Microdosing with Plant Medicines

A beginner’s guide to holistic approaches

Juan-Carlos Foust

and

SHIRA STARFIRE

Jan 04, 2025

Traducción en español disponible en Microdosis con Medicinas de Plantas.

This essay is available from microdosingplants.com.

Introduction

Microdosing refers to the practice of ingesting very small amounts of a psychedelic substance. Typically, this is done on a regular schedule for some period of time to achieve a therapeutic benefit (e.g. reduced anxiety or cravings). As the name implies, microdosing is an experience that many describe as “sub-perceptual”, that is, not immediately distinguishable from our normal, day-to-day consciousness. The goals of microdosing vary but generally aim towards achieving higher levels of clarity, creativity, and well-being over time. The benefits tend to accumulate slowly like a resonance that gradually builds in volume. The psychedelic substance whether synthetic or plant based acts as a partner in the process, enabling an inner journey of increased openness, receptivity, and readiness. Plant-based approaches, which we will focus on, offer an opportunity to be in relationship with another living being acting as an ally and teacher, which can provide a stronger anchor for deeper introspection, self-acceptance, and healing. Thoughtful intention, preparation, and integration practices can also all lend support as can working with a guide or licensed professional.

“A microdose can be defined as 1/10th to 1/20th of a normal dose of a psychedelic or a substance. There are no classic psychedelic effects, and the point is to subtly improve your mood, energy levels, and thought patterns. The point is not to trip, but instead to improve your mood and energy just slightly above your normal baseline levels. There are no hallucinations when microdosing and you should still feel sociable and able to complete all your normal day to day tasks” – Double Blind Mag [1]

At the time of this writing, several cities in the United States have decriminalized entheogens, Seattle being among the most recent, and several states have introduced legislation or ballot measures to legislate (regulate and/or decriminalize) psychedelic substances [2]. While the authors believe it is every human’s right to access plant-based medicines, we do not recommend breaking the law. We also cannot provide medical advice and the contents of this document should not be taken as medical advice. Our goal is to provide relevant, contextual information so that individuals can better make their own informed choices about working with entheogens for personal, therapeutic, or spiritual use in their home country or another country where laws protect the use of these medicines.

History

While humans have been experimenting with and benefiting from entheogenic plants and fungi for millenia, the first recorded microdose experience was Albert Hoffman’s experiments with LSD in the early 1940s [3]. Around this time, LSD was mainly being used at higher doses in early psychedelic research. It wasn’t until 2010 when Dr. James Fadiman used microdosing for writer’s block and reported very positive effects that widespread interest in microdosing developed. More recently there has been tremendous research by organizations such as John Hopkins, MAPS and others in the application of psychedelic medicine for an array of ailments including depression, addiction, post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury, and anxiety arising from end of life or terminal illness [4]. There is considerable clinical evidence now for the treatment of post-traumatic stress, anxiety, and depression through the use of psychedelic substances paired with therapy [11]. While most psychedelics can be microdosed, the most commonly used are psilocybin-containing mushrooms and LSD.

Science & Neurobiology

The majority of psychedelics are structurally similar to either dopamine or serotonin and thus largely influence the systems of our body regulated by these neurotransmitters [5]. LSD is unusual in that it binds to both dopamine and serotonin receptors; its effects are typically more energetic and fast-paced than psilocybin. These substances are known to change the structure of neurons and many are believed to stimulate neuronal growth [6]. How psychedelics modify our brain activity wasn’t understood until the late 2000s. Brain scans of individuals experiencing high doses of psychedelics have revealed that brain activity is actually reduced in certain key areas, specifically regions of the brain associated with the Default Mode Network (DMN) [7]. Our DMN is active when we are thinking about the past or future or when our minds are idle or wandering. The DMN can be considered the regulating “corporate executive” of the brain. By reducing activity in the DMN, psychedelics permit an explosion of connectivity between regions of the brain that are typically not in communication with each other. In effect, psychedelics shut down a reducing valve in consciousness and facilitate a more unconstrained style of cognition.

Over time, our patterns of thought form well-trodden paths and deep grooves throughout our minds that contribute to habitual thinking, such as negative stories about ourselves. Psychedelics can facilitate the formation of new paths and thus new stories. Some compare the psychedelic experience to that of heating clay in an oven or fresh snow on a mountain. With the added heat, the clay can be reshaped to take a new form. With the added snow, the mountain’s trails can be recreated anew. How these new shapes take form is deeply connected with the experience itself: the psychedelic substance alone is insufficient to guarantee benefits. Clinical research has shown that psychedelics paired with therapy are much more effective than psychedelics alone at treating PTSD [8]. Research has also demonstrated that the strength of the mystical experience provoked by psychedelics corresponds with the level of reduction in depression and anxiety for terminally ill patients and with better results for patients struggling with tobacco addiction [9]. It is believed that the positive effects arise from shifting the mind into new ways of thinking about our lives and our behavior. While the psychedelic substances may assist in the process, the flexibility of the mind to let go and recreate its models for organizing reality depends on many factors such as preparation (e.g. dieting or fasting from highly stimulating activities), spiritual intention (e.g. journaling or praying), physical environment (i.e. a safe and comfortable setting), and integration (i.e. efforts to stay connected with one’s experience and, if useful, incorporate it into a narrative that aims towards self-empowerment).

While larger doses can bring about powerful mystical experiences, deeply profound and meaningful experiences are still available on low doses when the intention to connect with oneself is elevated. However, there is little scientific research looking directly at either the benefits or potential risks associated with microdosing. For this and many other good reasons (e.g. individual sensitivity), one should always proceed with respect and caution when working with powerful medicines.

Briefly, we would also like to mention that there is preliminary research demonstrating that psychedelics at low doses (i.e. far lower than what is required to provoke a behavioral response in mice) produce a strong anti-inflammatory effect, which may also help explain their therapeutic effects [10].

Dosing Regimens

There are two commonly followed microdose protocols; however, there is much room for experimentation through self-assessment and monitoring. To that end, reducing consumption of highly stimulating foods and substances and limiting stimulating activities and stressful interactions can help increase one’s sensitivity and guide intuition.

What is generally true of all protocols is the incorporation of days without medicine. These off-days promote an “afterglow” effect and prevent overuse, dependence, or the build-up of a physical tolerance to the material.

One’s first time experiencing a psychedelic even at a very low dose can be disorienting as the state of mind can feel foreign. Anxiety or fearful expectation can be exacerbated by a psychedelic substance. Aim to begin your microdosing regimen in a safe place on a day when a relatively positive mindset is already present.

After exploring one’s own sensitivity and settling on a protocol, try to stick with it for at least a month before switching (even if the effects are not immediately noticeable).

You can add the medicine to your morning tea or coffee. If ingestion on an empty stomach is difficult then try consuming with a light meal. It is always a good idea to connect with your intention before ingesting. Be creative and allow your own ritual to emerge.

When available, work with an experienced guide or trained professional who can help you examine your history, set intentions, experiment with dosing, and support integration.

Whatever path you choose, explore it for two to four weeks, then reassess your needs.

Dr. James Fadiman Protocol: The first day you take a dose. Day two, you benefit from the afterglow or 48-hour effect. Day three, you return to baseline and report the things you noticed. Day four you dose again, and so on.

Mycologist Paul Stamets Protocol: You microdose 4 days on and 3 days off, or 5 days on and 2 days off.

The authors recommend beginning a regimen with a dose no greater than 0.1 grams of dry mushroom material or 10 micrograms of LSD.

Dissolving Barriers

We all experience reservations in life especially when trying something new or unfamiliar. Hesitation can arise for those who are approaching plant medicine for the first time or after many years of abstinence. These feelings can manifest as a fear of doing something wrong or of doing harm. Sometimes these fears are connected with our ego or life story. Sometimes they are connected with our sense of safety or wellbeing. One way to work with these fears is to connect to a sense of reverence and respect for the medicine (and for yourself). Embracing practices that honor and creatively explore your relationship with the plant or fungi can also help ground the experience and facilitate an openness to communication and deep listening. This listening can be uncomfortable when we begin to access parts of ourselves that have contracted due to repressed energy, forgotten memories, and shadow material. These contracted, suppressed parts of ourselves can manifest as physical tension and discomfort within the body. Preparation (e.g. journaling, meditation, praying, dieting, yoga, talk therapy) helps prepare the mind to access difficult and unconscious material, so that we can approach it more gently. Safe, healing, mindful awareness and touch (e.g. craniosacral massage, acupuncture, reiki) near these parts of the body can also help release anger, emotional pain, shame, and grief.

The disconnects we experience within our body are often mirrored by a spiritual disconnection from our sense of inner agency, innate beauty and wisdom, sense of basic trust, and capacity for self-healing. This disconnect might also manifest as fear, sadness, or rage. With support, these emotions can be met with grace. By meeting these emotions rather than pushing beyond them or around them, we can learn about our own inner patterns outside of anyone’s external influence. We can even thank these emotions such as fear or anger for the ways in which they may have protected us and kept us safe in the past even as they may no longer serve us in this moment. A guide or therapist can be especially helpful for navigating the terrain and providing scaffolding for the journey such as checkpoints for reflection and re-assessment. If you choose to work with a guide, ask questions to learn about their experiences and perspective prior to working with them. Ask for and speak with references. Try to determine if their focus is on aiding you in finding and nurturing your own inner balance and source of restorative and regenerative potential.

Deepening Connection

A microdose regimen that is entered into with reverence and sincerity for the building of relationship with a plant has similarities to what indigenous cultures, specifically the tribes that ceremonially consume Ayahuasca tea, call a dieta or plant diet.

A plant diet is a commitment to communing with a certain plant daily, in subtle ways, for an extended period of time while upholding lifestyle practices that honor the relationship you wish to make with the plant. Usually there is a supportive diet of healthy and nourishing foods while avoiding stimulants or intoxicants like alcohol, coffee, refined sugar etc, and limited interactions with heavily stimulating or energy-draining inputs such as social media or, at times, other people.

The structure of a plant diet creates a sacred, meditative container that serves as a vehicle for attuning to subtle energies, nurturing deep wounds, accessing inner and collective wisdom, and attaining a more holistic, integrated life. During the diet, one periodically receives support from a Maestro or mentor who aids with the integration of the emotions and increased awareness that may arise.

As is the case with traditional plant dietas, developing an intention and a commitment to actively participate in the dismantling of old, unhealthy, habitual ways of being magnifies the potential for growth and transformation when following a microdose regimen. Developing clear intention can be challenging, but it’s the first step in an ongoing process of opening to and receiving information from our entire being–mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual. An initial intention often arises from a place of mental reasoning or familiar narrative, and these are helpful for the mind to adjust to a process of change; however, tapping into our felt sense of how we want to be on the other side of a protocol or diet can be a technique for accessing more of our whole being including the memories (e.g. epigenetic imprints) held within our bodies that dictate much of how our nervous system reacts to our environment, attracting us to what we desire or rejecting what we fear.

Healing lies in compassionately being with our fear, grief, anger, and shame. Noticing imbalances or reactivity and bringing self-compassion to internal resistance allows us to tune into what feels authentically true. With this heightened awareness and self-love we can choose to mindfully shift the intention of our practice in ways that feel nourishing. In this way, we are always recalling our original intention while simultaneously allowing whatever arises in us to be felt.

While tracking the nuances of one’s current situation can help with making adjustments, having a broad view of our lives gains us perspective on where to navigate. Ultimately, microdosing plant medicine can help us tune into an innate capacity to return to balance and regain a healthy homeostasis. The following categories and prompts can be helpful for considering what it is we are balancing and where it is we are over or under subscribed in our lives:

Body: e.g. food, exercise, movement, sleep, sensuality, clothing, sickness, tension, self-care.
Mind: e.g. past worries, memories, thoughts about the future, anxiety, emotional strengths, emotional wounds, fears, joys.
Spirit: e.g. spiritual practice, belief, connection to nature, faith, gratitude, values, birth, death, dharma, religious texts, stillness, retreat.
Community: e.g. family, friendships, relationships, vulnerability both when and how, self-centeredness, lack of centered-ness, too much focus on others, introversion, extroversion.
Environment: e.g.home, city, town, physical elements, weather, cardinal directions, landscape, climate, ecological awareness, time in nature, cleanliness at home, plants, art.

Integration

An integration practice, that is how one chooses to stay connected with and incorporate awareness gained through the use of psychedelic medicines, is viewed by many as where the medicine ultimately takes effect. Traditionally, integration of psychedelic experiences occurred organically through the process of living in community and regularly seeing family, friends, mentors, and elders. In modern society, integration benefits from thoughtful consideration and commitment similar to the engagement with the medicine itself. A trustworthy, experienced guide can help with the planning, commitment, and follow-through.

Integration is the daily practice that helps us make a lifestyle change, break an old habit, or mend some trauma that has been silently running our lives. Integration looks like, one day, responding to a situation differently than you ever have, when you can lay your head down at night supported by a deeper presence than what was, or was not, present before. It is when your creativity and your sense of self-expression seem to have an easier time making it out into the world. By authentically focusing on our own healing the integration process can spontaneously re-align aspects of our lives that have been challenging or draining; even difficult relationships can begin to shift without forcing anything upon them.

Intention, preparing, and integration are paramount to healing.

Sustainability & Reciprocity

Our relationship with the source of our medicine is an opportunity to shift into a mindset of gratitude, gifting, receiving, and reciprocity. The relationship stands in contrast to one that is transactional or exploitative or extractive. This arises from an authentic connection to our environment and especially the living beings which provide us nourishment and opportunities for healing. This relationship is extremely valuable because our treatment of our local, living environment can be a mirror image of how we treat ourselves. Our projections on the exterior world come from within and by examining and nurturing the relationship with our environment we can better see and heal internal wounds. By healing ourselves we heal our communities. Our healthy communities can then, in turn, heal and protect our planet.

There are Earth-based traditions, especially amongst indigenous communities, that have known and practiced this relationship for thousands of years. As plant medicines become more widely discussed and sought after in our society it’s important that access to the environment and to medicine is preserved within these communities, from whom we can learn a great deal about how to respect and learn from medicinal plants and fungi, which are often viewed as sacred teachers within these groups. We can learn from these communities ways of preparing to work with and integrate powerful psychedelic experiences, ways of approaching restorative justice, ways of being in harmonious relationship with the natural world, and much more.

At a minimum, we should all know where our medicine is coming from so that we can reduce harm that arises from its production or acquisition.

Acknowledgements

The deepest gratitude and respect is extended to the many stewards who have supported the growth and strengthening of partnership between plants, fungi and mankind. Infinite gratitude is extended to our plant and fungi teachers.

May all beings be happy and free from suffering.

Footnotes

A typical psilocybe cubensis mushroom is ~0.63% psilocybin by dry weight. Thus, 0.1 grams of dry mushroom would amount to about 0.63 mg of psilocybin.
This can be through any body-centered mindfulness practice that is approached with a spiritual intention e.g. walking, tai chi, yoga, massage, cooking, swimming, gardening, etc.
See The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk.
See Spiritual Bypassing: Avoidance In Holy Drag by Robert Masters

Additional Resources

About the Authors

Resources for Veterans

Podcasts

Books

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall B. Rosenberg
When the Past Is Present: Healing the Emotional Wounds that Sabotage Our Relationships by David Richo
Hold Me Tight: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love by Sue Johnson
My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Mending of Our Bodies and Hearts by Resmaa Menakem
Your Symphony of Selves: Discover and Understand More of Who We Are by James Fadiman, Jordan Gruber

Music

References

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