A Really Good Day(36)

Fadiman told me that when the International Foundation for Advanced Study shut its doors, he began a career as a successful management consultant, working for companies like Lockheed, Dow Chemical, and Foster’s Freeze on human resources issues. He cofounded the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, now known as Sofia University, focused on integrating concepts of spirituality and transcendence with emotional and personal development. He published textbooks and even a novel. He was invited frequently to lecture on the topic of his early psychedelic research, but he was not part of the psychedelic underground, not a member of any of the groups of sixties “psychonauts” who continued to experiment with various mind-altering drugs. He wrote, he taught, he lectured, and he worked.

And then, in 2008, Fadiman was invited to Chicago to give a lecture about the history of psychedelic research. There he met a woman he refers to as “Madeline,” whose narrative of microdosing he included in The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide. Madeline worked, took care of her children, was a partner to her spouse, all while consuming tiny doses of LSD. She had been regularly microdosing with LSD for years, taking the drug on average six days out of every month, sometimes more if she was working on “a project requiring extraordinary focus.” Madeline came to microdosing on her own, without guidance, but eventually she learned what Fadiman had already, that Albert Hofmann himself had regularly microdosed for the last decades of his long life.

Fadiman found out about Hofmann’s novel use of the drug from one of his neighbors in Santa Cruz, a man named Robert Forte. According to Forte, Hofmann believed that, had Sandoz Pharmaceuticals been willing, they could have brought to market a version of LSD in a small dose that could have competed with stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall. Imagine a world where frazzled school counselors call parents to say, “Listen, we really think you need to put your kid on LSD.” Terence McKenna, an ethnobotanist and psychedelic lecturer, also reported that Hofmann had informed him that he made a regular practice of microdosing—particularly, Hofmann apparently said, when walking among “tall trees.”*2

After meeting Madeline, Fadiman learned about another individual who was interested in experimenting with microdosing. It was then that he decided to put together a protocol that would both maximize the safety of the practice and encourage some kind of tracking of experiences. Noticing that people reported that the day after microdosing was often even better than the first day, Fadiman developed the three-day model. The third day, what I call “Normal Day,” is not, Fadiman says, strictly necessary. It does, however, provide a recurring set point to better evaluate the effectiveness of the experience. It also reduces the chances of developing a tolerance to the drug.

There are others who believe there are good reasons for taking a break from regular microdosing. Tim Ferriss, for example, sounds a word of caution about the practice. “There is very rarely a biological free lunch,” he told me. His concern stems from the fact that LSD and other psychedelics are serotonin receptor agonists, meaning they activate serotonin, much as SSRIs such as Prozac do, though the mechanism is different. Ferriss believes that it’s certainly possible that, like SSRIs, low-dose psychedelics can make people feel better, but he worries that they might also have an impact on the brain’s own serotonin production in some as-yet-unanticipated manner. Ferriss’s concern with microdosing is that extended use might cause tolerance to develop and endogenous production of serotonin to be thrown out of whack. However, when I raised this concern with a psychopharmacologist friend, though he agreed that it was possible, he downplayed the risk. This is not, he said, a problem unique to LSD microdosing. David Presti agreed: “Whatever risk there is, is likely to be less than those associated with antidepressant medication use for extended periods of time.” Presti pointed out that there is evidence that over the long term SSRIs themselves actually deplete serotonin, and yet those for whom antidepressants are effective are rarely discouraged from taking them for extended periods. Still, the specter of tolerance and of long-term effects on serotonin production makes Normal Day seem like a good idea, even if it’s my least favorite day of the protocol. And my kids’, although they don’t know why.

Since the 2011 publication of Fadiman’s book, he told me, he has received approximately three hundred requests for his protocol. Of those, he has received back fifty reports of varying length and specificity. The reports have been sent in from all over the world. The majority of people microdose with either LSD or psilocybin, but he’s received reports from people using other psychedelic drugs, including ayahuasca, iboga, and even a plant called Syrian Rue. Fadiman showed me a heaping cardboard box of documents, and said he had another just like it at home in Palo Alto. Some people write long narratives; others create charts and track specific behaviors and characteristics. Some keep elaborate journals. Some, like me, do a combination. Fadiman is not quite sure what to do with all these personal and idiosyncratic reports. It’s difficult to compare the very different documents and the experiences they recount in order to draw any real conclusions. But he’s trying at least to summarize the data.

I asked Fadiman if he had received any reports of negative reactions, either emotional or physical, to microdosing. He told me that, of those who have sent in reports, two people stopped the protocol mid-month, one because of extreme fatigue on Days 2 and 3 (Transition Day and Normal Day), and one because of what Fadiman describes as “an abrupt change in life situation.” He advised two others to stop when they reported negative reactions, and discouraged the experimentation of a person with bipolar disorder and sleep issues. We can’t know what number of the three hundred or so people who solicited the protocol but failed to follow up with a report attempted microdosing. It seems likely to me that at least some might have failed to follow up because they had a bad experience and chose not to continue with the full thirty days.*3