SWIM recently began to experiment with DMT, and so far, has had some interesting experiences, though nothing he would term breakthroughs. He has been aware of DMT for a while now, but only recently began to fervently research this substance, eventually leading to ordering some MHRB and performing a STB extraction, from which he pulled some very powdery snow white spice, as well as some slightly yellow tinged powdery spice and just a tad bit of dmt-oxide (he started by evapping with a fan, but then switched to freeze precipitation, which produced the cleaner product). What follows is a quick run through of the four experiences he has had up to this point.

Quite foolishly, this is the first psychedelic SWIM has experimented with, but so far things have gone ok.

The first time, after a few minutes of mental preparation and some deep breaths to calm any nerves (it was, after all, his first psychedelic), an eyeballed amount of spice was melted into a ball of (cleaned and torched) steel wool, and then inhaled through a water pipe. This was done in the company of friends eager to watch, several of whom smoked for their first time that night also. The environment was crowded, a tad dirty, and slightly oppressive (SWIM was uncomfortable with the nonsmokers watching). The lights were dim and he played music he thought might be appropriate (Dj Cam - Mad Blunted Jazz). At first the smoke was harsh, and SWIM barely held the two tokes, but he quickly felt a sense of great connection with the earth and a sensation of being pulled downward. Then he began to see the most beautiful closed eye visuals he had ever imagined, so familiar like a dream, but so much stronger. Opening his eyes however caused the wonderful plays of light to cease, though shadows did appear to be duplicated with touches of color, as if the light source was instead multicolored and consisted of several closely positioned sources. In addition to the beautiful fractal CEVs, SWIM realized that while his music selection, while seemingly light and relaxed, took on an almost unbearably dark and urgent tone when in the throes of the spice journey. Those watching consistently questioned SWIM, and he felt a slight sense of dread when they talked, as well as a mental pull back towards earth. The journey ended peacefully, leaving SWIM with feelings of bliss, connection, and euphoria, but also sweating heavily, puzzled and dissatisfied. SWIM went to another room and thought about what just happened, away from the watchers.

The second time was several hours later that same night, and some weed was smoked beforehand leaving SWIM in a relaxed and indulgent state. SWIM and the other smokers moved to another room, away from the watchers. They put on some music that while not to SWIM's taste (Coldplay), turned out to be far more uplifting than the previous soundtrack. This time, the smoke was not harsh, and while plastic scented, tasted almost "sweet." SWIM held his tokes for longer than his dainty lungs can typically handle (4-6 seconds) and as he exhaled the second toke and set down the bong, saw everything change to something akin to outlined stained glass. It was beautiful, but lasted for only a second as he was pulled into his chair, forced to watch the lights stream by at light speed. The music rose in crescendos and SWIM was unprecedentedly euphoric, laughing frequently and smiling widely for the duration of the trip at the sheer beauty of it all. Slowly the lights started to slow down, and SWIM felt the DMT gradually release him back into the natural plane. This is as close as SWIM thinks he has been to a breakthrough. All throughout the journey however, SWIM could think clearly, though his thoughts were directed and some knowledge was temporarily gained (he blames the marijuana for the lack of permanent change).

The third time was roughly a week later (SWIM thinks it best to indulge fairly sparingly). SWIM felt a great desire to revisit the place his second experience had taken him to, and did not relax and mentally prepare himself for the trip. He smoked much DMT, but had a dark and foreboding trip, his music selection seeming to turn on him and force dark rhythms into his head (Random Rab - The Man With X-ray Eyes). He saw black fractal beings, opening their maws as if to scream, but emitting only a resounding silence. SWIM was quite jarred by this experience, but was able to brush it off after some reflection about his hastiness and some light talk with friends.

The fourth time was later on the night that the third trip was attempted. SWIM felt dissatisfied with where he had gone earlier, and felt as if he needed to make things right in the other plane. He put on some fairly upbeat and lyric-less rhythms (Morcheeba, the Charango instrumentals album) and proceeded to smoke another eyeballed dose of DMT (later calculations put estimates at around 50mg for all attempts, quite possible less, definitely not more). This time he didn't go as far into the plane as he might have liked, but he felt very at peace, and was visited by a number of happy fractal beings, dancing and twining amongst themselves, and as the journey ended, his sight focused on two fractal beings, dark and light intertwined, with hands outstretched to him and imparting the sense that SWIM needed to take a break from the spice. Immediately after the journey, SWIM felt refreshed and at peace with the substance, and had the very strong imprint that he needed to wait three weeks before attempting to visit again.

Later reflection has caused SWIM to believe that perhaps the fractal beings were just signaling the end of the trip and making their goodbye, but he cannot be sure and hasn't quite decided whether or not to risk violating their plane before the allotted time. SWIM realizes it sounds silly to talk about fractal beings giving orders, but even if they exist only in one's mind, the fact that his mind conjured them while in the midst of a spice trip suggests that his subconscious might be giving him a hint. Overall, DMT is a substance that must command great respect, and testing its power may not be the wisest course of action.

Notes: SWIM is now fairly sure that even with the steel wool, he was still burning his spice and not vaporizing it, but it is also possible that SWIM has a slightly higher than average metabolism/tolerance for spice.

I don't think it's necessary to "work your way up to" DMT with other substances, as long as you're open to whatever comes and realize you'll be confronting some pretty novel experiences. There's no real way to prepare for it other than that, in my view.

It took SWIM quite some time to break through; after experimenting with myriad methods, she finally caved and dumped a huge amount in. Worked wonders. Turns out she has a fairly high tolerance. At one point beforehand she had spoken with a friend despairingly; the friend laughed and said it was only a matter of time. No one's immune to DMT.

That's comforting, thanks. And my syrian rue just came in... I'm excited, though I am still leaning towards waiting, and perhaps for school to finish up.

Also, I'm dropping the SWIM pretense. I thought it was just an expected thing on this forum, but turns out it is a matter of personal preference/paranoia.