Inspired by a discussion in another thread, I thought this is interesting to talk about... sorry if there was a thread about this already

So what kind of rituals do you guys have before smoking dmt or ingesting an entheogen? Are there clothes you normally use, or dietas, or gestures, or meditation ?

I dont have any specific ritual when ingesting these substances, except for a minute or few seconds before ingesting/smoking I close my eyes and try to breathe deep and slow, calming myself, and visualize/ask that the experience is good and learning, and thats all.. I dont feel im less respectful because of it, its just the way I am... to each his own

I dont follow any dieta, and in fact I dont like to have totally empty stomach before taking anything, I'd rather have eaten something light a couple of hours before.


and of course, I do take care that set and setting is good, thats a must!

Smoking Spice - I always like too be clean, so either a bath or atleast wash my hands. A sip of water just before blastoff. I like to clear the room of any clutter, get the lighting just right, and make sure there will be no distractions. Then I spend a few minutes breathing and calming my nerves.

Pharma - Always a bath, some comfy clothing is nice to have on, and again I clear the room of all clutter and mess, some nice fruit at hand and then im off.

Aya - Im still working on this one

oh yeah true now that you say, I like to be clean and have the place nice and tidy.. I guess I was thinking of this more in terms of set and setting, but yeah one can think of it in terms of ritual too

I have to clean the house. When I clean, I clear my mind. It helps me put things, mental things in their place. Everything has to be just so, straight, symmetrical and nothing out of place. I switch off all phones, get a glass of water and place it on the table next to my launch pad. I only ever blast off from the same place, a nice big comfortable chair.

I may shower, or at least wash my face and hands. I'll go to the toilet if required. Then I make sure I am dressed comfortably. I'll measure out the dose and get the bong ready. I'll close the blinds and turn all the lights down except for the orange light in the bedroom at the end of the apartment.

Then I smudge. I burn some white sage and think happy thoughts. I speak out my intent and repeat my mantra, peace-love-gratitude and knowledge.

Then I stretch and breath, stretch and breath. I take my place in my chair and close my eyes. I make sure I have not forgotten anything, I run through a mental checklist.

Then I try to actually zone out, meditate for 5-10 minutes in my chair, maybe even have a little nap. Calm myself, calm, breath, relax, breath.

Then I blast off.

Ya, pharma I like to be snuggled in my bed, every now and then my wife and my dog will pop in to see how im doing and give me some company.

Changa I like to sit in a wicker chair, not too fond of lying down, just incase I puke. Although a few days back, the changa came on real fast and hard and I thought, shit im going to have to lay down for this one

I am becoming more interested in smudging. What are people's smudging rituals?

I am looking to buy some crystal, quartz rock or quartz skulls. Does anyone have any objects as part of their rituals?

A few things that I do I will expand on here:

Smoking spice- a shower, nasal cleaning (Jala Netti), white sage smudging, a few minutes of meditation before lift off.

Aya - this is a week long ritual and I won't write down all of it here but it begins with a low fat, high veggie diet and a fast the day of. I abstain from sex and orgasm for the week. I spend a full day working with the plants and brewing (breaking up Caapi, shredding leaves etc).

My friend and I like to smudge our area with maphacho (N. Rustica) and white sage on the day of our cerimony. We literally clear the space (always outside) of leaves and trash, straighten things up, welcome kindly spirits and demand all spirits will ill-intent begone.

I turn almost the entire experience into a ritual, even drinking the brew is ritualized. A pray, a smudge, focus on intent, and down the hatch.

For me this help makes Aya more than an visual experience. It turns the entire process into a healing experience...

i have tremendous O.C.D. ...seems like i share this trait with many on this site! you could have open-heart surgery in any room of my place at any time. my "ritual" is simply my life and my life is simply my ritual. ergo, for me- when i decide to journey it is simply a matter of walking into my room, picking up my GVG that i load up every 4 days or so with strong changa, laying on my bed with my pipe on my chest, deep breathing for a couple minutes followed by a chant...usually "SURRENDER THE NEED TO WANT" or "PREPARE FOR DEATH OR LIVE IN AN ILLUSION" these days as these two were given to me in hyperspace by a beautiful buddha-esque light being, as i'm lighting my pipe i am visualizing i am pulling a big zipper down from my forehead and as i blast off it is like i am simply shedding my suit and diving into a pool of everything...

mushrooms and aya are always done in an outdoor environment or, ideally, in a beautiful home with access to a wonderful outdoor area. i really enjoy having those two options when i'm on a long aya journey...i also like to wear white. i'm not into the santo daime (actually i'm REALLY not into the santo daime at all) BUT i do love to wear white for some reason when i'm deep in the aya experience. it feels pure, which matches my intent. pharma has been done here at my home but usually includes a trip to my local park and my favorite tree that i have done much work beneath.

one thing i do everytime i go is i call on the spirit of my father who passed away almost 6 years ago. i ask for him to come with me if he can....communicate with me if he can.....show me anything he thinks i would need or want to see, etc.... i had and still have a stupendously close relationship with my dad...we were as much like brothers as we were parent/child. he visits me in my dreams almost every night and i have seen him in hyperspace on several occassions. sometimes i'll hold a picture of him in my hand as i blast off so that his face is the last thing that morphs into my journey....very powerful...

all in all, my ritual has been more and more lately just a letting go. letting go of letting go. not thinking about it. just going with no desires, wants, intents....just an empty vessel to be filled with information. i was much more ritualistic earlier on. it seems like the more work i do, the less it all means to me and more i feel like what lies in hyperspace is beyond control, beyond emotion, beyond intention. it is simply information and one's job is simply to BE in it. supreme surrender. emptiness. the emptiness of emptiness. this is where i'm headed.

LOVE AND GRATITUDE!!

My ritual is like..

I drink aya ever 7 nights now..so I spend an hour or 2 each day on my brew so its ready for that night..and i sing to it and smudge my brew with sage and mugwort..I eat healthy and talk to my brew every time i work on it and tell it what i need and ask it for healing..

Then the night that I drink I stop eating at about 4pm..drink a few hours later..I just dont eat or drink anything for a few hours before..I dont eat junk food and my diet is just getting more intense again now so theres no problem there..no meat other than some fish..and not on aya days..no dairy..no coffee..I almost never smoke weed and def not on an aya night..

I clean my space well..fix up the alter, get all my crystals ready and my bag of rocks i spend a day collecting once on mescaline..I light all of my candles and burn lots of diff incents and resin, and smudge the space with sage and sumdge the brew..I flick onmy salt rock crystal lamp to balance the ions..I poor the brew from the bottle into my drinking cup and I meditiate with it and talk to it about various things..

I have plants around me there as well, my torch cacti, some other random cacti, desmanthus..phalaris..

I usually listen to some light music..either adham shaikh's dream tree project CD..or the hemi sync between words cd with ambient jungle sounds and leaf rattles and suck..and then i drink..and blow out all of the candles and lay in bed.

althought talking to a brew sounds insane, infact whatever you do which makes you feel like you're ready for the experience, makes you feel like you've 'done it right' will work.

interesting to know about your ritual fractal,
but Im going to go ahead and say ayahuasca once a week is just too much. Some people go their whole lives for thirty years or so until they hit a midlife crisis and turn to ayahusca for healing. Once, twice, and then they move on and resume their life. If you're taking it every week... man, IDK if that is going to be bestowing any kind of healing effect at all. sounds like a psychedelic drug bender lifestyle to me.....

I'm really surprised with the number of people who clean/tidy up before they blast off. I'm the same as i always have to have done something constructive the day i decide to trip. Many of my trips have been after doing some charity work or generally just helping others...something i find rewarding if i trip or not

Before i smoke i will be in my bed with a candle in the corner along with some shpongle or something similar in the background playing quietly.

Then i tell myself that 'i believe' and enter the realms of hyperspace. Such a wonderful place

Happy travels all!!

I was going to say this exact same thing. I wonder why so many of us (myself included) feel compelled to tidy before hand? What is it about this little ritual in particular that makes us feel the need to do it? I also need to have had a constructive day. I need to feel good about myself and "worthy" of the experience. Similar to a work hard / play hard kind of mentality I suppose.

It is interesting that this is the case with lots of us, despite the fact that with spice you completely let go of everything. I can't think of anything being further from my mind when in hyperspace than if I did the washing up or not! I guess it is all part of clearing the mind?

"but Im going to go ahead and say ayahuasca once a week is just too much. Some people go their whole lives for thirty years or so until they hit a midlife crisis and turn to ayahusca for healing. Once, twice, and then they move on and resume their life. If you're taking it every week... man, IDK if that is going to be bestowing any kind of healing effect at all. sounds like a psychedelic drug bender lifestyle to me....."

You can say what you want..but you have NO IDEA what I have been through..I drink ayahuasca to live..do you know what its like to be 23 years old, seeing doctor after doctor, having them send you to sergeons as they throw around term like "prostate cancer" and "chrons disease"..to wake up every day feeling like you are going to die?..to be so fucking sick that you cant even go to school anymore, barely work..I doubt it..you know nothing about me so before you start making rediculous judgemesnt based on what I do maybe you should think about that and check your ego once in a while. I started drinking ayahuasca for reasons beyond why most people here drink it.

I drink ayahuasca every week because its simply the HEALTHEST thing I can be doing..

Just becasue something someone does doesnt sound right to you doesnt mean you know a dman thing about whats right or wrong for them..I owe the way I feel today to all the ayahuasca I have drank and all the shit I have purged out of me beacuse of it, and the diets that follow up those sessions. I will never stop doing this..becasue I chose life over death..

Good for you if you think its just a "psychedelic drug bender lifestyle"..means not a dman thing to me..guess it would be better if I was dying?

i gotta get FE's back on this one shoe- once a week is not excessive to me at all. i lived in a community on the big island of hawaii that drank aya 3x week and had been doing so for years and years. every single member of this community was loving, self-aware, fearless, generous of spirt and self and just all around SOLID people. aya is not a drug. as a curandero in the depths of the brazilian rainforest once told me, "it is a spirit that enters you and never leaves". can you have too much "spirit" in you? i say no.

we are all unique in our individual needs and abilities to work with these sacred medicines. many here have told both fe and myself that we work with the spirit molecule "excessively" and to "be careful"....to which i say that both of us, from what any here can read, are both extremely balanced and tolerant individuals generous with any and all knowledge we have gained from our work. a "bender" usually entails a retraction from society and a downward spiraling into isolated misery. we are both moderators of this forum which should tell you that we:
a) take this work and these medicines seriously
b) are committed to helping others who ALSO take this work and these medicines seriously
c) have an eye on a greater good that we feel is accessed and contributed to through our work.

don't pass judgement so quickly shoe. you are a wonderful member of this community and i have read many fine posts and contributions from you. i am rather shocked to read this one from you, especially considering it comes in response to a very experienced brother describing how profoundly sacred and respectful his approach is. mid-life crisis and drug-bender lifestyles are in no way alluded to or inferred in anything i have read here. this very thread is essentially an opportunity for those members of this community who take their work serious enough to have a devoted ritual means of approach to share that with the rest of the community. in essence, to share their depth of respect and honor that they have.

and on top of it all...you didn't write a damn thing about YOUR ritual... you can't just post criticism here without sharing your own approach my friend. that's just straight-up out of balance!

LOVE AND GRATITUDE!!

I have to go with my fellow brothers here and affirm that using ayahuasca weekly or even more is not necessarily something bad.. I think if you used ayahuasca so often and didnt put any lessons in practice, then yeah it would be negative, but our brother fractal is someone that strives for health, being conscious, and is a very special person in general, definitely putting his lessons in practice.. So even if he wants to use ayahuasca every day, what would be the problem?

I have friends that take ayahuasca also about once a week for years, as they are part of santo daime, and they are very very healthy and good people. I have also met indigenous people that take ayahuasca very regularly and are incredible people. Also, the research in Brasil before ayahuasca was legalized was done with regular users who participated in the rituals for years, and they scored just as good or even better in psychological tests and so on. (also the same with a research on regular ayahuasca-using teenagers).

I always make sure to wear comfortable clothes, like a loose pant and a sloppy sweather, the room that i use to trip in must be darkened, i usually light a few candles in red containers, it gives a nice glow, and i dim the lights to a minimum so i still have a little light to see what i'm doing.

Music is also important to me, i don't like to be distracted by other noise, i normally choose some ambient cause it makes me feel comfortable and warm and is mostly a good guide.

Mentally i need to prepare myself a little, first i sit and take a few minutes to think through what it is i like to achieve with this trip, then i ask for the things i want, i calm myself down, hold my breath, and light the pipe.

I think the main reason for everyone tidying up and getting everything organized and symmetrical, including me, has to do with being able to let go. If you can manipulate the aesthetic of the room into a situation that allows you to completely zone out and not be distracted in any sense then I think that is the best type of setting. I clean the whole room, but my room is a little crazy. There are a lot of weird art installations i have in my room along with some pretty trippy lighting. I also have one of those lights from Spencers that projects those moving green dots on the ceiling along with a blue nebulous cloud. Meditate and smoke mapacho in this dark but trippily lit room and as soon as I feel moved to and find the right intention I go ahead and blast off. Always dress comfortable or naked. Allways have a trash bin nearby in case of purging... music only if I'm mixing it in a SOund design program like Cue or something.

I usually just let the experience guide me, sometimes it takes me into this sort of diagnostic mode that induces yoga and self massaging. Sometimes ill just lay back and untethor my consciousness into another space. Sometimes I'll add an ally to the experience, sometimes ill experiment wearing different colors...

Yes, I agree with Endlessness, Antrocles, and Fractal Enchantment. I trip every Saturday, usually on pharmahuasca and these experiences are valuable and life changing events. Yes, they can be euphoric, but also excruciatingly painful and crushing. Some people go to therapy, see psychiatrists, go to church, or seek self improvement through a variety of means. We use psychedelics - often. Celebrate it, don't condemn it.

We have found something in life that transcends life, that puts it in a new perspective, that fosters both understanding and awe, and lets us peer deep into the mystery. Pull back the curtains of reality and charge back there as often as you like!

Aya is not recreational in the least for me. If I had the time and fewer responsiblities, I would drink it weekly, or maybe even more often.

Drinking 1-3x week is EXTREMELY different from say a cocaine binge, an alcohol binder, or a heroin weekend. It is not a compulsion to feel euphoria over and over, for me at least, it is the need to go back to the spirit realm and heal.

Also, Aya does not heal a person in one session. You have to have a relationsihp with the vine for many years before She opens up some of Her secrets to you.

Freshly showered. Comfortable clothes (a certain pair of jeans and any of a multitude of shirts). Tidied room. On my bed, which is made neatly. Television remote next to me (set to a familiar channel, but TV off) just in case things go horribly wrong and I want to claw my way back to reality by seeing something familiar. Sitting down near the front of my bed, I take out my loaded machine and place it on my lips, lighter ready. My heart rate jumps, so I calm myself for a minute or two. Then I take off, lying down afterwards. If I decide it to be a closed eye journey, I put on my eye blinders now (which have been on my forehead), otherwise I let the stucco ceiling be the canvas of my trip. That's what I do when I want to go deeeeeeeeeeeep.

If I'm with friends, I do something similar. I've found it nice to sit with a friend on his bed, loading up two doses. He goes and lies down, passes to me, and I do the same, finishing it. Then we both come back and share experiences fresh as they come out of our heads. If it's not just me and at most two other people, it's difficult to get it to work in the desired way.

Then there's the "this activity may be interesting on DMT," where I load up a dose and take off, then begin the activity just as it starts to hit me. There is no real chance of going somewhere I don't want as I'm tripping into the activity, which is in itself grounding.

No rituals for pharma or ayahuasca yet (still too new to them). I'm not sure I'm ready psychologically for their gifts.