A really common question I get asked is: Can I stack Amanita and Psilocybin? The answer is yes…. But not together. They need some separation in time to both be effective since Amanita like GABA agonists are commonly used in medical settings to shut down a difficult trip with serotonergic hallucinogens like psilocybin.

Since I know of no one else using this protocol, my clients lovingly refer to it as the “Samas Stack”

Samas Stack

The protocol:
Morning of day one: psilocybin microdose
Evening of day two: amanita microdose
Day three: rest and integrate 

Repeat for 6 weeks then take a two week break to reassess 

The reasoning: 

After much experimentation we have landed at a simple 3 day cycle for six week as the standard stacking protocol. It is necessary first to establish your microdoses for both compounds which will likely come out to between .2-.3 grams each but every batch is different and every person has a unique nervous and endocrine system so first follow the steps for how to find your microdose and “start low and go slow”. Those instructions can be found here for amanita and here for psilocybin. 

Day 1: amplify
Take the psilocybin with breakfast. 

Psilocybin is a non-specific amplifier so do something on day one that you want amplified in your nervous system. Conversely, if you’re going to do something you know will be upsetting or unpleasant do not take your microdose, you will only be amplifying this in your nervous system and growing new neural pathways that do not serve you. 

Night one: meditate

Day two: neurogenisis
Add your new habit. 

The neurogenic effects of psilocybin peak 18-24 hours after ingestion. Not only does this time frame not change for a macrodose, studies suggest that neurogenisis is actually increased when the dose of psilocybin is lowered below the threshold of perception. Adding a new habit on day 2 creates the most new neural pathways and gets you the most bang for you buck. This can be life changing. The effects in the nervous system are permanent. 

Night 2: clearing
Take your amanita microdose 1-1.5 hours before bed. 

This will give you all the benefits of microdosing amanita without cutting off the benefits of microdosing psilocybin. As noted elsewhere, amanita will close the sensory gates and shut down a psilocybin trip or the effects of a microdose. That being said if you are on a microdose of psilocybin and are accidentally amplifying a difficult situation, by all means take your amanita and shut that down before you train new nerves to crave difficulty. 

Day three: rest and reflect
Let both compounds clear from your endocrine system through the lymph. 

Drink water, practice self care and integration. Many people report that journaling or making art on day three is an excellent way to track their progress over the 6 week protocol

Repeat this three day cycle for 6 week and then take a 2 week break to rest and reflect before diving back in. The effects of both compounds are permeant in the nervous system so slow down and check in before making more changes. 

Notes:

This protocol is most often used with people working through cptsd induced emotional disregulation resulting in treatment resistant depression. For anxiety induced by cptsd the citizen science suggests working with amanita alone while treatment resistant depression has been effectively treated in multiple studies with macrodoses of psilocybin with an experienced trip sitter.  

Psilocybin grows new nerves and makes new nerve connections (neurogenisis and neuroplasticity) and amanita (specifically the ibotenic acid) breaks old nerve patterns and trims back the nervous system by lesioning nerves. They do not act on the same nerves. Psilocybin primarily acts in the brain and spinal column (the central and autonomic nervous system often called the conscious mind) and ibotenic acid primary functions in the fascia and peripheral nervous system (the sub conscious mind). One does not destroy the new nerves the other has just grown. That being said if you take them simultaneously you will get the effects of amanita and not psilocybin. The amanita always wins as a function of the muscamol which is a gaba agonist in the same way that a hospital will use a gaba agonist to shut down a serotenergic/indole trip. 

Many people find that an amanita microdose taken 3-4 hours before a macrodose of psilocybin prepares the nervous system for a clearer and calmer visioning session, resulting in less instances of difficult trips. 

On the whole, most of the citizen science points to microdosing amanita for a full protocol before microdosing with psilocybin or DMT. This is because difficult trips are most often caused by traumatic emotions and memories in the subconscious which are effectively treated (possibly even cured) by amanita use. The stress reload from amanita is so pervasive, clients regularly report the symptoms of autoimmune disorders fade and even vanish including allergies and food sensitivities, eczema and psoriasis, migraines, and parasite born blood disorders like Lyme. 

Obviously the FDA can’t endorse this because nobody who lobbies them can patent it or make any money off it; amanita can’t be grown in a laboratory or commercial setting; and it is still considered a poisonous substance, despite the absence of any evidence to prove this- not one coroner’s report, not a single tox report. Literally there is no evidence that ingesting microdoses, or even macrodoses amanita muscaria is dangerous and while hero doses of 10 and more grams raw may induce vomiting or seizure like symptoms people who do this report tremendous healing afterward and no lasting deleterious effects. When decarboxylated externally through heat, acid or lactofermentation, doses of this same size are regularly and comfortably used in the community with no difficult effects.