The Seeker’s Guide to Magic Mushrooms

Magic mushrooms, also known as shrooms or psilocybin mushrooms, is an umbrella term for over 200 species of fungi that contain the psychoactive molecule psilocybin.

They grow on nearly every continent and have been used by indigenous groups as a religious sacrament since ancient times. Nowadays, they are consumed far and wide as both a recreational psychedelic and for their therapeutic properties.

Magic mushrooms can be eaten raw or dried. They can be brewed into a tea or ground into a powder and taken in a capsule.

Depending on the dose and individual characteristics, taking magic mushrooms can result in anything from a joyful trip with plenty of giggles to a profound mystical experience which can be leveraged for spiritual growth and healing.

Magic mushrooms are likely one of the oldest psychedelics known to mankind.

Cave paintings made by indigenous Australian peoples around 10,000 BCE suggest that mushroom-induced trances were a part of their culture. In Europe, earliest evidence we have of the use of magic mushrooms are rock paintings found in Spain dating back to 4,000 BCE. In Africa, similar artistic depictions were found in Sahara and are estimated to have been created around the year 5,000 BCE.

The most interesting part of the magic mushroom history is probably their use by pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations such as the Aztecs and the Maya. There is abundant evidence available which shows that Teōnanācatl (a kind of psychedelic mushroom) was used for ritualistic purposes by these cultures - to establish contact with deities.

Many indigenous cultures in Mexico still use magic mushrooms in religious ceremonies. In fact, this is how they became known to Westerners - when Gordon Wasson met Maria Sabina, a Mazatecan mushroom shaman, in the 1950s. He published his experience in Time Magazine and helped launch magic mushrooms into the mind’s eye of a global audience.

Along with LSD, magic mushrooms became a staple of the hippie counterculture movement in the 1960s and 1970s. After the criminalization of all psychedelics in 1971, mushroom use went underground, but it hardly declined. To this day, magic mushrooms are among the most commonly used psychedelics worldwide.

Magic mushroom trips can last for a relatively long time – between two and eight hours, and they can range from mild and amusing to life-changingly spiritual.

The strength of the trip will depend on: the nature and potency of the strain of mushroom and the dose consumed, individual weight and body chemistry, how empty the stomach is upon consumption, mindset at the time of tripping, trip setting, and a few other factors.

The effects take some time to be felt, as the mushrooms need to go through the digestive tract and start getting metabolized. The come-up is easily noticeable, with distinct changes in perception and a feeling of expansion in the headspace.

The trip itself can come in waves of increasing intensity. Open-eyed and closed-eyed visions are common, but don’t always happen and aren’t always intense. This depends mostly on the dosage and strain of mushrooms.

True insight and spiritual growth requires dedication - doing the mushrooms in a quiet environment and without much interaction with others leaves space for deep introspection.

Otherwise, magic mushrooms can also be used to simply have more fun at an event or gathering; as they allow music to be perceived with more depth (and as visualizations, behind closed eyes), they are a popular choice at music festivals.

The main psychoactive molecule in magic mushrooms is psilocybin. Within the body, psilocybin is rapidly converted into psilocin, which is the molecule that actually creates the psychedelic effects.

Psilocin mainly activates serotonin receptors. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter involved in the regulation of mood, sleep, and appetite, among many other things. Psilocin activates the 5-HT2A serotonin receptor most strongly, and it is this receptor that is most highly linked to the hallucinogenic effects of magic mushrooms.

What’s interesting is that magic mushrooms, as well as a few other psychedelics such as DMT/ayahuasca, LSD, mescaline, ibogaine, and MDMA, all work on the serotonergic system, and most of them on the same kind of receptor. This may very well explain their efficiency in helping with psychological conditions such as depression and anxiety, which are understood to develop due to a malfunction of that system.

Another interesting factoid about psilocin is that it’s basically DMT—its chemical formula is 4-HO-DMT. Unlike freebase DMT, which gets quickly broken down in the stomach, the four hydroxy radicals attached to it in psilocin possibly provide some protection and allow it to pass through the gut and enter the bloodstream. And, just like in ayahuasca, magic mushrooms also contain beta-carboline alkaloids, which additionally allow psilocybin and psilocin to last longer in the body [1].

Aside from psilocybin, psilocin, and the beta-carboline alkaloids, magic mushrooms also contain two other psychoactive molecules called baeocystin and norbaeocystin. They are all derived from psilocybin.

The distinct concentrations of all of these compounds are responsible for different strains of mushrooms having different psychoactive effects.

After ingestion, it takes around 20 minutes for psilocybin to be converted to psilocin, and start to spread around the body and brain [2]. Psilocin is then rapidly broken down by the body, with almost all of it gone after 6 hours. It is practically undetectable in the body after 24 hours [2], which means that drug tests can’t pick it up unless they look specifically for psilocin in the narrow time window while it’s still present.

As noted, different species of magic mushrooms contain different amounts of psychoactive compounds. Also, it’s important to note that mushrooms within the same species may vary in their psilocybin content, and even different parts of the mushroom (stems and caps) will contain slightly different levels of active compounds [3].

Unless you know exactly what species you are eating and exactly how potent the batch is, a safe rule of thumb is that your dried mushrooms will contain anything between 0.5% and 2% of psilocybin. A moderate magic mushroom trip happens when you take around 15-25mg of psilocybin. Usually, this means ingesting around 1.5-3g of dried mushrooms (depending on the species).

Fresh mushrooms contain a lot of water, so if you want to take fresh magic mushrooms, you’ll have to ingest a higher dose than with dried mushrooms. Different species have different water contents – however, you can roughly estimate that dried mushrooms will be around ten times more potent than the same weight of fresh mushrooms. So a moderate dose of fresh mushrooms will usually be in the 15-30g range.

Psilocybin is also present in a type of magic mushroom known as “magic truffles.” This is an earlier stage of fungal development, and several different species of psilocybin mushrooms can grow into a truffle stage that also contains psilocybin. Magic truffles are legal in the Netherlands, and can be purchased online in many countries.

Truffles tend to contain more psilocybin than magic mushrooms, so a suggested moderate dose of fresh magic truffles is 10-15g. Truffles also contain more water than mushrooms, so when dried they will be more potent per weight than magic mushrooms.

Many scientific studies and numerous trip reports available online tell us that magic mushrooms may be effective in the treatment of various psychological disorders, including depression, anxiety, addiction, and PTSD. Aside from these conditions, they have also been found to help with headaches and cluster migraines.

Presumably, the beneficial effects of magic mushrooms on these impairments boil down to two major points:

• their biochemical effects on the serotonergic system, which are similar to how pharmaceuticals often used for treating them work, but without the harmful side effects and and dependency;
  
  
• their spiritual effects, which help users gain insights into their conditions and catharsis normally unattainable while actually ‘stuck’ inside the symptoms.
  
  

Healthy users can also benefit immensely from magic mushrooms; the psychedelic trips can catalyze spiritual growth and emotional release, shed dysfunctional patterns of thought and action, and bring more balance and groundedness into daily functioning.

Many reap benefits from magic mushrooms without going through a full-on trip as well—microdosing mushrooms has proven helpful in attaining focus and boosting creativity, allowing for more productivity while retaining full responsiveness and lucidity.

Brain imaging has suggested that psychedelics like magic mushrooms could treat OCD because of their effects on the serotonin system. Scans of the brains of 15 sufferers of OCD showed that they were likely to have a serotonin deficiency in some brain areas ^[21].

In the first human trial of magic mushrooms for the treatment of OCD, nine sufferers were given varying doses of psilocybin and sat in a quiet room for eight hours ^[22]. All nine participants showed improvements in OCD scores over the next 24 hours; however all had returned to their previous OCD symptoms during the following six months.

We definitely need larger scale, long-term studies to understand for certain the potential benefits of using magic mushrooms to treat OCD. But the internet is full of accounts from people who have used magic mushrooms to treat their OCD symptoms; including comedian Adam Strauss, who has written a successful play (The Mushroom Cure) describing his experience of using shrooms to successfully improve his life conditions.

There have been several studies on the potential of magic mushrooms to treat alcohol and tobacco addiction.

A pilot study showed that psilocybin could help people quit smoking. 15 heavy lifetime smokers, who on average had tried to quit six times before, were given three doses of psilocybin across a 15-week treatment course. Six months later, 12 of them were no longer smoking ^[23]. A long-term follow-up showed that 10 out of 15 people were still abstaining after more than 12 months ^[24].

These findings show that magic mushrooms could be a more effective treatment for tobacco addiction than other therapies, that usually only show a 35% success rate after six months ^[23].

Finally, one small preliminary study showed that giving psilocybin to ten people with alcohol dependence significantly reduced their drinking days over the following six months ^[25]. Although the psilocybin therapy was in conjunction with psychotherapy, this finding suggests that magic mushrooms could be used as a safe and effective treatment for alcohol dependence.

Cluster headache is one of the most painful medical conditions in the world. Sufferers experience excruciating headaches that last for hours and can repeat daily for months. Typical treatments have very little success, as we don’t really know why cluster headaches happen.

Magic mushrooms (and other psychedelics) have been shown to be highly effective at stopping cluster headaches once they’ve started. ^[26] They can also help prevent future attacks more effectively than any of the other common treatments. This approach is known as “Cluster Busting” and has been adopted by an increasing number of people. In some cases, a single mushroom is enough to abort an attack. ^[27]

Magic mushrooms or just pure psilocybin have become very popular with the microdosing community as well. Taking miniscule amounts of the drug allows users to experience many psychological benefits without the psychoactive effects, which normally overtake the full-dose magic mushroom trip.

Maintaining a magic mushroom microdosing regimen is reported by many to enhance creativity, raise the overall mood and energy level, help with focus and productivity, and improve relational skills, as well as to reduce anxiety, stress, and contain depression. Using magic mushrooms this way can also help people live more mindfully and boost sensory perception and spiritual awareness.

There is not much research available on microdosing, but a recent study, which surveyed 98 microdosers, found increases in reported psychological functioning across all measures on dosing days but did not find that the effects persisted on following days ^[28]. The researchers also reported “reductions in reported levels of depression and stress; lower levels of distractibility; increased absorption; and increased neuroticism.”

Microdosing magic mushrooms or psilocybin is done by taking approximately 1/10 of a regular dose every three days. Maintaining space between microdosing days is important in order not to develop tolerance. After a few weeks to a month, a longer break should be made.

The effectiveness of magic mushrooms in treating psychological conditions is due to the profound spiritual experience that they induce. Research has shown that the intensity of the spiritual experience that accompanies a psychedelic trip is directly related to its healing benefits ^[18][29].

It’s hard to pin down exactly what a mystical experience is, as one of its characteristics is the difficulty in describing it. Mystical experiences usually involve a sense of realization or awakening, an encounter with some kind of universal truth or entity, and a sense of interconnectedness or timelessness. People often report mystical experiences giving them a fresh perspective on life, helping to give them new purpose or motivation to make positive changes.

You can start to understand why the mystical experience might be linked to healing after reading some magic mushroom experiences:

Having a spiritual experience with magic mushrooms can do so much more than treat a single physical or mental condition. It can transform your life by offering a connection to numinous realms, and provide you with a sense of meaning, purpose, and fulfillment.

Although magic mushrooms are illegal in many places, they’re also legal to grow in some countries, and even if your country prohibits the ingestion of magic mushrooms they could be legal to grow for ornamental purposes. Check your local laws before growing magic mushrooms – we do not recommend illegal activities.

Since mushrooms can grow in almost any humid environment, they’re relatively easy to grow at home, if you can find a place to obtain spores. Many countries allow you to purchase magic mushroom spores or grow kits online – check your local laws, and remember that magic mushroom laws are likely to change!

Growing mushrooms at home requires you to set up a sterile environment in which to inoculate your spores, then allowing the mycelium to colonise a growing substrate, and finally keeping your ‘cakes’ in a moist environment in which they can ‘fruit’ and start producing mature mushrooms.

The required materials and tools for this process are relatively easy to get, and won’t cost you much money. The most difficult part of the process is often finding good quality spores. Pre-colonized grow kits are also available online, and they are extremely easy to use; however, as they already contain some psilocybin, they are not as legal to ship.

Finally, if you don’t want to go through multiple attempts at growing your own mushrooms, you can go out and forage for them if you live in a damp climate! Just make sure that the physical features of the mushrooms you are picking match those of the psychedelic species.

The first thing you must do is decide how best to take magic mushrooms. Although some people choose to take magic mushrooms on their own, without a facilitator or sitter, we don’t recommend this path. Magic mushrooms are powerful and it’s always best to at least have a sober sitter—or, preferably, an experienced facilitator.

There are many magic mushroom retreats that offer the opportunity to take shrooms in a guided, ceremonial setting, where the safety and comfort of participants is a priority. These vary in the amount of luxury they provide, and the degree of mysticism involved in the ceremony. Although retreats can be ideal for beginners, you should consider whether the retreat offers what you’re looking for:

Once you have settled on the retreat that looks right for you, it’s important to ensure the trustworthiness of the retreat and its facilitators.

The effects of magic mushrooms are profound and can take you to a very vulnerable state. Because of this, you must have complete trust in the facilitators who will be overseeing the space and guiding you in your journey.

Some retreats will be driven by profits, while others will take their healing responsibility more seriously. You can easily do some online research to get an idea of how well-trained and respectable your facilitators are. The more time you invest in your own research, the higher the likelihood of avoiding insincere retreats.

Whether you’re attending a retreat, or tripping at your own home, it’s important to do some preparation for the experience.

Many retreats will have a set plan for your preparation, including a diet, meditation practices, or group sharing circles and workshops.

If your retreat doesn’t have a preparation routine, or if you’re tripping on your own, we recommend familiarizing yourself with these common practices that could help maximize the effects of the magic mushroom experience.

Dieting and abstinence are often used together with spiritual practices in order to amplify the benefits you may receive from the experience. Avoiding TV, social media, unhealthy foods and sexual activity could help you get the most out of your trip, but are by no means necessary for everyone.

Ideally, you should spend the days preceding your ceremony engaged in activities like yoga, meditation, mindfulness practice, prayer, journaling, and solitary walks in the woods. Begin spiritually communing with Nature before your date-night with her, when you will fling open the doors to direct communication with the mushroom spirit.

Being in a mindful place will help you immeasurably in your magic mushroom experience. Even if you’re not comfortable with a spiritual approach to preparation, reflect on whatever is important to you in preparing for a ceremony.

Setting intention is a crucial part of any psychedelic journey, and spiritual practices can help you to do this. Developing a clear goal for what aspects of yourself or the world you are hoping to visit during your experience will increase the likelihood of taking something positive from it.

Be sure not to confuse “intentions” with “expectations.” You may spend days or weeks setting a very clear intention, only for magic mushrooms to decide they won’t be answering that question for you this time. Consider your intentions like a foundation – some firm ground to come back to if you get lost. But don’t expect for those intentions to act as guidance which magic mushrooms will follow. Be prepared to lose control and be taken in unexpected directions.

It’s possible to encounter shocking, unpleasant, or disturbing sensations and thoughts during a magic mushroom experience. That is natural: most of us are not accustomed to coming into such close contact with profound spirit medicines, and it is unusual for people to have a purely comfortable experience with absolutely no challenges.

The key to not letting the intense or negative parts of the experience overwhelm you is letting go. Being able to release control and trust that you will be looked after.

This isn’t to say that you should be able to conquer your fear of the situation. Fear is a natural response to intense experiences and, in the words of Terence McKenna:

“[The fear] marks the experience as existentially authentic. [...] A touch of terror gives the stamp of validity to the experience because it means, ‘This is real.’ We are in the balance. We read the literature, we know the maximum doses, and so on. But nevertheless, so great is one’s faith in the mind that when one is out in it one comes to feel that the rules of pharmacology do not really apply and that control of existence on that plane is really a matter of focus of will and good luck.” ^[34]

So, it is expected for you to feel fear when you are thrown out of your normal framework of understanding, because suddenly all that solid ground under your feet becomes a vast drop to somewhere completely unknown.

Being able to accept this new and scary situation is important. Rather than flailing around and scrambling for some essence of solidity in the void beneath you, remember that this is a natural part of the psychedelic experience, and what will help you is to let go. Accept the fear, accept this scary new reality, and let it happen to you.

Remember that you are being looked after, you are safe; and embrace the pains and joys of the experience. Many people recommend giving up your sense of self to magic mushrooms, and remembering that they know best. Take every lesson they give you with humility and openness.

Once you begin to come back to earth, take notice of your surroundings, and the ways in which you feel you have changed. Your facilitators may undertake some cleansing rituals with you, to close the ceremony in a gentle and careful manner.

For many people, the time just after their first magic mushroom experience feels like a new beginning. The world may feel refreshed, or you may feel as if some of your demons or troubles have been exposed and cleansed. You may have been given a new purpose in life; or perhaps just reminded of the one you’ve always had.

In many ways, magic mushrooms put you at the start of a long road. There will always be so much more to learn, so many more ways to change, and so much more healing to do.

Psilocybin is a scheduled substance in most of the world, with a handful of exceptions.

Most well-known exception is likely the Netherlands, where magic mushrooms were fully legal up until their possession and commercialization was declared criminal in 2008. Still, after the new regulation was passed, psilocybin remained legal—only in the form of truffles.

A few other European countries, such as Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Spain, have a more lenient stance toward psilocybin use, but have not officially decriminalized it. Portugal, on the other hand, has psychoactive substance possession and use decriminalized.

Notably, the US seems to slowly be opening up to the decriminalization and medicalization of psilocybin. Three cities so far have passed drug reform on this front: Oakland, CA, Santa Cruz, CA, and Denver, CO. Hope is that more cities and states will follow suit as the global North embraces the scientifically validated therapeutic potential of psilocybin.

Mexico, which has an ancient history of magic mushroom rituals, holds their use officially illegal, with the caveat that indigenous ceremonies are allowed. A few other countries in the region, such as Jamaica, the British Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, and Samoa, have psilocybin unregulated and available to purchase from independent vendors.

Likewise, in Southeast Asia, despite psilocybin being officially illegal, a few countries, such as Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Indonesia, have created magic mushroom offers catering to their Western tourists' demand. Mushroom shakes are a known psychedelic treat in many tropical areas of these countries, and their sale is apparently permitted by the authorities, likely thanks to a mutual agreement of sorts between them and the vendors. Still, raids and arrests have happened in the past, so it is never fully risk-free.

With the right mindset and setting, magic mushrooms are perfectly harmless, even in moderate to strong doses. Only by mixing psilocybin and other substances, doing mushrooms in an unsafe/overwhelming environment, or doing them at some really fragile point in time can they cause some harm. It’s always recommended to have a sober sitter present.

Every psychedelic experience can be traumatic. That’s why approaching it with a proper mindset and in a proper setting, preferably with someone to administer psychedelic harm reduction if needed, is crucial to having a good experience.

However, the “bad trips” are integral to psychological growth: they can teach us about our fears and weak spots. It’s important to try to embrace them rather than resist them in order to avoid spiraling into a traumatic episode.

Psilocybin and psilocin are not included in most standard drug screens. However, they are sometimes included in extended drug screens. Both psilocybin and psilocin are usually flushed out of the system within a day, but they can stay detectable in hair for up to 90 days.

Buying anything that contains psilocybin is illegal almost globally, with a few exceptions. However, magic mushroom species grow in all sorts of conditions, so in many parts of the world it’s possible to forage for them.

Just make sure you identify your mushrooms properly, because some species can be dangerous. Here’s a tip: the psychedelic ones often have long, narrow stalks and short, conical caps.

That’s a hit and miss. It’s best to have some after not having eaten for four or more hours. Tip: soaking the magic mushrooms in a citric liquid for 15min before eating will start the conversion of psilocybin into psilocin and this can make for a more potent and stable trip.

This really depends on your personal preferences and intentions, and whether strongest means best to you or a certain trip character is a priority. Some mushrooms are more visual, some make people more pensive and introspective, others are good for socializing or attending music events, while some require peace and quiet. Experimenting is the key to finding perfect strains and dosages. An ideal starter mushroom is the tried and true Psilocybe cubensis.

Mushrooms are generally not too demanding to grow, and it’s especially easy if you obtain a ready-for-use growth kit, but Psilocybe cubensis are among the most widespread magic mushrooms, which means they are happy in a range of conditions and are therefore quite easy to grow.

It is, but psilocybin/psilocin tolerance is significant. A much higher dose is often needed on the following day, but after more than one day the compound is almost completely cleared out of the system and it’s possible to achieve similar effects with similar doses.

This is a resounding NO.

Perhaps, and perhaps not. Nobody can say this. Even with high-potency mushrooms, people can experience different levels of visions, and some none at all.

We do not advise anyone to go into a magic mushroom journey with expectations of spectacular visions, or any kind of expectations, really.

We wrote this guide so you could arrive at an answer to this question. You should have a good idea of whether they are right for you after a read-through.