Psilocybin Mushrooms: Strains, Potency, and Experience

Podcast Highlights

• Why stronger isn't always better
• The myth of the strongest strain
• Golden Teacher vs. Penis Envy
• Understanding Ghost and Enigma
• Psilocybe natalensis explained
• How lemon tek changes the journey
• Why storage affects potency
• Microdosing vs. macrodosing
• Context shapes psychedelic outcomes
• Integration beyond the peak experience

Show Links

1. Psychedelic Coaching Institute
2. Paul on Instagram

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Podcast Transcript

00:00:00 Paul F. Austin
Hey folks, so as part of our ongoing efforts to utilize this podcast platform as a platform for education, to stay a little bit on the cutting edge, there are a lot of topics that I'm able to cover through the guests that we bring on. And as many of you know, we've had some world-class guests, some incredible guests who have gone into— feels like at this point almost every nook and cranny of the psychedelic space. And I was talking with my team recently, and we thought it might be nice to have a few more solo casts that are educational and help you to understand things about particular medicines. And as some of you may know, we're now consistently hosting webinars. If you're not coming to those live webinars, I would encourage you to show up to those. You can find more details on our email list about that. We're doing 2 or so a month, but this podcast specifically, it's going to be an opportunity to go deep into psilocybin mushrooms and not necessarily synthetic psilocybin, which we're seeing a lot of traction on in clinical trials through the FDA, but more so the full mushroom. And talk about some of the nuances around strain, potency, intention, individual work versus group work. I'm gonna pull in some anecdotes and experience from our training Institute, from our training program that we've, observations of what we noticed when we've worked with different strains or the context has been a certain way. And I, I really want this podcast episode to be an opportunity for you to just better understand the nuances around psilocybin mushrooms, because mushrooms are the most accessible medicine. They have the most clinical research backing their efficacy. Oftentimes folks who come into this work, and I know many of you are Practitioners, so folks who come into this work are interested oftentimes in working with psilocybin mushrooms because they are accessible, because they're legal in certain states, because there is a lot of clinical research on this.

00:01:58 Paul F. Austin
So in today's solo cast, we're going to talk a little bit about what makes a mushroom experience effective. Is it the particular strain? Is it the dose that we're taking? Is it how it was stored or prepared? Is it about the person taking it? Because a lot of people enter this world, especially after they've had an experience or two with, let's say, Golden Teachers, right? And then they find out about penis envy and they're like, oh, 'You gotta try the Penis Envy. It's so strong.' And then they hear about Ghost and they're like, 'Oh no, you really gotta try Ghost. That's even stronger.' And then they might hear about Natalensis and they go, 'Oh no, Natalensis, that's even stronger than Ghost.' But this notion of the strongest strain, I think, plays into an unfortunate misconception, which is that stronger is better. And one thing that we've emphasized again and again through the Institute in that Third Wave is that less is often more. It's why we've focused so much on microdosing and why we focus so much on the context around psychedelic work and why we don't often lead with just take a big dose and see what happens. Because for someone to have an experience that is impactful in the long term with a high dose, there are a lot of parameters and context that needs to be present, which is what— why we've done the trainings that we've done through the Psychedelic Coaching Institute.

00:03:22 Paul F. Austin
So potency is real. The strain matters, which we'll talk more about today. How we prepare the mushrooms matters, how we store it matters, but the experience is never just about the chemistry of the mushroom. It's chemistry plus context. Now, keep in mind, before we get into this, this is just educational content. It is not medical or legal advice. We do not encourage illegal activities. So you should understand the laws where you live. Consult qualified professionals when appropriate, whether that's clinicians or folks who have completed our training program, and especially with high doses, take preparation seriously. So a better question than which is strongest is what kind of experience am I actually preparing for? Because potency is one variable among many.

00:04:13 Paul F. Austin
Okay. The other variables to keep in mind are the species and strain. There are over 200 species of of psychoactive psilocybin mushrooms, the most common being Psilocybe cubensis, which is where a lot of the common strains come from. Freshness and storage. How recently have these mushrooms been picked? How have they been stored since they've been picked? How old are they? That will also indicate the potential potency. Preparation method. Are you consuming these in chocolates? Are you consuming these through a LemonTech? Are you consuming these just in a peanut butter sandwich? Right? These are all important sort of notions. The dose consistency, individual sensitivity, right? One thing we've learned from clinical research is individuals who are 60 and older tend to have, especially with their first few experiences, a much higher tolerance. This can also be true for folks who have had previously been on SSRIs or are currently on SSRIs. So individual sensitivity matters. Set and setting plays a big role, which we've talked about at length. I won't go too much into that. And then a low dose, a microdose, a medi-dose versus a full dose journey intention.

00:05:21 Paul F. Austin
And I've said this before, but I'll say it again. We often, especially in the States, equate stronger with better. In this work, stronger is not always better. A gentler, more reliable, more coherent experience is often more useful than an overwhelming one. And again, this is how we train coaches and practitioners at The Coaching Institute. The work is the person. The environment that they are in, how they are connected relationally, their diet, their lifestyle, their prior experience, whether or not they've been on psychiatric medications. The molecule, the substance itself, is a minor part of that. So preparation, calibration, integration are where the outcome actually lives.

00:06:01 Paul F. Austin
You've probably heard me talk about this on the podcast at length, psychedelics as a skill. And so much of understanding the skill of psychedelics is what context is the individual who is doing this work coming in with, and understanding their ecology, right? Their interdependencies, the contextual relations of their lives, as well as their habits and patterns and past trauma and things like that, will help you as a Practitioner, or even an individual coming into this work supporting a friend or a family member, better understand, you know, the ideal strain that they can work with.

00:06:38 Paul F. Austin
Because almost every strain that people name, Golden Teachers, B Positive, Penis Envy, Tidal Wave, Ghost, Cambodia, Matías Romero, I could go on and on, is the same species, Psilocybe cubensis. Strains are just intraspecies variations. And a good analogy of how to think about this is strains are like dog breeds, same species, different growth traits, right? If you ever looked at a Penis Envy mushroom versus a Golden Teacher or a Ghost versus an Enigma, right? These are very distinct sometimes in how they grow. They have different potency profiles and different subjective qualities. This influences the general arc, but it doesn't make the actual experience super consistent and predictable. I mean, there are some things that are obvious based on the strain, but as we all know, mushrooms sometimes have their own agenda and we just have to learn how we hold that energy.

00:07:40 Paul F. Austin
Now, now the conversation is also widening to other species. One species in particular, that has recently been talked about more and more is Psilocybin natalensis, which is native to South Africa, described scientifically in 1995. It is a close sister species to cubensis, so similar in fact that DNA sequencing is the reliable way to tell them apart. But it's generally reported as 1 to 5, 1.5 to 2 times the potency of average cubensis. Has a similar alkaloid mix, which is a really important part to emphasize with working with the full mushroom. This isn't just psilocybin, the psychoactive alkaloid. There's often psilocin and baeocystin as well. But oftentimes people describe Natalensis as cleaner, more functional with less body load, which is a big part of why it's starting to catch on both with microdosers and those who are doing high-dose journeys. People describe it to me oftentimes as feeling like MDMA in mushroom form. Now, Natalensis is also more contamination resistant and forgiving to grow, which is why it's spreading. And some folks are starting to crossbreed natalensis as a species with cubensis, which then results in a strain like Yellow Umbo, as an example.

00:08:55 Paul F. Austin
Now, there are, as I mentioned, over 200 species of psychoactive psilocybin mushrooms, and some of these tiers are genuinely more potent than cubensis. Azorensis, cyanescens, semeliansietas, which are Liberty caps, Tampanensis, but they often carry their own cautions. And so talking about these other more complex species is really a separate episode. For the most part, we're going to focus on cubensis. So different species, right, is a bigger jump than different strain. The vast majority of you are going to be working with cubensis. And remember, something like natalensis can be a real step up in potency. In fact, a microdose for natalensis is like 30 to 50 milligrams, whereas a microdose for traditional cubensis is 100 to 150 milligrams. So it can be up to 3 times as potent as regular cubensis.

00:09:48 Paul F. Austin
Third Wave sometimes shares or partners with outside providers, but we don't control and aren't responsible for their statements, conduct, products, or services.

00:09:56 Paul F. Austin
We encourage you to do your own research and consult appropriate professionals. Hey everyone, I want to take a moment to share something important with you.

00:10:03 Paul F. Austin
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00:10:20 Paul F. Austin
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00:10:41 Paul F. Austin
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00:11:15 Paul F. Austin
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00:11:54 Paul F. Austin
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00:12:21 Paul F. Austin
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00:12:33 Paul F. Austin
Now let's talk a little bit about the different strains in cubensis. Okay, this isn't a ranking necessarily. It's a spectrum moving from more accessible and gentle towards potent and demanding. Golden Teachers, GTs, are the most common one. This is the gentle anchor. It's popular as a gateway mushroom. It's hardy when growing. Tolerant of imperfect conditions. It's very common in chocolates. If you are getting chocolate somewhere and it's not a synthetic analog like a 4-AcO-DMT or even Amanita muscaria, which is again, not psilocybin whatsoever, but it can be very common in chocolates and microdosing products. Golden Teachers are phenomenal as a starting point strain for a lot of new Practitioners who are getting into this space or folks who are coming into psychedelics for the first time. It's often described as gentle, introspective, euphoric, heart-centered, and clear towards the end. Gentle does not mean weak, however. I've had some people who have just done 3 grams of dried Golden Teachers, and it is a very impactful journey for them. But gentle just means it's a little less calming on the nervous system, which is quite a bit different than penis envy.

00:13:44 Paul F. Austin
Okay, so penis envy is where this strongest strain talk starts. High potency. In fact, my first quote-unquote bad trip with psilocybin was with penis envy when I was 19 or 20. So it could be very high potency. It's harder to grow. It's more contamination-prone. With penis envy, there's often, often a faster onset, more intense, and it can be heavy on the nervous system and triggering on the nervous system. There are some folks who just refuse to touch penis envy at this point because it can be so intense. And so I know there has been a lot of sort of talk online about, yeah, let's do 20 grams of Penis Envy with some of these sort of hyper alpha male bros. I would really discourage beginners from jumping in with Penis Envy right away. Start low and go slow with Penis Envy and recognize that it is a potent strain. So 3 grams of Penis Envy is going to sit a little bit differently than 3 grams of Golden Teacher's, and it can be more activating to the nervous system. So if you already have or you're working with a client who has a fairly dysregulated nervous system, Be mindful of penis envy.

00:14:50 Paul F. Austin
Tidal Wave is another one. Tidal Wave is one that I heard about a few years ago with a, with a chocolate that I was buying at the time. It is a designer strain culture. So some of these cubensis strains, right, were cross mixing and matching them. It's a B-positive and penis envy cross, high potency, strongly visual and euphoric, and a fixture in the world's strongest cubensis talk. It's a clean example of modern designer strain culture.

00:15:19 Paul F. Austin
Then we have Ghost, which is a gentle lineage pushed to intensity. Ghost is sometimes the strain that we use at our Intensives for the Practitioner Training Program. It is a true albino strain. It's nearly translucent, ghostly white with clear spores. It can be very, very difficult to grow. The lineage traces through Albino Golden Teachers to True Albino Teachers, with Ghost emerging as a further isolated Mutation. Ghosts are teeny tiny. They're teeny tiny mushrooms. They are notably more potent than the standard Golden Teachers. They're generally for experienced users. Ghost, I love because it also can be very heart-opening. A little bit goes a long ways and people find it to be quite kind and gentle overall, even though the potency is there.

00:16:08 Paul F. Austin
Now, another one that folks have been talking a lot about lately is Enigma. Which is not a strain, it's actually a mutation. So Enigma is not a species and arguably not even a strain. It's a sterile blob mutation of cubensis out of the tidal wave and penis envy lineage that grows as a dense brain coral-like mass, makes no spores, and can only be cloned. Okay, it is among the most potent cubensis-derived material documented. It puts— testing puts Enigma-type samples around 3 to 3.8% tryptamines versus the average being 0.6 to 0.8%. So it can be 3 to 5x. And I know folks who have done these sort of men's retreats where they'll do like 8 grams of Enigma, and I'm like, oh my gosh, how did you do that? So this folds straight into harm reduction because the average potency is several times that of Golden Teachers. Eyeballing a dose is exactly how people get overwhelmed. So we really need to make sure that we're weighing our material and respecting variability. Now,

00:17:12 Paul F. Austin
again, a couple callouts before we go into preparation. Gentle does not mean weak, and potent does not mean better, and no particular strain removes the need for set— setting, screening, and support. That's really important. The point is not to find the strongest mushroom. The point is to work with a strain that fits, fits the context that you are coming into the experience with. Your intention, your desire, the potency that you feel comfortable with, maybe what you have prior experience with or not. Maybe you want to explore a new one. But the point is to personalize the strain to your particular needs.

00:17:52 Paul F. Austin
Let's move into preparation. Okay. Dose consistency and microdosing. So psilocybin, as we know, is not necessarily evenly distributed. Caps and stems can differ in alkaloid concentration, and whole mushrooms make consistent dosing harder. So if you are a Practitioner or someone who is doing this work, I highly recommend not just eating caps and stems, but grinding the dried material into a uniform powder because it creates consistency. You might use capsules, especially if you're microdosing. The thing to keep in mind if using gelatin capsules is that sometimes it can significantly delay the onset of the psilocybin, significantly delay the onset. So I don't necessarily advise capsules if you're looking for a quick uptake, or if you're working with higher doses. Sometimes they're ideal for microdosing, so it's easy to swallow, but I wouldn't use capsules for high doses.

00:18:47 Paul F. Austin
And again, microdosing, at this point we kind of have a frame for it: start low, go slow, observe rather than assume, track dose, mood, sleep, energy, focus, social interaction, and emotional tone. A microdose is sub-intoxicating. To very lightly, you know, navigating. And that depends on the protocol and it depends on the strain. Lemon Tek is often not appropriate for microdosing, okay? And microdosing isn't just take a tiny amount and see what happens. It's about that protocol, that 30 to 60 days that you're microdosing consistently.

00:19:20 Paul F. Austin
It's about calibrating the dosage appropriately to what it is that you need. It's about working with the mushroom as an intelligence and an ally, developing and establishing a collaborative relationship with that substance so you actually work with it. And that requires intention, that requires thoughtfulness, that requires reverence. Sometimes that requires prayer, right? Slowing down, humility, right? So what's key with microdosing is making sure the dose is consistent and calibrating the dose to be appropriate for you. Now, the second preparation method, and we use this method at our Intensives for our Practitioner Training Program, and this has become quite commonplace, I would say, especially with high doses, is lemon tekking, which if you've watched our YouTube channel or you've been doing this work for any amount of time, you're probably familiar with lemon tekking.

00:20:12 Paul F. Austin
But lemon tek is really about the chemistry of how we're working with the mushroom. It's not a gimmick. Okay. So citric acid in the lemon juice helps to break down chitin in the mushroom, which helps to ease any nausea because one of the most common things that people have when they're just eating mushrooms, especially mushrooms with chocolate, is substantial nausea. So lemon tacking helps to reduce nausea, it helps to increase the overall onset of the mushrooms, sometimes increase the intensity and shorten the duration, which we love for our ceremonies because our ceremonies will often start at about 5 PM and we want to wrap them up by 10 PM, 11 PM latest. So if we're not lemon tacking, ceremonies can often take an extra hour or 2 hours. And you know, the biohacker that I am, the, the, the person that I am who cares about sleep for everyone, it's like if we can get to bed around midnight or 1 on ceremony night, that's fantastic.

00:21:04 Paul F. Austin
Get a good night's sleep so we can be fully ready to go in the next day. Lemon Tekking typically is not for microdosing. It's very relevant to medium or high-dose journeys. And this is often not a beginner hack, right? It can be faster, it can be more intense, and this can mean that at times it can be destabilizing without proper preparation. So if you are working with a Lemon Tek of psilocybin, I would encourage you to have a guide or a trip sitter or a friend or someone who is there present with you holding space because It can come on quick and it can be intense. Now, my other little hack here, if working with Lemon Tekin, is open up with a little bit of breathwork.

00:21:42 Paul F. Austin
Breathwork leading into any high-dose journey is just going to help to calm and regulate and soothe the nervous system, which means an easier onset for these medicines. Now, from our facilitator training lens, the preparation method for psilocybin is part of the protocol decision. Right. It's not a tra— trick that we're trying to employ or a gimmick. The quicker onset, the elimination of nausea, the faster duration, and how the container is held all factor in.

00:22:14 Paul F. Austin
Okay. So people without question, when we work with LemonTech in these big group settings at our Practitioner Training Programs, people again say, wow, I'm really glad I do that on a go-forward basis. I'm going to continue to LemonTech. Okay. Now it can at times mean a stronger peak. What we do to hold that peak in our ceremonies is we keep the music very calm. So as a facilitator, you also want to keep this in mind.

00:22:38 Paul F. Austin
If you're working with Lemon Tekking and you know the peak is coming sooner, I really encourage calm music. Sometimes if we have very intense music and the peak is coming on fast, it can really push people past their limit. So it's important that we hold that stronger peak so it doesn't overwhelm the nervous system. Shorter duration with DMT does help in certain contexts, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it's easier.

00:23:04 Paul F. Austin
Okay. The goal is not intensity for its own sake. It's coherence, safety, and integration. And so one question to consider is what do we miss when we focus too much on the peak experience, right? Because psychedelic transformation, psychedelic healing is not about the, oh, wow. Although that's a very attractive part of it, it really is about the now what. Okay.

00:23:28 Paul F. Austin
Preparation, including LemonTech, changes the pharmacology of the medicine that we're working with, which then changes the arc of the experience. Storage. Okay. Sometimes a weak trip is less about strain and more about how it was stored. Mushrooms are organic. Organic matter decays. Heat, light, moisture, air are the enemies.

00:23:53 Paul F. Austin
Cool, dark, dry is the rule. The way that I store my mushrooms is I keep them in airtight vacuum-sealed containers. I keep them in a closet in the dark, and then I have these really cool bags that you can get on Amazon called DampRid bags.

00:24:06 Paul F. Austin
DampRid. I put that in the closet because that absorbs any additional moisture that might be in the closet, and that keeps the mushrooms fresh for a really long time. You can store them that way for over a year and they'll maintain their potency. If you want it longer than a year, you can freeze it. But if you're freezing the mushrooms, you definitely have to vacuum seal the mushrooms. When I'm storing them in the closet, I use like a glass container that has good sealing, but it's not— just to correct from what I said before, it's not vacuum sealed.

00:24:42 Paul F. Austin
They should not be pre-ground. You should keep your mushrooms in whole form until you're ready to work with them, because pre-grounding them also can reduce their potency over time. That's also important to mention. Chocolates are convenient. They help to mask the taste. They can sometimes help to keep the potency longer. My experience with chocolates and mushrooms is they do cause more nausea. So if you're sensitive to nausea, I'd be sort of mindful of that. And then one other way that people store is blue honey, which is a traditional technique for preservation. Honey reduces moisture and oxidation and also makes it very yummy. There are a handful of underground products that I've seen that have mushrooms and honey, and it's sometimes just a fun way to microdose, although not the most precise, I do have to say.

00:25:32 Paul F. Austin
So how do we bring all this together? Strain influences the potential. Storage preserves or degrades it. Grinding improves consistency. If you choose to work with lemon tekking, that could shift the onset and intensity. Dose calibration reduces surprises. Set and setting shape the container. And integration determines whether it means anything over time.

00:25:55 Paul F. Austin
So a simple framework before you begin working with mushrooms is to first ask, what is the intention for yourself or for the client that you may be working with? What is the context? Is this their first time? Is this their 10th time? Have they worked with this strain before? Is it a one-to-one experience? Is it a group experience? Are we lemon-tecking? Are we eating chocolate? What's the playlist like? Are we leading in with breathwork? Right, just starting to map again the ecology of that individual to see what are they coming in with and how do I meet them where they're at with an ideal strain? What is the actual medicine and how potent might it be? We already talked about the difference between Golden Teachers and Ghost as an example, or even Ghost and Natalensis, or Ghost and Enigma.

00:26:36 Paul F. Austin
So understanding the different potencies and strains is important. And for any practitioners who want to become sort of mushroom aficionados, and work with various strains with clients, I really would encourage you first to work with those strains yourself before you're giving them to clients. I think that's important to emphasize that you are the sort of guinea pig here. You need to first walk the walk, experiment or explore these strains before you bring them into a container with a client.

00:27:02 Paul F. Austin
How has it been stored? How will it be prepared? Who is supporting the experience? If you are doing high-dose work with psilocybin, especially if you have PTSD or depression or addiction, or if you're just going into it for the first time, time and you don't have necessarily, you know, deep, deep trauma in your, in your, in your sort of life history, have someone there, preferably someone who is trained, but have someone there who can just help keep the space, knows what they're doing, keep you safe. That's important.

00:27:33 Paul F. Austin
And then we didn't talk a lot about this today because we've covered it at length in many, many other episodes, but what integration structure is in place after The Mushroom Experience. Okay. There's usually a critical learning period that is open after a high-dose psilocybin experience for anywhere from 2 to 3 weeks with psilocybin. Those 2 to 3 weeks freshly after a high-dose experience is going to be when the brain is most plastic. And so it's really important that as a provider, you're doing an integration call within 24 to 48 hours after a high-dose experience. That you're providing that support a week after, 2, 3 weeks after. Really providing a lot of handholding and direction and perspective in those first 2 or 3 weeks can often be the difference between a psilocybin experience that completely transforms someone's life and a psilocybin experience that is simply just another drug experience. And that distinction is important.

00:28:28 Paul F. Austin
So a few responsible use principles: know your limits, start low, go slow. Potent strains like Ghost and Natalensis and Enigma especially if it's done with Lemon Tekine, demand more caution. We've talked about this, but microdosing and macrodosing are very different practices. You could look at them as an AM and FM dial on a radio. They're helping you tune in to a similar thing, but the frequency is very different. Don't combine substances casually. Weigh medical and mental health contraindications. Work with a qualified guide, therapist, facilitator, or sitter when appropriate. And know the legal status where you live.

00:29:08 Paul F. Austin
Integration is not optional if the experience isn't meaningful. I'm sorry, integration is not optional if the experience is meaningful. And even if the experience is challenging, integration is still not optional. You still need that support, especially if the experience is challenging. You need that support in your corner. So, and responsible use is not about controlling every variable. It's about respecting just how many variables are involved in having a safe and effective experience with these mushrooms. The mushroom is ancient. It's a living organism, a chemistry, a cultural force, and for many, a profound teacher. And the more accessible that psilocybin mushrooms become, the more important it is to move past these simplistic, which is strongest conversations, because the real question is not how strong is this strain or how strong is this mushroom? It really is, am I prepared to meet what it may bring forward?

00:30:01 Paul F. Austin
Okay. If you want to go deeper into psilocybin mushrooms, go to Third Wave, thethirdwave.co, check out our guides. We have tons of podcasts. Check out our training programs, our Microdosing Practitioner Certification. We guide you through a 6-week microdosing protocol. Sometimes folks choose wachuma. Sometimes folks are using psilocybin or LSD, but we have a lot of training available. We also have a lot of videos on YouTube about storage, about strains, about intentional use, about some of the clinical research. So YouTube is also a fantastic platform. You can subscribe to our Third Wave YouTube channel and go deep there as well.

00:30:34 Paul F. Austin
If you did like this episode, let us know, write into us. Let us know what substance or what alkaloid or what medicine you want us to cover next. I know there are a lot of questions out there about iboga right now. I, in fact, am going to sit with iboga for the first time in under a month, which just saying that feels daunting. You know, we could talk about ayahuasca. Bufo is very much in the conversation right now as well. So if you did enjoy this quick little drop-in around a particular substance and some of the nuance involved with how to work with it, please let us know because we can do many more of these. All right, folks, thanks for tuning in, and we'll see you next week.

00:31:34 Paul F. Austin
Did you know that over 4 million people microdosed psychedelics last year in the United States, and yet so few have real guidance on how to do it safely and effectively?

00:31:45 Paul F. Austin
That's exactly why I created our Microdosing Practitioner Certification. This is an 18-week professional training where you'll master my San Pedro microdosing protocol for nervous system regulation, learning how to coach clients through it with confidence and integrity.

00:31:59 Paul F. Austin
Just visit psychedeliccoaching.institute or use the link in the show notes to learn more.