How to prepare for psychedelic mushroom trip
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All you need to know about mushroom trip: preparation, dosage, side effects, contraindications, recovery after tripping
Disclaimer
Hey Humanity!
Remember! No one guide save you from facing with yourself and your fears.
Mushrooms are not a silver bullet or pill against all problems. Mushrooms are just a tool.
YOU and only YOU are responsible for the possible consequences when using psychoactive substance.
All materials in this article are only recommendations according to our own experience. They are meant to encourage you to think and take responsibility for your actions.
Introduction
Mushroom is a unique tool. It should be used with specific intentions, goals and proper physical and psycho-emotional preparation.
This is not just a way to have fun and look at visual effects. There is much more to it.
In this section we will not talk about psychedelic experiences, because for each person it is a unique, unforgettable and intimate experience.
We'd like to warn you that the effect can be severe or scaring.
Therefore, you should prepare well. Knowing about all the pitfalls you can relax and enjoy magic trip.
Psilocybin mushrooms are powerful stimulant of nervous system. Therefore, in this section we will cover everything you need to remember BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER your psychedelic trip. It will help you to be prepared physically for the trip, maintain emotional balance, and recover after psychedelic experience.
Psilocybin mushrooms are contraindicated
⛔️ People under 18 years.
⛔️ Pregnant women and during breastfeeding period.
⛔️ People with epilepsy or latent epilepsy.
⛔️ People with schizophrenia or latent neuropsychiatric disorders.
⛔️ People with chronic heart disease.
❌ Do not consume psilocybin mushrooms if you are sick (including colds), in post-operative period, or just for fun.
❌ Do not combine with stimulants or alcohol.
How to take psilocybin mushrooms for a psychedelic trip?
You can simply chew on whole dried mushrooms and wash them down with water.
If you don't like mushroom taste you can prepare chocolates with mushrooms. Take a look at Magic mushroom chocolate recipes
Another option of consumption is Magic mushroom tea. Take a look at Magic mushroom tea recipe
Dosage of psilocybin mushrooms for a psychedelic trip
If you have any doubts and fears don't take a trip dose. Your fears are the basis for the Bad Trip.
Check out How to deal and prevent Psychedelic Bad trip section.
Start your acquaintance with mushrooms with smooth and save microdosing.
Check out Psilocybin Mushroom Microdosing Guide.
Don't push yourself. Don't let anyone pressure you in this process. Don't force this path. Your acquaintance with mushrooms should be mutual and calm.
If you decide to take a trippy dose it is important to know the right dosage.
Trip dose depends on many factors:
🔺 Overall tolerance to psilocybin
🔺 Ingestion frequency of psilocybin mushrooms
🔺 Individual features of hormonal and nervous system
🔺 Metabolism
🔺 Different types of mushrooms have different concentrations of psilocybin. For example, Panaeolus is more powerful than Psilocybe Cubensis.
🔺 Terms and conditions of storage of mushrooms. With prolonged storage mushrooms gradually lose the concentration of psychoactive substances.
🔴 The dosage does NOT correlate directly with body weight.
🔴 It is impossible to know and measure the required concentration of psilocybin at home!
Every single mushroom has different psilocybin concentration.
Moreover, small mushroom or mushroom abort can be more powerful than mature mushrooms.
Fresh mushrooms have higher potency than dried. Dried mushrooms can lose up to 50% of psilocybin concentration.
How to store properly, dry and freeze psilolocybin mushrooms you can check in How to dry and store psilocybe mushrooms
❇️ For the very first psychedelic experience 1.5 - 2.0 grams of dried Psilocybe Cubensis mushrooms (or 10-15 g fresh) are sufficient. With such dose your trip will be calm. You'll get acquainted with all its charms and be able to control yourself and overall situation. You won't run away in an unknown direction, you will not harm yourself. Even with Bad Trip symptoms you will be able to cope with it (with help of experienced sitter).
❇️ For the next experiments you can take 2.5 - 3.5 grams of dried Psilocybe Cubensis mushrooms (or 15-25 g fresh). The dosage is individual! It is important to analyze and take into account previous psychedelic experiences. Despite the fact that each trip will be unique and unrepeatable.
❇️ Dosages from 5 grams of dried Psilocybe Cubensis mushrooms (or from 40 grams fresh) and higher can be completely unpredictable and even dangerous for inexperienced person. This dosage can only be afforded by experienced psychonauts.
Use Medical or Jewelry scales to know the exact dose.
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Psilocybin mushroom adverse reactions and entry syndrome
Taking mushrooms can cause a variety of physical discomfort. It can be minimized or even avoided by proper preparation for the psychedelic trip. You must be aware of them so as not to panic.
🔴 Nausea. With a right diet nausea may be minor or absent. It also depends on the dose.
🔴 Stomach pain and gastrointestinal cramps. It would be better to postpone psychedelic trip for a period of exacerbation of gastritis or ulcers.
🔴 Soft intestinal stool. When entering a trip there is often a desire to go to the toilet "in a big way." This is a normal reaction. It is also a mushroom hint that after the trip you should also pay attention to some detox for your body.
🔴 Dizziness. Normal reaction before starting visual effects.
🔴 Fever and chills. This is a normal reaction that lasts about 30 minutes.
🔴 Increased salivation.
🔴 Sweating. It comes closer to the middle or to the end of trip, when the body temperature drops.
🔴 Rapid heartbeat and increased heart rate.
All these are symptoms of the "trip entry syndrome". In general they last up to 1 hour.
After Entry Syndrome all of your senses will be more receptive (sounds, tastes, smells, visuals, tactile sensations).
As you close your eyes you'll see a range of colorful visual effects. Various figures and worlds in the form of mandalas or images of gods and elves. The world will become much brighter.
Everything around begins to move, breathe and the limits of the outer world, the macrocosm, are erased to the borders of the inner microcosm.
Trip timing
❓ When do the first signs of Entry Syndrome appear?
The magic mushrooms begin to work approximately 20-60 minutes after ingestion. Sometimes the first effects are noticeable within 10 minutes.
❓ How long does the psychedelic mushroom trip last?
The psychedelic trip lasts 3-6 hours. After that, the effect of the mushrooms gradually fades away.
The first hour is a "trip entry syndrome", when side reactions appear and a transition to the trip state occurs.
The next 2-3 hours of trip are the brightest and most intense.
Preparing for a psychedelic trip
Proper preparation reduce side effects, which usually appear 20-60 minutes after consumption.
There are 3 important things to take into account before tripping:
- Physical preparation — nutritional diet and general nervous system preparation.
- Human environment — tripping with sitter, in a group of people or alone.
- Set & Setting — preparation of the space and environment for the trip (home space, trip in nature, walking). Psychological preparation, informational diet, psycho-emotional attitude.
❗️During psychedelic trip your brain will work hard. It engages and uses many vital resources in a very short time.
❗️ It is important to prepare your body for such experience, so that during and after the tripping you won't feel weak and exhausted.
Physical and informational preparation before a psychedelic trip
This preparation starts 3 days (preferably 1 week) in advance. Perfect if all or some of these points are the foundation of your life style:
✅ Quit alcohol.
✅ Avoid heavy food. Follow lean vegetarian diet. Eat cereals, vegetable soups, fruits, vegetables, dried fruits, juices, tea. Eliminate meat, fat and fried food. Ideally to do a fasting day before the trip, or even go hungry.
Such diet will relieve the digestive tract and liver. This helps ease the nausea during the trip and provide a cushion for the liver to be loaded during the trip.
✅ Start consuming vitamins or food containing B-vitamins and Magnesium. They are important for nervous and immunity system support. Because your brain will work at its maximum capacity during the trip.
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✅ Practice information hygiene. Exclude stressful news, social networks for your information diet. It would be better to read a good book, watch a documentary, listen to music, playing music, walking, spend time for hobbies.
✅ Try to avoid stressful situations.
Preparation on the day of taking psilocybin mushrooms
You should get a good night's sleep and rest.
It is advisable nothing to eat this day. Psilocybin is more efficiently absorbed on an empty stomach and there will be fewer side effects in the form of nausea. After eating mushrooms your appetite will be instantly reduced to zero.
Better to organize your trip on a weekend. Greta if the next day you have a day-off for rethinking, post-effects, relax and restore your body.
In order not to lose your biorhythms, take mushrooms before 17:00 - 18:00. Then you can fall asleep by midnight. If you take mushrooms in the evening you should understand your trip can drag on for the whole night.
In some situations people specifically take mushrooms at night (silence, nobody disturb you, children sleep, etc.). In addition, in a dark room are always brighter visual effects.
In most ancient cultures the ceremony takes place from sunset to sunrise. A wonderful time of silence when the evening begins and you head out into the night.
If you decide tripping at home, then make cleaning in advance, prepare a relaxing place, candles, calm music, musical instruments, stuff for art etc.
If you are fond of creativity, you may want to draw, play musical instruments, record something during a trip, etc. Have everything you need for a hobby at your fingertips.
Prepare a blanket or warm cloth. During the tripping there will be a feeling of chills due to the increasing body temperature. It can even be during the hot season of the year.
Be sure to prepare mineral water (not soda!) or water with electrolytes to restore the conduction of signals from the nervous system. You definitely need to drink every 30-60 minutes! This is often forgotten during a trip. You don't need dehydration!
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If this is your first time eating magic mushrooms, it is not recommended to go to any parties. Spend this time for observing your feelings. Stay with yourself.
Trip with a sitter
If this is your first time taking mushrooms, don't do it alone. The first trip and the experimental high dose mushroom trips are better to take with an experienced sitter.
The presence of sitter gives a sense of calm and wellbeing. Sitter remains completely sober during the trip. Therefore, you can fully focus on yourself.
Sitter is someone who takes care of you during your whole journey and does so discreetly. He observes and notices your needs, so that you are not distracted by trifles.
For example, he/she will give you a glass of water.
Sitter notices when you are cold and cover you with a blanket.
He/she can calm you down if you are confused. The sitter helps you stay calm and fully experience the trip.
Sitter should not act like a psychologist or psychoanalyst. He is silent for the whole trip, calmly observes, does not distract with conversations and questions.
Sitter shouldn't guide the trip!
The best option for a sitter is a trusted friend of yours who understands how to trip. Or an experienced psychonaut.
Sitter's role is a passive contribution to your trip.
Sitter can guide, soothe, touch you only if something goes wrong and you slide into a Bad Trip. In other cases sitter is a passive observer.
Group trip
If you decide to do a trip with a group of people, do it in a small group. 2-4 people is the best option. Otherwise, you will really interfere with each other and clog the air. Each participant can be on his own wave and it is important not to pull back or interrupt each other.
If no one in the group has experience with psilocybin mushrooms, we suggest choosing a responsible “senior” and that person should take a lower dose than the others.
In a group trip the most important thing is the trust between participants. You must coordinate your actions BEFORE the trip. For example, someone will offer to listen to music, while the other person needs silence. It is important to discuss such things in advance, before tripping.
Trip in nature
Make sure to "pack" a few days before the trip. Fill your brain with interesting information from books, documentaries, or just walk around, reflect and write down your own thoughts and questions. Don't litter your head with trash information.
📍 Plan in advance the location for your psychedelic journey.
☀️ Tripping in nature should be during the daytime.
🚴♀️ Don't drive a car! Before starting a trip, you must clearly think about how you will get to your destination and how to come back home.
🌦 Pay attention to weather forecast and arrange in advance what you need to bring with you in case of rain and some insect protection etc. Regardless of the weather forecast take a warm blanket or warm clothes with you.
🧻 Be sure to take a toilet paper. It is not a joke! The mushrooms will help you with "detox" before entering the trip. You must be fully armed!
💧 Take mineral water (not soda!) or water with electrolytes. You can take hot tea with you in a thermos. Remember to drink every hour.
👥 Inform somebody (for example, your close friend) where are you going. Not necessary with details about the main purpose.
Surrounding area
For most people their first trip is an unforgettable experience. The environment for tripping has a big impact on how you feel during a trip.
The body under the influence of psychedelics has a very subtle sense of nature and space. The weather has a particular impact. Try to eat mushrooms in good clear weather.
The moon and lunar cycles affect the fluids in our body, which make up 80% of our body. Try to refrain from psychedelic trips on the 19-th and 29-th lunar days. You may think this advice is something like esoteric, but it is not. The influence of the Moon on the world's oceans is incredible! So why do you think the Moon does not affect the human body!?
Always start a trip in a pleasant, comfortable and familiar place. It should be calm and safe in this place. Your home is a great place for your first mushroom trip.
You can also go outside, into a garden, park, forest or field.
But the bustling city is not the best place. The tranquility and beauty of nature works much better.
It is not recommended, especially during the first trip, to make contact with the "outside world". For example, appearing in public, calling friends, sticking to the phone, messaging, or going to parties.
Mushroom is not a party psychedelic!
It would be better turn off your phone and do without the Internet, so that you can fully immerse yourself in the atmosphere and focus on your feelings without being distracted.
Set & Setting
It is not recommended to go on a psychedelic trip after a stressful day or a traumatic event. Why?
A trip can focus on negative emotions and events. This can be an extremely difficult journey called the Bad Trip.
A large group of strange people can occur bad influence. Except the groups are led by an experienced shaman.
Examples of favorable settings: nature, where there is no hustle and bustle of civilization; a clean bedroom with dim lights, a pleasant landscape, or a favorite quiet place where no one will disturb you.
Prepare your favorite music, your favorite blanket and things for psychedelic creativity.
Recovering after psychedelic trip
❇️ Drink mineral water or water with electrolytes to rebalance your body.
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❇️ Add vitamins or eat food with high vitamin B for Immune and Nervous System Support.
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❇️ Add vitamins or eat food with Magnesium content.
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❇️ Add vitamins or eat food with high vitamin C content to support your body metabolism after tripping. Drink juices and eat fruits with high vitamin C content (orange, grapefruit, kiwi, pineapple, broccoli, cauliflower).
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❇️ Don't eat too much especially heavy food right after tripping! Prefer light food, fruits, vegetables and gradually move on to heavier food. The principle is similar to the way out of fasting.
❇️ Give yourself good rest and sleep. Healthy sleep is especially important for nervous and immunity system recovery.
Remember, preparing for a trip and recovering after tripping are very important for your health!
Afterword
Reflect and think about questions you would like to be answered during your trip.
Why do you need this experience?
Prepare and tune in for the trip like a real journey. This will be a journey to another world. Let go control and allow yourself to be observer.
Expect nothing.
Allow yourself to meet with yourself without conditional dividing into micro- and macro-
Be prepared for the thought of the trip and its post-effects to accompany you for about a month. It takes more time for insights, rethinking, changes and conclusions...
🔴 Recommended: Bad Trip: How to stay safe? How to reduce the effect of psilocybin mushrooms
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