If you’re not calibrating your dose when you start a microdose protocol, you’re leaving too many factors up to chance. This process of finding your “ideal” dose is what sets the stage for the entirety of your protocol, so doing this intentionally and strategically is necessary. If you’re in the inquiry stage of deciding if microdosing is right for you, or you’re simply ready to start but don’t know how to, then you’ve come to the right place.
Microdosing promises some powerful results, often in a way that I would deem is unrealistic for most. I don’t say this to deter you from microdosing, but to level with you that taking this path isn’t a shoo-in, it requires attention to detail and active participation. The calibration process is where you’ll want to pay extra close attention. Your dose and strain of mushrooms (if that’s the medicine you’re working with) matter more than you might realize.
This article aims to walk you through how to properly calibrate your microdose, which you’ll use for the entirety of your microdosing protocol.
What Does Calibrating Your Dose Mean?
Similar to how everyone takes slightly different doses of other prescription medications, microdosing follows the same standard. The dose for a microdose isn’t a one-size-fits all, though it may seem that way. Calibrating your dose means finding the dose just below the point where you experience perceptual changes—also known as your threshold dose.
The standard microdose is around 1/10th of a full dose, which is also different for everyone. All of this is based on standard amounts.. For mushrooms, a full dose is 1 gram, making a standard microdose .1 gram or 100 milligrams. Not everyone’s full macrodose is 1 gram, however, making this calculation is a good baseline, but inconclusive to what your microdose may actually be.
The point of calibrating a microdose is to find what your threshold dose is, and then go directly under it. Don’t worry—I’ll walk you through all of this in the article. What you need to know right now about calibration is that each individual is very different. Psychedelics can’t be calculated based on generic factors like weight and gender, they are much more nuanced.
Some things that can affect your dose when it comes to psychedelics are:
- Sensitivity to other substances (such as alcohol, caffeine, marijuana, and even prescription medications)
- Sensitivity to life (increased senses often common in those who are neurodivergent)
- Your rate of metabolism
- Your experience with psychedelic substances
- Your openness to psychedelic substances
- The last time you did a macrodose journey (if ever)
Why You Should Calibrate Your Microdose
Since the point of microdosing is to not have any perceptual changes or “feel it”, finding your ideal microdose is crucial. Not feeling it doesn’t lessen the effects, it gives you the neuroplastic properties and allows you to pay attention to the subtleties without fully tripping.
Microdosing offers major benefits like being able to navigate and transform anxiety, integrate a macrodose experience, or cultivate more presence in your daily life. The subtleties are where the magic happens, which is why microdosing can be seamlessly integrated into your daily life and routine, such as going to work, exercising, or socializing. If it were more than a microdose, it wouldn’t be as effective because you’d be noticeably altered, the point isn’t to have a mystical experience like you would with a macrodose, but rather to make more realistic daily changes that aren’t directly influenced by medicine.
Think of microdosing to psychedelics as CBD is to THC. Many of the same benefits without the “high” effects.
Calibrating your dose properly enhances these benefits. You don’t want to take too much and feel like you’re tripping (that’s not microdosing) and conversely, you don’t’ want to take too little and not know if it’s working (that’s going to drive you mad). The more questions you can eliminate from you subconscious mind when working with psychedelics, the less real estate these questions will take up, creating more space in your brain to create change in other areas of your life.
Simply taking the standard dose without consideration overlooks the fact that you’re a unique individual with specific needs. I believe that even a simple act like calibrating is signaling to your brain (and the substance) that you’re serious about the process. With psychedelic work, mindset (especially the subconscious mind) matters much more than you might think. How you do anything is how you do everything, and this is no exception. Approaching the work with diligence and care before you even start could be the difference between a successful microdosing protocol and one that you give up halfway through.
Though the standard might work for most people, you don’t want to be the person it doesn’t work for and taint your microdosing experience altogether. Though it’s not as straightforward to calculate as a prescription medication, there are a series of steps you can take to ensure that your microdosing dose is ideal for you, and you can get as specific as you want with it.
Let’s dive into how you go about calibrating a dose of psychedelics to start your microdosing journey.
How to Calibrate a Microdose to Find Your Ideal Dose
Calibrating your dose begins with your commitment to the process. When you’re fully committed—your full ‘f*ck yes’—the process can begin. This is important because otherwise your brain may find alternative reasons as to why it won’t work for you. Especially if you’re someone who has tried a lot of methods to change your life, read a lot of self help books and have never accessed the results you want, then your buy-in is even more impactful to the results you’re seeking.
Once you’re fully onboard, the calibration process can begin.
You’ll first want to determine what medicine you want to microdose. Most people are microdosing Psilocybin aka magic mushrooms or LSD, though there are other psychedelic substances that you can microdose, this article will only be discussing these two aforementioned.
Picking your psychedelic substance
Choosing between psilocybin and LSD depends on your goals and what resonates most with you.
Psilocybin mushrooms are more feminine, thus connecting you more to your emotions, creativity, and relationship to yourself and to others.
LSD is more masculine, influencing more focus, structure, and energy.
I typically suggest if it’s your first time microdosing or working with psychedelic substances at all to start with psilocybin since it’s not only a plant medicine, but it’s also much softer and often easier to work with than LSD. There is really no right or wrong way to approach this work, though, and whatever feels most aligned to you is the choice I would advise you to make. If you’re really not sure, book a free 1:1 call with me and I can help you determine which substance may be best for you.
Clear Your Calendar
Before you do anything, you’ll want to set aside time and clear your schedule for the calibration process. Clear 2 days from your calendar. If you want to find your dose quickly make them consecutive, if it doesn’t matter, then they can be a few days apart from each other.
You want to be fully present to the process and what you’re feeling and noticing for the most accurate results, make sure you can fully dedicate your time and attention to this.
DAY 1: Finding your Threshold Dose
Your threshold dose is your dose where you start to feel the psychedelic effects of the substance. It’s the line between a microdose and something more. This day is geared toward helping you find that threshold dose, where you notice the effects of the medicine by taking small amounts of a substance until you reach that point. As you go through this day, you’ll want to pay extra attention to how you feel, your threshold dose should not be an abrupt experience of the effects, but a slow onset of them, hence why it’s your threshold dose.
The more you pay attention, the more accurate your microdose will be. Here’s how you’ll get started.
Step 1: Determine what your dose routine will be
Before you start your microdosing protocol, you’ll want to map out how you’ll build the ritual of taking your dose. This is important on this day of all days because any changes to your routine can potentially change your ideal dose.
Here are some important things to consider:
- Will you eat breakfast or skip it on dose days?
- Will you drink coffee/caffeine or skip it on dose days?
- What time will you take your dose on dose days?
Step 2: Create your welcome intention
When working with any substance, even if you’ve worked with it before, it’s important to welcome it in. Working with psychedelic substances is an active process, so don’t approach it passively. Build intention into the process as you start to form your relationship with the medicine — this is especially important when working with psilocybin mushrooms, since working with the spirit of the mushrooms is a big part of the process. It may feel weird at first, but the process gets easier over time.
Create a welcoming intention for your calibration day. It can be as simple as, “I welcome you in and I’m open to finding my ideal dose.”
Step 3: Take your first dose
You’ll start with the standard microdose:
- For psilocybin this is .1 gram/100 milligram
- For LSD this is 10 micrograms.
You’ll begin this process by first sitting with the medicine and your welcome intention. Shut down your eyes and taking 3 deep breaths into your belly and out through your nose, slowly. Take your time to relax your nervous system with these deep inhalations, signaling to your body that you’re safe and present.
Take your first dose and start your first 60 minute timer.
Step 4: Notice
This is the most important step in the calibration process: the noticing. For the next 60 minutes pay careful attention to how you feel, any thoughts your having, bodily sensations, or any perceptual sensations. It can take about 45 minutes for the medicine to start interacting with you.
Most people won’t notice any changes at this dose, but if you’re extra sensitive you might.
If you don’t notice anything abnormal from how you normally feel, at the 60 minute mark you’ll move onto the next step
If you do notice perceptual changes, then you won’t move onto the next step. This first dose will be considered your threshold dose.
Step 5: Take your next dose
Much like you took your first dose, you’ll take your second dose which will be the same amount as the first dose.
Set your timer for 60 minutes again.
Step 6: Notice
Continue to notice any changes to your cognitive and emotional sensations. When you feel as if you’re experiencing the effects of the substance, you’ll stop taking any more doses and continue to notice how you feel continuously as the day goes on, including when you start to notice things wear off. It’s okay if the effects are so subtle that you don’t notice when they wear off. This won’t affect your next steps, but it’s helpful for your own understanding.
If you don’t notice any changes, repeat steps 5 and 6 until you notice perceptual changes.
DAY 2: Testing Your Microdose
From the first day of calibration you received data on what is known as your threshold dose. Today we’re testing just below that dose to make sure it’s your ideal microdose. The point of this day is to not feel the effects of the substance, rather to go right below the dose where you felt that yesterday.
Step 1: Tune back into your welcome intention
Follow your dose-day ritual and reconnect with your welcome intention. Take a moment with the medicine before you take your dose to begin training your brain to be intentional. The idea isn’t to pop your dose and move on with your day, it’s to take your dose with intention and notice what’s happening. The beginning process of this is just as important as it will be in your microdose protocol so start now.
Step 2: Take your determined dose
Yesterday you took doses up until your threshold dose, where you started to feel the effects. Today you’ll take just under that dose. If yesterday you felt it at 200 mg of psilocybin, today you’ll take 100 mg of psilocybin.
Take your dose and set your 60 minute timer.
Step 3: Notice
Just like the first day, you’ll want to notice any cognitive and emotional changes. If you feel too much of the psychedelic effects it’s a sign that the dose is too high.
Note, if you took more than 2 doses yesterday, this may likely be applicable to you. Since you would have taken the doses so spread out, it could impact you with much more rigor when you take them all at once. If that’s true for you on this day, then you’ll want to add another day where you go a dose below again as a test. For example if you went up to 400 mg of psilocybin on Day 1 and you take 300 mg on day 2 and you feel the effects of the medicine, then on day 3 you’ll take 200 mg and follow the same steps of day 2 again.
If you don’t notice anything out of the ordinary, congratulations—you have officially calibrated your dose!
Time to Start Your Microdosing Protocol
Now that you have your official calibrated your ideal dose, you’re ready to begin your microdosing protocol. If you haven’t already chosen a protocol, you’ll pick from either the Fadiman protocol (1 on, 2 off) or the Stamets Protocol (4 on, 3 off). Have no idea where to start with this? I have an article all about how often you should microdose here.
Knowing your dose is a powerful step on your path to using psychedelics as an ally for your evolution. As a recap, calibrating your dose means finding your threshold dose and going just below it for maximum microdosing results. Knowing your dose eliminates the question of “is this working?” while also giving you the most cognitive benefits that microdosing can offer.
Taking too little can be somewhat of a waste of time. Taking too much, well you now know that’s not a microdose at all. Different doses lead to different effects. Microdosing protocols are meant to be sub-perceptual so you can notice the subtleties and integrate the protocol into your daily life.
More Microdosing Resources?
Curious about this microdosing thing but need more microdosing resources? I got you covered!
- How to know if you’re ready to work with psychedelics
- How to microdose to transform anxiety
- How often should you microdose
- People who ‘microdose’ psychedelics report improved mood and focus: University of Toronto Study
Was This Post Helpful? Are You Thinking of Working With Psychedelics Now?
If yes but you’re not sure what would be best for you, or you’re totally ready to get started, go ahead and book a free call with me. I’ll help you understand the best path for you so you can truly get the most out of it! And for more psychedelic and transformation tips like this, subscribe to my weekly newsletter, The Art of Change to get them delivered straight to your inbox, along with the gory deets about how I navigate this world as a highly sensitive girlie who uses psychedelics. 🎉🙆🏽♀️
