The first batch of DMT I smoked was incredible. It very easily melted into the steel mesh. It was easy to break through with 3 hits, etc.

The next batch seems to be more crystal-like. It it's the micro-powder I used before. This is salty like. When I melted it in an oil burner, it would recrystallize into melted salty looking yellow mess.

I had a terrible time trying to use an oil burner so I went to steel mesh in a vaporgenie-like pipe.

I have increased my dose from 35-40mg, to ~50mg and I'm still barely breaking through. It's like being half in and half out of the other world. Does it sound like there is a contaminant/potency issue? Should I just try 55 and quit bitching? I am barely getting 3 hits in as it is.

Tomorrow I'm going to have the chance to attempt to breakthrough a few times so I want to make the best of it. The thing is, I had an extremely profound experience on it the first few breakthroughs and I'm worried that the life-changing revelation of the drug is being elusive. My trips have been more prismatic and crazy dream-states. Less interactive. Should I just accept what I'm given or are there practices that you use to have profound experiences?

I dose from baseline/sober. I meditate for a minute to calm my nerves before I dose, and I sort of say to myself what I'm trying to do. I just feel that god is missing from the picture. I'm scared I might have pissed off my spirit guide!

It could be a number of things. Your dmt sounds perfectly normal from everything you described. Your dose's if anything are on the high side so I would stop increasing until you understand whats going on.
Could be your mesh isnt fully collecting the melted dmt, could be that there is a huge built up hit in the mesh waiting to make a vape cloud the size of your room. Hard to say.

For me I don't like my gvg. I'ts tricky imo. Maybe consider a proper sandwich method. Imo its much easier. I've been out of changa for a couple weeks but have some ten to one caapi leaf. I simply melt the dmt into a good pile of leaf then cover it with another thin layer and puff tuff!

Melt enough dmt for 2-3 people since your not going to smoak the whole bowl at once. Then count hit's. Start with one big monster and see how that feels, next time try 2, so on and so forth.

Good luck

In terms of interactivity, I'm not quite sure what you're looking for. The DMT experience tends to be a passive one in the sense that "you" don't do much, but observe. Observations aren't simply visual, as they can require all the senses (and some you didn't even know you had), but you don't actually do much yourself (i.e. open your own doors, pick something up, etc...). It's more the case that DMT interacts with you.

DMT is indeed elusive. I used to marvel that one could have a lifetime supply of DMT, but if they didn't know the right way to go about using it, they wouldn't think much of it. For now, I would accept these experiences you're being given as a gift of sorts. You may not realize it, but they're acclimating you to the experience so that when you do finally have a profound breakthrough, you'll have your faculties about you, and won't be left in a terrifying confusion creating resistance (and therefore trauma) which can lead to a number of things going wrong.