Lessons in Microdosing
A Few Key Points
‘Grindr’ MDMA pills, photo credit: mixmag
I knew it was going to be a very interesting talk when the woman sitting next to me offered me edibles LOL. I had to say, “no, but thank you so much for offering. I have to work tomorrow but maybe another time.” We exchanged contact information then she started telling me about how she eats edibles at work. She is a PhD researcher at Genentech. Sure, I would like to experiment with edibles, but probably more so on the weekend…
The presentation was titled Microdosing: The Benefits, Risks & Unknowns organized by Psychedelic Seminars at UCSF and the panelists were Dr. James Fadiman, author of The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide and Ayalet Waldman, author of A Really Good Day, How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life. There were a few main takeaways that I thought were worth sharing:
Creative Problem Solving
When you’re on substances like LSD (acid), magic mushrooms (psilocybin) or ecstasy (MDMA), you’re able to hold more variables in your head and you have more time focused creativity. Different parts of your brain communicate in novel ways and you’re able to complete very intellectually challenging tasks. Dr. Fadiman described how in his research, he had people solve problems in architecture, circuit design, mathematics, physics and other fields while on LSD. These were problems that people could not solve otherwise. He also mentioned that Steve Jobs microdosed on LSD when he started Apple.
Gut Health
Dr. Fadiman described how there are more neurotransmitters in the stomach than in the brain and that improving your diet can have great benefits for your mental health, emotional well being, mood, physical performance, healthier sleep patterns, libido and relationships. Our bodies are designed to heal themselves and that we need to nourish ourselves in a way that best allows our bodies to heal without drugs.
Quality Product
You always want to know exactly what your putting in your body so you should always test everything to make sure your ingesting what you think your ingesting. You can buy all kinds of testing kits openly online.
Being in Nature
Dr. Fediman describes how he will often microdose on LSD and take a walk through the woods to clarify his thoughts. I think simply hiking in nature is great for clarifying one's thoughts – I think it’s interesting how people will often do these substances in nature.
Being More Social
Dr. Fediman explained that a lot of people who suffer from anxiety or depression simply need to be more social and spend more time with people – their friends and family – and work on cultivating healthy relationships. And that we should stay away from pharmaceutical antidepressants because most of them just make you fat and make you lose your libido. He went into a long discussion about how the US pharmaceutical industry is very unethical.
Suicidal Thoughts
Ayalet described how she was suicidal and was looking for a permanent solution to end her pain – suicide. Microdosing allowed her to get back to a happy normalcy.
Meditation
I think we’ve all learned about the great benefits of meditation. Dr. Fadiman said that psychedelics are great for people who don’t like meditation. For me, I like meditation and I learned TM (Transcendental Meditation) two years ago and have been practicing it pretty consistently, but I feel like I need more… More of what? I’m not exactly sure – but I was thinking I could get it from psychedelics.
We’re All Different
Both of the panelists emphasized that all our bodies are different and that we all need to find what works best for us. It is important to be very aware of our own bodies and to listen to them.
I left the presentation feeling very inspired to put a greater focus on my diet and nutrition because I learned how it can affect so many areas of my life. Also being more social – spending more time in nature – and meditating more.
Please feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments below or email me at juan@juansjournal.com. Thanks for reading! :)
