Paul F. Austin has spent more than a decade helping move psychedelics from the counterculture into mainstream conversations about healing, creativity, leadership, and personal transformation. As the founder of Third Wave and the Psychedelic Coaching Institute, his work focuses heavily on education, responsible use, and what he calls the “third wave” of psychedelics.
In a conversation on the Ayahuasca Podcast, Austin explained how his own experiences with LSD and microdosing shaped his career, why he believes education will determine the future of psychedelic culture, and how the next phase may depend less on proving that psychedelics can work and more on teaching people how to use them responsibly.
From Personal Experimentation to Third Wave
Austin first experimented with psychedelics in his late teens and early twenties. Raised in a conservative Midwestern family, he initially struggled to reconcile his positive experiences with the warnings he had heard about illegal drugs.
By 2015, growing research and public discussion led him to take psychedelics more seriously. He began a structured LSD microdosing protocol and soon launched Third Wave as an educational resource for people interested in exploring psychedelics with more intention and context.
Over time, that platform expanded into media, books, practitioner training, and retreats, but education remained at the center.
What the “Third Wave” Means
Austin describes the first wave of psychedelics as the ancient and indigenous use of entheogenic plants and fungi. The second wave was their reintroduction into Western culture through substances such as LSD, clinical research, and the counterculture of the 1950s and 1960s.
The third wave, in his view, is about integration into everyday society. That means moving beyond the idea that psychedelics belong only in underground ceremonies or clinical settings and developing cultural frameworks for awe, mystery, creativity, spirituality, and transformation.
He believes the success of this wave will depend heavily on whether society can create safe and meaningful containers for these experiences.
Why Microdosing Matters
Microdosing has been central to Austin’s work because he sees it as a gentler entry point for people who are curious about psychedelics but hesitant to begin with a high-dose experience.
He favors a stepwise approach: starting with lower doses, observing the effects, and gradually deciding whether deeper work is appropriate. He argues that this may help people become more familiar with altered states while reducing the fear surrounding stronger psychedelic experiences.
Austin also stresses that microdosing should not be treated as a magic pill. In his view, its value depends on the habits and practices that accompany it, including meditation, breathwork, sleep, exercise, nutrition, and intentional behavioral change.
Different Psychedelics Create Different Experiences
One theme throughout the conversation is that psychedelics should not be treated as interchangeable. Austin describes psilocybin as generally more emotional and somatic, while LSD tends to be more stimulating and cognitive. Huachuma, or San Pedro, sits somewhere between the two in his framework, combining stimulation with a stronger sense of embodiment.
Ayahuasca is different again. Austin and host Sam Believ discussed its strong ceremonial context and the importance of gradually finding an appropriate dose rather than assuming everyone should receive the same amount.
This emphasis on calibration reflects a broader principle: the substance, dose, setting, intention, and person all matter.
Education Before Expansion
For Austin, psychedelic literacy is one of the most important tasks of the current movement. People need to understand the differences between substances, the role of preparation and integration, the historical importance of indigenous traditions, and the fact that powerful experiences require appropriate support.
He believes the first decade of the modern psychedelic renaissance has focused heavily on public education. The next challenge is training enough skilled practitioners to work with people safely and responsibly.
That requires more than conventional psychotherapy skills. Facilitators must understand altered states, preparation, integration, nervous-system regulation, and how to create a stable container for experiences that can be emotionally intense and unpredictable.
Psychedelics as Tools, Not Destinations
Austin is also cautious about psychological dependence on psychedelic experiences themselves. Although psychedelics are generally not associated with the same compulsive use patterns as many other substances, people can still become attached to repeatedly seeking ceremonies without changing their daily lives.
For him, integration is what determines whether the experience becomes meaningful. Psychedelics may interrupt old patterns, but the real work happens afterward through changes in relationships, habits, values, and behavior.
That principle also shapes his interest in leadership. Austin believes psychedelic experiences can challenge ego-driven motivations and encourage leaders to reconsider what they build, why they build it, and how their work affects communities and the environment.
The third wave, then, is not simply about making psychedelics more available. It is about building the education, cultural understanding, and practitioner support needed to use them with greater maturity.
Listen to the whole podcast episode here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7wLg3otN17chKmNOSLLKmL?si=e14bdd6daaef400f