What this site is
How to Use Psychedelics is a harm reduction and education project. It exists to answer the questions people actually have before, during, and after an experience: how much, how long, what interacts with what, what to do when it turns difficult, and what to do with it in the weeks afterwards.
Most psychedelic writing fails in one of two directions. It is either clinical and accurate but useless to someone sitting at their kitchen table at 2am, or it is warm and readable and quietly wrong about things that matter. The aim here is writing that a nervous first-timer can follow on one read, and that a careful reader never finds condescending.
The site does not tell anyone to take anything. It assumes you have made your own decision and would rather make it well.
Who writes it
The site is written and maintained by Louis Belleau, who holds an M.A. in Psychedelics and Consciousness Studies from the University of Ottawa and founded Psygaia, the nonprofit this site belongs to.
One person writing a site this size has an obvious drawback, so it is worth naming: breadth is easier to achieve than depth, and a single author has a single set of blind spots. The research library links every study it summarises so you can read the original rather than take a summary on trust, and the corrections process below exists because errors are expected rather than hypothetical.
Where the guidance comes from
Pharmacology, dose ranges, duration, and risk profiles come from peer-reviewed literature. The research library carries plain-language summaries of the major trials with a link to every original paper, so any claim on a substance page can be traced back to something you can read yourself.
The interaction checker is built on TripSit combination data alongside published pharmacological literature. Harm reduction practice draws on the accumulated work of organisations that have been doing this far longer than this site has existed, including DanceSafe, the Fireside Project, and Erowid.
Three habits matter more than any single source. Where the evidence is thin, the page says so rather than rounding up to confidence. Where practice varies between traditions, the page says that too. And every dose figure on this site is a reference range drawn from published research, not a recommendation: individual response varies by more than most people expect, and a gram is not a gram.
What this site will not do
It will not tell you to take a psychedelic, and it will not help you obtain one. There are no sourcing guides here and no vendor links.
It is not medical or legal advice. If you take medication, particularly an SSRI, an MAOI, or lithium, the interaction question is genuinely a clinical one and belongs with a prescriber. Psychedelics are controlled substances in most jurisdictions, and the law page describes the landscape rather than clearing you to act in it.
It is also not a crisis service. If you or someone with you needs help right now, the crisis page lists the lines that are staffed for exactly that, including the Fireside Project.
Corrections
If something here is wrong, incomplete, or out of date, please say so. Email hello@psygaia.org, or use the feedback link at the foot of most pages. Point at the page and the sentence if you can.
Corrections to anything affecting safety, dosing, or drug interactions are made as soon as they are verified. Everything else is worked through in order. This is a live site rather than a finished book, and several guides are still being expanded.
How it is funded
Psygaia is an independent nonprofit. This site carries no advertising and no corporate sponsors, and nothing on it is placed in exchange for payment.
The one thing sold anywhere on the site is the Microdosing Mindfully course, which is clearly marked and priced wherever it appears. Everything else, including all the guides and all three tools, is free and stays that way. Readers who want to support the work can do so directly.