A Random Guide to Taking Magic Mushrooms
SmokingCaterpillar April 9 2026 02:43:20 PM
So, this is a guide to anyone starting off in the world of magic mushrooms. I know that you can find out whatever you want to know about magic mushrooms via ChatGPT or other AI systems. But what they don't tell you is what it's like from a human perspective. So here's some things I've observed. I don't necessarily think I'm an expert on this subject, so don't hold me to account too quickly.OK, here we go.
Now I'm not going to tell you exactly how old I am. Suffice to say, a while back, I remember holding a brand new album from a new group called Led Zeppelin. It was their first album. I had never heard anything like it in my (admittedly quite short) life. Now, you might think that I'm now going to tell you of a life of sex, drugs and rock and roll. But no. The first time I took any recreational drugs was when I was around 70 years old. I love psychedelics and the way they make my brain turn somersaults. My go to psychedelic is the humble mushroom.
Ah, shrooms....
What I like about them is the relatively gentle come-up, the relatively long period you're high and the gentle come-down. I also get a few days after-glow. I get that with MDMA, though that's another story. I have never had a bad trip on shrooms, so for anyone thinking about using them, here's some of the things I found. Again, this is my take and your mileage may vary. I mainly use Penis Envy. I have tried others, but prefer them because it doesn't take too much to get you there.
Set and Setting
Oh, this is so important. The set is your frame of mind. I'm lucky in that if I'm stressed or anxious, I develop a strong aversion to recreational drugs. But not every one does, I think. And that's a problem. Because if you have those feelings, they can be amplified and I guess that's where some bad trips start from. I'm fairly sure that if you asked people who experienced a bad trip what their mindset was when they took that trip, you'd find that it was less than ideal. That's not to say you have to be completely clear of problems. Whoever is? But you shouldn't be suffering stress because of them.
And setting. By far and away for me, the best setting is outside. Luckily, I have a garden and access to woodland where there seems to be some sort of synergy with psilocybin. Another good setting is music events. I can recommend Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, Sparks, Leftfield, Orbital, Blue Man Group, Tool, Richard Ashcroft, Cat Empire. Of course that's an entirely personal choice. One thing I prefer not to do is watch any form of TV or video. I can't explain why, but it seems to detract from the high.
Timing
If you have a day to yourself, this is the best timeframe. A light breakfast, not too high in fat is ideal, fairly early, so before 9 am. Aim to take your shrooms before midday. Then go for a short walk (don't stray too far from home). This will help digestion of the psilocybin and its transport to the liver, Aim to arrive back home as the effects start kicking in. Keep yourself hydrated and just go with the flow. Kick the cat out, lock the front door or whatever else you need to do to stay safe and undisturbed. Probably switch your phone off.
Dose
This is quite difficult to gauge accurately. Because we are all unique in our body chemistry, genetic inheritance, susceptibility to psilocybin, the meal we last ate etc. Here's what I do at 75kg weight:
0.5g A slight but definite buzz. Some energy. A very muted high.
0.5 to 1g As before, but more intense. Some slight open eye visuals, some closed eye visuals. Yawning. Colours brighter, aural distortions - my hearing gets quite acute for some reason.
1 to 2g Now we're into party mode. I'm OK here in concerts - I prefer standing but this works sitting too. There's some evidence that THC helps here, I personally find that it probably does. It seems to help the come-up but as with all things mushroom, I'm not really sure. Definite open eye visuals - Gorillaz was awesome :) This seems to be a bit of a threshold for me. A little under 2g to a little over 2g seems to increase the effects markedly.
2g to 5g Usually serious territory. Introspection and plenty of open eye visuals. Oil paintings are a special treat for me.
5g upwards is generally considered as a heroic dose. Especially with our Penis Envy strain, which is one of the stronger lines. I've done more than this a couple of times, but I ended up drooling into the carpet, so incapacitated was I. I've not yet experienced the so-called ego death, but the trips were very intense and took me several days to process. That may be your thing, if so, go for it. I personally tend to try and tailor my dose for the event. Toxicity isn't an issue with shrooms as far as I know, so you can stretch this level pretty much as far as you want. However, given the potential laxative effect of all the chitin that could be involved, trying to sit on a toilet while off your head on psilocybin might be challenging. An interesting spectator sport, though.
How to consume
There are three main ways to consume in my experience. These are capsules, whole dried and lemon tek.
Capsules
You can get your mushrooms in capsules. The ones we do have around 0.4 to 0.5 grams per capsule. One thing you should know about capsules, though, especially with vegan capsules, is they can delay the onset by up to 4 ours. As I know. At one gig, I took 4 capsules at 7pm when the support act came in. They kicked in on the way home after the gig. So I suggest that you either prick them well to let your gastric juices into the capsule or you can chew them but you probably won't want to do that for too long.
Whole Dried
The taste of mushrooms is an acquired one. Some people never acquire it. I'm in the 'Meh' camp here. Sipping water between pieces helps you to chew them well to help with absorption.
Lemon Tek
I've tried this. Soaking the shrooms in lemon juice or other similar acidic fruit juice. Apparently this helps to convert some of the psilocybin to psilocin before the shrooms hit your stomach or liver. It makes the shrooms a little more palatable. I'm a bit unconvinced by this. But really, given the psychedelic experience that you get, it's not really an issue if it's not exactly the greatest culinary experience of one's life.
Problems
You can get a bit a of a stomach upset. This is unlikely to be the psilocin. It's more likely the mushroom cell walls, which are made of chitin. Apparently this is almost completely indigestible. So at least you're getting some fibre. By the way, when I say that toxicity isn't a problem, that's not strictly true. But you'd probably have to eat around a kilo of dried mushrooms to get into serious trouble. And that's a man versus food challenge that is probably never going to be challenged successfully.
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