What is psychedelic microdosing?

 So let’s talk about microdosing (or as we say in Italian, microdosaggio). This term refers to the use of psychoactive substances in quantities lower than the threshold after which you’d feel a psychoactive effect. But why would you ever want to take a substance, normally used for tripping, in quantities so small as to have no evident effect? Considering how fast this practice is spreading, there must be a reason for it, so today I’m going to explore this modern mode of psychedelic consumption and the techniques used to achieve it.

The practice of microdosing

Rather than simply a method, it would be more correct to define microdosing as a practice in itself, as it requires commitment to a cycle that lasts not hours or days but weeks, with regular doses and waiting periods. But before getting into detail on how to microdose, let’s delve into the motives one might have for consuming low-level quantities with subliminal effects, effects which might not be evident but are perceptible nonetheless.

Superpowers!

What does microdosing make possible for these athletes who are constantly striving to exceed their own limits? Sensorial sharpness for one thing, as in visual clarity and optimal perception of colours. Then you have the improved sense of physical equilibrium, mental clarity and heightened concentration. General motivation also increases along with one’s ability to relax, one’s capacity for energy and resistance to exhaustion. All this might seem incredible, but it’s true. Obviously, we’re talking about trained athletes who already work hard on a level unimaginable to an amateur. Micrososes aren’t magical capsules but instruments which allow people to refine their already well honed senses and general performance. The most popular strain however, is the blue meanies magic mushrooms.

According to the testimonies gathered over the last 40 years on the use of microdosing in extreme “underground” sports, psychedelics like mushrooms and LSD can enhance your reflexes to “lightspeed” levels, improve balance to perfection, and sharpen concentration to “tunnel vision”, rendering you impervious to pain and weakness. These effects are almost legendary in the underground extreme sports community. The consensus is universal and uncontested.

Interestingly, there are some striking similarities between these athletic preparations in a state of consciousness expanded by microdosing and what professionals tend to call “being in the Zone” – a fabled “state” of acute perfection in which athletes report somewhat psychedelic effects. These might include a sensation of time slowing down and extraordinarily coordinated movements taking place without thought. In fact, athletes and regular individuals alike – without microdosing – experience these same effects in moments of intense adrenaline discharge in the body. Think of the classic “fight or flight” response, in which one enters a decidedly abnormal perceptive state which enhances both the speed of one’s thoughts and bodily responses.

Within the microdosing range – which we’ll get into shortly – these sporting results are obtained with quantities on the verge of the psychoactive threshold. The applications we’ll now talk about, on the other hand, require much lower doses.

Microdosing for anyone

Magic mushrooms microdosing is perhaps most known for the less extreme (though maybe more concrete and interesting) effects anyone can obtain during their own daily activities. Concentration, empathy and sociableness, greater relaxation, sense of peace, creativity, introspection, better humour and problem solving to name a few. The athlete’s perception of time “slowing down” might be more impressive in its power to make one perceive otherwise hidden details during performance, but I believe the value of these “smaller” things I just listed poses a much larger array of benefits. Most importantly though, these quotidian benefits are accessible to everyone.