hiya all,

been browsing/lurking on these boards for a while now, am a big fan, brilliant site, a wealth of minds and knowledge.

anyway, i wanted to throw this question out there:

Q. could the trippy effects reported from decent doses of caapi alone (i.e. ayahuasca not containing DMT) be due to increase of, and hence activation of the DMT found naturally occurring in human CSF?

sure, csf contains only small amounts; but since mao mops dmt up, it makes sense that dmt is constantly produced (from the pinneal gland?) and destroyed (by mao) to arrive at some equilibrium. so mao inhibition would cause an increase in this natural concentration?

besides, when SWIM takes dmt, how much actually ends up crossing the blood-brain barrier anyway?

i have been pondering this for weeks now.. any opinions greatly appreciated!

Its possible. But its also possible other amines are being increased too and they might be having a larger effect. Someone would have to measure levels there is no other way to know. Harmaline and harmine are both 5HT2 agonists too though so that effect could also be there. Beta-carbolines have quite complex pharmacology.

Also please note that it is currently believed that DMT is not produced in the pineal

Caapi by itself is such a different experience from caapi with DMT, that, even if it IS letting natural DMT run a little wild, the hallucinogenic effects of caapit are certainly not due purely to that... definitely would be other things as well.