꩜ Shroomulator ꩜

Psilocybin is contraindicated for anyone with a personal or family history of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar I, or any psychosis-spectrum condition — every major clinical trial, including Johns Hopkins and Imperial College London, excludes these individuals. The risk is not physical toxicity but triggering a latent psychotic episode that may not resolve. Active severe depression or suicidal ideation are also exclusion criteria in all published research.

Medications: SSRIs and SNRIs blunt or block psilocybin effects via 5-HT₂A receptor down-regulation — many people on SSRIs report needing 2–3× the normal dose or feeling nothing. Do not taper or stop SSRIs without medical supervision. MAOIs are a separate category entirely: combining with psilocybin can cause serotonin syndrome, a genuine medical emergency. If you're on any psychiatric medication, research that specific interaction before proceeding.Reviewed January 2025

There are no documented deaths from direct psilocybin toxicity in healthy adults (as of 2026). The real risks are behavioural and psychological. Physical: at very high doses, loss of coordination and judgment can lead to accidents. Psychological: an overwhelming experience with ego dissolution, terror, and complete loss of reality anchoring is possible and can have lasting effects.

"Non-toxic" does not mean "safe at any dose." Dose, set, setting, and having a sober presence all still matter — not because the compound will kill you, but because the experience can exceed what you're prepared for.Reviewed January 2025

Cannabis amplifies psilocybin for most people — sometimes dramatically. Many unexpectedly overwhelming experiences involve cannabis added mid-trip when things felt manageable. If you do combine, use it sparingly, only after the peak, only if you have experience with both substances separately.

SSRIs/SNRIs: see the contraindications entry above — these blunt or block effects and stopping them to "fix" this is dangerous.

MAOIs: can potentiate psilocybin but the combination is unpredictable and the risk of serotonin syndrome is real. Avoid unless you have deep specific knowledge of what you're doing.

Alcohol: tends to blunt the experience and increases nausea. Not dangerous but not useful.

In general: add complexity only if you're already experienced with both substances separately and have a specific reason, not because you're curious mid-experience.Reviewed January 2025

A difficult experience still has a frame — you're grounded enough to know what you took and that it will end. A bad trip is losing that anchor entirely: real terror, paranoia, ego dissolution with no sense of ground or time. Dose is a factor but set and setting usually matter more.

If you're struggling: change your environment (go outside or lie down), change the music or turn it off, surrender rather than fight — resisting the experience tends to amplify it. Remind yourself what you took, that it's temporary, that it will end.

If someone else is struggling — trip sitting: your job is to be a calm, stable presence. Stay sober. Keep things quiet and familiar. Lower your voice, get on their level, remind them gently it will pass. Don't restrain, don't argue with their reality, don't leave them alone. Ask before they dose whether they want to be touched or talked to — not during.Reviewed March 2025

Set is your mindset going in — mood, intentions, any unresolved anxiety. Setting is where you are and who you're with. Research consistently shows these two factors shape the experience more than dose alone. A moderate dose in a bad environment can be harder than a higher dose in a trusted, calm one.

Fasting: eat nothing for 3–4 hours minimum. A full stomach doesn't make things safer — it makes onset slower, less predictable, and often significantly weaker. Fatty meals are worst — they delay gastric emptying the most. Ginger tea beforehand reduces nausea without blunting anything.

Plan the day: full experience is 4–6 hours, peak 2–3 hours, come-up 30–90 minutes. Heroic doses can run 6–8 hours. Clear the next morning for anything above Level 3 — the afterglow is real.Reviewed January 2025

Three common reasons, roughly in order of likelihood:

Food: a full stomach can cut absorption dramatically. The same 2g that would floor you fasted might barely register after a meal. Try again on an empty stomach before assuming anything else.

Tolerance: if you dosed within the past 2–3 weeks, your 5-HT₂A receptors are still down-regulated. Full tolerance reset usually takes 2–4 weeks. Some people notice partial recovery after 10–14 days with low doses. Cross-tolerance exists with LSD and other classics — they all compete for the same receptors.

Batch variation: potency varies 15–30% between flushes of the same strain from the same grower. The number you have might just be a weak batch.

If it genuinely didn't work after 2.5 hours on an empty stomach, try 15–25% higher next time — not double. Never redose before 2 hours — the first dose and a second peak simultaneously is one of the most common causes of overwhelming experiences.

If you're on SSRIs or SNRIs: increasing the dose is not the answer. These medications can blunt or completely block psilocybin effects via 5-HT₂A receptor down-regulation — the issue isn't the amount, it's the receptor availability. A higher dose in this context raises risk without reliably improving the experience.Reviewed January 2025

Psilocybin tolerance builds fast — often after a single dose — your serotonin receptors quickly become less responsive. Dose two days in a row and the second will be noticeably weaker. Full tolerance reset usually takes 2–4 weeks. Some people notice partial recovery after 10–14 days with low doses. Cross-tolerance with LSD, DMT, and other classics means recreational weekend use produces rapidly diminishing returns.

Psilocybin produces no physical withdrawal and has low addiction potential — tolerance is not dependence.

Microdosing: the most widely used protocol is Fadiman — one day on, two days off, repeat. A true microdose is 0.05–0.1g dried cubensis: sub-perceptual, meaning no obvious alteration, just subtle shifts in mood or focus. If you feel clearly different, the dose is too high. Stamets protocol is more aggressive: four days on, three off. Keep a journal either way — effects accumulate and are easier to notice in retrospect.Reviewed January 2025

Psilocybin is inactive on its own — the body converts it to psilocin (the active form) via enzymes in the gut and liver. Psilocin is what crosses the blood-brain barrier and produces effects. Anything that slows digestion, changes stomach acidity, or interferes with the same enzyme processes will change the onset speed, peak intensity, and duration.

Main absorption inhibitors:
Fat: Fatty meals slow gastric emptying significantly. Psilocybin absorption is delayed and blunted — the same dose can feel meaningfully weaker and take twice as long to onset. Fasting 3–4 hours removes this variable entirely.
SSRIs/SNRIs: Make your serotonin receptors less responsive, reducing psilocin's effect at the receptor level. This isn't an absorption issue — the psilocin reaches the brain, but fewer receptors respond. Increasing dose doesn't reliably fix this and raises risk.
Antacids / reduced stomach acidity: The enzyme that converts psilocybin to psilocin works best in the acidic environment of a normal stomach. Antacids may slow this conversion, potentially delaying or blunting onset.

Preparation methods:
Lemon Tek — soak ground mushrooms in fresh citric acid (lemon/lime juice) 20–30 min before consuming. The acidic environment partially pre-converts psilocybin to psilocin before ingestion, bypassing some gut conversion steps. Onset is faster (15–30 min) and more front-loaded. The amount of conversion varies with grind, temperature, and juice concentration — not a fixed multiplier.
Tea — hot water extraction (not boiling, ~80°C). Pulls alkaloids into solution, easier on the stomach, similar onset to whole mushrooms. Strain and drink the liquid; the remaining material still contains alkaloids.
Capsules — no effect on absorption vs whole mushrooms. Same onset time, useful for precise microdose measurement.
Chocolate / honey — no meaningful pharmacological interaction. Fat content in chocolate is low enough at typical amounts to be negligible.Reviewed March 2025

Every cultivated "strain" — Golden Teacher, PE, B+, Enigma — is Psilocybe cubensis. Wild species like P. azurescens, P. cyanescens, P. semilanceata (Liberty Caps), and Panaeolus cyanescens are entirely different organisms, often meaningfully more potent, and vary more with season, habitat, and drying method.

Panaeolus cyanescens (Blue Meanie) is typically 2–3× stronger than average cubensis — a handful that looks modest can be an intense experience. P. azurescens is the most potent reliably documented Psilocybe, averaging around 2× cubensis based on multiple HPLC studies. Both can cause wood lover's paralysis in some users — temporary leg weakness or inability to walk during the come-up, lasting up to a few hours. It resolves without permanent effects but is alarming if unexpected. Don't use wood-loving species alone.

Marketing names for cubensis strains multiply endlessly. For anything unknown, use Golden Teacher as a conservative baseline, or Penis Envy for anything marketed as a PE variant. Start at 50% of the suggested dose for anything you haven't tried before.Reviewed March 2025

Wood lover's paralysis (WLP) is temporary leg weakness or inability to walk that some users experience after consuming wood-loving psilocybin species — primarily P. azurescens, P. cyanescens, P. subaeruginosa, and Panaeolus cyanescens. It does not occur with cultivated P. cubensis.

What it feels like: Heavy, leaden legs — ranging from difficulty walking to complete inability to stand. Sensation is usually preserved (you can feel, just not move well). Upper body is rarely affected. Onset is typically during the come-up, lasting 1–4 hours, then resolving completely without lasting effects.

Cause: Unknown. Aeruginascin (4-OH-TMT), present in wood-loving species but absent in cubensis, is the leading candidate. Not everyone experiences it — prevalence likely depends on dose, individual sensitivity, and batch.

What to do: Lie down somewhere safe and flat. Do not panic — it is not a medical emergency and doesn't affect breathing or heart rate. This is why wood-loving species should never be used alone. Always have a sober companion who knows WLP is possible. Avoid environments where sudden loss of mobility is dangerous: stairs, water, heights, traffic.Reviewed January 2025

This calculator is for dried mushrooms only. Fresh mushrooms are ~90% water — the rough conversion is 10:1 (15g fresh ≈ 1.5g dried). Potency in fresh mushrooms varies more because water content fluctuates with handling and age. Dry to cracker-crisp consistency before weighing.

Storage: bone-dry mushrooms in an airtight jar with a desiccant packet, stored cool and dark, retain most potency for 1–2 years. Blue bruising when broken is a good sign — psilocin is oxidising, meaning it's still active. Note: storing fresh mushrooms in a freezer before drying significantly degrades psilocybin and should be avoided (Nammex HPTLC study, 2025).

Discard if: visible mold (white or green fuzz), musty or sour smell, or visible slime — these indicate contamination regardless of storage. Soft or bendy mushrooms may still be usable if the jar was sealed, but re-dry them before use and reduce your expected potency.Reviewed March 2025

Somewhat, but less than most people assume. This calculator uses body weight as a scaling factor because it's the most practical variable available — and a larger body does mean the drug gets spread across more tissue. 70kg is the standard reference body weight used in pharmacology.

However, psilocybin's effects are primarily receptor-mediated rather than purely concentration-dependent. Individual variation in serotonin receptor density, stomach acidity, enzyme activity, and psychological state matters at least as much as mass. Clinical trials use weight-adjusted dosing mainly to standardise across subjects — not because weight is the dominant variable.

What this means practically: the weight adjustment in this calculator is a reasonable correction, not a precise prediction. A 100kg person is not simply "more resistant" to psilocybin than a 60kg person. Their baseline sensitivity varies too. Use the weight scaling as a starting point, not a guarantee.Reviewed January 2025

Ego dissolution is the temporary loss of the sense of being a separate self — the boundary between you and everything else dissolves. At its best it's described as oceanic, liberating, or mystical. At its worst it's terrifying, because the part of you that knows "this will end" is the same part that disappears.

It typically requires a heroic dose (4.5g+ at cubensis baseline) in the right setting with preparation and intention. It's not a goal to chase casually. The clinical research showing psilocybin's most profound therapeutic outcomes also involves its most intense experiences — that's not a coincidence. Approach it with respect, not ambition.Reviewed January 2025

The afterglow is the period following the trip itself — typically the next 12–24 hours, sometimes extending 2–3 days — typically a lift in mood, increased mental openness and flexibility or clarity. It's well-documented in clinical literature: participants in psilocybin trials consistently rate wellbeing higher in the days following a session than at baseline.

Mechanistically, it's thought to involve increased BDNF (a protein that supports brain cell growth and connection) and temporary changes in the default mode network — the brain's background self-referential chatter following psilocybin. The brain is in a more flexible, receptive state during this window — which is why clinical protocols treat the integration period as therapeutically important, not just the session itself.

Practically: don't make major decisions or have difficult conversations during the acute experience. The day after is often genuinely useful for reflection, journalling, and integration. Avoid alcohol and other substances during the afterglow. Sleep quality is often notably better the night of the experience for most people.Reviewed March 2025

Yes. Psilocybin acts primarily on serotonin receptors (5-HT₂A) concentrated in the prefrontal cortex — the part of the brain behind your forehead that handles reasoning, interpretation, and emotional regulation. Psilocybin doesn't generate content from nothing; it amplifies and loosens the brain's normal filtering of whatever mental content is already present. Anxious going in → amplified anxiety. Calm and intentional going in → usually calmer experience.

The clinical evidence is direct: the Johns Hopkins and Imperial College London trials both found that mystical-type experiences (and therapeutic outcomes) correlated far more strongly with preparation quality and guide rapport than with dose alone. Griffiths et al. (2016) showed that the same dose produced significantly different outcomes depending on session preparation. The drug is more like a catalyst for existing mental content than a generator of fixed effects.

Practically: set = your emotional state and intentions going in. Setting = physical environment, who's present, and whether you feel safe. Neither can be faked — if you're anxious about something in your life, a high dose will probably find it.Reviewed March 2025

Psilocybin is the compound present in the mushroom. It's chemically stable, doesn't cross the blood-brain barrier directly, and isn't itself psychoactive. After you eat them, an enzyme in your gut strips off part of the molecule, converting psilocybin to psilocin — the active form.

Psilocin is structurally similar to serotonin and acts primarily as a 5-HT₂A receptor agonist. It crosses the blood-brain barrier readily, and all the subjective effects occur through this action. Psilocin is also significantly less stable than psilocybin — it oxidises rapidly when exposed to air, heat, or moisture, which is why blue bruising occurs (psilocin oxidising on contact) and why fresh mushrooms degrade fast.

Practically: HPLC potency data reports psilocybin content because that's what survives drying and storage. Total tryptamine figures include both. The conversion ratio is roughly 1.4:1 by weight (1g psilocybin → ~0.71g psilocin), so strains with high psilocin content register higher in total tryptamines than their psilocybin figure alone suggests.Reviewed March 2025

Yes — and this is one of the most practically relevant and overlooked factors. Multiple grow reports and a handful of small assays suggest that first flush mushrooms are often the most potent, with potency declining in subsequent flushes. The pattern isn't universal but it's consistent enough to be worth noting.

The proposed mechanism: the mycelium allocates the most metabolic resources — including psilocybin biosynthesis — to the first fruiting event. By later flushes, substrate nutrient density has dropped, and the metabolic cost of producing alkaloids may be deprioritised relative to just fruiting. Some growers observe the reverse — that later flushes produce smaller but chemically denser fruits — but the first-flush-stronger pattern is the more commonly reported finding.

Practically: if you have a mixed bag from multiple flushes, don't assume uniform potency. The 2025 Nammex HPTLC reference study noted flush number as a confounding variable in their assays.Reviewed March 2025

Sclerotia are compact underground masses of mycelium — hardened food reserves the fungus produces as a survival mechanism under stress. In psilocybin species, they're produced primarily by Psilocybe tampanensis, P. mexicana, P. atlantis, and P. galindoi. They're legally sold in the Netherlands and are the basis of "truffle" products sold there.

Potency is generally lower than the fruiting bodies of the same species — sclerotia from P. tampanensis average ~0.5% total tryptamines, versus higher figures in some fruiting body assays. However they're more chemically consistent than fruiting bodies because they don't degrade the same way during drying. The experience is widely reported as milder and smoother than equivalent fruiting body doses — possibly due to slightly different alkaloid ratios or more predictable absorption from the denser substrate.

Conversion: sclerotia are typically sold fresh. Fresh weight to effective dried-equivalent depends on water content, which varies (~60–75% water). A rough rule is that 15g fresh sclerotia ≈ 1g dried cubensis baseline, but verify with the specific product.Reviewed January 2025

Not precisely — but you can confirm that psilocybin is present and rule out dangerous substitutes.

Ehrlich reagent (p-DMAB) turns purple when it contacts psilocybin, psilocin, and related compounds. It doesn't distinguish between them or quantify potency, but a positive test confirms you have something in the right chemical family. A negative test on something marketed as psilocybin mushrooms is a red flag.

Hofmann reagent also reacts with tryptamines and can help distinguish some compounds. Using both together increases confidence.

Neither reagent can detect potency, identify species, or confirm the absence of contamination or adulterants. For actual potency data — mg/g psilocybin — you need HPLC or LC-MS/MS analysis, which requires a laboratory. Services like Bunk Police (reagent kits) and community assay labs (Hyphae Cup, Miraculix, Rose City Laboratories) are the primary options outside formal research settings. Drug checking services are available in some jurisdictions.Reviewed March 2025

These are minor compounds in the same chemical family as psilocybin, found alongside it in many species. Their role in shaping the overall experience is debated but increasingly studied.

Baeocystin (4-phosphoryloxy-NMT) was first isolated from Psilocybe baeocystis by Leung & Paul in 1967. It's structurally similar to psilocybin but slightly simpler. In lab tests it weakly activates the same serotonin receptors as psilocybin. Whether it meaningfully affects the experience at typical concentrations is unresolved — it's often present at 10–15% of psilocybin levels.

Norbaeocystin is even less studied. Present in trace amounts in some species; no confirmed psychoactivity data.

Aeruginascin (4-phosphoryloxy-TMT) is found in wood-loving species — P. azurescens, P. cyanescens, Inocybe aeruginascens — but not in P. cubensis. It's the leading candidate for explaining wood lover's paralysis, though causation is not proven. It may also modulate the quality (not intensity) of the experience — some reports associate aeruginascin-containing species with a more euphoric, less anxious character.

The idea that these minor compounds meaningfully change the overall experience is plausible but not yet proven in human trials.Reviewed March 2025