Can Micro-Dosing On LSD Make You More Creative & Productive?

There might be more to the drug than its hallucinogenic effects

For the past couple of months, I’ve been talking to a lot of friends about psychedelics, and LSD in particular. Although everyone was familiar with the drug to a certain extent, only a bunch actually knew its actual effects.

They would usually say: “Yeah, you hallucinate on it and may experience a bad trip some time afterwards.” But that’s just about it.

Yes, LSD does make you hallucinate, however, there’s more to it.

Recently, I conducted an interview with an LSD user, who micro-dosed on the substance in the past. Just to clarify, micro-dosing is the usage of miniscule amounts of the drug. Typically, the dosage varies from 1/10th to 1/20th of the normal, recreational one. So, due to the low amount consumed, the hallucinations are minor to none.

There’s also a trend in the Silicon Valley and Manhattan, surrounding this practice. Workers there use it as a way of being better at the workplace, and as a general aid to their daily lives. But most commonly, micro-dosing is being used to enhance one’s creativity and productivity.

The same does not go for full, recreational doses, though. However, there has been research that a normal dose of LSD may have an effect on the two above-mentioned skills.

Let’s explore how the drug could possibly affect your creativity and productivity:

Creativity

LSD usage dates back to the counterculture movements in the 1960s and that’s what most of the people associate it with today. Recently, the hallucinogen has regained its fame — that’s probably mainly because of the currently on-going LSD trends in the Silicon Valley and Manhattan.

Surprisingly or not, entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs have also experienced the hallucinogenic feelings the drug induces. As for today, due to the high pressure, some workers are put under in the Silicon Valley, micro-dosing seems to be the only way out.

According to Wired, Dr James Fadiman, a researcher of hallucinogens for the past 60 years and the author of The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide, when referring to the effects of LSD micro-dosing, said:

“What you get is the best parts of Adderall with none of the side effects. You function better physically and mentally.”

Currently, most of the studies conducted on the matter are anecdotal. However, a study in 2018 on the micro-dosing of psychedelics has found some interesting results. The findings showed that LSD and “magic” mushrooms users “had healthier scores on key mental health and well-being measures.”

These micro-dozers showed high scores on variables such as wisdom, open-mindedness, and creativity; and lower scores on variables such as dysfunctional attitudes and negative emotionality. All these are tricky to define, however, as they may mean different things to different people.

This overall increase in well-being has been clearly described by the writer Aylet Waldman, in her book A Really Good Day: How Micro-dosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and my Life. Even further, Michael Pollan, argues in his book How To Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics that psychedelics could change your worldview.

Although there still has not been any experimental study that has evaluated the exact effects psychedelic micro-dosing has on your brain and body, I think that we currently have more than enough data to draw some preliminary conclusions; and that’s due to the feedback given by all of the current and past users.

I think, sometimes, and under certain conditions, such personal experiences are more valuable than scientific-backed data.

Recently, I spoke to a man who had a history in doing LSD — micro-dosing in particular. For the sake of anonymity, I will refer to him as Brady Hartsfield.

To see the full interview on how micro-dosing affects one’s life, check my article:

When I conducted Brady’s interview, he had been micro-dosing for 3 weeks already. Prior, to this, he took one full, recreational dose of LSD, and that’s what he said about it:

“I took my first full dose of LSD at the end of this spring. I couldn’t explain what the euphoria was like, but it was not the MDMA-type-of-euphoria where your energy levels are above the roof. It was different. I felt more connected to the universe.”

It was after this moment that he decided he would go in for the 1/10th dose. He was mainly taking the drug in order to improve his personal and professional life.

Productivity

Brady did not mention anything about whether micro-dosing has helped him with his creativity, however, he did speak about productivity:

“As for productivity — oh boy — it was amazing. I would say that I was around one and a half times more productive than before.

You become extremely focused and everything becomes linear — you know exactly how to do stuff in the right and the best possible way.”

According to GQ, George Burke, on of the Bay Area’s “most fervent biohackers,” said that the hallucinogen has made his thinking clearer and has helped him in making “better connections with my thoughts and words.” One writer in the magazine further argues that Burke felt “abnormally productive, quick, and clever in e-mails.”

It’s important to mention here that, most probably, a full dose of LSD wouldn’t have even nearly the same effects as the micro-dose. According to the previously-mentioned Dr James Fadiman, “the key to unleashing the benefits of the drug is all in the dosage.”

There have also been numerous other stories by people who have taken the drug. From what I’ve read so far, the feelings and experiences are shared and common: the users do feel more productive at their workplaces.

Final Thoughts

Micro-dosing on LSD may sound like a trend that would forge a new social revolution — just like coffee did. Initially, in the very first days of the history of coffee, the consumption of the brew was considered sinful and was mainly used during ceremonies to stimulate its users, just like drugs today.

However, the even idea that most of the future workers would be LSD-loaded before going to the workplace may sound scary. Although the trend may seem like a promising way of living, it has its own drawbacks.

Brady had also had his own negative experience with the drug:

“There’s one downside, though. At least in my case. Communication with people becomes harder while I’m under the influence, especially if I have taken a full dose.

With micro-dosing, it’s a challenge to shift my attention from doing my work and being productive to chit-chatting with my colleagues. It’s hard to express myself verbally, it’s as if there’s some kind of barrier between me and them.

My thinking becomes extremely linear and the whole conversation lacks context for me — as when it jumps from a topic to topic suddenly. But that’s just about it.”

He also told me that it would be really hard for someone to experience a bad trip while under the influence of such as minor dosage. One hardly feels anything obvious:

“My friends have also told me that they haven’t noticed anything abnormal in me or my behavior. “You look a bit happier and a bit more easy-going, but that’s about it,” they would say.”

It’s apparent that the hallucinogen has not had any major ill effect on Brady. However, I believe that this all is highly individualistic and situational.

Every person has to weight in the positives and negatives. Probably one of the most important things to consider is…well, at the end of the day, LSD is a really powerful hallucinogen, which has the ability to alter your mind, no matter the quantity.

I’ll finish this with a quote by Brady:

“The interesting thing, however, about psychedelics, is that it’s all highly individualistic. You need to have done your homework. If you have a deep understanding of what you’re going in for, then your experience with micro-dosing is likely to be better.”

Thank you for reading! If you want to read more articles written by me, check out my Medium page:

Also, if you’re further interested in psychedelics and mental health, recently I wrote articles on whether being high makes you dumber. Moreover, there is a second part of the interview you just read about, however, this time it was on LSD: