Cactophage is no longer very young, but its knowledge of cacti is young.

Before Cactophage, it was Mycophage. It learnt a great deal from fungi, but moved on. It experienced many other molecules from many different sources over the years; most were pleasant, though some were the stuff of nightmares.

It returned to its ancestral home after wandering for years in the city, and sought to reconnect with the fungi - but they were not to be found. He searched high and low for his golden friends, but instead stumbled across San Pedro.

Now it is Cactophage. It holds the mescaline bearing cacti in higher esteem than any other psychoactive agent it has experienced.

Cactophage is a creature of logic and reason. It asks that you substantiate your theories with evidence; that you spare him your talk of elves and chakras; that we use the scientific method to advance our understanding of how best to prepare these amazing plants.

Cactophage no longer seeks The Truth; it has been down that road, and it leads to madness. Cactophage feels sorry for those who seek anything with a capital letter. Cactophage is not greedy; it seeks only beauty; happiness; self-knowledge; self control ... and understands it will continue to seek them until the end of its days.

How does cactophage feel about the dimethyl?

It's only procured it once, and smoked that on a few occasions.

It quite enjoyed it, but it and it's companion felt that it was doing something far from ideal to their cardiovascular systems. Strongly elevated heartbeat, lightheadedness / shortness of breath, etc. It's not sure if that was due to impurities in the extraction, the nature of the spice itself (any thoughts?) or some kind of shared psychological effect. That held it back from pushing the experience to the level it would have liked to.

It's increasingly disinclined to trust anyone other than itself or a professional chemist with substance preparation; it will probably attempt its own extraction at some point in the next few months and see how the effects compare. It definitely wishes to experience ayahuasca at some point before it dies, though it's not in any overwhelming hurry.

BTW, thanks for sharing your cacti teks on the board here House - one of the main reasons it signed up in the first place.

The spice can be pretty intense on the cardiovascular system, especially when you first get into using it. There is a lot of excitement, curiosity, and mystery unfolding before you that it's hard not to have a subwoofer for a heart beat.

I learned that over time I could go into hyperspace without even elevating my heart rate at all. This was after much use though, and also after much meditation. I recommend meditation prior and during the trance. Deep slow breaths for a good period before take off can really help in this regard. Proper hydration also plays a role.

It's a remarkable compound...I really don't even have words for it these days. Low doses are great for meditation and feel very healthy for the body IMO. If you want to see what lies on the other side, though, there is only one way...

I actually struggled tremendously with the heart beat in hyperspace thing. There were times where it felt like I Had a heart attack, died, was dead, and was experiencing something ... else... although I knew I was still alive... hard to explain.
Also occasionally I would get this severe pain in my left lung (I am a heavy cannabis smoker and ex tobacco smoker) which actually disabled my ability to breathe and I was stuck unable to breathe...barely breathing in and out...severe pain...while face to face with a breakthrough experience. It can be very intense. Most intense.

but despite these weird fx, I had this insane drive to keep going and to see what was really happening. I'm glad I did, personally.
Anyway, I'm rambling. Welcome here, man!

۩, just a couple of points to put its attitude to DMT in context:

1) when it was much younger, Cactophage made the terrible mistake (more times than makes any sense) of overdosing Avil (Pheniramine), a deliriant which does insanely terrible things to your heart (and mind). As a consequence of this it tends to worry more than most about its ticker.

2) it's less inclined to try to "touch the wang of God" than it once was; it doesn't feel the need to experience some unbearably intense, infinite euphoric light. What it loves about cactus is the very positive, self-reflective aspect, the relatively high level of mental function while tripping balls, and the feeling (compared to say LSD / psilocybin) that it'd really have to work at it to have a bad experience.

Basically, it ranks psychotropics according to how suited they are to making music while on them ;-)

Cactophage would be quite curious to know, how does ۩ feel about dimethyl compared to say, cacti?

Ah, it sees you've already replied

Thanks, very good information to have. Cactophage will be cautious in any forays w/ DMT, and practice meditation with its use as you recommend.

It is but a novice at meditation, but had an *amazing* experience meditating for ~ 20 mins with San Pedro. This made it very interested to delve deeper into meditation and try to cultivate as a daily habit.

Cacti provides natures greatest phenethylamine and one of natures greatest psychedelic substances.
I have had gloriously profound experiences with San Pedro and rate it as one of my favorite things on this planet. (It's my favorite among the 3 most popular types of cacti, the other two being peruvian torch and bridgesii. Bridgesii is usually pretty strong, but there is something I can only describe as total divinity that comes along with san pedro sometimes for me. I think pure mescaline lacks)

The spice takes everything I thought I ever knew to a whole new level. There literally is a completely other reality existing on the other side, in another octave of consciousness or something. I do not have the words to articulate it properly, it is something one has to see for themselves. If you ever feel confident enough to breakthrough, I recommend doing so. I feel content for the rest of my life after witnessing the things I have observed in hyperspace. It's very hard to explain. It goes far beyond visuals, synesthesia, euphoria, etc, and moves into a universe bending phenomenon.

Nowadays, a low dose of spice and I remember everything. Hell, I remember everything all of the time. Everything reminds me, too. I feel very fortunate to have developed this awareness that occurred from psychedelic use. I love puffing changa joints nowadays out on the beach and just breathing deep...

I could eat San Pedro resin any day of the week almost...! Although, It has been quite some time since I have had the pleasure!


P.s. Psychedelics are THE way to learn meditation!

P.S. It's had a similar thing to what you mentioned on v. high dose of shrooms - thought its body had died while its mind was busy with ego death, and that its mind was trapped forever in a body that would soon rot away to leave a skeleton ... ahh, good times ;-)

And cactophage is now a part of the Nexus. Welcome