Psilohuasca—Is it right for you?

Mushroom Honeymoon and Common Ceremonial Mislabeling Practices.

Psilohuasca— Ayahuasca’s poorly understood, less discussed, often misrepresented cousin.

Psilohausca Sight, by Charlotte Dune, using Dall-E 2

🤓 I offer this essay for harm reduction reasons only. Psilohuasca is illegal in many places. I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice.

Here is a psilohuasca playlist if you need a soundtrack.

DYOR

Only YOU can know if psilohuasca is right for you. Let me say it again, I am NOT a doctor. I’m an ex-alcoholic writer who experiments with psychedelics, and sadly, you probably can’t ask your doctor this question either, because your doctor probably doesn’t know what psilohuasca is and since it’s illegal in most places, there isn’t much scientific research to refer to. So, dear friends, creatures of the lagoon of life, and psychonauts, you’re going to have to do your own research (good goddess, I hate that phrase, but that’s how it is…) using the meager information available, mostly first-person accounts and YouTube videos.

Hopefully, one day, the government will stop locking people inside metal cages for consuming and growing plants, and then we will have more robust research, more knowledge, and more freedom in this arena.

Mushroom Honeymoon

I also wrote an entire book involving psilohuasca after my own psilohuasca experience. To my knowledge, it’s the only novel ON EARTH, in the ENTIRE UNIVERSE about psilohuasca. The novel is called Mushroom Honeymoon. Here is a sample of the audiobook:

The audiobook cover of Mushroom Honeymoon by Charlotte Dune, cover art by Giulio Valerio Villa

What is Psilohuasca?

*If you aren’t familiar with magic mushrooms or ayahuasca, you may want to bring yourself up to speed before continuing.

In the most reductionist terms, psilohuasca is a mixture of psilocybin and an MAOI (monoamine oxidase inhibitor) that, when ingested, induces a visionary, psychedelic journey lasting up to nine hours.

Let me break it down in different words: psilohuasca is magic mushrooms + 1/2 the ayahuasca mixture.

Psilohuasca is a combination that extends the traditional magic mushroom journey and makes it feel more like ayahuasca, but without the often unavoidable PUKING that occurs with ayahuasca consumption.

Western medicine uses MAOIs to treat anxiety, agoraphopia, OCD, and depression, but the maoi-half of ayahuasca is called Banisteriopsis caapi, which is a vine in the Amazon. However, most psilohuasca is made with a more accessible maoi—ground Syrian Rue seeds, and some also add passion flower.

Here is a psilohuasca recipe JUST FOR ENTERTAINMENT/Harm Reduction.

Art used by a Psilohuasca center in the Netherlands, artist unknown

Is It Safe?

I have no idea if consuming psilohuasca is “safe." What does that even mean? I’ve never heard of anyone dying from it though, unlike alcohol. Never heard of anyone beating their wife on it either.

MAOIs and psilocybin are known to interact with other pharmaceuticals, but for healthy people not on other medications, I haven’t heard of anyone having serious negative consequences from psilohuasca. Though, again, the sample size is small.

Obviously, I felt psilohuasca was safe enough to try for myself, and I’m not a person who tries everything. For example, I won’t take Kambo or Xanax, to me, those pose too high a risk.

Questions one might ask themselves related to safety and potential answers:

Can I do psilohuasca?

• Are you a child? If yes, then NO.

• Are you on SSRIs? If yes, then NO.

• Are you on ADHD medications? If yes, then not at the same time.

• Are you bipolar or schizophrenic? If yes, then maybe you shouldn’t.

• Are you on blood pressure medication? If yes, then maybe, but maybe not.

• Are you actively abusing addictive substances? If yes, then maybe, but maybe not.

Why Take It?

You consume psilohuasca to have a psychedelic journey. The higher the dose, the crazier it will be. The experience may also enhance creativity, bring happiness, and make you feel energized. It may even relieve depression.

Unlike ayahuasca or a heroic mushroom trip, both of which can plaster you to the ground, psilohuasca may make you run around, dance, sing, play drums, and hug people. You may roll in wet grass like an uninhibited three-year-old child. You may swim or kiss people, roam through the woods, or do yoga. I felt or saw all of these things at the ceremony I attended. It’s kind of like an MDMA experience with insane visuals. In short, a great time for most.

Anyone HEALTHY could try psilohuasca with friends, family, or strangers and potentially have an amazing trip. You could also consume it solo, though I found it more social than most psychedelic experiences. It lowered my inhibitions and brought out my extroversion. I throat sang with another woman and held hands with new friends and played a psychedelic version of duck-duck-goose where we sprinkled rose petals on each other’s merry heads.

Psilohuasca is also EXTREMELY exhausting once it wears off. The next day/night you may want to sleep for a solid 24 hours. After all, 8 hours is a long time to trip, dance, and sing. You really need a trip sitter or someone in charge of handling regular life while you’re in the psilohuasca psychedelic realm.

Differences Between Psilohuasca and Ayahuasca

A carving of Lord Shiva holding a mushroom from 1200 AD

People think psilohuasca has DMT in it, like ayahuasca, but this is false.

In my experience, psilohuasca is not as transcendent as ayahuasca. Ayahuasca is pure magic to me, like entering the realm of an all-knowing psychic spirit. It’s a portal to the realm beyond human comprehension. It’s a divine force. It’s the power of the entire universe in a single cup. If I was dictator of the world and could find a sustainable source for the elixir, I’d make every healthy person drink it.

The psilohuasca journey feels more like a long magic mushroom trip and less like interacting with an entity. It was still mystical, memorable, and euphoric, but it wasn’t psychic, or deeply otherwordly.

Likewise, Ayahuasca can be healing for people with trauma, and we don’t know if the same is true for psilohuasca. Ayahuasca also has a rich history of indigenous and cultural use in the Amazon dating back to 900 B.C. With psilohuasca, we really don’t know its history. Either it’s a recent development, or its history was lost.

On the plus side, psilohuasca is more sustainable, and more easily cultivated and sourced than ayahuasca.

Pharmahuasca

Psilohuasca is also sometimes called pharmahuasca, which is also touted as a more ecologically-friendly experience that doesn’t involve destroying the rainforest or stealing medicine from indigenous tribes in the Amazon, however, pharmauasca is NOT psilohuasca.

Pharmahuasca is synthetic ayahuasca made in a lab or at home.

To review the differences:

Ayahuasca (also called Yagé) = Banisteriopsis caapi vine (DMT) + Psychotria viridis (MAOI)

Psilohuasca = Psilocybin (magic mushrooms) + MAOI (Syrian rue or other)

Pharmahuasca = ayahuasca made with chemicals and not plants. Commonly 50 mg harmaline, 50 mg harmine, and 50 mg, N,N-DMT.

Pharmahuasca is reportedly more mellow than ayahuasca in the same doses, likely because ayahuasca contains so many different things found within the plants which are rich in β-carboline alkaloids, aside from the psychoactive ingredients of DMT and a MAOI.

Here is chemist and documentary filmmaker Hamilton Morris talking about pharmahuasca in a humorous clip. Interestingly, I also saw Japanese mythological creatures on psilohuasca. Maybe that’s a thing.

The Continual Mislabeling of Psilohuasca

Psilohuasca had another mislabeling moment recently when comedian Tom Segura spoke several times on different popular brocasts, including Joe Rogan’s show, about his “ayahuasca” experience that was really a psilohuasca experience.

Why people continue to mislabel these experiences as ayahuasca is beyond me…

My first introduction to the mixture was in mislabeled form too. Terribly. A Florida woman invited me to her ayahuasca ceremony, explaining that I would love it because I “wouldn’t throw up.” So, I immediately knew she was mislabeling it. There is NO WAY you can guarantee that someone won’t “get well” aka blows chunks from ayahuasca.

Upon my further probing, she conceded that it was psilohuasca. I was like, WTF is wrong with you?

Despite my annoyance, because I was interested in psilohuasca, I still went to this lady’s ceremony. Maybe I’ll write about that experience in a future post. It involved dragons and my tennis shoes getting held hostage, but overall it was a positive, accessible, and affordable experience.

My meme of the Karen-Shaman

But I wish people would stop mislabeling psychedelics. It’s very unhelpful to everyone.

In the future, we may recognize psilohuasca as a more environmentally responsible and more tummy-friendly alternative to ayahuasca, and I’m sure psilohuasca experiences will also change lives.

Other Takes:

One of the very few decent videos I found about psilohuasca.

Now You

Would you try psilohuasca? Why or why not.

Have you already tried it? How was the experience?

Need More?

Need medical guidance on this topic? You could call or email a reputable looking center in the Netherlands offering legal psilohuasca ceremonies and do their medical intake form to see if they’d allow you to attend a ceremony. This is the only way I know of to get medical advice related to psilohuasca.

You may also find retreats in Oregon, Jamaica, California, Florida, Costa Rica, Vancouver, and other places expanding the legal use of psychedelics.

If you want to go deep into psychedelic chemistry and neuroscience, check out the Substack of

Andrew R. Gallimore

or read my review of his first book on DMT.

Or, if you prefer fiction, read a short story I wrote involving magic mushrooms.

Thanks for reading!