The Science Behind Psilocybin [Surprising Facts]

Psilocybin mushrooms (psilocybe allenii)

I fairly recently got turned on to psilocybin mushrooms after hearing about some of the psychological benefits first by listening to the clinical psychologist and professor Jordan Peterson talk about some of the studies being done.

Since then I have learned a lot about psilocybin. Here are some of the things that I have learned.

A single dose can decrease depression and anxiety LONG term

That’s long term and not short term.

John Hopkins University has been doing studies on psilocybin with those who have end stage cancer. These people are near the end of their lives with terminal cancer.

A single high dose of psilocybin gave them what was described as a “mystical” experience and improved their outlook on life and reduced their anxiety.

In my own experience I would add that psilocybin mushrooms can be terrifying in the short term and cause paranoia and panic attacks if you try to fight it.

The key is to “let go”.

However, that’s my own experience and despite the fact that often these experiences are partly terrifying they are rather cathartic.

It would be best to do them with someone who can watch over you like in the studies.

I think that would be ideal especially with high doses. They say you are really suggestible when you are under the influence of psychedelics. So just having someone there to comfort you, give you a hug, hold your hand or just tell you that you are going to be fine would be very helpful.

The other day there was no one around and I was in a bothered state and I saw this really beautiful eucalyptus tree and I had to give it a hug! It made me feel much better^^.

A high dose of psilocybin is a sort of “death” that you will learn more about below.  And some say the secret to life is to “die before you die”.

Serotonin, psilocybin and DMT are structurally very similar

DMT is found in psychedelics like ayahuasca and in your body. LSD is derived from a fungus that grows on rye.

I remember one thing that Jordan Peterson said about a lack of serotonin. It was something about that if you had low serotonin you were going to have problems in regards to the dominance hierarchy (short clip on serotonin/dominance hierarchy).

And…

According to integrativepsychiatry.net:

“Low serotonin levels are often attributed to anxiety, depression, panic attacks, insomnia, obesity, fibromyalgia, eating disorders, chronic pain, migraines, and alcohol abuse. Negative thoughts, low self-esteem, obsessive thoughts and behaviors, PMS, and Irritable Bowel Syndrome are also symptoms of low serotonin.”

Psilocybin deactivates the default mode network (where your EGO lies) and activates other areas of your brain

“In neuroscience, the default mode network is a large scale brain network of interacting brain regions known to have activity highly correlated with each other and distinct from other networks in the brain.” – wikipedia

Many people who have used psychedelics use the term “ego death”. I was trying to figure out what they exactly mean by this. After I learned about the DMN and that it may be where your sense of self (ego) lies it made total sense to me.

I can attest to the fact that a high dose of psilocybin feels like you are dying, however you are not actually, but possibly transforming.

In actuality part of your brain gets shut off and others not normally active become active. Remember some people say you only use 20% of your brain?

Well that may not be true, but it might be true most of the time because of the DMN. And if you look again at the picture above your brain on psilocybin is highly active.

Psilocybin floods your brain with blood also sometimes producing the side effect of clumsiness.

Psilocybin is less addictive and toxic than drugs like: caffeine, alcohol and marijuana

Psilocybin’s addiction potential compared to other drugs

Despite the fact that it is powerful and what it might feel like psilocybin is less toxic than caffeine in high doses.

Learn more about it on Wikipedia.

Psilocybin will probably make you appreciate nature more

I have always appreciated nature. I grew up in the country side of Northern New Hampshire and the woods was right out the door.

“Researchers from the Psychedelic Research Group at Imperial College discovered that, in at least a small sample of subjects, ingestion of psilocybin was correlated with both an increased feeling of being part of nature and an increased dislike of authoritarian, political views…” – Inverse

“Human intelligence is impressive, but it’s not in the same league as nature.” – Simon G. Powell, from the video below

I recommend skipping ahead to 5:50 in his video.

Psilocybin increases one’s openness

Openness to experience is a personality factor on the Big 5 scale of personality dimensions. One of the 5 measures of personality is openness to experience.

A single high dose of psilocybin can increase this over the long term.

Psilocybin increases one’s empathy

Psilocybin affects the serotonin receptors in your brain which can affect how you emotionally relate to other people.

“Psilocybin targets the 5-HT2A/1A receptors in your brain which may have potential beneficial effects in the treatment of mood disorders or psychopathy, which are characterized by deficits in social skills and in particular in the ability to feel with other people.”

In my experience it definitely makes me feel more emotional at times during the trip. This is also interesting to me as I would say that I am introverted and probably do have some social anxiety.

Psilocybin mushrooms stimulate the growth of new brain cells

That is also known as neurogenesis and they may in fact help you get over some of your fears.

“Memory, learning, and the ability to relearn that a once threatening stimuli is no longer a danger absolutely depends on the ability of the brain to alter its connections. We believe that neuroplasticity plays a critical role in psilocybin accelerating fear extinction.” – Dr. Briony Catlow

Psilocybin will probably make you more creative

I have found that drawing is pretty helpful and soothing at times when using mushrooms and I will probably find out more in the future as to how using psilocybin may provide creative benefits.

I think you are going to get some insights as well. It definitely makes you more aware and you do see things that you don’t normally see sober and I am not talking about hallucinations.

It does make you more perceptive.

Some say psychedelics are the doorway to your unconscious mind.

Microdosing has become popular too for entrepreneurs in Silicon valley. Microdosing is taking a very small dose so small that effects are not really noticed in the short term, however over the long term one can see how it has affected their performance.

Psilocybin isn’t new, in fact it has a long history of use

There are murals done in Africa that suggest that psilocybin mushrooms were used in as far back as 7-9000 BC.

They were also used by the Mayans and the Aztecs. The aztecs referred to them as teonanácatl which means “god’s flesh”.

Psilocybin was actually isolated and synthesized by Dr. Albert Hoffman. The man who discovered LSD.

Psilocybin and LSD along with other psychedelics were used in therapy throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s until becoming illegal in 1966.

Is psilocybin the solution to all of your problems?

Psilocybin is not for everyone especially those predisposed to schizophrenia.

Personally I have found it to be very beneficial so far, however there are certain side effects especially in higher doses. Every experience will be a bit different, however in my recent experience 50% of the duration or so has been challenging.

It is more of a “mystical”, challenging and learning experience.

The side effects of psilocybin mushrooms

There are a lot of scientific backed benefits to using psilocybin mushrooms and other psychedelics, however there are also some side effects.

In this post I will mention the side effects based on my experience.

This can depend on the dose, you (set and setting) and the specific mushroom you ingested.

Based on my experience these are the side effects which are more pronounced in higher doses.

  1. Nausea. I didn’t get this every time, but often enough. It typically starts in the beginning and can linger for an hour or more.
  2. Clumsiness.
  3. Disorientation.
  4. Aches and pains.
  5. Tremors.
  6. Paranoia.
  7. Panic and anxiety.
  8. Feels as if you are dying.
  9. Sounds and sight can become more intense and distorted.
  10. Sensitivity is increased.

Psilocybin is a disruptor at least in the higher doses. The hard part is relinquishing control and not fighting it. It’s going to disrupt your normal systems and way of thinking.

I have actually had some challenging experiences with it, however even those have been like a catharsis and therapeutic feeling.

It’s very much like a process and cyclic.

Psilocybin is not recommend for people with…

  • high blood pressure
  • a shizophrenic personality disorder

Coming soon…

Learn more about the benefits.

What I do not like about San Francisco

San Francisco is a nice place. It has a nice environment being on the ocean and there are some surrounding mountains. The weather is pretty mild too. It rarely gets hot and it doesn’t get that cold.

There are some other nice things about it and I have met a few great people here.

However…

I have lived here for more than 5 years and there are some things that I do not like about it. And for your information I have also lived in 7 US states, 3 countries and traveled to many countries in Europe and Asia.

So…

It’s crowded

Because of some of the things that I mentioned above San Francisco attracts a lot of people. However, there are just too many people for me. There is too much competition for everything.

I also lived in Shanghai and that’s even more crowded (like 20 mill.) probably for similar reasons. People flock to the popular places. It’s a big city and well at this stage of my life I have had enough.

There are a lot of parks you can go to, but on the weekends there are just too many people in most places.

Most people aren’t that friendly

Maybe it’s just the big city thing. There are too many people and space is precious and people are encringing on your space, so you just want to tune out and put your headphones on.

Maybe some of the cooler people here in SF have been here their whole lives.

They were raised here.

I met quite a few cool people in the jiu-jitsu and judo community although like other communities they can be kind of hard to break into. The community at CCSF has been good.

If it wasn’t for them I would pretty much have no social connections.

So it’s not really an easy place to make friends. Most people are transient in SF. Some are homeless transient types and then others are just here for school, a start up, or a short time.

The ones that have been here a long time probably don’t like the transient types. And well I am not that socially outgoing so that’s not going to make making connections easy.

I have been here 5 years and aside from jiu-jitsu/judo I don’t feel any more connected to this place than when I first arrived.

Homelessness

It’s kind of an eye sore. I mean there are a lot of homeless people here and part of that reason is because some are actually sent here from other cities on a free one way bus because of the social welfare programs.

The other cities don’t want these people so they ship them here.

You can see people shooting up on Mission St. or even Montgomery St. and you have to watch out where you step in some places because there is human shit and needles on the ground.

There is also a lot of urban camping in SF, Berkeley and Oakland.

People say the tech scene has taking over

I personally don’t know much about this as I have only been here for 5 years. I did come here first in 2002 and did think about moving here then.

People say that it has taken over the city and caused gentrification. It’s apparently not as interesting as it used to be.

Class and race issues

I feel like I get some racism and prejudice here coming from some people and often lower class African Americans. Some say there is “white trash” which I think is kinda true as I grew up in a place kinda like that with a lot of “rednecks” or “white trash” if you will.

I mean the term is kinda derogatory as they are people, but yet these kinds of people lack manners, education or something.

And well I have to say there is also “black trash” too.

That’s a subset of the African American population that is low income, not very happy, educated and who probably blames the white man for all of their problems… which reminds me of a video on Youtube (an ad) about the “black card“.

San Francisco is pretty diverse, but that doesn’t mean that everybody is living happily together. It’s very politically correct, but that’s just politics. How people act is a different thing altogether.

A lot of people assume that just because I am white I am richer or whatever.

But ughhh…

I currently get food stamps…

But…

You know that’s just temporary just like San Francisco is. And I guess that’s one good thing about San Francisco is that there are a lot of social programs for the low income.

However, some people don’t like that about SF.

Class and money

I am not sure if this has anything to do with San Fran in particular, the USA, western culture or whatever, but people definitely judge you by how much you make or don’t make.

If you are a “street performer” you’ll get a lot of shit. Some people will love you – at least superficially and others will treat you like shit.

To them you might as well be a homeless person.

It’s expensive

You probably already knew that. All that competition to live here makes it expensive. That includes rent and transportation and probably nightlife (which I just don’t do) if that is your thing.

The place I live

Although the location is nice and convenient (in Chinatown) it is by far the ugliest, lowest quality and most expensive place I have ever lived. Where I live the people are mostly low income and I can say most of them are not that happy or healthy.

A lot of people have died since I have been here too in this SRO. Some from old age and others from suicide or drug overdoses.

There are bed bugs and dust mites. Here is where I learned that I have a dust mite allergy.

Anyways my time here is coming to an end and I will be happy to be out of here around the new year.

I had a realization yesterday while hiking out in nature at McClaren park.

It was this…

Often the coolest path is the one that many people don’t go on. It might be more difficult or less trampled for other reasons, but it’s often just better.

To me San Francisco is the trampled path.

Related:

Experiences w/ Psilocybin – Lower vs. Higher Dose

I wrote most of this a couple of weeks ago and just finished it up…

Recently I have done some experimentation with psilocybin mushrooms that I have found in the wild. My interest in psilocybin began when I learned about the benefits of psilocybin.

I will attempt to describe some of my experiences.

A lot of people say take things like take 2 grams if you want a light experience. Or take 5 grams if you want a “heroic dose”, but I think there are problems with that advice.

First off there are many different kinds of psilocybin mushrooms and they have varying amounts of psilocybin, psilocin and baeocystin. I saw a cool chart in Paul Stamet’s book Psilocybin Mushrooms Of The World that showed the differences between some of the species.

I couldn’t find that image online, but I found this that says the psilocybin content can range from .16% to 1.73%.

According to Alan Rockefeller psilocybe cubensis is the most commonly sold magic mushroom, but it’s psilocybin content is less than half of some other species that grow around here and in the North West.

And you are unique. So if you are considering experimenting with it know that what might work for you won’t work for others and vice versa.

Anyways…

A lower dose experiment

Today I did some hiking around San Francisco mostly near San Bruno mountain. Prior to today I had a night where I didn’t sleep very well.

I got up a little early around 8-ish as I couldn’t sleep well.

I ate three medium-small mushrooms and here are some things I noticed:

  • My mind is calm
  • No negative thoughts
  • No anxiety
  • No ruminating
  • More in the moment
  • Body feels fine
  • Slight enhancement of visuals

I also ate about 1/3 of a 100% cacao chocolate bar. Cacao contains theobromine and a small amount of caffeine. Both are stimulants. Since I did not sleep much more than 4 hours the night before I did this.

As usual before I went hiking a did some yoga. Aside from the cacao I didn’t eat any meals. 1 or 2 days a week I will skip a meal or 2 (intermittent fasting/time restricted feeding).

Anyways I wasn’t so sure how much I would feel from those mushrooms. The last time that I ate them I had a rather intense experience which I will tell you about later, but this time I hardly noticed them.

Shortly after I arrived at the San Bruno mountain area I decided to eat the mushrooms and a little more cacao. I continued walking and also decided I should do some yoga and meditate as my body was feeling painful as I didn’t sleep much.

I found a little park area with some concrete picnic tables and did a little yoga and meditation. It’s amazing how those things can make you feel better.

I did some hiking around that area, but I never really felt the psilocybin come on like you sometimes do. I had more mushrooms, but decided I would save them for another time.

At some point I noticed which seemed like the first effects was a slight enhancement of colors. But that could have even been in my head as I have taken them before, but…

I think I become more in the moment just looking around exploring and eating blackberries!

I must have ate 2 cups of blackberries!

I saw like 3 banana slugs and then one leopard print slug. The fog started to come in and drip down drops of rain. It was quite nice.

Eventually I decided to go back and as I was on the bus back I realized just how calm I was. I wasn’t anxious to get anywhere or annoyed with the people or ruminating about something stupid like I sometimes do.

After this experience I can agree on the scientific fact that psilocybin mushrooms work in a similar way as meditation.

Meditation and Magic Mushrooms Do the Same Thing to Your Brain

I just felt in the moment and that was my experience with a lower dose of psilocybin mushrooms. I wasn’t out there and I didn’t have any side effects except for a moment of light nausea that went away when I ate some blackberries.

A higher dose experiment

After reading about some of the experiments with high doses at John Hopkins university and from some other sources I decided I would eat them at home and stay inside which would be different as I usually go outside in nature for this sort of thing.

So I made a psilocybin soup! I added about 6-7 small dried mushrooms and 1 big dried mushroom.

How I made it

  • ginger
  • nutritional yeast
  • water
  • psilocybin mushrooms
  • a little seaweed
  • a little kale
  • salt

The soup was quite good. After I ingested it I lied down to meditate. It wasn’t long before I started to feel the effects. It may have been 30-40 minutes or so.

This was an intense experience that lasted a good 6 hours with the first 3 being the most intense.

They say it can be hard to separate your senses. That means that seeing and hearing can become one. And I can’t actually remember or tell in one case as there was this sort of communicating sounds and or visions about insects.

I couldn’t quite determine what they were. It was like I was hearing some sort of animal or living things communication with me. It was sort of screeching like but not loud.

It was kind of like insects or something. And it was really weird as a few days later I read that one of the reasons why some scientists think that these kinds of mushrooms make psilocybin is to keep insects from eating them.

Anyways…

Here are some things I experienced…

  • Hallucinations
  • Fear of death I felt like I was going to die
  • Anxiety
  • Panic
  • Terror
  • Crying (first time in many years)
  • Euphoria

The kind of hallucinations I have experienced with mushrooms are distortions of things. I never really saw something that wasn’t there, however some things become more vivid, move, distort, you may see doublish momentarily and one time before this experience I saw part of a dirt road sort of animate and become fractal like in a way and move like water.

I mean it was the color of the dirt still, but it was not still. It became fractal like and moved like water for just a moment.

Death

I have experienced the sensation that I was dying several times on higher doses. This fear that I ate the wrong mushrooms and it was going to kill me. That has happened several times at a higher dose.

Panic, paranoia, terror…

All these things sound bad at a high dose so why do it?

It probably does sound that way, but there is also something going on here that is hard to explain. At a high dose you are really going to go somewhere mystical.

And despite being terrifying at times they have also been very cathartic. Since I first started writing this piece I have had another very intense higher dose experience.

I told the story with my webcam although I haven’t published it yet. More coming on that soon.

Oh and if you found this article in search and you are wondering how much should you take then I would say to start small. There are benefits to both small and high doses. And unless you are taking psilocybe cubensis then I wouldn’t go by weight and you have to also consider your body size too.

It’s pretty unpredictable until you try so that’s why I would start small.

You can learn more about microdosing psilocybin here.