Heroic Doses of Magic Mushrooms
(More than 5 grams)
The heroic dose is a concept made popular by famous leaders in the psychedelic space such as Paul Stamets, Timothy Leary, Michael Pollan, and brothers Terance McKenna & Dennis Mckenna. It involves taking a high dose (over 5 grams) of magic mushrooms or pure psilocybin.
A “heroic dose” should never be attempted by anybody without proper guidance from a professional, and certainly never alone. A trip sitter or trained psychotherapist is a necessary step when using high doses of any psychedelic substance.
Heroic doses are used to induce powerful hallucinations, reset of the default mode network (DMN), and ego death.
Check out this interview with Dennis McKenna on heroic doses of magic mushrooms.
What Does a Heroic Dose Feel Like?
Heroic doses of magic mushrooms start out with the same progression of the standard psychoactive dosage range. The difference only becomes apparent around 90 minutes after using the mushrooms.
High doses can produce strong dissociative states. While it’s rare for even large doses to cause a complete decoupling with reality in the way other psychedelics like DMT or Ibogaine can produce, high doses often make users feel as though they’re outside their own bodies.
A common experience involves the perception that you’re standing “behind yourself”, watching your body move autonomously through the world beyond your control.
You experience intense visions and hallucinations — some of which can be terrifying at times. Bad trips are much more common at this high dose, which is why it’s important that you have experience with using these mushrooms before even attempting this dose. The intensity of visions can become similar to drugs like DMT or ayahuasca at this dose.
The total duration of effects will be slightly longer when using high doses compared to standard psychoactive doses. The average duration of effects for this dose is around 7 hours.