The Fadiman Protocol: A Beginner's Guide to Microdosing from the Godfather Himself

If you have heard of microdosing, you have probably run into James Fadiman's name. He is 86 now, a Stanford-trained psychologist who spent six decades studying consciousness. The last fifteen years, he has been collecting data on what happens when people take tiny doses of psychedelics instead of heroic ones.

His protocol is simple: one day on, two days off. It has become the default approach for microdosers worldwide. Here is why.

The guy who started this

James Fadiman's first psychedelic experience came in 1961 when his Harvard adviser, Richard Alpert (later Ram Dass), handed him psilocybin in Paris. That moment shaped everything that followed.

By 1966, he was running research at Stanford on psychedelics and problem-solving. The study worked with engineers, architects, and mathematicians, giving them low-dose LSD and watching what happened when they tackled problems they had been stuck on. The results were striking. Many solved problems that had resisted weeks of conventional effort.

Then the FDA shut it down. Psychedelics went Schedule I, and research went dark for decades.

But Fadiman kept thinking.

How modern microdosing started

In 2011, Fadiman published "The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide" with a chapter that nobody expected to matter as much as it did: a detailed description of microdosing.

The concept was not entirely his. Albert Hofmann, the chemist who synthesized LSD, had been taking tiny amounts on forest walks for years. When Fadiman heard about this from a colleague, something connected.

What if you did not need a full trip to get some of the benefits? What if small doses could fit into regular life?

How the protocol works

Day 1: Take a microdose in the morning.

Day 2: No dose. You might still notice some aftereffects.

Day 3: Nothing. Back to baseline.

Day 4: Start over.

Run this cycle for 4-8 weeks, then take 2-4 weeks off.

Why the off-days?

The gaps are not random. They do three things.

Tolerance does not build. Psychedelics cause rapid tolerance. Daily dosing would mean you need more and more to feel anything. The opposite of the point.

You get time to notice. The contrast between dose days and off days helps you actually see whether anything is changing. Without that comparison, subtle shifts disappear into the noise of daily life.

Integration happens. If something shifted on dose day, you need space to let it settle.

What people actually report

Since 2010, Fadiman has gathered reports from over 1,850 people in 30 countries. The patterns are consistent enough to be interesting:

• Less anxiety and depression

• Better mood stability

• More creative problem-solving

• Fewer migraines and cluster headaches

• Reduced menstrual symptoms

• More awareness of body signals and health habits

Fadiman's description: "Information seems to travel better through the body. It puts the wrong connections back in the right place."

Track what happens

Fadiman considers journaling non-negotiable. Memory is terrible for subtle mood shifts. If you are not writing things down, you are guessing.

Record: what you took, when, your mood throughout the day, energy, focus, sleep quality, anything notable that happened.

After a few weeks, you will start seeing patterns. What is actually changing? What is not? Data beats intuition here.

How much to take

A microdose should be sub-perceptual. You should not feel high. You should not have trouble working or driving. If you notice impairment, it is too much.

Rough ranges: psilocybin mushrooms run 0.1-0.3 grams dried. LSD is 5-20 micrograms. Start low. You can always take more next time.

When to skip this

Microdosing is not for everyone. Fadiman says this often.

Do not microdose if you have a personal or family history of psychosis or schizophrenia, if you are on lithium or tramadol, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, or if you have severe anxiety that unpredictable experiences might worsen.

Also: microdosing is not a replacement for full-dose work when deep healing is needed. Sometimes you need the full experience.

Try tracking with Microdose Tracker

Fadiman's whole approach depends on good data. If you want to run your own experiment properly, you need to track consistently.

Head to microdose-tracker.com and set up a free account. Takes about a minute.

Pick your substance. If it is LSD, the app uses micrograms automatically so you do not accidentally log in milligrams. Select the Fadiman Protocol from the built-in options, and it calculates your dose and rest days for you.

Turn on reminders. The app pings you on dose days and prompts you to log how you are feeling.

Each week you rate 8 things: depression, anxiety, focus, creativity, energy, empathy, problem-solving, and overall mood. All 1-5. Over time, you build a picture of what is actually happening that memory alone would miss.

You can export everything to Excel if you want to share with a therapist or coach.

Free, private, no ads. Built by people who get why this matters.

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Sources: The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide by James Fadiman; Microdosing Institute; Tim Ferriss Show #66