For a microdose treatment to be effective, there are four important points to take into account: the intention with which it is carried out, the dose that is ingested, the protocol or pattern of microdose intake to follow, and the integration of the lessons learned .
Intention
The intention with which you perform this practice is essential to gaining benefit from it. Therefore, it is important to ask yourself before starting what you want to work on with this tool. If you need help in this process, we recommend that you read this article “How to find your intention” before starting.
Dose
As for the dose, the threshold of what is considered a microdose varies between one tenth and one thirtieth of what is considered a full dose, where hallucinations occur. However, microdosing must be sub-perceptual and the exact amount can vary from person to person depending on individual sensitivity.
At PrajnaDose we solved this for you and the dose in our treatment is sub-perceptual for the vast majority when the capsule is taken on an empty stomach, and for the rest when it is taken after breakfast.
Protocol
Finally, the protocol refers to the schedule or schedule under which the microdose is to be taken, which by definition includes a day (or days) of consuming the psychedelic substance in sub-perceptual amounts and rest days between these doses for certain cycles.
There are different types of protocols for performing microdoses, but there are two main protocols that are the ones that are based on the largest amount of data and information collected for decades with people around the world who perform this practice. These data have been collected by two well-known people in the world of research with psychedelics and mushrooms in general.
The first is Dr. James Fadiman, who we have already mentioned in some of our previous articles. He is the author of the book "The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide" , a researcher and psychotherapist with more than 50 years of experience in psychedelic therapies in different fields.
The second iconic character is Paul Stamets, mycologist and enthusiastic psychonaut, creator of the famous Netflix documentary "Fantastic Fungi" , author of different books and creator of multiple patents related to fungi in all kinds of areas.
These two people created their own protocols for microdosing and today we are going to talk a little more about their different, but similar, schemes for this practice and in this way, you can see which protocol best suits your needs.
fadiman protocol
Dr. Fadiman's protocol is a very simple, but effective protocol and is ideal for anyone, but especially for people who are starting this practice for the first time.
Day 1: Take microdoses, in the morning, preferably on an empty stomach.
Day 2: Transition day (without microdoses), where the remnants of the previous day remain.
Day 3: Normal day, without microdoses, to return to the baseline and be able to compare changes with the previous days.
This pattern is repeated for at least 4 weeks and can extend up to 8 or 10 weeks.
At the end of the treatment period, it is recommended to leave a minimum of 2 to 4 weeks before starting a new one if desired.
Stamets protocol
Paul Stamets' microdosing scheme is a bit more advanced and for people who already have more experience with this practice. Especially since Stamets microdoses are stacked* with psilocybin, lion's mane, and niacin/vitamin B3.
Lion's mane is a non-psychoactive edible mushroom with many medicinal properties, including helping the formation of new neurons and improving their synaptic connection, making it a great additive to psilocybin microdosing.
The purpose of vitamin B3 (niacin) is to help deliver these two substances to cells throughout the body and to the brain so they can have a greater effect.
The Stamets protocol looks like this:
Days 1 to 4 : Taking microdoses with stacking (fixed and consecutive days of the week)
Days 5 to 7 : Transition days without microdosing, only taking lion's mane
Basically, it consists of 4 days on and 3 days off of microdosing psilocybin, but not lion's mane. This protocol is recommended for cycles shorter than 4 weeks with rest periods between 2 and 4 weeks between treatments for integration and to avoid generating physiological dependencies.
PrajnaDose Protocol
Finally, our protocol is a mixture of these two schemes, being very suitable for all levels. All our microdoses contain some medicinal mushroom, depending on the treatment you decide to carry out.
The protocol we recommend looks like this:
Day 1: Taking microdoses (fixed day, ideally Monday)
Day 2: Transition day without microdosing
Day 3: Normal day, without microdosing
Day 4: Microdose (fixed day, Thursday)
Day 5 : Transition
Day 6 and 7 : normal, baseline
As you can see, the principle behind these microdose protocols is that there is always a rest period between the days of ingesting the psychoactive, so that you can observe the difference between the different states of consciousness, but also so that you do not generate physical tolerance. to the compound, or at least lose it by the end of the week.
There are other protocols, but these are the most used and already have scientific evidence. However, the reality is that in this form of medicine there is no single correct path and it is best to learn which path works best for you. It is only important, if you want to make any modification that best suits your needs, that you take the above into account.
If you want to start with PrajnaDose, click here to buy your microdose . If you have doubts choosing your intention, you can read this other article .
Integration
We recommend you always make some kind of record to follow up on your initial goal, on your microdose days and also on your rest days. Only then will you be able to notice the differences in your mood, energy, focus and in your progress using this tool.
Here we leave you some recommendations to be able to integrate this practice in the best way into your life.
* Stacking : practice of microdosing that consists of joining the psychoactive substance together with one or more non-psychedelic nootropic substances to enhance its effect.
References :
- Hutten et al. (2019). “Motives and Side-Effects of Microdosing With Psychedelics Among Users” https://academic.oup.com/ijnp/article/22/7/426/5509881?login=true
- Stamets et al. (2021). “ Adults who microdose psychedelics report health related motivations and lower levels of anxiety and depression compared to non-microdosers” https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-01811-4
If you are looking for more information, we recommend these other articles that can guide you in this process.