It occurs to me that not much has been written about Trichocereus Bridgesii. I have recently had the good fortune of running across these marvelous specimens and would like to share a little of what I have discovered.

We shall begin by saying that I have been interested in anything psychedelic from the time I was 15. I have tripped numerous times on LSD, mushrooms from all over, ecstasy, and a couple other randoms as well. I learned about the San Pedro about ten years ago when I began experimenting with mycology. After a lot of reading I felt that the alkaloid content was too unreliable to bother with, so I put San Pedro and friends out of mind for many years. Though, after coming across a lot of garbage doses recently I decided the best way to get something done is to do it yourself. I ended up on eBay where I purchased four 12 inch cuttings of T. bridgesii. They came in a matter of days and to my delight there was an extra package of four (someone knows how to get a repeat custy!).

And so began, my love for cacti. I started out by slicing up two of my cuttings and then boiling the cuttings in a pot for approximately four hours. I then strained the water through an old t-shirt and squeezed it out as much as possible.

That afternoon a friend came over and I offered him a cup. I did not know what to expect or what we were in for.  We both downed our warm cups of tea, which had the consistency of snot. The taste was bitter, but the texture is what really made it difficult. I had read that one should spread out the ingestion of their tea over 30 to 40 minutes, but I knew that this would not be possible so I chugged it down and chased it with an ice cold can of Dew. Within fifteen minutes I could feel the first noticeable effects. We walked to the gas station and stocked up on smokes and then started walking back. Within thirty minutes I was laughing for no particular reason. I could sense that this was going to be an epic trip, but I still had no idea what to expect. We finally made it back to the apartment and were listening to music when I noticed that the walls were moving and kind of melting. I remember seeing things and thinking what the heck? Did I just see that?
After about an hour and a half I closed my eyes and had a vision of a skull being split open by a battle axe. Blood flew everywhere and I became slightly concerned. In retrospect, I think that the vision was an excellent metaphor for what was going to happen; the skull being my mind, and the battle axe being the mescaline. My mind was split open and what poured out was practically indescribable. We tripped hard and laughed almost constantly.  I was also made aware of a female presence. It’s funny, because I was left with the impression that she has always been and will always be. She has provided me with great insight and I am still fully aware of her presence.

I think the most beautiful part of the journey aside from the amazing open and closed eye visuals along intense feelings of euphoria, was the way that the mescaline hits you. It comes in waves gradually becoming more and more intense. I was eased into a trip that would probably push the limits of most people.

All in all it was an amazing journey. We tripped for 12 or 13 hours before my mind calmed down enough to allow me to sleep. Unfortunately I had to work early and ended up just going straight to work.

sounds very good. I too start to prefer achuma over other trich's.

wow man, nice story....thanks for sharing....I'm jealous...

sounds like you had an awesome time. go achuma!

Achuma....this thread just gave me a great idea....

I find bridgesii to be more ecstatic, less colorful, and more diamond-like than pachanoi. But I like both just fine! The increased potency is quite nice, too. 6-8 inches of bridgesii gets me where perhaps two feet of pachanoi will.

I've only head a couple dissapointing run ins with pachanoi. My first venture with bridgesii started at a foot, but I find that a foot and a half or more is absolutely amazing. The visuals are reminiscent of mushrooms only threefold and the duration of the trip is probably the best part. I would agree that the pachanoi is a more mellow ride though. It probably has something to do with all the extra alkaloids.

yeah, I agree with the secondary alkaloids being heavily involved in the experiential differences... I used to have a book listing the secondary alkaloids present in several Trichocereus spp., and I remember bridgesii having a profile more like peyote than pachanoi... could be mis-remembering, though.

Bridgesii certainly seems to have a more "electric" bodyload, with a good amount of stiffness the next day... I also remember going to sleep being nearly impossible with my first (and so far only, until my babies mature enough to take a foot or two) bridgesii experience, until I started to puff on a large bowl of this resinous stuff called "3-lotus blend" which I assume to be a mix of blue, white, and pink lotus resins. With this and the last-3rd of the bridgesii in me I had this blissful feeling of being in ancient Egypt, in a reed canoe, rolling down the Nile... went right to sleep after a few minutes of this! And I haven't had another Egypt vision before or since!

I read that bridgesii has somewhere around 18 alkaloids and peyote has like 64. I think pachanoi has like 6. I don't recall feeling stiff the next day, but I think any 13 hour trip would wear out the most experienced of travellers. The lotus blend sounds like a very delightful experience! When I take cactus I try to take it early in the day, because sleep is next to impossible. There is that moment, just before it kicks in where it feels like you could sleep, but once it takes hold, you just gotta hang on for the ride. A lot of people tend to get stuck (just don't wanna get up) and that's when I say let's get up and go explore, which is usually very rewarding!

yeah dude the lotus blend was nice. Just a mild sedation, I tried mixing with wine once and wound up passing out and then waking up sweaty and nauseous, proceeding to puke up a stomach full of merlot with chunks of this resin floating around! Ick!

I also feel as though cactus is an EXCELLENT day-trip. I find the experience to be much more pertaining to this earth, humanity, animals (esp. mammals), and plants, so the dark isn't necessary to get the enveloping visions like with, say, ayahuasca. But, the crystals-growing-between-two-panes-of-glass keeps me eyes closed for at least the 1.5 hour or SOOO peak!

(and I haven't found a better exploring companion than the cacti. Its like "he" (I think of the cactus as more masculine, for one reason or another) is just rattling on and on about each item I come across, every bit of gravel or decomposing leaves are given a life-story and then I get a real appreciation for how magnificent and wise this universe is...

ALL HAIL ACHUMA

my first cactus was t bridgesii var monstrosse, it was awesome! increased potency comparitively to t pachanoi, and stronger than the run of the mill achuma.

since i have tried many other types of trich including t validus, t glaucus, peruvianus, macrogonus, and many genetic variations of t pachanoi (tom juuls giant included)

i have never been disapointed by any of my achuma eating, and have eaten about a hundred feet or more in the past few years of just achuma. probably 30 or so of everything else combined

achuma=bigwin, big big win






i honestly cant praise it enough
ive managed (out of 100g dried outter flesh) 7g hcl, cleaned twice with dry acetone. LOVE IT
ive eaten 1200mg hcl and it didnt compare to 2 feet,
i ate 3 feet and it compared to ayahuasca

ive puked 5 times on achuma, a few of them were specifically because i did something dumb during the soon after ingestion phase


it is my plant ally if any

I think she may be an ally to me as well... I've had absolutely amazing and astonishing things happen with her and I didn't get to meet her for a very long time. I only say her, because I felt a strong feminine prescence after our first run in. She was kloving, kind, and guided me in unusual ways. Pachanoi and Peruvianus just weren't the same.

What is your preferred way to "eat" cactus?

a lot of private studies show that some forms of bridgesii are rich in mescaline and that the other alkaloids occur in traces only

i can't tell the difference between good bridgesii and good pachanoi, the dose is the same size and the effects are pretty much identical,


An man very well educated in this area once told me that he thought that a lot of the differences between reports of bridgesii and other things could be explained by larger doses of mescaline from the bridgesii, i think he was right

A few studies show bridgesii and pachanoi to be very similar in regards to alkaloids present

my preference regarding how to eat the cactus is simple

a foot equates to ~10 grams dried outer green flesh...
these 10 grams have about 700 mg mesc/alkaloids

1 foot is a good place to start
1.5 feet is a good entry level understanding of the spirit
2 feet is self healing and learning the language of the spirit
3 feet is total entheogenisis

to acquire this

1. de-spine
2. de-skin
3. collect the outer 4-5mm of green flesh (i find the core/white area to emetic)
4. dry these green flesh "filets" without/low heat (never above 150, from my experience)
5. powder the dried filets
6. rehydrate the powdered filets with minimal water, just enough to make paste balls the size of marbles
7. having fasted for ~18 hours, without any sugar intake!, and it the time of day being sunset, ingest the desired amount of these malleable- mescal- marble- globs, by flushing them down your throat with minimal calorie free liquid (no more than 6oz for any dose, more liquid increases emetic possibility and reduces absorption)
8. lay down / be seated for 2 hours until you can A. burp comfortably and B. flex your abdomen safely/do a few sit ups (this is to make sure you've ingested it enough so the alkaloids are absorbed and they overpower the nausea of the eating the flesh) if you feel a purge, sit/ lay down on your back and let it pass. ( i urge not to purge, unless you feel called to, not weak and have no other choice )
9. commune with water (ie take a shower or bath SAFELY), use this time to meditate and focus on your body and how you feel)
10. cloth comfortably and have a place ready that can easily be used to trance/snooze if the effects become strong enough
11. do not eat until after the sun rises/ do not drink until the sun rises (unless you feel called to do so, but make sure its around 5 hours in to avoid purging)
12. spend the rest of the day after to integrate your experience and have light snacks available such as fruit and grains to break your fast
13. be sure to apply your newfound understanding to your daily life in such a way others can see that you are a beacon of truth and love
14. remember to not fear the experience nor fear sharing the experience with others, however always exercise caution as to not endanger yourself/others or the opportunity to commune with the spirit of the Achuma.
15. I LOVE YOU

Wow, awesome. Thanks man.

how does it compare to torch? 10g of outer skin from the torch I have is a decent experience for me and 15g got quite visionary and extremely extremely theraputic..I have wanted to try achuma for a long time now to see how it compares..

Bridgesii is often better when compared to torch, torch tends to be a bit weak anyway, the highest published alkaloid content for bridgesii is about 2X as strong as the highest content reported for peruvianus.

The actual experience is about the same, IME, regardless of what cactus it comes from. Also a single plant can give rise to somewhat different experiences over time, so can a single extracted chemical.

any dose of cacti is therapeutic and empathogenic, the higher you go the more entheogenic it becomes

cactus>ecstasy for me, safer and more easily available