The Ultimate Magic Mushroom Dosage Guide

Highlights.

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The world is opening up to magic mushrooms, and Canada is in the lead. But before you go shrooming, you need to know how.

Magic mushrooms are powerful. Apart from the fact that it can be hard to navigate a too-high dose if you’re not ready for it, they can be used for a range of things and for a variety of effects.

This often relies on dosage, although strain sometimes plays a role.

Magic mushroom dosing starts at a microdose — as low as 25mg (0.025g) of dried Psilocybin mushrooms — and goes up to what Terrence McKenna calls a “heroic dose” of 7g and above.

We don’t advocate aiming for heroic doses until you’re a well and truly seasoned mushroom user. This guide is going to help you choose the right dose for where you’re at in the mushroom adventure.

This guide is separated into four sections:

• Microdosing
• Minidosing
• Macrodosing
• Heroic dosing

We’ll guide you through the different dosing regimens and the different things that they can be used for. Where you choose to start is up to you and will depend on your experience and confidence using psychedelic plants. As a disclaimer, using mushrooms is not the same as using cannabis. We recommend starting on doses as low as 0.5g for first timers and working your way up from there.

Microdosing.

Microdosing is a way of using mushrooms that doesn’t necessarily bring about any immediate perceived effects. Or they are sub-perceptual. Microdosing is taking mushrooms but not tripping. There’s no definitive rule on what defines a microdose. However, it can be as low as 0.05g or as high as around 0.3g. Anything above 0.3 brings on perceivable effects.

True Microdose: 25mg – 100mg (0.025g – 0.1g)

Unless you have the most sensitive scales in the world, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever be able to weigh out less than 0.05g magic mushrooms. This is a good microdose starting point for those who are just experimenting. Completely sub-perceptual effects with very little chance of tipping over into a tripping state.

With a true microdose, you might perceive:

• Heightened creativity
• Increased energy, focus, and attention
• Increased mood, restfulness, peacefulness, calm
• Better memory and cognitive performance
• Increased physical and emotional comfort

Medium Microdose: 100mg – 200mg (0.1g – 0.2g)

Yes. An amount this small makes a difference when it comes to microdosing. Even the tiniest increments can bring on more pronounced effects. This is still considered a microdose event and isn’t likely to cause serious tripping.

With a medium microdose, you might perceive:

• Heightened creativity and mental activity
• Increased focus, attention, and pattern recognition
• Improved mood, heightened perception of the mind and emotions
• Quick mental performance
• Improved physical performance

Strong Microdose: 200mg – 300mg (0.2g – 0.3g)

This could easily turn into a light tripping experience and so it’s not typically recommended as a microdose. However, it’s low enough to not be full on tripping for most people, and so for seasoned microdosers it could be considered.

With a strong microdose, you might perceive:

• Altered visual and physical perception
• Heightened attention to detail
• Increased mental dexterity and problem solving
• Improved mood, energy, and increased perception of thoughts and emotions
• Abstract thoughts

Minidosing.

Minidosing means you’ve stepped out of the world of sub-perceptual effects and into the realm of true mushroom effects. You could say that from here, we’re really just talking about different levels of intoxication (although that does vary quite a bit with mushrooms).

Minidosing is a perfect place for beginners to start tripping. Essentially, starting on lower doses completely minimises the chances of an anxiety-filled, way-too-strong first mushroom experience that ends in you hating mushrooms. We’ll break it down into different levels for you.

True Minidose: 300mg – 500mg (0.3g – 0.5g)

This is a very safe place to start for beginners. At this dose, visual perception becomes noticeably different and the world might start to become “trippy”. Thoughts can become introspective and existential, or deep abstract concepts can be entertained. At the same time, this is not the kind of journey that leads to ego death or a loss of motor control.

With a true minidose, you might perceive:

• Mild euphoria or excitement
• Changes in visual perception (lights, vivid colours, movements)
• Changes in the way things sound and feel physically
• Heightened physical senses
• Mundane tasks suddenly become more engaging and exciting
• The arts are highly engaging, especially music and visual art
• A preference for introspection over social activity
• A desire to stretch or flow
• Increased creativity, mental acuity and pattern recognition

Museum Dose: 500mg – 1,000mg (0.5g – 1.5g)

As the dose gets stronger, the effects all become more prominent. Dr Alexander Shulgin coined this dose the “museum” dose because although the psilocybin landscape is much more apparent, you can still do public or social activities like go to a museum without attracting too much unwanted attention. 

With a museum dose, you might perceive:

• Increased visual effects (“breathing” in the environment)
• Alterations to sound, time and space perception
• Heightened physical sensations
• Confusion, anxiety, fear
• Desire to converse or talk, or alternatively a preference not to talk
• Abstract thoughts
• Increased sensitivity to light and sound
• Frustration at the “no man’s land” concept of mushroom dosage, where you tinker on the edge of a full blown psychedelic experience

Macrodosing.

Macrodosing is for the seasoned and the brave. Not everybody graduates into macrodosing and not everybody has to. However, some people choose to explore the boundaries of the psychedelic experience and venture into what’s called “ego death”, or the loss of the sense of identity. It does come back, but we’re talking about extremely powerful experiences.

It can be extremely difficult to navigate and integrate macrodose experiences if you come into it unprepared. The only real way to prepare is to work your way up from smaller doses, experimenting with the terrain before jumping in with your surfboard. 

This is a guide for those who have already ventured through minidosing safely. As a disclaimer, do not attempt macrodosing if you’re a beginner at magic mushrooms.

Moderate Macrodose: 1g – 3g

Welcome to the psilocybin psychedelic experience. It’s from here that many of the mysteries, discomforts, and epiphanies of the netherworld can take place. In these states, people can have religious experiences, terrifying experiences, or deep healing experiences. Sometimes, it’s all three.

The thing is — it’s very difficult to describe the psychedelic experience. Yes, there’s the breathing buildings and stuff. But it’s important to remember that it’s never that every time. The psychedelic is all together physical, emotional, and mental. Sometimes it manifests as heavily physical, other times completely mental, and at other times it’s emotional without the super vivid visuals. 

It is different every single time. 

With a moderate macrodose, you might perceive:

• Altered visual perception 
• Loss of fine motor control
• Desire to engage in philosophical, religious, or existential thoughts
• Desire to disengage socially
• Fear or anxiety (bad trip experiences)
• Confusion
• Excitement, joy, euphoria
• Deep emotional healing experiences, memory retrieval
• Repeated yawning
• Desire to move the body or stretch
• Increased appreciation for music, physical touch, the arts
• Difficulty with everyday tasks like tying shoe laces and operating mobile phones
• Nausea, dizziness, sleepiness

Medium Macrodose: 3g – 5g

At this dose, everything that has already been mentioned may occur but with increased potency, intensity and vigour.

In addition, you may perceive:

• Intense visuals with eyes closed
• A desire to remain still, lying down, or motionless
• Dissociation from the physical body
• Synesthesia
• Deep healing, memory retrieval, what feels like self-guided psychotherapy
• Complete loss of the sense of time
• Disorientation, confusion, fear or anxiety in the event of a bad experience
• Loss of motor control (recommended to have friends around)
• Nausea, vomiting, dizziness

Megadose: 5g – 7g

Increase in the intensity of all effects.

You may also perceive:

• Complete ego death
• A “catatonic” state whereby there’s no desire to move nor much of a response to the physical world
• A state of existence that feels like dreaming
• Complete removal and disinterest in the physical world
• Inability to control any stream of thought or logic
• Anxiety, paranoia, terror in the event of a bad trip experience

Heroic Dose: 7g+.

If a mushroom user ever gets to this stage, it’s after years of experimentation. Terrence McKenna coined 7g the “heroic dose”. There is no real knowing how far the experience goes or whether there is a limit to what can be achieved on a dose of mushrooms. Terrence McKenna obviously believed the only limit was the dose.

Not all heroic doses end in the sense of heroism. An experience so impactful can be terrifying to the point of trauma which is why it’s not recommended without a lot of experience or even supervision. 

At the heroic dose, you might perceive:

• Nothing at all (a sense of nothingness)
• Inability to differentiate between a thought or object or physical sensations, complete dissolution of boundaries
• Loss of identity
• New dimensions, parallel realities, alternate universes, aliens

It’s more than just the dose.

The quality and depth of your mushroom experience is not entirely dependent on dose. The set and setting are also extremely important. Who you choose to use mushrooms with, where you choose to do it, and the place you’re at emotionally and mentally all contribute to what might happen. But that’s a whole different topic for a whole different article.

Where have you ventured with mushroom dosing? We’d love to hear from you in the comments!

Read: The Ultimate Guide to Magic Mushroom Microdosing

Read: Microdose Cycling: What It Is, and Why You Should Be Doing It

Read: The Benefits of Microdosing Psilocybin — Without the Fluff

Read: How to Make Shroom Tea: The Ultimate Mushroom Tea Guide

Read: How to Make Magic Mushroom Brownies

Read: How to Lemon Tek Magic Mushrooms

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