Mushroom edibles just became legal in Oregon, as regulators gave the state's first license of psilocybin edibles to Spiritus Oregon. With this first officialization of a company, we'll likely see the psilocybin-containing chocolate business grow unmeasurably in the next few years for both therapeutic and recreational use. Unfortunately, it isn't all good news. When mentioning mushroom chocolates, typically, just like any edible product, these bars are produced in mass, and the fungi content becomes spread unevenly, making it pretty much impossible to know the dosage we are taking per square. Another issue is that growers often sift out lower-quality mushrooms to make these chocolates, reserving the better mushrooms for sale, or sometimes, the problem is present in the quality of the chocolate used. We will teach you various techniques to avoid the issues mentioned previously and create gourmet chocolate using Lion's Mane like a true chocolatier (but allow your imagination to run wild).

Psychonauts often worry about their brain, whether because of a bad experience. We might feel our brain becomes less responsive or that something doesn't feel right post-trip, or we can have an underlying condition. The current forms of brain scans are limiting and expensive. For this reason, plenty of psychedelic interaction with the brain and their therapeutic effects remains quite a mystery. However, this might be about to change! Learn more about how CaST might be changing the way we study psychedelics with us.

Following up on last week's article, we clear up what we coined as Entheogenic Synergy, which bifurcates into Recreational Synergy and Therapeutic Synergy, concepts intended to raise awareness of anthropological values, mu beliefs, and elements susceptible to changing our biochemistry, microbiota, neurochemistry, and the way we think, such as music, hearing other experiences, expectations, and the journey to our destination, as well as conversations we have about the experience, being present to a new environment and language, learning to adapt, changing our neuroplasticity and thermoregulation are explored as equally as the psychedelic experience, and even further, be included in the psychedelic experience in the future research. 

The entourage effect is a phenomenon that has been gaining traction in psychedelic research. What at first was thought to be a phenomenon observed solemnly in the cannabis community and the entourage effect between THC and other phytocannabinoids turns out to be much more extensive than what we thought to be and to influence several species such as the Psilocybe genus. One specific study highlighted the significance of this phenomenon by demonstrating the superior therapeutic accuracy of psilocybin extracts compared to synthetic psilocybin. However, there is a species that hasn't been spoken of enough when mentioning the entourage effect. Lophophora Williamsii (Peyote). Join us and understand the entourage effect in Peyote!

The notion of Ketamine being a horse tranquilizer is slowly shifting into the compound as a tool in psychotherapy for the treatment of several mental illnesses, allowing novel therapies, such as Ketamine VR and using Ketamine to treat post-finasteride syndrome, to be developed. However, there is a downside to Ketamine therapy. Its availability, the cost, and the fact that patients stay in clinics for two hours after administration. But this might be changing soon! Researchers are currently in clinical trials for the approval of a slow-releasing racemic Ketamine tablet that will lower the cost of Ketamine therapy and can be administered at home by the patient as it doesn't have the typical dissociative side effects in IV Ketamine and has low chances of addiction according to researchers.

Since the commercialization of legal psychedelic products, plenty of comments about psychedelics being miracle drugs that can cure mental illnesses in one use began to come to the surface, but are psychedelics really miracle drugs, and most importantly, how do I know if psychedelics are suitable for me? Figure out the answers to these questions here!

One of the most intriguing effects of psychedelic compounds is their capability to induce visual hallucinations. But how would it feel if someone visually or hearing impaired took a psychedelic? Would they still be able to have visual/auditory hallucinations? Compelling research says perhaps, as congenitally blind patients have proven to have visual hallucinations in near-death experiences, concepts of synaesthesia may take a role in the experience. Additionally, if the brain had access to visual-auditory data if someone lost their vision/hearing recently, there is a chance the brain may be able to generate visual/auditory hallucinations! Proving us the wonders of neuroplasticity and Paul Bach-y-Rita's quote. "We see with our brain, not our eyes."

In the last five years, two words have spread like wildfire, "Toad Medicine" (5-MeO-DMT) is in the mouths of celebrities, herpetologists, psychonauts, and curious people. This curiosity narrowed Incilius Alvarius to endangerment due to poaching and increased movement on the Sonoran roads. Fortunately, researchers at Mount Sinai Hospital and Columbia University greeted us with another synthetic alternative to stop harming the toads 4-F,5-MeO-PyrT. Could this be a queue to stop seeing this toad as a "medicine" and see it as a living species once again and stop abusing it for personal benefit?

Since the first specimens on earth, one predominant trait has a heavy presence today. The will to gain power and to be at the top. These behavioral patterns continued throughout time and interspecies, and even today, demonstration of physical strength, financial power, or influence amuses us. Such traits have led to an addiction to following today's currency, which is influence, leading to addiction to social media and change in our neurochemistry. Read more to understand the power of psychedelics on breaking habits such as constantly checking our phones, being attracted to productive capitalist ideology, and being a part of the system or the matrix.

Psychedelics are one of the most mysterious compounds. Still today, we have plenty of questions to answer. However, we got a step closer to understanding them with the recent study published by the University of Maastricht and the team of Zeus Tipado, Kim P.C. Kuypers, Bettina Sorger, and Johannes G. Ramaekers, who brought to light a new theory that psychedelic induced hallucinations might generate in the retinofugal pathway. Join us to uncover this hypothesis and understand the mysterious world of psychedelics.