Psilocybin: experiences

This section is for first-hand accounts of psilocybin — mushrooms in most reports, occasionally the pure compound in a study or a gray-market product. Which one a report is about matters, and good reports say so.

How to read an experience report

An anecdote is one person, once, and with mushrooms the dose is a range pretending to be a number. Potency varies between species, between batches, and between individual mushrooms in the same bag, so "three grams" is a different exposure in two different reports — and a different exposure dried versus fresh. Set and setting carry more of the outcome here than most substances: the same material reads as ceremony, comedy, or crisis depending on the room and the company, and reports usually tell you more about the room than the mushroom. The clinical literature runs the other way — measured doses of the pure compound, screened volunteers, a prepared setting and support through the hours — so a trial result and a bedroom report are not describing the same event even at the "same" dose.

How to write one worth reading

Name the form — species if you know it, dried or fresh, whole or ground, tea or eaten — and the amount, with how it was measured. Say what the setting was and who was with you. Describe the arc, including the anxious stretches most reports edit out, and the days after: what stayed, what faded, what you did differently. If you take any daily medication, name it. Skip anything that reads as instructions — describe your experience, don't prescribe anyone else's.

The archives

• Erowid's mushroom experience vault — decades of reports across every category, including the difficult shelves worth reading first.
• Erowid's mushroom vault — the reference around the reports: basics, effects, health concerns, law.
• PsychonautWiki's psilocybin article — a community-written map of the subjective effects. Collected experience, not a checked source.

The chemistry, dosage, interactions, and legal sections of this area carry what the evidence supports, with citations. This page is for what happened to you.