SPEAKERS

Microdosing psychedelics (primarily LSD and psilocybin) have had considerable media attention. However the idea of microdosing dates back to a neglected suggestion by Albert Hoffman. We have been involved, both in supporting and reporting on the recent trend. As microdosing first emerged, we asked the psychedelics communities to let us know about their own experiences. Letters, hand-written journals, emails and even art poured in. We found ways to systematize what we were learning, and then to ask basic scientifically useful questions, revising our ways of asking as we went. Early on, we found ourselves bumping up against the limitations traditional psychological and medical research, very different than the limitations found in exploring high-dose experiences. Faced with on the wide range of findings from our correspondents (over 4000 people from 51 countries), and given the wide variation in age, education, conditions, substance and almost every other variable in our sample, how did we find any generally useful information in our data? How did we choose groups for follow up? How did we design appropriate follow up questions for participants with radically different experiences and even those with stigmatized medical conditions? How did we determine that we had valid information to share outside the traditional double blind experimental model? By describing some of our major findings as well as our most unlikely ones, we will highlight the advantages of “search” as a precursor to research, and consider some of the possible cultural disruptions, already appearing, caused by the growing acceptance of microdosing