When I decided to smoke spice, I decided I would do it right. Before I even began my extraction, I had a GVG and an Arc torch lighter. From what I have read, it seemed that I could easily take any dose I wanted in at most 3 hits. Since I have gathered up the nerve to actually partake, I thought I was taking my whole 15 mg dose (what I chose to start with) but with later experimentation with doses between 20-35mg I have seen that after I take as much as I can before it is too strong to do take any more, I can still blast off an upwards of 6 times! (Me and my brother were each able to blast off 3 times with a 34mg dose. How are others able to take their full dose? Lungs of steel? Should I be trying to take as big a hits as possible? I should mention I am loading the freebase on a bed of equal parts mullein, skullcap, and peppermint. Maybe my bed is too large? I have experienced some intense visual patterning and seemingly random abstract visuals centered around corporate America (weird?), but unable to break through (haven't actually TRIED, though. Just going with what comes). Just looking for comments and advice from my fellow travelers.

Much love and safe journeys my friends.

It does not sound like you are breaking through to be honest. You guys might be having intense vitionary experiences though still, which are beautiful and valid experiences...but you should not have any problems at all taking a "full" dose. You should be able to get a full dose in one hit with a proper method of administration and the effect will be so powerful that you will only have time to think "oh shit!" for a few seconds before you dissolve into oblivion and the idea of needing more DMT(or even the idea of DMT itself) will be temporarily non-existant.

My suggestions to breakthrough in one hit using GVG (thanks jbark!):

Load a fresh bowl of at least 25 mgs. Have a second dose pre-prepared and on hand, in a form/carrier that makes it easy to load into the pipe if you are tripping hard.

Begin by taking a very slow hit until you see the GVG fill with white vapor. Then take a quick moment to exhale all the air in your lungs, light again and take the biggest, SLOWEST hit you possibly can. The slower you go the heavier/thicker/more potent that vapor will become.

If this does not get you where you want to go, repeat this procedure as soon as you can, that is as soon as your trance breaks and you can control your hands and load the pipe.

Peace & Love

also a lot can be said for holding hits in for long periods of time.

That "refilling the lungs" technique is something I'd like to try.
I have noticed that it really takes a very very slow inhalation to avoid the vapor coming to your mouth by halfway of the dose(estimated). Making it harder to inhale every last bit. Often there is always something left(even if not much)
Pandora, by estimate, how long does it take you before you the "lung refill"?
And do you keep heating the bowl with the lighter during the "lung refill", or do you switch off the flame? Just wondering because long exhalation would probably cool things out without "flaming while exhaling".

PS: Another good instruction on one hit technique I found from gibran2:
https://www.dmt-nexus.me...&m=278876#post278876

Forget the herbs, the spice will soak into them first and then you will also be inhaling plant vapor as well which will be creating more for you to inhale. I would suggest that you just make a mesh using stainless / copper scrubber like this:



Load your dose onto the centre of the scrubber right below the ceramic foam bit and heat it for a few seconds, then take a deep breath, exhale and then inhale slowly, keeping the torch about an inch or so away from the top of the VG and you should be able to get your full dose in one go.

I don't know if this is due to the flame size or what, but I would recommend keeping the flame's tip about 1-2cm above the -ceramic filter-.
As otherwise it takes longer to vape completely.

Stuff will vaporize from the herbs themselves, which will only dilute your spice vapor. For the strongest hits, don't add herbs. Another option is to pre-vape the herbs so they can still soak up the spice but will not produce much vapor when they are vaped again.

Regarding the torch flame, you don't want it to make the ceramic glow. You want the dim blue flame a cm or so away, closer or farther away depending on how big your flame is. The ceramic will be near glowing, especially when the flame hits it, but you don't want to get the whole thing glowing. The hottest part of the flame is at the tip of the bright blue flame, you definitely don't want that bright flame tip touching the ceramic. In bright light, the dim blue flame is barely visible. This is basic functionality of the GVG, so practice on some plain herbs to get a better idea of how it works. It sounds like you just need a little practice.

Happy Trips!

Unable to fully read all the post, I felt I needed to type this out as fast as I could before I lost the experience. To start off, I am still not at baseline. Approximately 29 minutes ago I decided to try something different with my GVG. I have been taking my hits too fast, trying to rush it. To begin with, I loaded my gvg with just a pinch of a equal mixture of mullein skullcap and peppermint. Compacted the bed just a bit and tried to fill holes that I could see the screen through. I then measured a 24mg dose with my scaled and loaded my gvg with the included dish. I then used the included tweezers to move any stray chunks to the center of the bowl (I feel last time it was melting on the glass and running down by being on the side). I then proceded to prepare myself for smoking. This time, I decided to do some breathing exercises I have learned from my buddhist tradition. Using different techniques to completely fill of my lungs(only breathing through the nose of course), I forced them (or rather, imagined concentrating) all the breath at the center of the navel and holding it then exhaling through the mouth slowly but sharply. I repeated this 3 times, took a large hit of cannibis to prime my lungs for the heat of the vapor. Exhaled, and repeated my breathing exercise again. At the last exhale, I begin to heat the ceramic filter of my gvg. When finished, I put it to my lips and hold the torch flame a cm from the tip of the bowl, moving close towards the filter itself until I see vapor, while slowly backing the flame off from the filter until it is above the bowl and hold it in place when I am getting a steady stream of dense vapor, I take the flame off and fill my lungs completely. I then take a short burst of clear air out of the GVG again to clear anything that is left. After that, I use a technique that has always helped me with cannibis. Taking a short sharp "topper" of fresh air through my nose to force what is already in my lungs further down for better absorption. I held my hit in for 20 seconds (it was getting hard to count) and I feel the rush and patterns are everywhere. I did my best to get one more hit until no more vapor came when heat was applied and proceeded to lay down under my cover on the floor after safely putting away the GVG and lighter. Intense visuals and patterns began to appear, so fast so intricate I know most of you understand it is hard to describe. This continues and I feel that "something" is around me. It was nothing concrete, just a feeling. Then I hear what I would describe as telepathic shouting "You aren't ready to let go yet. Why aren't you ready to let go? CONTEMPLATE WHAT IT IS THAT KEEPS YOU HERE!" I open my eyes to see patterns on my cover, which felt like a dome that my visuals were projected onto. The visuals feel seperate and sentient, somewhat. Like the feeling something is watching me. This is about all I can remember, now after typing this (it is now T+43). I see that when done properly in a GVG, the spice's effects are MUCH different than what I had experienced before. Thank you travellers, I believe you will see much more of me as I have many more questions and much more to experience.

I begin heating the bowl and hitting. Here I'm fairly careless on my hit rate, though still slow. I'm trying to rapidly heat the bowl without igniting the changa. I am moving the torch up/down, in/out of that bowl and when it's in, I am moving it in a circular action, round and round, then up, then down with circles, then up, etc. Somewhere here vapor begins to flow. The moment I see vapor I slow my hit rate and as soon as the pipe appears full I stop.

In between the two hits I am not applying the torch to the pipe.

I take a very quick breath (sometimes), exhale what air is left in my lungs, then begin hitting again. Again, up and down and circular and a slow hit but this time everything much much slower on the actual inhale but a bit quicker in my action with the torch (the pipe is now warmed up).

I hold a minimum of 6-10 very slow counts (one one thousand, two one thousand, etc.), then exhale. If I do not have the effects I desire at this point I immediately take a second hit, but without first half filling the pipe - I just take the hit.

Regarding residual vapor in the pipe - yeah, this happens to me too. When it happens I do my usual procedure, but right after, just finish off that vapor. In order to try to prevent it, I remove the torch from the bowl fairly early on in my hitting procedure and just continue without fire, inhaling slowly.

Hope this helps . . .

Peace & Love

Thanks...

I'll put it to the test

This is VERY unnecessary, it means that you're not giving enough air flow to help to vapor rise. Remember we are vaporizing the DMT, not smoking it and WHEN vaporizing the vapors are very transparent at first.

I recommend the use of a machine where you can heat the wool for a full minute, at least, then hit it as hard and deep you possible can since the chamber will turn from shallow to thick in a mere second. Slowly inhaling is not neccessary, at least not with a machine.