Two hours into Alba’s psilocybin truffle session, colours and patterns around the cabin have become quite vivid. She feels focused internally on her intention of self-compassion.
“I think I’m ready for the second dose,” she tells her coach, Lotte. Lotte confirms Alba is feeling comfortable.
Alba drinks down the mushroom tea, trusting it will deepen her work. But soon, the visual distortions grow extremely intense. The room starts spinning as Alba grips the couch.
“Lotte, everything is moving so fast! I feel overwhelmed,” Alba says through panicked breaths. She feels the truffles overtaking her.
“Try to breathe through the fear,” Lotte says calmly. “This reaction is temporary. Let go of controlling the experience.”
Alba focuses on her breathing, but finds it hard to surrender. The second dose has rocketed the trip to an unpredictable intensity. She wishes she had just stuck with the intensity of the first dose.
Lotte guides Alba lovingly through her panic. Together, they help Alba learn from the challenging moments and embrace the journey.
Two Hours Earlier – Start of the Journey
Alba settles onto the plush couch in Lotte’s cosy cabin, ready to embark on her first supervised psilocybin truffles session. She intends to face her negative self-talk with self-compassion.
Lotte has prepared two doses – a medium 10g cup and a 5g booster. She suggests Alba start with the 10g to get a feel for the effects before taking the remaining 5g amount. Alba agrees this seems wise for her first guided trip.
After some grounding meditation, Alba lifts the 10g tea and drinks it. The earthy taste makes her stomach a bit upset, but Lotte reassures her. They chat lightly, do a guided meditation, and put on music, as Alba waits for it to take effect.
About two hours later, Alba notices the cabin walls start to undulate gently. “How are you feeling?” Lotte asks.
“It’s so beautiful,” Alba says, enchanted by the colours. She feels comfortable and ready to delve deeper. After discussing with Lotte, she takes the second cup, eager to continue the journey.
Thirty Minutes After The Second Cup – Full Liftoff
As the second dose takes effect, Alba finds herself plunged into vivid visuals and a dreamlike headspace. She feels overwhelmed and curious, sensing that this expanded state will allow deeper exploration.
“It’s so intense now!” Alba exclaims to Lotte. “But I think I needed this intensity to look within.”
Lotte nods, keeping a calm, grounded presence for Alba to anchor to. “Let the experience guide you where you need to go,” she says. “I’m right here with you.”
Alba realizes taking the moderate first dose gave her body time to get comfortable before intensifying the effects. She also has several extra hours to journey inward compared to taking just a single dose.
The redose has catapulted Alba into rich psychedelic territory. She carefully uses the added time and perspective to confront her critical inner voices. Alba shows compassion for these parts of herself rather than suppression.
As frightening as the intensity feels at times, Alba trusts this deep dive will provide greater healing and self-discovery in the end. She continues surrendering to the expansion of consciousness the second dose has granted.
Thirty Minutes Later Still – The Flipside
An hours into the second dose, however, Alba starts to feel extremely overwhelmed. The visual distortions grow so strong she can’t keep her eyes open. Nausea washes over her in waves.
“It’s too much,” she moans. “Make it stop!” Alba grabs Lotte’s hand tightly, feeling unmoored and terrified.
Lotte speaks calmly, helping ease Alba through the panic. She explains that redosing psilocybin is unpredictable – the second dose can affect one exponentially stronger than anticipated.
“Let’s try changing the music and doing the guided breathing exercise we practised,” Lotte suggests. “I’m here with you, just breathe.”
With Lotte’s support, Alba’s distress gradually subsides. But she realizes she underestimated how unpredictably the redose could amplify effects. The intensity had caught her off guard.
Lotte explains first-timers will often start with a single full dose to avoid this unpredictability. While redosing extends the session, the exponentially stronger effects make the experience less controllable.
Alba notes that for future sessions, she will likely start with the full desired amount rather than redosing an initial half-dose. The unpredictability poses unnecessary risks.
While redosing psychedelics like psilocybin truffles during a session can offer certain benefits, there are also significant, unpredictable risks to remember.
Potential benefits of redosing include:
- Gives more time to explore the psychedelic landscape
- Doesn’t require starting immediately with a large dose
- Provides a “boost” to intensify the effects
However, redosing also carries risks such as:
- The boosted dose can be exponentially stronger than expected
- Unpredictable intensification of psychedelic effects
- Increased chance of fear, confusion, or bad trips
Starting with a single full dose is generally advisable over redosing a smaller amount for first-time or infrequent users. The intensified unpredictability of a second dose makes the experience much harder to control.
Proper support during any redosing is also critical in case reactions become challenging. While extending a session’s duration has appeal, redosing warrants caution given the amplified psychological effects.
A final note on redosing psilocybin tea: Don’t redose with the same cup as you used for the initial dose. The truffles (or mushrooms) that were in the tea (and are still in the cup) might not have ‘released’ all the psilocybin and instead of adding 5g (of truffles) extra, you are adding the equivalent of say 10g (i.e. equal or more than you had in the first dose). Also, the psilocybin content varies widely between batches, so (as a guide) mix as much together to get as consistent (psilocybin-content) as possible.
[this story is a combination of experiences of our coaching clients, told through the eyes of Alba, one of the characters who help explain psychedelics through stories]
