Psilocybin mushrooms have been consumed by humans for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. But one of the common complaints modern people have about mushrooms is that they don’t taste good. Especially prior to 2019, they were commonly consumed as dried mushrooms. As a way to avoid tasting them, people would put them on pizza, eat them with peanut butter or in a PB&J sandwich, or drink them in a smoothie or tea. The idea was to consume them with another food to mask the taste.
The recent decriminalization and regulatory shifts around psilocybin in the United States have begun to change the way mushrooms are consumed. In many ways, psilocybin mushrooms are mirroring the cannabis edibles market, as now psilocybin comes in an array of forms including gummies, capsules, soft gels, chocolate, honey, teas, drinks, and pixie sticks.
How to Take Psilocybin Mushrooms
Things to Know
- Psilocybin mushroom edibles come in gummies, chocolates, drinks, capsules, soft gels, pixie sticks, honey, and more.
- The Swiss chemist who synthesized LSD, Albert Hoffman, also synthesized psilocybin
- Mixing psilocybin mushrooms with other drugs is popular, but not recommended for novices
- There are multiple methods of growing mushrooms at home.
Psilocybin Dosage
A microdose (or a subperceptual dose) is typically anywhere between .05g–0.3g of dried or ground up mushrooms. Consuming a microdose is recommended for first time or novice mushroom users. It is also considered a good approach if you are trying a new mushroom species or strain, as they generally vary in strength and intensity.
For many people, a medium sized dose of mushrooms is generally between 1g and 1.5g of dried mushrooms. While this won’t necessarily produce an intense psychedelic experience, this dose range will affect people differently depending on their physiology. A small dose may help people new to psilocybin determine how they impact their unique response to the compound. A scale that weighs milligrams will help ensure accurate dosing and help prevent inadvertently taking too much.
A “macrodose” or a therapeutic dose, is a large enough dose to induce a psychedelic experience, and potentially a “mystical experience.” A macrodose is ranges between 3g–5g of mushrooms. A common macrodose is an eighth, or 3.5g of mushrooms. Consuming 5g of mushrooms is sometimes referred to as a “heroic dose.” The macrodose range is for experienced mushroom consumers.
Taking Psilocybin Edibles
There are many ways to consume mushrooms today, thanks to an ever-growing gray market flourishing with psilocybin products. Generally, most psilocybin products are made of ground-up psilocybin mushrooms. It’s far less common to find mushroom products made with synthetic psilocybin. A book called The Psilocybin Mushroom Chef Cookbook1 written by Dr. K. Mandrake and Virginia Haze offers numerous recipes for crafting psilocybin edibles and meals at home.
One of the most popular ways to consume psilocybin mushrooms is in capsule form. Mushroom capsules commonly come in a range of dosages, including 0.1 to 0.5 grams of dried, ground-up mushrooms. Soft gels can also be lumped into this product format. The dosage also ranges from 0.1 to 0.5 grams.
Gummies are one of the newer methods of consumption. They are one of the most common psilocybin products available right now. They typically come in various shapes, sizes, and flavors, making them an attractive option for people who find the taste and texture of raw mushrooms unpleasant. Those who ingest these gummies should be aware of how large a dose each gummy contains. Sometimes it is best to cut a gummy in half, thirds or quarters and increase the dose slowly.
Mushroom chocolate2 is another popular psilocybin edible. These products contain ground psilocybin mushrooms and come in full-sized chocolate bars, bon-bon-sized chocolate pieces, and other single-bite chocolates. A whole bar of chocolate often contains a full eighth, or 3.5 grams, of psilocybin mushrooms that can be broken off into smaller dosed pieces. Chocolates that come as individual pieces generally come in doses between .25 and 1 gram.
Psilocybin mushroom teas3 are also popular. You can make tea on your own by infusing hot water with dried mushrooms, or buy psilocybin mushrooms in a tea bag with herbs that assist in making the tea taste less bitter and earthy. Pre-packaged psilocybin tea bags come in an array of dosages, including .25 to 2 grams.
Psychedelic mushroom drinks are becoming popular, too. There’s “magic kombucha” containing psilocybin mushroom extraction, and mushroom shots that look like 5-Hour Energy drinks. Titrating your dosage of these beverages carefully will help prevent inadvertent consumption of too large a dose for a comfortable experience.
Lastly, psilocybin mushroom pixie sticks are sold on the gray market. Blending candy and psychoactives is popular, but it may not be the healthiest way to consume plant medicine, due to high levels of sugar.
Taking Synthetic Psilocybin
Psilocybin was synthesized by Albert Hoffman, the iconic Swiss chemist who first synthesized, ingested, and learned about the psychedelic effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). He received psilocybin mushrooms from R. Gordon Wasson, an amateur ethnomycologist and vice president of public relations at J.P. Morgan. Hoffman synthesized the psychedelic compound for the first time in 1958 at the infamous Sandoz Laboratory in Basel, Switzerland.
Synthetic psilocybin refers to psilocybin that is produced and chemically synthesized in a laboratory, as opposed to being naturally derived from psilocybin mushrooms. Despite being made in a laboratory, synthetic psilocybin is chemically identical to naturally occurring psilocybin. Some people believe that it has the same psychoactive effects as psilocybin mushrooms, although that is debated. Most of the clinical trials studying the effects of psilocybin use the synthetic compound because it allows for precise dosing, as the concentration of the compound can be accurately measured and controlled during the synthesis process. Psilocybin mushrooms also contain other compounds that may impact the psychedelic experience, which is called the entourage effect.
When psilocybin is lab-made, it is turned into a solid by putting it through a crystallization process4, which causes the molecules to arrange themselves in different ways to create a variety of three-dimensional crystalline forms, called polymorphs, that are different synthetic versions of the psilocybin molecule.
Growing Psilocybin Mushrooms
There are multiple ways to grow mushrooms at home. You can grow them in a modified tub or container, often referred to as “monotub tek.”5 You can also grow mycelium cakes in jars that sprout multiple flushes of psilocybin mushrooms; this method is known as PF Tek6.
The goal when growing mushrooms is sterilizing the environment and minimizing contamination. There are numerous guides for beginners7 and resources online8 that can help people learn how to grow psilocybin mushrooms at home. You can even sign up for courses that will teach you how to do it. But keep in mind that there is no right or wrong way to grow mushrooms. People have been growing mushrooms at home since the ‘70s, propelled by the publication of Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower’s Guide: A Handbook for Psilocybin Enthusiasts9, written under a pseudonym by the brothers Terence and Dennis McKenna. People have developed fresh or refined methods over the years, but one isn’t necessarily right or wrong.
Effects of Psilocybin
It takes anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours for the effects of psilocybin mushrooms to kick in. It’s common to feel blissful or nauseous, or a combination of the two, as you settle into the mushroom experience. People often report their surroundings appearing distorted or cartoonish, and an altered perception of sounds, objects, and time.
Some people see geometric patterns, while others experience fits of laughter. It’s common to feel in awe of the world or energized, like you want to move. It’s also common to be overcome by incessant yawning and the desire to lay down. You may feel all of these things in a span of 20 minutes.
It’s also possible for mushrooms to induce paranoia, anxiety, panic, or emotional overwhelm. Your experience is impacted by how much you take, and your set and setting. That includes who you’re with, the music you’re listening to, your location, and the state of your emotional and mental health.
