mushrooms taste like compost. And to that,
the lemon juice adds a shot of sour acidity. It does not taste
good
Tip: suck on an ice cube for a minute or so beforehand. Then
hold your nose (or just don’t breathe through it) as you chug
the mixture down. The ice will dull your taste buds, and not
breathing through your nose will eliminate the smell-based
component of your sense of taste. As a result, you’ll taste
almost nothing
Right after you chug it, pour some light/tasty liquid (maybe
get started on that Gatorade) into the same cup to capture
any tiny remaining bits of mushroom as well to get the earthy
mushroom taste out of your mouth
At this point, you’ll probably experience a momentary feeling
of “OMG, WTF DID I JUST DO?”
No worries. You’re safe. This level of dosage is not going to
blast you off to the moon. As you’ll soon see, you’ll still be
driving the bus. It’s just that you’ll have one hell of an
interesting copilot
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And We’re Off
You’ll have about 15 minutes or so before you’ll feel any
noticeable rst effects at all. Put your phone on Do Not
Disturb. And choose the DND setting that does not notify you
even when you are listening to music. If your music is all
downloaded onto your phone, you can simply choose
Airplane mode. But if you are streaming anything, that won’t
be an option
Take a moment to double check that you are free from any
potential disturbances or distractions. When I am home
alone, I even put a note on the front door that says please do
not knock or ring the doorbell
Take a few minutes to gather your snacks, drinks, phone,
headphones, pillow, etc. and get settled into the couch or
bed, which will be your nest for the evening. Everything you
can do to make yourself more comfortable – temperature,
pajamas, favorite blanket, pillows, whatever — will be all the
more appreciated later
You should begin to feel the rst effects after 15-20 mins. It’ll
feel a little tingly; a body high, sort of like a quick hit of
caffeine.
That’s your signal to settle into the couch. Your trip is
beginning
From this point, you’ll have about an hour for your gentle
“come-up” process. You’ll want to be lying down on the
couch or bed, eyes closed, with something shading your
eyes if there is light in the room.
The gentle gradient of transitioning from a normal
consciousness to an expanded consciousness is fragile, and
delicate. And it requires your cooperation. Just rest quietly
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and drift. Don’t look around, don’t check in with how you’re
feeling, don’t even think about anything.
To help to avoid distractions, I suggest some gentle music
that is not dominated by vocals to facilitate a good come-up.
Nature sounds are good. Even better, I think, are the
“psychedelic waves” genre of music. In the past, my go-to
come-up music has been a 57-minute track on YouTube that
is entitled: “Calming 8D Music with Psychedelic Visuals ||
Watch on LSD.
Don’t worry about the video component (or the LSD
reference). We’re just in it for the sounds
If you listen to it now, ie., while not under the in uence, it will
sound very saccharin and schmaltzy. But when experienced
along with the mushrooms, it will help to guide you to the
place you will want to be
(Note: I have since found a very effective, designed-formushrooms 5-hour soundscape that we’ll talk about in detail
in the music second, in a moment.
Now, just relax, quiet your mind and meditate into the
soundtrack.
You: “But I don’t really know how to meditate.
🍄 : “WE GOT YOU, BRO
Once the come-up process has begun, it’s like any barriers
to your effectively meditating just seem to vanish. This
afternoon, you are an expert-level meditator. It’s pretty cool.
And again, to help ease any worries: psilocybin, especially at
low-to-moderate dosages, requires your permission and
consent to effectively do its magic. It’s not a full “mushroom
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takeover” of your mind. You are collaborating with the
mushrooms, and they are here to guide you. Which is to say,
your contribution absolutely matters. If both of those
thoughts sound crazy now, they won’t afterwards
To help make this happen, concentrate on not concentrating.
Focus on not being focused. The more you let go, the more
rewarding your experience will be. Be a leaf oating
downstream on a river of calming music
For instance, just 30 mins (i.e., half-way) into her come-up,
S[F,56] opened her eyes ad announced, “I know I’m not
supposed to disturb myself or whatever. But I know where all
of the art came from. Oh my gosh!
That’s great, [S]. Recognize the thought. Let it wash over
you. Then move on. Don’t express it. And don’t open your
eyes
Over the next hour, at your weight-adjusted moderate dose,
you will gently transition from your normal state of mind into
a state of expanded consciousness. You won’t notice it
happening until you arrive. In retrospect, the whole hour will
have seemed to just vanish
You won’t be out of your mind or out of control or anything
like that. Quite the opposite: you’ll be more into your mind.
The new feelings and sensations that will start to open up for
you will feel at once both gentle and profound.
You have no work to do today. No “hit list” of stuff you need
to think about or problems to address. No notes to take. Your
goal for today is simply to experience a gentle, initial peek
behind a magical curtain
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And Now You’re Here
What will it feel like? It’s dif cult to say. And I mean that
literally
There is a word, “ineffable,” that is used to describe
something that is dif cult if not impossible to put into words.
A mushroom experience is exactly that. We can try to
describe it, and we will. But you won’t be able to fully convey
it to someone who has never experienced it. To further
complicate things, the experience is a little bit different for
each person
If you meditate regularly, you might already have a preview
of what to expect. One person I sat for on his rst psilocybin
trip was at the time a 24/M/recent college grad. His mother,
over his reluctance, insisted he take a 10-day meditation
retreat after completing his degree.
Ten days. Complete silence. Simple food. Full-time
meditation. Not exactly beach week after graduation.
But he recalled the nal couple days of his meditation retreat
as having been a breakthrough experience. Then after his
mushroom trip, he said that his psilocybin experience was in
some ways similar to the last days of his meditation retreat.
Except that he went from zero to about day eight within an
hour of ingesting the mushrooms, and all while lying down
on the couch.
If that sounds like a jarring transition, it’s not. The gradient is
suf ciently gentle that you probably won’t even realize it is
happening until you arrive.
In addition to helping to protect your stomach, the lemon
juice “predigestion process” both speeds up and makes
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more uniform the absorption of the psilocybin into your
system, and thus aids in your transition.
You’ll be fully “up” about an hour after you feel your rst
tingles, or 75-90 mins after you drink the lemon mush. At this
time, your sitter should prompt you to sit up, get your
physical bearings and take notice of your new internal and
external environments.
On a rst trip with a low-end moderate dosage, you’ll likely
experience some minor visual hallucinations. These may
include more saturated colors, wavy lines, “breathing” walls
— stuff like that. Your hand might now be the most
interesting thing you’ve ever seen. These effects may or may
not happen. If you do experience them, they won’t be scary.
More like, wondrous
But remember, the visuals aren’t the main course. They are
the appetizer. That’s your brain con rming that, “Yeah, you
are in a different place right now.
Take a moment to observe nature, if any is visible through
window. It may feel as if nature is visibly communicating with
you. This is because the internal barrier that separates you
from the rest of the universe will have been gently, partially
dissolved.
This can sound a little scary, until you realize that the
observation, from your point of view will, be a heightened
sense of oneness with the rest of the universe. And that is
not scary at all. It is supremely comforting and reassuring
That tree, those leaves, that ant, even that little stone: they
are you. And you are them. And this new permeability/
oneness between you and everything in the universe also
translates to you internally. You should be starting to sense
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that the barrier between your conscious and subconscious
mind is becoming more porous.
Your consciousness is now expanded, and able to freely
access some previously inaccessible areas of your mind.
You’ll experience it as a broadening of your perspective. For
the rst time, you will now start to understand what people
mean when they describe psychedelics as being mindexpanding. (The word psychedelic literally means “mind
manifesting.”
You may not get any visuals at all. I have had them in
spades at a dose of 2.3g, and then not had them at all at
4.2g. It’s hit or miss. And after several years, I have gradually
trained myself not to have them.
That may sound a little strange. First, visuals aren’t the
important thing for me. And second, I am steadily gaining
more control over the way my mind operates, both while
tripping and in my normal day-to-day life. And this is not an
atypical progression for people who work with mushrooms
over an extended period of time.
If you do experience visuals, take a few minutes to enjoy
them. But don’t get sidetracked by this eye candy, for lack of
a better term. Visuals are a pleasant side effect, but the
more rewarding journey is on the inside. And the visuals can
distract you from the insight and growth that awaits when
you instead close your eyes and explore inward
Exploring Your Expanded Mind
For the next three to four hours, you’ll be experiencing the
effects of your moderate dose. Get as physically comfortable
as you can be, settle in, and enjoy your temporarily
expanded mind.
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This is where the ineffable part comes in. It is dif cult to
convey how this feels.
The best analogy I have found is to think of your mind as
having concentric layers. You have a conscious mind and an
unconscious mind. You mostly only experience your
conscious mind, because there is a barrier between the two
sections. It is mostly intact, but sometimes it’s a little bit
permeable. Like when you are lucid dreaming, for instance.
Mushrooms increase the permeability in the barrier between
your conscious and unconscious mind. They literally create
new neural pathways in your brain, and a portion of those
new pathways will persist long after your trip is over.
For a few hours you’ll get to inhabit a larger portion of your
mind than normal. You won’t be very good at it yet, because
you’re a beginner and this is an acquired skill. The goal
today will be to just explore that new space a little bit
I have begun to think of this boundary layer as sort of like,
but not exactly, my ego. It is the soft boundary that “protects”
(air quotes) me, or helps me to automatically categorize
information, etc. This boundary also lters out the external
stimulations I might be receiving, but do not need to be
concentrating on. It facilitates the internal “prediction
machine” that regulates the way in which I interact with my
environment.
But this ego/barrier also is a rigid and controlling boss. Its
main job, really, is to protect itself; to maintain its own turf.
And your mushroom experience is one of letting your
conscious mind quietly sneak out of the dorm for a night
To be clear, you could eat 7g of dried mushrooms and blast
right through your ego/wall. Total dissolution of your ego,
with no control over the process. AKA ego-death. Maybe not
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the best idea on the rst go-round. Even after eight years, a
full ego death experience is something I am still reserving for
later. There is way too much exploration and personal growth
to be had rst in the moderate dosages.
This is all going to be a new sensation. Just oat. Go with it
as best you can
There is no reason to be anxious or frightened. Take short
breaks periodically. Get up to go pee or perhaps grab some
snacks. And keep hydrating. The mushrooms are a diuretic
It’s important to con rm that you can temporarily take
yourself out of the experience. This is the beauty of a
moderate dose. Then afterwards, you can just as easily
simply drop back into your expanded state of mind. Even as
a rst-timer, you’ll immediately get it.
Almost every person for whom I’ve been a sitter for their rst
experience will have some version of this: They’ll “wake up”
for a moment, check in, report on how they’re feeling, pass
along something new that they’ve just learned, and then say,
“Okay, I’m going back in.”
It’s like a dreamscape that you can control. And the ability to
temporarily step out and then drop back in again will af rm to
you that you that you are the one who is driving.
Even though you can “step out” of the experience, you’ll
de nitely want to quickly fall back into your relaxed/
enhanced state after your pee/snack/drink breaks. 3-4 hours
is not a lot of time to be in such a wonderful place.
Taking short breaks and coming back up to touch base with
reality will keep you well grounded during your trip, and help
to train your mind to partially access this state later. You get
up, pee, grab a drink of water, and consciously settle back
into the same dream.
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Or, just “change the channel,” which you can also do. You
can do this by switching up the music
Music as a Road Ma
Music is going to be a very useful tool while in your
expanded state. As you let go, you’ll travel inward in cycles,
or waves. You de nitely want to be in headphones with
music while you’re traveling.
You want a loose framework that feels warm and safe, In
general, instrumental music tends to work better than music
with lyrics. It helps to create a framework that will guide you,
but does not constrain your thoughts to the subject matter of
the lyrics
Have a selection of options queued up. Try different songs.
After you are fully up, you’ll likely nd a song you emotionally
connect with, and/or imprint on. For example, on her rst trip,
“E” [22/F] connected to “The Shire,” from the Lord of the
Rings soundtrack.
On one trip in 2020, I imprinted on “All I Need,” by Air, from
the album Moon Safari. I listened to it maybe 30 times in a
row during a trip taken during the depths of the pandemic.
Each round-trip through the 4-minute song felt like an hour.
Or a moment. It was hard to tell.
And each time I went around again, I realized I was
shedding another layer of the existential Covid dread I had
been carrying around
By the time the afternoon was over, I felt as if I had lost all of
the Covid-related psychological baggage. For the last few
song cycles, I just was an unborn baby safely oating in
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amniotic uid. And I’m not saying that as an analogy. That’s
what I speci cally felt like.
The feeling of relief was profoundly liberating. And the fear
and dread I had been carrying around has not returned.
I have also periodically enjoyed the track, “Strung Out,”
which is a sort of thematic compendium at the end of
Jakatta’s Visions album. In an expanded state, it feels like a
trip through the entirety of the human experience in about 10
minutes. And each repeated go-round of the song can feel
like hours.
Simple classical music, such as Bach’s Suites for Cello are
also great. I listened at dusk one night, with the cellist being
accompanied by crickets and a nearby leopard frog.
If you were to pin me down for one recommendation for
beginners, I’d have to go with the album, “Music for
Mushrooms” by East Forest, AKA Trevor Oswalt.
It’s available to buy on iTunes, or to stream on Spotify at
https://open.spotify.com/album/2LFyfGcBrrsvF8tECUs5gK
If you are looking for a soundscape to help to guide you
through a pleasant — or even healing — experience, this is
a wonderful choice. I think it is especially great for rsttimers
The “album” is ve hours long, and designed to accompany
your entire trip. It includes thematic music for your come-up,
and then various journeys and themes for the entirety of your
trip
If you listen to the soundscape before your trip, you probably
won’t nd it very interesting. But in a state of expansion, your
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mind will latch on to these sounds as a vehicle to carry you
to some wonderful places
The compositions use long arcs to slowly build, and then
release, different laters of tension. The result is an extended,
ecstatic and even primal experience that can take you
thousands of miles away, and thousands of years into the
past
The chimes, forest sounds, migrating geese, wind
instruments, and soft vocals in an unfamiliar language
combine to tap into a core human experience
This sounds a little weird, maybe. But remember, the music
is speci cally designed to connect with you while you are in
an expanded state
Whether you choose the Music for Mushrooms soundscape
or not, understand that music will present itself to you as
being three-dimensional. And you will be inside that 3-D
structure. It’s hard to explain.
If listening to cello music, for instance, you might sense the
bow being physically being drawn across your skin. It’s pretty
amazing. You will merge with the music. It will be part of you,
and you of it.
One of the above songs might work for you, or you may nd
something different. But when something really clicks for you
(trust me, you’ll know) maybe put it on repeat for a bit.
Because it’s gonna be your new spirit animal for awhile.
Long after the pharmacological effects have worn off,
listening to your song will bring you partially back to this
expanded state of mind
I have listened to the Music for Mushrooms soundscape
while my mind was expanded. As a result, I can now use the
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26-minute track, “Passage,” from the album to reliably
induce a state of effortless concentration and creativity, more
commonly known as a ow state
If I need to write, or to retreat inward to critically think about
something, that musical track will bring me right to where I
need to be. It centers me, both mentally and emotionally,
while helping me to block out potential distractions
Writer’s block? Not a problem. My problem in that state is
that I generally cannot type fast enough
That musical “circle-back” process helps to unlock one of the
really cool things you’ll still be able to sense long after your
trip is over. You have experienced a few hours with an
expanded mind. But afterwards, you settle back into a
baseline mental state with a consciousness that remains
slightly more expanded. Because a psilocybin experience
creates new and persistent neural pathways in your brain
Okay, cool. Sounds like I should show up for my trip with
notebook in hand, ready for the epiphanies to drop?
It’s easy to understand the motivation for wanting to do
transcribe an experience. But I suggest not taking extensive
notes during the actual experience. Maybe just a few key
words or ideas if something really important hits you. But
there will be plenty of time later to re ect and integrate what
you learned about yourself while expanded. You’ll remember
a lot of it. But taking time to make detailed notes while your
trip is ongoing can easily take you out of your expanded
state of mind.
That’s your ego/conscious mind grabbing the wheel (aha! I’m
back in control of us!”)
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You don’t want that. In fact, your goal is the opposite: you
want to gently nurture and coax that delicately enhanced
state of mind as you explore the new space. Then unpack/
discuss it with your sitter, or partner, or a trusted friend, after
you return
Mind the Potholes
In the event you experience negative emotions, the standard
advice is to not ght them. Just acknowledge them and let
them wash over you.
Your brain might be showing you something that was
previously tucked away in your subconscious that it would
like you to notice. (“Oh, hey! I haven’t seen you in this part of
your mind before. Welcome. While I have you here, let me
show you some stuff…”)
Don’t ght it. Just let it wash over you and accept it, then
move on. The “ ghting it” part (generally in combination with
higher doses than you are taking) is where people can
sometimes create bad experiences.
But at this dosage, you’ll be in the driver’s seat. So let just let
any negative emotions wash over you. And to be clear, this
is a just-in-case kind of thing. Be accepting of what your
mind is revealing to you. View each new revelation or feeling
as a gift from you, to you
Also, know that you might get surprised if you look in a
mirror. Your re ected face may look strange because of
visual distortions. And then you run that through your internal
hyper-observant state of mind and it can set up a little
feedback loop that can bring you out of a good experience.
(Not that you’d freak out; more like it could just interrupt your
groove.)
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Some people prefer to cover any nearby mirrors with a towel
or sheet. That said, it’s not strictly necessary to avoid
mirrors. Just be aware of the possibility that you might get a
little surprise
A couple of speci c mirror examples: on a dose of 2.3g that
came with some lovely visuals, I saw looking back at me in
the mirror the very high de nition re ection of myself as a
roughly 90-yr-old man.
It wasn’t just realistic. It was real. In some ways, more real
than normal reality. It was fascinating, but also somewhat
distracting. I snapped a mental picture, and then let it go.
“E” [22/F], on 2.0g, saw her re ection in the mirror as half
her dad, and half her mom. Which was pretty freaking cool,
she noted.
But again, you may not experience any visuals at all
Regarding the above caveats, I don’t anticipate any
problems. But you should be well-informed of any potential
distractions. If I am sitting for you (in person, or via
FaceTime) I’ll be available the whole time. But I don’t think
you’ll need me. I’ll be the one quietly watching, jealous of
where you are
You Might Also Experience
On the other hand, here is something that is more likely to
happen. You might be prone to occasional ts of joyous
laughter. That’s because you may be experiencing for the
very rst time a persistent ecstatic state. Like a feeling deep
in the core of your inner being that everything is, and will be,
okay
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On subsequent trips, I have begun to associate this
experience with the distinct feeling of stepping outside of the
bounds of my familiar human consciousness. If that sounds
scary, I promise you that it is not. It is the exact opposite of
scary.
The best way I can describe it is the “where do our souls go”
sequences in the Pixar movie, Soul. I would be willing to bet
a large amount of money that some of the folks involved in
creating that movie have had signi cant mushroom
experiences
Further, any time I see someone displaying a jaw-dropping
level of imaginative creativity, whether contemporary or
historic, I am now immediately at least a little bit suspicious
as to where that creativity may have come from. It’s almost
too on-the-nose
Oh, and one more thing: I’m just going to drop a term for you
to put a pin in to circle back to later to see if it resonates:
orgasmic yawn. That’s all I’m gonna say
The Come-Down
Assuming a 4:30pm start, at about 8:00-8:30pm or so, you’ll
be experiencing the gentle downslope back to normal.
Maybe a little earlier, maybe later.
You might feel a little bummed that your hourglass timer is
running out. That’s okay. Keep dipping back in if you like.
Each time around, the pool will get a little shallower. But it’s
still pretty nice through the downslope
As you realize your trip is ending, you might be left with a
sense of euphoria and wonder at where you have just been.
I’m happy to chat if you want. Or not
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It’s a bit like being sore in your muscles a day after lifting
weights after a long absence. You know what you just did
was good for you. But holy crap, you can feel that you got a
workout.
Kinda like that, but for your emotions instead of your
muscles.
Afterwards
Psilocybin (more accurately, psilocin, its metabolite) has a
half-life in our body of 2-3 hours. Chemically speaking, it
goes away quickly. Which is what makes the lasting effects
all the more remarkable
Some predictions for the days and weeks following your rst
experience
1. You will long remember what it felt like to have an
expanded consciousness
2. Going forward, you will process information differently
3. If you imprinted on a song, hearing it again will help you
to partially revisit your expanded state of mind. This is a
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Make sure to continue to hydrate. Dehydration can wear you
out a little the next morning, or leave you with a headache.
Any physiological “hangover” you might associate with the
trip is probably just dehydration. So make sure to drink
during, and after
Speaking of the next day, you might feel emotionally tired. If
that doesn’t make sense yet, it will. Think being emotionally
drained after having a ght with your signi cant other. But
not emotionally drained in a negative way. Because the
direction of your emotional experience will likely have been
very positive. But the magnitude might be as big as that of a
ght.
useful tool for revisiting your trip, and to help you with
integration after the fact
You will experience more mental bandwidth. For
example, seeing connections between seemingly
disparate things
You’ll experience a reduced level of internal mental noise
Your belief system will have been expanded
You likely will sense a reduced fear of death
Some of your previously held “absolutes” will have been
replaced by questions
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Moving Forwar
Your rst trip is likely to be one of the most amazing and
profound experiences of your life. Many people put it at a
level of signi cance similar to the birth of your rst child.
Which makes sense if you view your rst trip as being
analogous as a new part of “you” being born
But your rst trip, while both special and unrepeatable, is not
necessarily indicative of future experiences you may have
with mushrooms
Because on your rst trip, you’ll be both amazed and
distracted by the novelty of having had your mind expanded
for the rst time
To be clear, the novelty part is wonderful, blissful and
ecstatic. But the novelty component also displaces the depth
of the experience itself. Your mind can only absorb so much
at one time. So the novelty part is likely going to get top
billing. But that changes.
In some ways, your second trip is your rst “real” trip.
Because you already will have experienced the novelty part.
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So you’ll be freed up to focus more on the expansion itself
rather than the novelty of the expansion
Your second trip will be quieter, and likely will result in a
much deeper internal experience. You’ll be focused less on
the eye candy and other external distractions, and more on
exploring your new internal environment.
If you’re lucky, your second trip also will bring hints of the
discoveries and revelations that await as you learn how to
better navigate and control your expanded state
Other Resource
I hope this booklet will be helpful as an introduction to the
world of psilocybin mushrooms. There are many other
resources available to help you to educate yourself as you
continue your exploration
In particular, two recommended entry level resources are
• Fantastic Fungi, a beautifully lmed documentary about the
Fungi kingdom, from which the Animal kingdom branched off
about 600,000,000 years ago. It explores the unseen world
of fungi and mushrooms, and includes a signi cant section
on psilocybin mushrooms and the ongoing research of their
healing properties.
• How to Change Your Mind, by Michael Pollan. This 2018
book chronicles the renaissance in research across a range
of psychedelics, including psilocybin. (This book has since
been released as a documentary miniseries of the same
name on Net ix.
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