Comparison: Psilocin, Mushrooms, and 4-AcO-DMT
I’ve had mushrooms more recently and have used 4-AcO-DMT many times; I think I can make a fair personal comparison. All of the following distinctions are subtle and confounded by different sets, settings, etc.
Psilocin is more stimulating and feels “cleaner” than the mushrooms I’ve had. Its onset has a harder edge that I believe is due primarily to the lack of psilocybin and secondarily to the absence of the encasing mushroom flesh (see samadhi smiles' comment about ground up mushrooms above). This can probably be remedied by simply drinking it dissolved in juice in regular portions and intervals over a half hour, though others and myself have noted a general diminishing affect on the depth of resulting experiences when powerful tryptamine doses are staggered. All other negative symptoms associated with mushrooms are lessened. Isolated 4-ho-DMT has the added assurance of having been tested as safe. Not that I seriously doubt the safety of the chemical cocktail that is mushrooms.
The body high is less pronounced than with mushrooms unless I use it in conjunction with 4-ho-NMT. When I do this it gives me giddy, almost tickling, compulsions to tense up the muscles in my neck, roll my shoulders, and shake my arms and legs, though all of this is controllable and is only significantly expressed when I walk. Everybody else I know who’s used 4-ho-NMT says it’s completely inactive. I still get the symptoms when it’s combined with psilocin and still like it, placebo or not.
While 4-ho-DMT seems more manic than mushrooms--just as chaotic but less cloudy or confusing--or 4-AcO-DMT, I find 4-AcO-DMT to be slightly smoother, significantly more euphoric, and longer lasting. In my fairly limited experience, 4-ho-DMT has been more empathic than 4-AcO-DMT, but I find that the 4-AcO-DMT is just as, if not more, introspectively and spiritually powerful, and is, not coincidentally, easier to direct; that makes it a superior tool for me. I think I’ll be in the minority in gauging 4-AcO-DMT higher than 4-ho-DMT, but not in gauging 4-ho-DMT higher than mushrooms. Still, I love them all.