James Fadiman

Although it's in no way deliberately related, this forms a kind of trilogy with Michael Pollan's How to Change Your Mind, an overview and history of psychedelic drugs in Western culture, and Ayelet Waldman's A Really Good Day, a memoir of microdosing. Fadiman's Microdosing for Health, Healing, and Enhanced Performance aims to be a sort of encyclopedia of conditions that have anecdotally been improved or ameliorated by microdosing, from anorexia to varicella-zoster virus (shingles). There's show more also a concise discussion of what microdosing is and what it might feel like.

Fadiman and Gruber spend entirely too much time explaining why traditional studies of the effects of microdosing have trouble identifying any differences from dosing with placebos. They acknowledge that "the closer microdosing experiments approach experimental perfection (randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, etc.) the less they show anticipated microdosing effects." Far from being troubled by this, they regard it as bolstering the case for the efficacy of microdosing—the opposite of how a scientist would interpret the findings. "There could be no more conclusive way of demonstrating that the wrong tool, methodology, or mode of analysis is often used to study microdosing." (Authors' emphasis.) But in the same way that "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" (Sagan), unfavorable results do not necessarily prove faulty methodology. They would do better to identify the defects of the methodology than to appropriate the unwanted results as proof of their case. (I personally do believe in the efficacy of microdosing as it pertains to mental health. I simply hate sloppy thinking, particularly in educated people who allow their standards to slip in order to confirm their biases.)

The bulk of this volume is, in fact, anecdotes: stories from people whose previously intractable conditions improved after regularly taking doses of psychedelic drugs much smaller than the amount needed to produce noticeable mental effects. There are dozens of these, claiming relief from everything from PMS to epilepsy to stuttering. You could be forgiven from coming away thinking that there isn't a negative human condition microdosing can't make better. The cheerleading is wearying even to those who want to be convinced.

So the introductory chapters, which carefully define microdosing and distinguish therapeutic microdosing from broader uses of the term, are the most helpful. If you're thinking about microdosing or concerned about someone you love who intends to microdose, there's no reason to avoid this book, and it may help you by dispelling some myths. But the special pleading is disappointing and goes far to spoil what could be a much better book. show less

It was an interesting book, but I was hoping for much more new information. The vast majority of this book is about the studies done in the early 1960s (about which I think most people interested in entheogens have already read). There was a tiny sliver of newer information, but not enough to build a book around. The newer stuff included, oddly enough, some trip reports the likes of which can be found all over the internet. The cover led me to believe I was getting something other than what show more I got.

The most interesting part was the chapter speculating about the value of micro-doses of psychedelics- doses too small to cause tripping, but which seem to have profound effects over time.

It's not a bad book, don't get me wrong. It's informative and well-written, and it's a subject that doesn't get enough good press. But Timothy Leary's dead, let's get some fresh quotes. show less

In this compilation, Fadiman and Frager present to us the many faces of Islamic mysticism. They remind us that the spiritual path is different from the intellectual path, that a difference exists between contemplation and knowledge, that "the gnawing hunger of lonely men, is not appeased by information or facts". Paradoxically, as Bayazid Bistami affirms, "The thing we tell of can never be found by seeking, yet only seekers find it." In their aphorisms and anecdotes, the Sufis explain how, show more through the blessings of submission, faith, and love, one may come to know the face of the unknown. show less

With the publication of The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide, James Fadiman has inaugurated a new era of spiritual and practical exploration of inner space. Mind you, he didn’t invent or even rediscover the spiritual use of entheogens, nor the psychotherapeutic exploration of psychoactive plants and chemicals, but this guidebook represents a bold re-emergence of an ancient healing practice... https://www.erowid.org/library/review/review.php?p=334