^ Bad harm reduction
Hi and welcome to Bluelight / PD
Officially the recommendation is to always try a half dose (a full dose being an eighth) first but I think you can extend that to 3/4 of an eight, and let that be the maximum. The reason 3-3.5 g or an eighth is often considered a full dose may be because:
- for very experienced trippings that may seem reasonable after a while to call a unit of dosage
- in smartshops where magic mushrooms are sold, they give you enough to have any kind of trip from a light one to a heavy one. That does not mean beginners should take a heavy one right away at all, and they instruct you so - that's what I meant by officially. The same advice is given by a drug user information institute taskforce I worked with, they were for real, not some goverment propagandist BS.
There is a factor of variable potency anyway so you might be very overwhelmed or underwhelmed anyway. Make sure you don't take a full 1/8 of very potent ones, some find mushrooms quite easy to handle but for others it can be really intense and mindfucky, that may sound interesting but it can be very difficult.
Please use our
Beginner's FAQ for more general help.
To prepare for you trip you can read
the Big & Dandy Set & Setting Thread a little to see what kind of safety measures are best taken. You will find major centralized threads by first going to the
Psychedelic Index, then searching for it (use Control+F), search term "setting" for example, then browse to -in this case - the 3rd hit on the page.
Likewise check out the trip / tripping activities thread also listed there.
Sitting in front of your computer in itself shouldn't produce a bad trip, but it all depends on where you take it from there. You can get very fascinating by everyday stuff and go investigate it, if you have the freedom to just roam around without having to use normal sober behavior, and while feeling safe and trusting.... it should be fine. But if you are constricted and cannot leave for a short walk outside (definitely go outside when you can, but just not ideally when you are tripping extremely hard if you don't have a tripsitter), or if you have to be quiet because you live at home and your parents cannot find out... that is all totally NOT-free and amounts to a bad set and setting. Which is conductive to negative headspace and trips.
Don't only game or watch movies, that is just such a distraction from the rest of the trip going on inside you... sure you can spend a little time on it, but definitely also just allow yourself to lie down, put on awesome music (get tips if you don't have any fit for the job - there are very psychedelic classics like Shpongle) and just be fine letting every feeling and thought happen. When you go in a more passive and meditative mode like that incredible things happen.
Also try doing something creative like drawing, lots of fun. Playing around with light sources in the dark is also fantastic, but must be done safely! Hence: glowsticks.