Media Company DoubleBlind Is The Master Class Of Psychedelics

When I had my first acid trip in 1985, I was fortunate to have a guide that tripped with me. It was my older brother Steve, and he educated me for months before we finally tripped together. We smoked a lot of cannabis, and had long conversations about the significance of psychedelics in alternative communities over the decades. Steve shared his mystical experiences, and informed me that these compounds taught him more about the life force than anything else.

This education on psychedelics was a precious gift my older brother gave to me. I was trying to find my way in the Reagan years….It was not an easy time for a restless teenager from a broken family. I was lonely and in a lot of pain. I was probably clinically depressed, but I didn’t know it. To this day, those first couple of trips with my brother stand out as big turning points in my life, in my thinking, in my relationship with the web of life and the mysterious spirit that holds it all together. If not for psychedelics, the pain I was in at that time would not have existed in a broader context, giving me hope and inspiration to transform myself. 

Decades later, there are experts, communicators and connectors like leading psychedelic media company DoubleBlind who serve as guides to the global human community. DoubleBlind has teamed up with the most respected, veteran experts in the psychedelic space to bring educational programming on psychedelics to the

masses. In addition to its online journalism and print magazine, DoubleBlind offers a library of online courses and monthly webinars — a new microdosing course, two mushroom growing courses taught by mycology experts Dr. K Mandrake of The Psilocybin Mushroom Bible, Darren Springer, Caine Barlow, and Ophelia Chong, as well as a course designed for newcomers to psychedelics walking first-time trippers through every stage of the psychedelic journey with insight from leading researchers and therapists in the field. Monthly webinars cover topics ranging from "Ketamine For Depression'' to "How To Trip Sit," and have featured thought leaders including Paul Stamets, Jim Fadiman, Rick Strassman, Alex and Allyson Grey, and many more. More than 4000 students have graduated from their courses, and all the proceeds go back to funding their journalism to help further the psychedelic movement. 

This is another precious gift, and I am proud to share this interview with a true pioneer in the psychedelic space — DoubleBlind co-founder Shelby Hartman. Shelby and her team are taking the work my brother did with me, and making it operational for everyone on Earth. The psychedelic renaissance is here and DoubleBlind serves as a trusted source for people to learn about these compounds, so they can transform, heal, and integrate their experiences into their daily lives. 

Why is education so important when it comes to psychedelics?

Shelby Hartman: Millions of Americans are now learning about the promise of psychedelics for depression, anxiety, addiction, and other conditions through all the positive media coverage about them. It’s absolutely true that there’s some amazing data coming out of universities like Johns Hopkins and New York University about psychedelics. But finding healing through psychedelics is not as simple as just tripping. If you’re truly looking to heal, there’s a lot to consider like where you trip, who you trip with, and whether you’re on a drug like an SSRI that’s contraindicated with the psychedelic, and how to test drugs like MDMA and LSD to make sure they’re not adulterated. Then there’s best practices around how to make sense of your trip once it’s over, something the psychedelic community calls “integration.” The reality is that a lot of Americans are not going to wait to trip until psychedelics are approved by the FDA and available through the doctor’s office—so we’re here to make sure that they’re safe, and that people can get the most out of the experience. 

What’s the first tenet someone should recognize before diving in?

SH: Set and setting. It’s a term that was coined by Timothy Leary in 1964, and it basically means you need to be aware of your mindset before you go into a trip and you need to prepare a space for yourself in which you feel safe and supported. 

What’s been your most popular webinar so far?

SH: “How To Become A Psychedelic Therapist” with Dr. Ingmar Gorman of Fluence. There are tons of people in our community who have had their lives changed by psychedelics and now want to know how they can embark on a career in psychedelics and start helping others to heal. Our second most popular webinar was on “How To Microdose” with Dr. Jim Fadiman. 

What’s your most popular course so far?

SH: Our beginner’s course on how to grow mushrooms. We’ve now taught thousands and thousands of people how to grow mushrooms at home, in nine weeks, with live support from mycologists. It’s amazing to see how empowered people feel when they learn how to grow their own medicine and food at home. It’s just so magical to watch mycelium fruit! It’s also been such a gratifying experience to launch this course, because it comes with a private forum which has blossomed into the most beautiful community of mushroom growers from around the world who support one another as they share pictures of their grow, bulk out their grows, and try new teks.

What kind of feedback are you receiving from students taking your courses? 

SH: The thing people love the most about our mushroom growing course is the live support from the mycologists. There’s a lot of free information available on YouTube and Reddit on how to grow mushrooms, but there’s also a lot of disagreement and mixed messages on best practices. People just love having these incredibly knowledgeable, kind teachers to help them troubleshoot as everyone has access to different supplies depending on where they live, different lighting and temperature conditions in their house, etc. It’s really not a cut and dry process and there’s a ton of play and experimentation that can go into it. 

You just launched a new course How To Microdose. What’s that all about?

SH: Thousands of people have reported that microdosing has helped with their depression, insomnia, lack of focus, and just a general sense of despair. Microdosing has even shown promise for physical conditions such as irregular periods, lyme disease, and migraines. Microdosing holds incredible promise to help you feel more energized, happy, and healthy, but if you want the results you’re looking for it’s important that you microdose the right way — find the right dose, right protocol, right substance, and then track your results and optimize your routine. That’s why we invited microdosing coach and educator Adam Bramlage to help walk you through how to do all of that, step by step. Adam has worked with hundreds of clients in his private microdosing practice, from people on SSRIs with depression to people looking to change their relationship to alcohol, lose weight, and just feel better all around. 

Anything surprising you’ve discovered along the way?

SH: It’s been so rewarding to help people on their journey with psychedelics. It’s easy to forget sometimes because we’ve been to so many conferences, and our whole world is composed of people who work in psychedelics. Concepts like integration and how to do it are still unknown to so many people, some of whom have been tripping for years. The answer isn’t always more psychedelics, sometimes it’s just learning to work with the experiences you’ve already had!

What other resources complement DoubleBlind’s educational programs?

SH: So many! For people who are looking for individual support preparing for or processing a psychedelic experience, MAPS has a great database of psychedelic integration therapists. For folks looking to talk about psychedelics and process their trips in community, The Integration Circle holds amazing virtual events. Our friends at Fireside Project also recently launched the first free hotline for psychedelic support. Lastly, we always like to say at DoubleBlind that anyone who is engaging with psychedelics should be aware of important conversations happening in the field right now around the concept of indigenous reciprocity, which essentially means to give back to the indigenous communities who have long preserved the wisdom around psychedelics plants and fungi. Chacruna is doing a lot of important work around that and will be having a conference soon centered around it. 

How can we stay up to date on webinars and courses?

SH: We have live webinars every month and we announce them as well as our courses in our newsletter, which you can sign up for at doubleblindmag.com, or on our IG @doubleblindmag.