Understanding the Psilocybin Experience

A sub-perceptual psychedelic experience produces effects that are not yet consciously perceptible. Taking very small amounts of psychedelic compounds to reach sub-perceptual levels in an effort to promote focus, creativity, and improve mental health is often referred to as microdosing.

There has been some research into microdosing that seems to show some promise for size and effects, but also some limitations.

A subtle psychedelic experience produces sensory, cognitive, and physiological effects that are slight but just about perceptible.

Subtle effects are mild enough to easily be ignored by directing your focus towards the external environment, and they may only be distinct or recognizable if you deliberately focus on them.

The overall effect is essentially a sober headspace; your typical experience of the world will be largely maintained, but with subtle cognitive and sensory enhancements or alterations.

The specific effects of subtle psychedelic experiences may include:

• Mild versions of sensory enhancements, such as color enhancement, which makes colors look brighter and more saturated.

• Sensory distortions, such as visual drifting.

• Cognitive effects, such as focus enhancement and intensification of emotions or music appreciation.

• Tactile effects, such as paresthesia, which are spontaneous sensations like fuzziness, tingling, or warmth.

A moderate psychedelic experience induces an overt, though not overwhelming, psychedelic headspace such that your experience of yourself and the world is distinctively altered.

At this level, the effects and the nature of the substance become clear and defined enough that ignoring its action becomes difficult. But people are typically able to engage in regular behaviors and maintain the ability to communicate properly, though there will likely be noticeable impairments in concentration and short-term memory that may be overcome with effort.

Sensory Effects

• Visual distortions, such as distinct tracers following moving objects.

• Symmetrical texture repetition.

• The external environment appearing to warp, melt, and flow.

• Colors in the environment may be not only brighter but shift to a different hue.

• Distinctly present and complex yet not overwhelming geometry may also be present within both a person's open- and closed-eye vision.

• Hallucinatory effects, such as pareidolia, which causes you to see patterns, objects, and faces embedded in textures or scenery, and daydreams accompanied by closed-eye imagery.

Cognitive Effects

• Increased feelings of spirituality.

• Memory and concentration impairment.

• Increased tendency to notice or appreciate common or mundane things that you would normally ignore.

• An increased tendency for your mind to wander from topic to topic and thought to thought.

• It’s also very common to have an increased tendency to perceive things as funny and laugh very easily.

• The proprioception, or your internal sense of the position of your body, can be distorted, and you may perceive your own body as heavier or lighter than usual. You may experience a body high that causes movements or physical touch to be unusually pleasurable, in addition to increased paresthesia.

A strong psychedelic experience creates a fully and massive headspace that significantly alters a person's experience of the world and of themselves.

A person in a strong psychedelic experience may be disinclined to speak or may have speaking patterns that are noticeably different from their sober state.

They may also be disinclined to engage in activities or have great difficulty performing tasks due to impairments in concentration, short-term memory, and motor control.

At this level, the effects are powerful enough that a person will become fully engaged in the psychedelic experience, whether they wish to be or not.

Ego & Identity Effects

• You might perceive yourself as more youthful, less connected to the mundane world, or more primal or animalistic.

• Your ego or personal biases can be suppressed, which can contribute to new realizations or ideas.

• You might have a tendency to view things as important, special, or meaningful just based on a feeling.

• Your ability to think clearly and quickly will be reduced, but the thoughts you have will often seem very significant.

Visual Effects

• Extremely complex psychedelic geometry may be visible within the external environment with your eyes open, which can begin to partially obscure your surroundings, making it quite difficult to see clearly.

• If you close your eyes, this complex and colorful psychedelic geometry will be even more distinct, continuously rotating and shifting along multiple dimensions simultaneously behind your eyelids.

• Internal hallucinations may also occur as you partially disconnect from your external environment and slip into fleeting dreamlike psychedelic scenes and scenarios.

• Objects in your environment may appear to transform or become distorted beyond recognition.

• You may experience synesthesia, a melding of the senses, such as sound might feel like a tactile sensation or be represented in the form of visual geometry.

A heavy psychedelic experience is the upper limit of practical psychedelia.

At this level, the person will be rendered incapable of functioning and communicating properly, leaving them either completely disconnected from the environment or extremely disoriented.

A person in this state will have their experience of the world and themselves completely transformed into something entirely outside of the mundane.

Heavy amounts of psychedelics typically induce a wide range of all-consuming effects, such as:

• Breaking through into a space that is comprised of unfathomably intricate geometric patterns and hallucinatory states, such as contact with autonomous entities and the visitation of imagined realms.

• A complete loss of the person’s sense of self or ego.

• Delusions and occasionally life-changing spiritual or transpersonal experiences.
  

The specific effects of heavy experiences can vary significantly from person to person, substance to substance, and even session to session for the same person with the same substance.

An extreme psychedelic experience causes effects that are so powerful and pronounced the person will typically be rendered unconscious and amnesic for a prolonged period of time, usually with highly exaggerated and uncomfortable physical side effects.

At this level, the person will experience the effects typically associated with the previously described heavy level during the onset and offset of their trip. During the peak, however, they will simply black out and become unconscious.

(this level of intensity will be avoided within the context of Psilocybin facilitation sessions)