Golden Teacher Mushrooms – 3.5 to 28 g

What are Golden Teacher Mushrooms?

Golden teacher mushrooms are the most popular strain of psilocybin magic mushrooms and are recognized as benchmark mushrooms with psychoactive substances in the psychedelic mushrooms market. These psilocybin mushrooms get their name from their golden caps with yellow speckles. They are known for their wisdom teachings and their shining yellow-gold caps. They allegedly first appeared in the wild in Florida during the mid-1980s. Since then, these mushrooms have become a favourite among consumers who take psilocybin mushrooms in recreational, ceremonial, or therapeutic settings.

Golden teachers belong to the psilocybe cubensis genus which is the most commonly cultivated species of magic mushroom. Psilocybe cubensis belongs to the family Hymenogastraceae, which is critical for those who are growing mushrooms. A mushroom family sits on top of a gene, and a gene will be interbred to have different so-called magic mushroom strains. The mushrooms that were given by the lady shaman Maria Sabina to the Western investment banker and entheogenic enthusiast R. Gordon Wasson in the town of Huautla de Jimenez, who introduced magic mushrooms to the West, were not psilocybe cubensis genus, but psilocybe Mexicana.

Golden Teacher Mushroom Appearance

Golden teacher mushrooms come with a golden cap as large as 5 cm in diameter and as small as 1 cm. Their stems are usually thinner in proportion to the width of the cap and could be 1/10th of the size. Another sign to identify GT mushrooms is that their caps could be variable in size and inconsistent in each flush.

All the mushrooms that you find for sale in the online market are dehydrated and not wild (fresh). The weight of fresh mushrooms is generally ten times higher than that of dry ones. There are two methods of dehydration in the market, oven-drying and freeze-drying. If they are dried in a twisted format, they are oven dried! If the mushrooms look exactly like their fresh formats, they are definitely freeze-dried. Another sign to figure out how they are dried is the appearance of blue or white stains on the mushrooms. These stains are light signs of surface oxidation. In freeze drying, the entire water content gets evaporated, and we do not see any blue colours on the mushroom caps or stems.

Golden Teacher Mushrooms Effects

Golden Teachers, like any other psilocybin mushrooms, create a psychedelic effect based on these factors:

• Physiology of your body (what you ate before, how your stomach enzymes break psilocybin)
• The potency of the mushrooms
• Dose you take
• The mindset you have when you are taking these mushrooms
• Setting in which you take them (in a ceremony, a therapeutic space, a party/festival)

Golden Teachers magic lies in their mild potency. They also are usually easy on the stomach when getting metabolized. The effect comes in multiple phases. However, the general theme behind the whole experience is introspection, sensory stimulation, and arousal, a high entropic flush of thoughts and brain interconnection. These mushrooms make you calm by allowing you to zone out into a state of mind where you witness your thoughts flowing smoothly. This is the mental state in which you are a calm spectator, and the teacher is showing you the way. The flush of thoughts is out of your control and not in the format of active thinking. They flow from different parts of your brain cortex and that is how light is shed on our blind spots, and the breakthroughs and epiphanies reveal themselves and come through.

Golden teacher mild potency provides a smooth journey of mind and unifies us with ourselves and the universe. The sensory stimulation of GT mushrooms is gentle, proper and concurrent with the experience and is not too much. This whole experience is quite uplifting, spiritual and unique.

How Golden Teacher Mushroom Works?

The psychoactive compounds of magic mushrooms are psilocybin and psilocin. There is little trace of other compounds in these psychedelic mushrooms; the most known ones are baeocystin, Aeruginascin, norbaeocystin, and some beta-carbolines. Among these, the psilocin molecule is very similar to serotonin, aka happiness or contentment molecule, which affects our mood, cognition, reward system, memory, sleep, and numerous physiological processes such as vomiting. Our body only absorbs psilocin, which means that psilocybin molecules must break and get dephosphorylated to turn to psilocin. Then psilocin will bind to our brain’s 5-HT receptor sites due to their similarity to serotonin. The hallucinogenic effect of magic mushrooms is due to the affinity of psilocin to our 5-HT2A receptors. This agonism at the 5-HT2A sites modulates the serotonergic system and downregulates changes in some gene expressions. Psilocin also has a low affinity to some dopaminergic (reward system) and glutamatergic (memory and learning) receptor sites.

Golden teacher mushrooms contain an initial content of ~0.5 to 0.6 wt. % of each of the psilocybin and psilocin molecules. What is metabolized in our system is the release of some direct psilocin molecules from dry mushrooms and also the breakdown of some psilocybin to psilocin. This equal ratio of the two compounds in Golden Teachers has made them a magic mushroom that creates pleasant trips in most cases.

Golden Teacher Mushroom Dosage

Imagining that all the Golden Teacher mushrooms in the market are grown from similar spores and liquid cultures, they should have the same potency and proportion of psilocybin and psilocin content. This psilocybe cubensis is the primary species used in most microdosing and edible products across dispensaries. This has been an untold but conventional standardization that has been adopted and honoured by the manufacturers. Indeed, other mushroom strains have been used in different modalities of products. In those cases, though, they always mention the name of the different strains. For dosing with GT mushrooms, we categorize the evaluation into two sections:

Microdosing Golden Teacher Mushrooms

Microdosing is defined as taking a sub-perceptual dose of psilocybin mushrooms through a weekly protocol to help with mood, anxiety, or depression gradually. Most of the products that are available across the online mushroom dispensaries in Canada are made of ground Golden Teacher magic mushrooms. This includes micro dosing Golden Teacher edibles (like microdosing shrooms gummies), microdosing capsule stacks (like Stamets microdosing stack), or microdosing tinctures. If a microdosing product does not use Golden Teachers, they always mention the mushroom strain name. For example, microdosing Penis Envy gummies. A microdose of GT mushrooms is a maximum of 200 mg of dry mushroom in each regimen (unit). However, 200 mg stands in the higher range. By its conventional definition, a microdose of shrooms contains between 75 mg to 125 mg of ground mushroom.

Macrodose Golden Teacher Mushrooms

When it comes to a macro experience, understanding dosing becomes more critical. This is where we suggest you, including the first-timers, start with a base minimum dose to calibrate your perception of a mind-altering experience. Our rule of thumb in SHAFAA is the advice to start with a 500 mg dose. This is counted as a base for a macrodose. The experience of taking 500 mg of Golden Teacher mushrooms may vary depending on several factors. Some may feel the flush of thoughts very strongly, even on this small dose, and some barely feel the effect! Whatever the experience, you have one data point here: you have gained it safely and with no traumatization.

When you are calibrated for 0.5 gr (or 500 mg) of Golden Teachers, then for the next time, you could go higher to 1, 1.5, or 2 grams. Up to 2 grams, the Golden Teacher mushroom effect is more healing and less psychedelic. It usually takes 45 minutes for the effect to start to kick in. We can say it is more psychoactive than psychedelic. Psychedelic is when one gets more of hallucinating effect, and psychoactive is whatever is mind-altering (coffee or sugar are within this category!). Beyond 2 grams of dry Golden Teachers is when you need more preparations. 3, 3.5, and 5 grams are the subsequent doses that people explore that could be intense. A 3 to 3.5-gram mushroom could keep you tripping for up to six hours and counted as a high dose. Five grams of GT mushrooms could take up to 10 hours and come with heavy hallucinations and subsequent headaches.

Most of the macrodose edibles in the market, including shrooms chocolates or shrooms gummies, are made of Golden Teacher mushrooms. Most manufacturers mention the strain’s name on their products or post it as psilocybe cubensis. If they use other mushroom strains, they would mention them. For example:

• SHAFAA manufactures Blue Meanies and Penis Envy gummies for BlueGoba.
• SHAFAA offers its shrooms chocolates only with Penis Envy mushrooms.
• SHAFAA offers its macrodose psychedelic mushroom capsules in different strains.

When you look into other dispensaries, look for the strain of mushrooms. If it is not mentioned on the product or is anonymous, we recommend you stay away from these suppliers. Doing mushrooms within the psychedelic protocols prohibits the occurrence of bad trips.

Different Use Cases of Taking Golden Teachers

Golden Teacher mushrooms are taken for multiple reasons. Indeed, the current psychedelic renaissance has been formed around the therapeutic benefits of psychedelic mushrooms to help mental wellness disorders. However, these mushrooms, including Golden Teachers, have been consumed for decades for multiple reasons that are listed here:

For Mental Wellness

This new wave of psychedelics decriminalization and clinical studies are based on the promising results from clinical trial studies. On the ClinicalTrial.gov website, over 110 double-blinded placebo-controlled studies are listed from different universities, medical institutions and companies that study the use of psilocybin for various mental disorders, including major depressive disorder, PTSD, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Migraine, cluster headache and many more. While most of these studies use synthetic psilocybin, some companies use the GMP extracts of psilocybe cubensis mushrooms for clinical trials. In Oregon, where psilocybe mushrooms are legalized, the only gene of mushrooms that can be used starting in 2023 is psilocybe cubensis and, in particular, Golden Teachers!

Many patients with treatment-resistance depressive disorders or milder depressions look at psilocybin mushrooms as their potential remedy. Microdosing mushrooms have shown that patients took off from SSRIs gradually while taking psilocybin microdosing, and their depression has significantly decreased. With all the promising news, most of the studies so far are experimental and anecdotal. Given the massive population with mental health problems, this is expected to be a vast market and potential remedy for those who are suffering from mental wellness disorders. It is noteworthy that magic mushrooms’ therapeutic aspect comes along in a therapeutic setting and with a psychotherapist.

For Recreational Use

Many take mushrooms just for recreational aspects. For example, a microdose of Golden Teachers before a public gathering could add to the emotional openness of people who get anxious in public. There are many who microdose to optimize their mood or cognitive performance. Artists, musicians and creators take magic mushrooms for further creativity and openness. Quantified citizens take microdosing capsules to enhance their cognitive ability, memory, and focus. Some people take larger doses in party settings or in nature! In general, we believe that magic mushroom is not the most suitable psychedelics for a party setting! When on shrooms, one wants to journey within mostly, and if you get something done actively, only the extra sensory stimulation is what you may experience. That’s why people may get giggly on 0.5 or 1 gram of mushroom in a gathering. Larger doses of psilocybe cubensis are not recommended in social groups. It may become very annoying and aggressive, and we do not recommend it.

Some people take mushrooms in nature to feel the oneness with the rest of creation. If you do that, we recommend you go slowly! 1 or 2 grams would be sufficient for such settings. The best environment for taking mushrooms in nature is where you are close to a safe indoor place (like a cabin). This allows you to come indoors if you feel overwhelmed. Mushrooms make you feel cold and also want to pee frequently. Therefore, spending time in your setting is critical to get the most out of your psychedelic journey.

For Spiritual Use

This is the most relevant use of psilocybe cubensis mushrooms. Golden Teachers are the shrooms that come to you as a spiritual teachers and show you how you are part of an interconnected grand design. The feeling of oneness and unity one experiences under the effect of mushrooms is mind-boggling and, as Paul Stamets says, makes us better citizens. Spiritual wellness is one aspect of our holistic wellness and mind-altering psychedelics. Magic mushrooms and Golden Teachers allow us to step over our ego to see what else is waiting for us. Magic mushrooms, including Golden Teachers in 5 grams, dissolve our ego and detach our sense of being from our identity. If we can digest the experience, this is where we can integrate it into our lives and realize that there is a lot that we don’t know. If you are taking mushrooms, mostly a macrodose, to explore yourself spiritually, we recommend you have a well-seasoned and educated guide. Don’t sit with newbie so-called Western shamans, who offer you magic mushrooms for spiritual exploration.

Golden Teachers vs Other Strains

Golden Teachers are considered the benchmark strain of psilocybe cubensis mushrooms. However, many other strains of psilocybe cubensis are different from GTs. Furthermore, there is also another genus of mushrooms that are not cubensis. The following graph, which is borrowed from Double-Blind, shows an analytical distribution of the amount of psilocybin and psilocin in different strains of magic mushrooms. Based on this, we have compared Golden Teachers with other strains of magic mushrooms.

Golden Teacher vs Penis Envy

The ratio of psilocybin to psilocin content in Golden Teachers is ~ 0.6/0.6 wt. %. Comparing this with Penis Envy mushrooms, they have around 1% wt. % of psilocybin, their psilocin content is still way more than Golden Teachers. Therefore, Penis Envy mushrooms are more potent than GTs.

Golden Teacher vs Amazonian

Golden Teachers and Amazonian mushrooms are usually perceived to be very similar in their effects. However, as you see, Amazonians’ psilocybin to psilocin content is higher than Golden Teachers’ and lower than Penis Envy’s.

Golden Teacher vs Blue Meanies

Blue Meanie mushrooms are not listed in this graph. However, their effects are much like the Treasure Coast mushroom strain and similar to Mazapatec mushrooms.

Golden Teacher vs Tidalwave

Golden Teachers have almost half the potency of Tidalwave mushrooms! Tidalwave is a combination gene of multiple strains of mushrooms, and that’s how its strength has skyrocketed. However, it would help if you were careful that one gram of Tidalwave could be even more potent than 2 grams of Golden Teachers as it has other entourage compounds.

Like Golden Teacher mushroom’s milder effect, the pricing of Golden Teachers as the most popular strain stands in the lower to intermediate price range across Canada’s magic mushroom online dispensaries. As an indication, their price is always lower than Penis Envy mushrooms and correlates directly with their psilocybin potency. Canada is the land of magic mushrooms!