Psychedelic Substances - A Pragmatist's Introduction

This post is an ultra-abridged introduction to the use of psychedelic substances, plus recommendations if you plan on doing them. But first - please. read. the. warnings:

Before I even begin this post I want to make it VERY clear: do not use any substances that are illegal where you live. And if you do ignore this warning, then for the love of god, please at least always have someone sober nearby to help if something goes wrong, ideally a trip-sitter, but it can be as simple as a designated driver. With that warning out of the way, here, have a second one:

All substances, both legal and illegal, carry risks. Psychedelics come with the most unique (albeit rare) set of them, with the most important being the triggering of existing mental risk factors. If you (or even a close family member) have schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or anything in the same vein, you shouldn’t come anywhere close to even considering the use of psychedelics... They can trigger those underlying risk factors, and lead to states of psychosis.

And the last warning is that all of these substances act on your serotonin receptors. So if you take SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors), like Prozac, Zoloft, Lexapro, Paxil, Celexa, or Lucox (among others) you should speak to your doctor about the safety of mixing these. There's a risk of Serotonin Syndrome.

Be smart, your health is one of your most valuable assets.

What are psychedelics?

I like metaphors, so lets use one of those to compare psychedelics against what most of you have probably consumed in some way or another already - uppers and downers (speaking very generally).

Let's take a ride down a highway. Now lets take at upper - caffeine, prescription meds like Adderall, or cocaine - they're all the same in this story: these guys accelerate our mental processes, pushing your thoughts and desire to race ahead like a Ferrari on an open highway. The speed is the point.

On the other end of the scale are the downers. These encompass substances like alcohol, cannabis, and most opiates. They create a deliberate slowdown of mental faculties, moving thoughts at the pace of a reliable but aging Toyota Corolla - or a massive camper moving at the pace of care-free. Steady yet supremely unhurried. Enjoying their 1960's playlist, and the snacks that they packed; the calm freedom and the pleasure of good-times are what these drivers living off of.

And last but not least, psychedelics. Psilocybin mushrooms, LSD, MDMA, and DMT which transform the very nature of cognition itself. Instead of going faster or slower, up or down, they ask you take a step to the side (or a leap to the side). So you're driving down the highway in your normal car, but there's a dirt road off to one side, a roadblock ahead, and a horse next waiting by the dirt road. Take some psychedelics and you're leaving your car, getting on that horse, and taking an unexpected journey on horseback. Maybe through fields, maybe through jungle - the journey itself becomes more significant than any predetermined destination.

Stepping away from the metaphor for a second. Psychedelics make various parts of your brain that don't usually talk to each other, do more cross talk. In the below image, coloured regions represent various major brain regions, and the lines represent messages sent between smaller areas (the nodes at the edges):

What's maybe most surprising is that there isn't more activity in total! Zoom on the bottom left's purple and blue regions and you'll see that they talk to themselves so much that the many messages could be mistaken for one thick message. The psilocybin has taken those previously shy regions and made way more chatty. This is perhaps most evident the cross talk between yellow and red and the top, and the two shades of purple.

This is why - when on something like magic mushrooms - you might be able to see a rainbow of colors when someone touches your back. The visual part of your brain, and the somatic parts (touch), are sharing information and getting confused.

Hence stepping off the highway, and journeying into the unknown on horseback.

Why Approach Psychedelics with Intention?

Here's something I wish I'd understood sooner: psychedelics are tools, not toys. Just like you wouldn't use a hammer to drive in a screw, these substances work best when approached with the right mindset.

I've gone down both paths. Taking mushrooms either for escapism or recreation gave me an entertaining couple of hours but not much else. Taking that same substance with the question "why do I keep procrastinating on things I care about?" led to insights that actually changed how I function.

The difference comes down to a simple three-step approach:

1. Set a clear intention before your journey. Something you're genuinely curious about.

2. Relax, and surrender to whatever shows up. Fighting the experience is like arguing with the ocean - best case is it's low tide and nothing happens at all, worst case you drown during high tide.

3. Do something with what you learn afterward. More on integration at the end of this post.

When I approached psilocybin with "if I don't remember my past, what's my identity made of" my final take-away from the day was "my truth is what I understand". I'd figured out a way of creating a self-identity that didn't rely on the historic narratives that most us take for granted (and that I don't have).

You don't need complex spiritual frameworks, just genuine curiosity and willingness to sit with whatever emerges. Sometimes the most powerful messages come through when you're just asking honest questions about your life.

Substance Specifics, and a Journey

I'm ranking the psychedelics I'm familiar with from most experienced (and least intense), to least experienced (and most intense). I don't want to comment on things I have no experience in. Which means I won't be writing about MDMA, mescaline, ayahuasca (oral DMT), or anything not listed below. If you're intent on learning more, I strongly recommend:

• The Psychedelic Handbook by Rick Strassman | A light starting guide.

• The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide by James Fadiman | A more in-depth breakdown, mostly about LSD

• The Drug User's Bible by Dominic Milton Trott | Very general, lots of safety advice. Easily findable with a search like "The Drug User's Bible filetype:pdf"

I'd also like to give you an idea of how carefully I recommend walking this path if you choose to do so - the adage of "start low, go slow" carries weight for a reason.

Psilocybin, or Magic Mushrooms

Mushrooms - often called the "wise man's drug" - are my personal favorite because of their versatility and emotional weight. While LSD (almost) insists that you double your dose when going from beginner to intermediate, dried mushrooms are easily weighed to whatever amount works for you. Common doses ranges include:

• Threshold: 0.25g

• Low: 0.25g - 1g

• Average: 1g - 2.5g

• High 2.5g - 5g

• Very high (aka the "heroic dose", because damn O_o): 5g+

A (probably) 1g dose of these changed how I saw the world. Going from "it's a weird video game" to "everyone is a rich, full person, not just an NPC in my universe" - apparently this is a super common worldview among neurodivergent persons.

If you're going to use any psychedelics, start here. Start at just under 1g. You can then increase the amount you consume by 0.25g - 0.5g every 2 weeks (you have to let your tolerance reset). At that rate 8 trips will have you at the heroic-dose level In under 4 months you can find your comfort zone... That may seem like a long time, but it took me at least a year to get to 5g, and most people's comfort zone is much lower than that. Remember, start lot and go slow.

A psilocybin trip will last from 4-6 hours, with a peak starting at the 1.5 hour mark and ending near 4 hours. But at higher doses there's a good chance you'll experience time-dilation, so it may feel more like 12 hours... or eternity.

LSD

Personally I don't really enjoy this one. It's a longer, more clear, less emotional version of Mushrooms. BUT, it is being used to treat PTSD and various other disorders - so it has just as much value. You can pretty much expect all the same effects, but it will last between 12 and 24 hours (on the extreme end) depending on dose.

50µg is where you're likely to start noticing the effects (and I'd start here if I were you) - this may mean cutting a blotter in half. Depending on how sensitive you are personally, full psychedelic experienced range from 100µg to 500µg.

Personally I've never gone over 200µg. It's a major time-investment, and actually gets a bit annoying at hour 12 when motion is still leaving tracers and you have to prepare dinner.

There's a similar tolerance build-up as psilocybin.

A quick warning: like with a "low" dose of mushroom, if you're not used to it, you may be surprised at the potency.

NN-DMT (or just DMT)

Usually inhaled (although with an MAOI it can be taken orally as in ayahuasca), DMT is famed for being able to transplant you into alien realities. While psilocybin and LSD are likely to modify your current surroundings, DMT gives more of a sense of existing elsewhere. It's also famed for the increased frequency with which alien "entities" manifest.

Open eyed visuals are common, but pale in comparison to close eyed ones.

To highlight the difference. I have aphantasia, meaning no ability to imagine or visualize anything... I lack an inner-eye for all of my senses. This is so complete that if I close my eyes while on a 6g (i.e. very high) dose of mushrooms, I only see black.

DMT on the other hand, when (and only when) my eyes are closed has manifested as a circular geometric rainbow in one instance, and an empty 3D room on another. This sounds unremarkable, but after a lifetime of always-black eyelids, this is astounding and gives me hope that I can "cure" my aphantasia.

So close your own eyes, imagine the most detailed alien world you can... and then turn that up past 11, because now you're actually in that space when you close your eyes on DMT.

Just because the trip lasts about 6 minutes, if you pay attention to your thoughts (instead of just the pretty colors) DMT can invoke important lessons. For example, with a mindset of "healthy letting go", I was made to take back the message:

1. Just relax

2. Enjoy your own growth

3. Just don't over focus on either. There's more to life than both of those

You can expect unpredictability with DMT. Depending on your technique, how long you can hold your breath, whether you're a lifetime smoker, the same amount can give widely varying results. But it is something I would recommend if you have both a safe set and setting, a well measured amount, and someone to look after you nearby.

5-MeO-DMT

This is fuck around and find out territory.

Of all the standard psychedelics this is the one that carries the most risk. Too much can induce vomiting, and it's not uncommon to leave the experience with complete amnesia of what happened. It's also not uncommon to experience flashbacks afterwards (as many as 70% of users experience these).

So yeah. Here there be monsters.

I've done this twice. The first time my Inner Nurturer (Jung's Great Mother archetype) had to step in, hold their hand on my absolutely racing heart, and say "breath, focus here, this is what's real. We've practiced breathing exercises, do those, it'll be okay" - after I had been catapulted into a chaotic and empty void. When I came back from that void, all I could describe it as was "holy shit, what was all that".

And the second time, my Inner Teacher replied to my trip-intention of "you're doing great, keep it up ♥" with "you're doing great, but there's no need to rush ♥".

This is the stuff I fucking carefully use to ask questions of my unconscious (instead of journeys). And only ever in small amounts.

That's all I'm saying about that, because I'd only recommend it to experienced psychonauts, who are looking for something very specific. It's not a bad thing, it's just a lot.

“5-MEO-DMT use is dangerous. This compound is described as 4- to 10-fold more potent than DMT and it may also cause strong side effects. Research suggests it causes extreme serotonin reuptake inhibition and serotonin toxicity in combinations with MAO-A inhibitor is likely and potentially fatal. Some users reported that this drug caused panic attacks and anxiety that lasted up to a few weeks after use.”
~ Puya Yazdi, MD (Reviewed by Ana Aleksic, MSc (Pharmacy)

Integration: The Real Trip Begins When You Come Down

Here's something I wish someone had told me when I started: the real work begins after the trip ends. Getting high is just step one—and honestly, it's the easy part. Integration is where the rubber meets the road.

Think of it like this: psychedelics are excellent at opening doors, but they don't tell you what to do once you step through them. That part's on you. When that geometric rainbow fades or that profound realization about being connected to everything starts to slip away, you've got to do something with it or it just becomes "that weird thing that happened that one time I got high."

Here are some practical integration approaches:

Journaling is your best friend. Write everything down as soon as you can, even if it seems nonsensical, I personally have a trip journal that sits next to me while I visit my younger self. Trust me, you'll forget way more than you think, not unlike a dream (and this is especially true for those among us with SDAM-adjacent memory limitations some of us have). What seemed crystal clear during your journey can disappear in a heartbeat. Especially if your heartbeat was through the roof because of how intense things were.

Try to talk to someone who gets it. Integration circles exist for a reason. Having people who won't look at you like you're insane when you try to explain how your two cats merged into a friendly 8-legged sausage. If you don't have those people, online communities can help. As strange as it sounds, I use the Claude.ai as an integration buddy. I'll start a conversation with things like set, setting, and asking it to be my integration buddy.

Create something - anything. Draw what you saw, compose music that captures how you felt, write a poem. Creative expression often accesses parts of the experience that logical thinking can't touch. I for example, was inspired to write this after single inhale of 5-MeO told me to chill the beans right before dissolving entirely:

Witness Consciousness: Self-seeing
me: "you're doing great, keep it up ♥"
deeper me: "you're doing great, but there's no need to rush ♥"
foundational ‘me’: "♥"

Most importantly, give yourself time. Some insights make sense immediately; others might take months or even years to fully unpack. The goal isn't to force meaning but to remain open to how these experiences continue to work through you long after the chemicals have left your system. Majorly-enhanced neuroplasticity lasts for between 7 and 14 days, some insights and integrations may literally reshape your neural map.

Set and Setting: Not Just Buzzwords, But Your Safety Net

You might have heard "set and setting" tossed around in psychedelic circles (I certainly dropped them above without much thought), but these aren't just fancy terms: they're potentially the difference between a profound journey and an eight-hour panic attack.

Set refers to your mindset. Literally everything you're bringing into the experience. Your mood, expectations, fears, recent life events, and even what you had for breakfast can significantly impact your journey. If you're in a bad place mentally, psychedelics will almost certainly amplify it. They don't create good trips out of bad situations; they magnify whatever's already there. If you've had a crappy week, and want to ask the mushrooms to "let me vanquish me my inner demons", you're going to get a very different experience to an upbeat week and the trip-intention of "show my shadow-aspects, so I can understand myself".

As a tangent that doesn't really fit elsewhere, your own abilities can be considered part of your Set. I wear a ring inscribed with "breath in. hold it. let it go...", I used that as a day-to-day reminder to just breath when things got stressful. And voila, the next time things started heading into bad-trip land I was able to summon that breathing technique. I strongly advocate for trip-assistant tools like wrist-bands with reminders on them (just practice beforehand, because there's no way that you'll remember your ring when staring down the gullet of Cthulhu otherwise). Physical tokens lead to setting...

Setting is your physical and social environment. A comfortable, familiar space where you feel safe is ideal. Nature can be magical, but not if you're constantly worried about strangers walking by. Your social environment matters just as much, the energy of the people around you will absolutely affect your experience. That friend who's always anxious? They might not be your ideal trip-sitter. A trip on an empty beach with your partner, amazing; a walk on that same beach during peak season, solo, probably a recipe for fear. Personally I like sitting in a reclined chair in the sun, listening to Lo-fi with my eyes closed, but you do you ^_^

Before any journey, take time to honestly assess both your set and setting. Are you in a relatively stable headspace? Is your environment controlled and comfortable? Do you feel safe with the people around you? If you can't answer "yes" to these questions, consider postponing until conditions improve. The mushrooms will still be there next month - but your mental health might not be if you force an experience in poor conditions.

Remember: psychedelics don't create experiences, they reveal and amplify what's already there. Make sure what's there is something you're ready to face. Thanks for reading, and remember: do mind me, because everyone is worth listening to.