Wow, a forum that calls itself a university that requires you to write an essay for membership! OK, I will try at least...

First off I'd like to thank everyone who has posted useful information on this forum that 90% of my google searches have led to. This site is clearly the best entheogen forum out there, and has kick-ass artwork too!

I have only recently got back into hallucinogenic substances in recent months after a long multi-year stint of basically not touching any, having had serious life-afflicting drug problems in the past (the results of which still haunt me today) and had basically come to the conclusion that as much as I loved drugs, they were bad for my mental health and needed to be avoided. It was only recently when I heard about the purported healing powers of ayahuasca that I took a second look at the world of psychedelics, this time from a more traditionally "entheogenic" and plant-based perspective, as opposed to that of the synthetic, chemical, recreational western rave culture that I had grown up with.

So now here I am, back on the horse and ready to get into what will hopefully be a healing and rewarding return to the Other Side. I've been taking DMT every weekend for a month now - always in the orally active form as Mimosa or Chaliponga, with ayahuasca. More recently I've got into extractions of harmala alkaloids from Syrian Rue and ayahuasca, thanks to the excellent tek articles on the wiki. I'm really looking forward to being able to make enough harmalas to microdose them every day to see if I can get the amazing results that others have reported on this forum.

I think I might just have found a friend for life in DMT, I love the visuals and the way it colours in my thoughts as they happen. I'm intrigued that some refer to it as having healing and life-improving qualities - I've yet to encounter anything like this myself. Maybe I'm not taking enough

Anyway that's about all I can think to write at this stage - I hope this serves as a readable introduction! Peace.

Welcome to the forums. This is truely a great unique and friendly community. It is sad to hear of your past problems, but learning from mistakes and maintaining a balance between responsibility and recreation is part of life. Ayahuasca is a powerful teacher and I hope it guides you well.

Thanks for the kind words! I'm kicking myself that I didn't discover ayahuasca sooner in my life - I could well have avoided a lot of unnecessary hardship. Will be interesting to see how long it will take before I find some real healing from these plants - I'm still so new to them.

Working on a cold water Caapi extraction atm - it's such a great feeling to get results that look exactly like the photos in the wiki! It shouldn't be long now before my first bioassay of harmalas that I've extracted myself. What a sense of achievement that will bring! Extraction is such a fun way to work with the plants, every bit as valid as meditating over the brew while cooking it for hours, imo.