Silicon Valley thinkers bank on LSD micro-doses to get more productive

Silicon Valley professionals are reportedly taking lysergic acid diethylamide or LSD, a powerful hallucinogen, to refresh their brains, albeit in small doses. Apparently these micro-doses help them to increase productivity, enhance creativity and concentrate more. Magic mushroom, another hallucinating drug is also popular among these professionals.

According to a Rolling Stone report, James Fadiman, author of “The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide” said in a conference that taking a miniscule amount of the drug every fourth day in the morning produces the best results. He added that his correspondents have told him that LSD micro-dosing increases out-of-the-box thinking.

A micro-dose is about tenth of a normal dose that is 10 micrograms of LSD or 0.2-0.5 grams of mushrooms. As per The Sydney Morning Herald, takers of this illegal drug benefit from its sub-perceptual effects.

Rick Doblin, founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies is of the opinion that the dose, generally taken in the morning before starting work and it is enough to make one “feel a little bit of energy lift, a little bit of insight, but not so much that you are tripping.”

According to Maxim, Fadiman introduced the idea of micro-dosing benefits of the schedule 1 drug LSD four years ago. He has also pointed out that LSD, if taken in micro-doses is a far healthier alternative than Adderall, a drug popular with programmers.

Although Micro-dosing is a worldwide trend, Fadiman has observed a "steady, consistent stream" of users originating in the San Francisco area.

One regular user of mushrooms has pointed out how he benefitted from the hallucinating drug.

“It's like the coffee to wake up the mind-body connection. When I notice it is working, depending on the dosage, time seems to be slowing down a bit, everything seems covered with a layer of extra significance,” said Martijn Schirp who is based out of Amsterdam where magic mushrooms are legal.

A Johns Hopkins University psychologist, Matt Johnson however revealed the fact that long-term effects of micro-dosing are still under-researched. He added that the perception of increased productivity might be a simple placebo effect as the dose of the drug is so small.

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