Due to a short-term required tolerance break, I've been experimenting with some of the milder plant-based psychoactives that normally I don't consider very often because cannabis is simple and predictable. Unfortunately I use cannabis for insomnia (and related anxiety), so the past week or so has been pretty rough.

Enter frankincense and myrrh.

I've read that the terpenes and related compounds are good for inducing a meditative state and clearing anxiety, which makes sense to me. Another article mentioned that these compounds have roughly 1/10th of the activity of Valium. If I had much experience with Valium I might be able to compare, but today I popped into the local magick shop (not a practitioner just prefer buying incense from those type of places vs. head shops lol) and got some frankincense and myrrh resin to see if this could be a potential solution to acute anxiety until I'm in the clear.

Anyway, I gotta say, it works! I can't say I feel "high" in the classic sense (certainly not that "I'm at the Super Bowl" euphoria from the couple times I've tried benzos), but it smells great and my mind doesn't feel so weighed down by all the bullshit I've been wading in all week.

I get the feeling that this would be a great addition to a pre-psilocybin meditation session, or as part of an herbal blend including something like kratom, blue lotus, passionflower, etc.

Anyway, I peed today but I'm holding off until I get my results back because everyone I know has been called back at least once after giving a dilute sample, and while I did a good job with the creatine and b-12 and passed my home test before and after my appointment, I'm not ready to risk it until I know I'm golden, so to speak. Thoughts and prayers for me yall, I need all the blessings I can get after this year - send em my way and I'll send them back to you 8-fold when you need them.

Sorry for the narrative there - I did wanna ask though, anyone here use these resins as part of their herbal toolkit? If so, what are some of your favorite ways to use them?

yo wassup, homie

I dig on frankincense a lot. Wear it as meditative anointment / hippie cologne pretty often. It definitely has a calming effect. I've burnt resins before as well, with the same result.

great grounding sensory input overall, 10/10-- I love frankie

I haven't had a chance to try frankincense on its own yet, does it have a distinct character by itself? The incense I got has a bunch of resinous rocks, some of which are homogenous but others seem to be clearly a mixture of the two. My guess is that I would not be able to separate the two ingredients from this batch.

franckincense has been partof a study about terpenes and they found it tohave some anti depressive and anxyolitic effects. I reckon you can use it everyday. I used also franckie as resin incense on charcoal and I got essential or Palo santo I used as "hippie perfume" simply diluted in some vegetable oil carrier like almondoilor jojoba. The myrrh I rememberI tried as incense, and tincture too for oral. It has also minor µ opioid activty.

Those are very bodily and heavy energies but in a good way.

On a practical note, a question actually: I've a box of resins that would take me 100years to get trough so the house is often full of a veiling senting smoke which holds me back of installing smoke detectors, this situation is not really complying with modern safety attitude. For those who do burn incenses regularly and having smoke detectors active, is this an issue for them to be triggered by the senting smokes? Thanks.

I've burnt just about every type of incense under the sun all through my home and I've never had a problem with my detectors. Even heavy smokers like copal and amber resins or raw palo wood don't seem to bother them.

Well I open my windowns when thick resins smokes is in.. and Itry to opt for either shorter smudging or sourcing EO to nebulize.

Alrighdo

Funny you should mention that!

When I was in my college dorm room, I used to put a plastic bag over the smoke detector because I was afraid it would go off in the middle of a sesh.

Then one day, the bag just kinda fluttered down right as we were finishing up a couple fat bowls.

We both freaked out and started putting everything away, turning on fans and pointing them out the window, febreezing, ready for the whole dorm building to get searched to see who set off the fire alarm.

But nothing happened

And I spent the rest of that school year blazing up without a stupid ugly grocery bag over the smoke detector.

If you think about it, those detectors are designed to detect thick smoke, like the kind from burning wood or flooring material or that fuzzy foamy stuff inside your couch, which is much denser and more acrid than any incense smoke.

I highly, highly encourage you to reinstall all the smoke detectors in your house!!

yah, I think detectors are triggered by "particles of combustion" rather than "dank nag champa"

Found some advice on google:
https://firefighterinsid...et-off-a-smoke-detector/

I used to use a toothpaste containing myrrh and propolis. These are both considered to be beneficial to oral health. It is now hard to obtain in the uk, so I now use a cheap natural toothpaste and take the propolis in a tincture as a post brushing mouthwash. Couldnt find myrrh tincture, so I occasionally chew some myrrh resin. Im 49 years old and never had any tooth decay, although I also haven't been to the dentist since I was 14! Never noticed any psychoactive effects, but maybe didn't consume enough.

Esphand (syrian rue) has been used as an incense in Iran for many years, in a similar fashion to myrrh and frankincense, and we are all aware of the effects of that plant, when ingested, so these two are definitely worthy of more research.

I'm not sure I would have felt anything from the myrrh had I not been primed to with the knowledge that it affects mu-opioid receptors, but it was definitely not placebo. I'd say it's stronger than aromatherapy like lavender but it's not something you're going to take to a party either.

I generally smoke a good bit of reefer, to the point where I don't think I've had any psychoactive substance without it ever, except when I was young and didn't have access to it. Because of that I've been accused by friends of hyping up the psychoactivity of various plants like kava/kratom and morning glory (one time I tripped with a friend on MG, we had a blast, and the next day he was like idk dude I think it was just the edibles ). Anyway not having weed as an ambient mental background made it pretty clear that there's something to this stuff. I'm not sure if it's orally active though, as I've just been taking deep breaths around the burning resin.

Once I jump through this hoop from my potential new employer, I'll experiment to see if the effects synergize with cannabis and report back.

I've set off the smoke alarm in the room where I was burning incense once, but I had to try pretty hard. Besides several different resins including frankincense, myrrh and elemi I also burnt a few aromatic leaves and a couple of teaspoons of rue seeds. Probably the herbaceous material produced sufficient smoke of the type that sets the alarms off in a way that resins rather less readily do.

If in doubt, open a window.

Frankincense makes a superlative chewing gum but make sure you have material of the highest quality if you decide to try this.

I have always wondered, is it safe to chew them?? I've chewed mastic before. I have a huge stash of various magical resins for burning. Colophony is my jam.

I'd only chew frankincense or myrrh. Some of the others are toxic to a greater or lesser degree.

I wouldn't want to try this with the stuff I got - it's got the consistency of cheap violin rosin.

I've been considering sourcing a boswellia tree - would a single tree be enough to have some gum around for the one or two times a year I really need it?