Microdoses of LSD and mushrooms as an alternative to Adderall (or coffee!)

boing
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On topic, I find that even very large doses of LSD precipitously increase my depth and breadth of attention and memory. The attention part is, I think, my natural response to the delirium effect of the drug, I need a really big does to get past that stage and lose myself or give myself over to the trip without… fighting it (that’s not quite right but maybe you know what I mean).

The coolest effect is by far the detail and precision of active memory, for both short and long term recall. In normal life I have a terrible to middling memory most of the time, but on acid, I seem to be able to hold very large logical structures in my mind at any one time and sort of ‘see’ the whole thing all at once, while it shifts and evolves with whatever task I’m involved in.

Mushrooms, not so much.
I either fight them in a sort of losing battle of attrition until they finally take over or, if I prepare properly, feel like they dissolve my higher brain functions almost right away, forcing me to resort to intuitive functionality.

Smaller doses of LSD have pretty much the same effect as larger doses in that I feel like not very much changes apart from the increase in upwelling of memory and creativity but smaller doses of mushrooms are, for me, very effective.

A small dose of psylocin seems to be my panacea. Attention is sharpened, stress alleviated, concentration is boundless, bodily aches and pains evaporate, creativity is so overwhelming that the only problem I’m left with is how to record all of the ideas that stream through me. I feel stronger and lighter, I am able to run further and faster with very little appreciable fatigue, my reactions feel lightning fast. Colours are deeper and brighter, visual acuity is through the roof, hearing is more attuned and sensitive.

Ordinarily, my musical ability is shockingly bad but with a small dose of mushrooms I seem to be able to remember and (I don’t play any instruments really) hum back a tune I heard hours ago. I can hold a tune in my mind, I can ‘hear’ the music (something I’m told that musical people can do all the time but which is completely alien to me without mushrooms), I can choose parts to play back or put on loop. I can add effects to the imagined sound, I can play multiple parts of the music back to myself at the same time, pick out instruments and listen to them alone or together. Some of my musician friends tell me this is completely mundane and ordinary for them, but I assure you it is like magic to me!

Damn, I could use some psychedelics right about now.

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Bromo dragonfly. Am on my stupid phone at work or I’d link you, but erowid/blue light et al will explain.

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Anyone else listen to the Reply All episode? Sounds like they were taking doses quite a bit higher than what would be a subperceptibal dose for use on an ongoing basis.

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Did you dose LSD in the evening? Staying up all night because you’re tripping sounds like a recipe for unpleasantness whether the trip itself has a hangover or not.

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I love smoking kippers, but they are awfully hard to keep lit.

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Stoke me a clipper, I’ll be back for Christmas!

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LSD is amazingly non-scary, we’re just still dealing with the aftermath of another ‘Reefer Madness’ type hype machine that was completely non fact-based.

Now alcohol…that’s terrifying shit.

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I dunno. I had a bunch of bad LSD cut with speed as a young man. Never really enjoyed the eight or so hour ride. I’m too high strung though. Things that mellow you out are better for me.

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I once managed to procure some tibetan-style, finger-rolled hash from a hippy sort of fellow, just returned from India. He assured me that it was the kind used in a Buddhist ceremony. Whatever, it was one of the most extraordinary highs I’ve ever felt, calming without the couch-lock, uplifting without any delirium.

I’ve since had stronger stuff but never anything that balanced and effective. Wish I’d been familiar with meditation back then, I can only imagine what it would have done to the process.

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If only we had access to such magic things?

That said, states with legal cannabis of various sorts are doing a lot of work on different breeds for effects and consistency. It’s amazing compared to the BC weed of my youth (so I hear).

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If only. :slight_smile: When you consider the sheer number of varieties of cannabinoids that vary throughout different strains, science has a lot of catching up with the traditional cultivators of the plant to do.

I guess a few thousand years of tweaking the genetics the old fashioned way has its advantages.

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Well, yea. I was a school kid. Have you had better luck otherwise.

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I dunno. I had a bunch of bad LSD cut with speed as a young man. Never really enjoyed the eight or so hour ride. I’m too high strung though. Things that mellow you out are better for me.

I think I found part of your problem! :wink:

But yeah, that’s more Girl Scout Cookie territory (I like that strain!)

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You need more oxidizers.

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We have impregnated this man’s smoked kipper with shaved magnasium. Let’s see what happens!

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High CBD variants are good for stress/anxiety and back pain.

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I’d say some lox could be helpful here.

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Re. that Reply All episode: Their problem is they are both previous psychedelic virgins wandering into the micro-dose world 1. without an adept to guide them, and 2. at work, where they have to sneak around since they are using an illegal drug. Even at the microdose level – as they noticed – LSD can definitely shift one’s interactions with the world. Because they are both inexperienced, everything gets filtered through their fear and expectations. The increased ability to observe the world without preconceptions & conditioning somehow morphs into, “You seemed distant,” and now our narrator is already worried…

When the narrator accidentally takes a double dose he begins to notice a light psychedelic trip. Being inexperienced, he once again perceives it as negative, a dangerous slippage from reality (maybe even brain damage!) rather than embracing the new temporary consciousness and seeing what he can learn from it.

Once again, that old psychedelic rule of “watch your set and setting” applies. I suspect most of the voluntary participants in Fadiman’s unofficial study are already experienced psychedelic users before they embark on self-experimentation with microdosing. So they know what to look for and don’t automatically assume that when their consciousness shifts they should start to worry.

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Aye, for many different kinds of pain, even neuropathic stuff like migraines. I seem to remember it having something to do with the way it normalises neuron firing patterns to their average output (or something like that). So if you have any clusters that are firing at elevated rates because of some environmental factor like stress, CBDs can help bring them back into their regular firing pattern.

But back pain is a weird one, I find meditation really seems to sort it out as well. Now, that might just be because of the whole straight back thing, nerve impulses don’t get stifled/trapped etc but I have a feeling that it also has something to do with the kundalini energy stored at the bottom of the spine. Now - again, that energy probably is nerve-based but I can’t help but feel like meditation helps to normalise or redistribute it in some effective fashion.

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I know people who’ve only taken during the day, and people who used to take in the evening, but now only take during the day. Apparently the hangover is just from lack of sleep. They said the next day is generally introspective and ‘up’.

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