Vice Video

Micro-dosing has been on the rise. But does really it work? Where's Hamilton when you need him?

I want to continue to explore the human powers of fungi. I learned of another mushroom that's been used for thousands of years to bring people enlightenment and unity. Psilocybin and other psychedelics are now being used in new ways. I've connected with psychologist Dr. John Verbeek, who studies how psychedelics can change our minds. How does psychedelics affect the brain? What you can do with psychedelics is you can expand the number of states that the brain can get into and then this can introduce what's called cognitive flexibility into people's cognition. Why are psychedelics being studied today? There's some preliminary but growing evidence that this can help with certain issues people dealing with PTSD, people dealing with depression, people dealing with very kinds of various kinds of addictions. Psychedelics are thought to have been used by humans worldwide for centuries. Some people have now started taking low doses of psychedelics or other drugs, a practice called micro dosing. Why are people doing this? They think more and more people want to. If you'll allow me to put a word on it, they want to start cultivating wisdom. Psilocybin could improve your insight, improve the reduction of your egocentrism, your ability to pick up on other people's perspectives, and also enhance your capacity for self transcendence, which is what you need to overcome self-deception. And I would say that's the core of wisdom. Interesting. John's research into micro dosing in the mind is fascinating, but I want to meet with someone who started micro dosing to learn firsthand about their experience. My name is Tom Brennan. Interested in micro dosing as a exploratory way to increase consciousness. What is your experience been like since you began micro dosing in the last like three years? When I started micro dosing, which is eating just a very small quantity of psilocybin mushrooms, you get an experience where your perception is just slightly altered and I've found that it actually makes me more attentive and able to focus on problems. How prevalent is micro dosing people in Silicon Valley? Other business leaders have already admitted now to micro dosing on a regular basis. So how is it done? These are the mushrooms, which are way on a digital gram scale, two point five grams. Then I'll take them with the mini spice grinder. And now they're old ground up in the glass. Yummy little orange juice may go a little more palatable. We'll stir down the hatch. On-set is about 40 minutes from start to finish. It's about six hours with a microdots like this. At this level, it's pretty minor. I'll be there in a 20, 20, 30 minutes. See you. What are the psychological benefits? It has a calming effect and it also has an pathogenic effect similar to MDMA, where it makes you feel better about other people. So definitely reduce anxiety in me. Do you consider yourself high in a higher state of consciousness, but not high? So it's mind expanding as opposed to escapism. It's a helpful and beneficial compound that is good for everybody. What change can someone who's decided to start micro dosing expect to see in themselves? Intention is critical. So what you expect or want out of the compound seems to happen, even though that does sound a little on the unscientific side. I've found it in my experience that what I expect or want from it. It seems to give him Tom's anecdotal evidence is interesting. I'd like to conduct a psilocybin micro dosing experiment, but without access to legal forms of the drug to test, remain an interested observer for now.