Sage!!! wow! I'm going to add a pinch to my next singado. I LOVE sage...it's another powerful ally! The spice loves it, too...

SWIM did this with a shaman once. Initially it was nice. Until the drip and ayahuasca nausea kicked in. SWIMs entire night was spent shitting and vomiting. Would never repeat. SWIM hates taking tobacco orally or in the nose. It always makes SWIM sick for like 10 hours.



But yes using tobacco in traditional preparations is fine (besides hazards from smoke and addiction). But please don't concentrate tobacco extracts as this is a good way to overdose on nicotine. Lets not encourage that kind of chemistry here.

When I am tripping on mushrooms the tobacco (to me) seems to intensify the effects that I think some people here at the nexus refer to as 'toxic'. The bodyload will become more heavy and weird, and the visuals start to become freaky, chaotic and erratic. Like 'the bumpy ride' effects, that are so dominant especially in the first hour of the mushroom trip. When I am at the plateau or start to come down, a cigarette (a splif works even better) will start to get things moving and morphing again, and also the sensation of being 'pulled' or 'pushed' will start again, just like in the beginning of the trip. Toxic? Or is it just the experience of a shift in consciousness? Is it the feeling of one state of consciousness that is being (partly) broken down and transformed/reassembled into another state of consciousness? Is it the wave like shifting of consciousness that is experienced as 'erratic' 'chaotic' 'pulling/pushing' ?

Whatever these strange sometimes awkward perhaps toxic effects, the tobacco seems to induce and facilitate.

This reminds me of something.
My friend was on acid or shrooms, I forget which. and he smoked a cigarette and thought it was rat poison and flipped out. lmao

I think that in most cases the effects that people describe as toxic with mushrooms are really due to poor diet and eating before they ingest the mushrooms..cerain strains might be more body heavy though.

Whatever you do to prepare for aya I think the same goes for mushrooms..if I drink aya and I dont eat light before hand and cut out certain foods that are slow digesting it hurts my stomach and back alot and feels toxic as well..but I thik it's from what's in my stomach..not from the ayahuasca. Mushrooms are exactlythe same for me..and so is cactus.

I have even had these same sensations when I smoked spice afte eating poorly..

I need to have an empty stomach too. And also use tea to take the mushrooms.
When my stomach gets upset, it helps to eat some dry bread and drink with some water.
To get things moving in the body and brain.

Diet will influence brainchemistry and the mind on psychedelics.
And it makes sense to me to have a clear mind when going on adventure.
Though I admit to like certain combinations.

As for the toxins, I remember some cubensis that put on a whole set of 'toxic effects' for sure. And this played a significant role in the meaning, color and depth of the trip. The main lesson was about how to deal with this kind of extreme chaotic strange mental and physical effects. It allowed me (forced me) to let go of myself, so to have no fear and accept the fact that I had no control. To completely open up to and trust in the mushroomspirit if you like. In the end when we came back at the campfire, I layed down in the grass and experienced a pure wide and wake, blissfull ekstasis. Beyond the pink honeycombs, far into the cosmos through and about transparant textures, structures, loops, bubbles, layers, planets and stars, I was flying all over the place... but in between I was still tasting the grass and feeling the connection with the earth.

What I am trying to say is that it was just as meaningfull and blissfull, but totaly different from the smooth, steep and deep 'cyanescens dreams' I have had so far. Again it seems to be a matter of set and setting, how you want to get there. And the 'toxins' can be part of the setting. As in full spectrum. Or purge perhaps. And I do like those golden teachers when going into the forest.

yes mushrooms are great in the forest. My last mushroom journey was spent way out in the woods in mountain lion and bear country..with 3 friends all night long and a campfire..and lots of stars.. It was cosmic.

Cyanescens are great..have not had them in about 2 years though..the cubes I have are strong though.

For me it is even longer ago.
And I must say I do prefer cyanescens (and cubensis) over truffles of tampanensis, but the latter is all I have at the moment.
Still wonderful of course. And since them truffles are aso heavy on the stomach, it wont be just another trip...
So that is good.

You smoke tobacco?

i am very proud to say that yesterday i only smoked 1 and a half spliffs of mapacho/weed blend!
now not even two weeks ago i was smoking 30-40 marlboro reds a day
and this was soooooooooo easy NO discomfort NO fiending
i can put smoking off all day now its truly just something i do for pleasure
and can put it off for 7+ hours at a time!
i couldnt even comprehend that two weeks ago when i was smoking every 10-30 mins
obviously i feel MUCH better my lungs are clearing out and breathings getting easier
thank god for mapacho sure it may still be carcinogenic but smoking 2 spliffs a day as opposed to two packs
HOLLA!

^^Yea either way that is a massive improvement. Hope you can control your addictions keep up good work! always nice to hear people getting control over this kinda thing.

"You smoke tobacco?"

Only every few months..last time I smoked tobacco i was on mescaline..like almost 3 months ago.

You guys inspired me to grow mapacho. It seems easy.
Anyone have any guide on growing it?
And psychosis, do you grow all your own mapacho? If so how many plants do you have, and how big are they?

btw, can someone tell mapacho is a strain of tobacco via smell/appearance? (smell of plant not smoked)

put a seed in the ground and it will grow
no i have only bought mapacho once 50g
but i will be growing it
mapacho is n. rustica

Alright. Thanks. Any idea on how fast it grows?

"The more you give nicotine to your neurons, the more the DNA they contain activates the construction of nicotinic receptors, within certain limits. Here, I thought, is the almost insatiable hunger of the spirits for tobacco: The more you give them the more they want. I was surprised by the degree of correspondence between shamanic notions of tobacco and neurological studies of nicotine."

"How was it that the shamans saw spirits by ingesting staggering quantities of tobacco?
Before continuing with this question, I will clarify two points. First, the discovery that nicotine stimulates the construction of nicotinic receptors was only made at the beginning of the 1990s; the connection between the phenomenon and the addiction displayed by tobacco users seems obvious, but has yet to be explored in detail.

Second, there are fundamental differences between the shamanic use of tobacco and the consumption of industrial cigarettes. The botanical variety used in the Amazon contains up to eighteen times more nicotine than the plants used in Virginia-type cigarettes. Amazonian tobacco is grown without chemical fertilizers and pesticides and contains none of the ingredients added to cigarettes, such as aluminum oxide, potassium nitrate, ammonium phosphate, polyvinyl acetate, and a hundred or so others, which make up approximately 10 percent of the smokable matter. During combustion a cigarette emits some 4,000 substances, most of which are toxic. Some of these substances are even radioactive, making cigarettes the largest single source of radiation in the daily life of an average smoker. According to one study, the average smoker absorbs the equivalent of the radiation dosages from 250 chest X-rays per year. Cigarette smoke is directly implicated in more than 25 serious illnesses, including 17 forms of cancer. In the Amazon, on the other hand, tobacco is considered a remedy. The ashaninca word for “healer,” or “shaman,” is sheripiari—literally, “the person who uses tobacco.” The oldest ashaninca men I knew were all sheripiari. They were so old that they did not know their own age, which only their deeply wrinkled skin suggested, and they were remarkably alert and healthy.

'There is certainly evidence that Western tobacco products contain many different harmful agents which are probably not present in organically grown plants. I have not heard of shamans developing cancers but that may, of course, be a function of several things, like lack of Western diagnosis, natural life span of indigenous people, magico-religious restriction of tobacco use in tribal societies, ect.'

It seems clear that nicotine does not cause cancer, given that it is active in the brain and that cigarettes do not cause cancer in the brain, but in the lungs, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, rectum, kidneys, and bladder, the organs reached by the carcinogenic tars, which are also swallowed."

from The Cosmic Serpent: DNA & the Origins of Knowledge by Jeremy Narby

wow thats some amazing information psilocybe..

and the difference between a spliff of mapacho and a marlboro red is UNREAL!
i actually happened to smoke marlboro at a party the other night and it was HORRIBLE! it didnt even feel or taste like the same thing.. i will never go back i love our tobacco and feel so blessed to have it! the difference is night and day.. i can smoke 1-2 spliffs a day ( of 1:1 mapacho/cannabis sativa) and be FINE.. where as with marlboros i was smoking every 15 mins most of the time and it hurt! cannapacho spliffs only feel divine always an act of pleasure not grimy and fiendish

god bless the amazon