fair enough, Olympus Mon and SoulCrushingBass.
I've not done DMT to the point where I could imagine the experience being
monotonous, but I suppose anything being "abused" could get that way.. and, it should
not be of any surprise that not everyone holds this chemical in high regard, with
the same respective ideals that many here do.

personally, I have enormous respect for it. last sub-breakthrough experience
I had was in early 2009. with such sparse use, I'd hardly call that recreational.

Olympus mon pretty much squared away my thoughts entirely. But I still think intent is part of it. Yet I'm not downplaying anyone's use of any psychadelics. I don't care how other people use it as long as they are safe and don't endanger anyone's lives including their own.

And benzyme, I don't think one would need to do something often in order to call it recreation. I don't snowboard as often as I'd like. I can only do it in the winter and when I do get the time to go, it's still only been a few times each winter over the last handful of years. But I'm still doing it recreationally, and I get a massive feeling of peace and mental clarity after shreddin some POW. In a way my use of snowboarding can also be seen as spiritual.

I agree. My preconceived ideas of recreational involved a party setting, doing a drug because its being passed around. I only do dmt alone. I cannot be around others, its too personal for me. Only a select few who I know share the same beliefs and ideals am I comfortable being around, bearly. I just feel naked. And it doesn't work if I have guilt on my conscience.

yea, I didn't elaborate. the times I did it was planted on my couch, with a good friend.
it was more experimentation than recreation, because I had never tried it before.

"Slightly" off topic to the op's post, but I have to ask, since you Benz, have been a long-time member of this forum...how was the sub breakthrough expeience/s for you? What did you think of it?

I'm just curious, because you seem fairly analytical and intelligent (not that that matters), but I just wanted to hear your take on it, even though a sub breakthrough IS NOTHING remotely close to a strong breakthrough dose.

But I am curious nonetheless..

omg...I loved it.
it was similar to a moderate dose of panaeolus cyanescens.
on the shroomery, I called DMT a specialist. LSD is a jack of all trades.
the reason I say this, is structure determines function. this is the general rule in biochemistry. LSD has a more complex structure, containing both a tryptamine structure, and a phenethylamine structure, as you may have read in PIHKAL and TIHKAL; but DMT is more closely related to serotonin, and because of that, is more specifically a ligand at the various 5HT subtypes (LSD also binds norepinephrine and dopamine sites, as well as histamine
and glutamate receptors).
I postulate that LSD's effects, at higher doses, reaches a plateau because of the wide binding profile...antagonism due to allosteric regulation limit certain perceived effects from the 5HT2a receptor agonism.

in layman's terms, LSD is involved with more traffic in the brain, some of it goes against other traffic. this increases with increasing dosage. you may trip so hard, and taking any more will mainly just prolong the experience

I don't have consistent wifi-access where I'm living presently, but rest assured it's been nice to return to an additional 2.5 pages of comments to shift through. Thanks a lot, everyone! I do, however, have some comments and potential corrections.

Firstly, speaking entirely of myself, I did not intend to dogmatise or confine psychedelics to 'spiritual exploration'. I recognise that people use these drugs in party-settings, as a means of 'getting high', and so forth. What I was trying to unearth was the complexity of reactions to these drugs. I am a user who, like many who've responded, first began exploring entheogens as a means of getting a crazy high. The first time I took LSD, I was hanging around with others, just having fun; but the situation was flexible enough that I could move off on my own if I felt like it. It was in these moments of solitude that I had some unexpected brushes with spirituality (or what have you). Since then, I've found myself bored with more than an hour or two of social interaction. I like my space when I'm in my own head, and this seems to happen to me however hard I try to do things I might do when stoned on marijuana or drunk at a party. I recognise that these things have much to do with the way in which I approach and the way I walk away from psychedelic experiences.

I have a lot of fun whilst tripping, but the kinds of fun I have are usually restricted to psychedelic experiences (don't let that word throw you: it's my fault for not better defining my intent). This is not because I've never tried anything else, but because I've found what is most rewarding for myself. My trips are most comfortable when I don't fight the drug, and when I use entheogens, I tend to want quiet, darkness, and the ability to move from social interaction to solitude when the desire overcomes me. These are the trips from which I get most. I no longer treat psychedelics as I did, that's for sure. I'm merely trying to deal with them, just as the rest of you.

It seems that many of you have similar feelings, but I'm glad that my suspicions were confirmed. I had guessed that most people's opinions about how to use psychedelics would be coloured by similar variables as my own. It's wonderful to see so many people using them in different ways. I never intended to tell anyone how these drugs should be used. Any moralising or absolutism on my part has been merely reflective of my own practices with regard to what I find most rewarding in a psychedelic experience.

(It's also worth keeping in mind that my experience is fairly limited. I have experienced LSD many times, the effects of mushrooms but once, sadly, and have never taken DMT or mescaline. My newfound capacity to experience DMT, however, is the reason I joined this site.)

No reason not to keep the responses coming. I'm loving them, and once I get some decent Internet-access here, I'll try to respond to some of you personally.

Thanks Oly... Your post is exactly what this discussion needed.

I think the OP needs to confirm what they meant when they stated "recreational". Did they mean a party setting interacting with others (which includes recreational activities) or staying at home type recreational. Recreational means different things to different people. Very ambiguous thread indeed.

Specific questions bring specific answers.

I will con-seed that yours has a much longer reference list