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I am also a regular user of mushrooms these days. My usage of them is definitely different from when I was younger - when I got ahold of them I would always trip pretty heavily and had a blast with them. As you get older, heavy trips just don't seem to be as enjoyable. Too much shit going on in adults lives I think, too many things to think about and it's harder to let go and enjoy the trip. Nowadays, I strictly microdose with them. To make this more streamlined, I will take a whole batch of mushrooms and pulse them into a powder with a coffee grinder, then fill up large capsules with them. This has the benefit of making each pill about as uniformly dosed as possible as long as you fill the capsules with the same amount. With these, you can really dose it the way you want. 1-2 capsules is usually great for a nice microdose. It will even give me energy similar to several cups of coffee, doesn't affect my cognitive ability at work at all, and the afterglow as you said is great.

As far as my personal anecdotal experience, if you can get Steel Magnolias that's the way to go. Penis Envy's are OK too.

I live in the Bay Area and I’m curious about trying mushrooms for personal reasons. I’m not addicted to anything and don’t drink alcohol or smoke or do any other drugs After reading information about mushrooms recently I’ve been interested to try them for personal growth and wellbeing.

Where do you even get them? How do you know how much to take? How do you take them? I’ve tried finding centers to go to where they assist you but can’t seem to find any that aid with it end-to-end.

Normally you would just order spores online and grow them yourself (it's trivial if you're not trying to maximize output, just takes time and some attention), but sadly that's not legal in Idaho/Georgia/California. Not sure what other options are available in CA as far as growing goes. As for the rest, I've found a lot of helpful info on /r/shrooms and shroomery.org. Sometimes people can give conflicting advice, but as with all things it's best to synthesize from multiple sources and figure out what works for you. Start small and be careful.

/r/unclebens for dead simple process with no special equipment.

Technically you can’t get spores delivered to CA. Shipping to a friend in another state is not super hard.

From my experience it doesnt take much, a cap or two and maybe a stem is enough to feel it. Dont do what I did, which is wait half an hour before getting impatient and finishing off the baggy. It can take up to an hour to kick in.

Wish I could tell you where to get them, for me it was 'work in a restaurant'.

> Where do you even get them?

Unfortunately, if you don't want to try and grow them you'll have to get them from someone you know. You could also try the dark web if you really want some, I'm sure you could get some there but if you can avoid that, it would be better. Fortunately it seems like getting mushrooms mixed with fentanyl isn't a thing AFAIK.

> How do you know how much to take? / How do you take them?

Up until recently, I was just eating a small amount - kind of hoping a stem and a small cap would do the trick. Most the times, this would work, but every once in awhile you'll get a small guy that is way more powerful than you think. I've found the best way for me now is to grind them into a powder and fill large fillable capsules with them. You can get several different sizes; I would start with smaller ones at first. The trick is to grind up as much of that batch of mushrooms as possible, as well as you can (I just use a simple coffee bean grinder). This does a good job of making sure each capsule you fill with the resulting powder is as evenly spread as it can be without special equipment. The benefit of this is you will now have 10-30 mushroom capsules with the same efficacy and you can then start with a single one and see how you feel. For your first time, I would not push past a single one. It can also sometimes take up to 3 hours before it really sinks in depending on what you're eating and such, so the first time just do not take another one.

You can join the church of Zide Door in Oakland. It is a weird trip just going over there. Golden teacher is a very well known strain.

They won’t necessarily guide you through the set and setting.

The thing I recommend is to plan a date with yourself. Imagine the time and place you’d like to be in when you get a glimpse of the infinite.

You may wish to go with someone experienced for your first time, or even start with non-hallucinogenic dose and work your way up. (1/4 a hallucinogenic dose causes a barely noticeable pleasant feeling)

I'm in Washington and excited for this development. A few friends and I have been penciling out a business concept for when it is legalized up here. We have an anesthesiologist, a nurse, a private chef, and a paramedic (me), and are all into mushrooms. The doctor owns a large amount of land nearby and wants to set up some yurts or similar, and do guided trips. Nice, but earthy accommodations, a physician if needed for the legality of things, a chef for food through the weekend, and a nurse and medic who can assist with anything that might be needed to reset for the week ahead.

We shall see.

I think your descriptions are accurate, it's very much a catalyst. I'd also say to those who are curious, it is quite difficult to have a "bad" trip, but to be clear, it's certainly possible to have quite "intense" trips, so always a good idea to start gently. Microdosing and going from there can be quite the ride - to me, everything is a little more vivid, real, colors are brighter, etc., but I'm still quite "in the real world".

I wasn't aware that Hacker News was popular among paramedics too. :)

I can never decide whether I’m a paramedic who is a Product Manager or vice versa. Though PM is what pays the bills in large part, so…

Do you think different types of mushrooms have consistent qualitatively different effects? Or is it just varying levels of potency?

Are all the differences due to the ratio of psilocybin to psilocin? Or are there additional molecules that are psychoactive and vary between types?

I've seen a lot of online debate over this question - some believe that psilocin and psilocybin are the only two significant factors, the only differences from this ratio is onset time (one converts to the other in vitro), and all perceived differences between strains are subjective (i.e. people are falsely overgeneralizing their experiences with particular strains).

On the other hand, many seem convinced there are significant differences between types, which to me would indicate there must be additional molecules having an effect.

Isn't it accepted knowledge that all the strains just differ in strength? It's either more or less psilocybin and nothing else in the mushroom would change the type of effect you get. I tried 3 P. Cubensis strains and found no difference.

Surprisingly, among growers, they seem to suggest that all P. Cubensis have the same potency, save for the notorious PE strain which is estimated to be 1.5X as strong.

That's generally right for cubensis, except that variation from fruit to fruit is generally greater than the variation from variety to variety. A notable exception is so-called Penis Envy, which is established to be significantly more potent in psilocybin and psilocin content. That variety also has an interesting origin story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRArM5Ev4EE

Other Psilocybe types, such as semilanceata, azurescens, and baeocystis, differ in that they have more or less of other compounds such as Baeocystin, which some believe have psychoactive effects.

Many people report nonlinear responses to psilocybin/psilocin dosages. For example, 5 grams of dry cubensis is more than twice as strong as 2.5 grams. So it's understandable that stronger varieties have qualitatively different reputations than weaker ones.

Rationally I could see no difference in either micro dosing or 'fun' dosing by comparing a popular Asian with a Mexican strain. They look kinda different tho.