So my friend's dog has been suffering from pretty severe depression for more than a decade, pretty much all of his relevant life. As of late he has been seriously contemplating suicide until he saw a documentary on ayahuasca. He wanted to see if he could communicate with God or his inner soul to find some answers.

First attempt, he had bought caapi vine (red and black) and chacruna. Due to fear and extenuating circumstances he wasn't able to get around to brewing until four months later. Started off with a basic recipe with 1 tbsp of vinegar per liter, brewing red caapi separately from charcuna with tons of RO water. Did three washes, then reduced. He used extra chacruna, about 100 g, for fear that it wasn't potent enough. The chacruna smelt awfully like green tea so he was suspicious that he got a fake batch. My friend's dog had spent all week trying to adhere to the strict diet and spent a full day and a half after work brewing and 24 hours fasting, so he was sleep deprived, tired and weak.

Drank the caapi brew first and the tannins and sediment were absolutely awful. Way too much vinegar. Vomited barely after 10 minutes. Tried to drink the chacruna brew but only drank half, was too awful tasting. Threw up again, spent the next hour or two feeling sick and trying to wait for the dream or visions but got nothing fell asleep.

My friend's dog tried it again the next day with his leftover chacruna (another 100 g) and black caapi but this time after concentrating it, he used a few dashes of baking soda to neutralize the vinegar. This experience was better as the brew didn't taste as horrible but still only managed to keep down the caapi brew for 20-30 minutes. Did not feel anything except wooziness, nothing interesting that should be expected from a purge. Was able to keep down the chacruna brew completely this time, but again felt nothing except maybe a little sickness.

My friend's dog came into that experience with the best of intentions and the highest of expectations and came out disappointed and extremely hopeless. It was if God did not want him to live, and was denying him the answers he was looking for. Except he didn't give up hope and tried it again this weekend. He assumed it didn't work last time because either he got a bad batch of ingredients, it became stale, or he stored it improperly.

He bought a whole new batch of fresh high quality ingredients, used phosphoric acid this time and tried out the hummingbird tek. He only dieted for a couple days and fasted for 24 hours. Used cielo caapi but accidentally slightly burned the brew when reducing. Added about an extra 1.5 ml of caapi liquid extract to brew just in case. Caapi brew was ten times easier to drink and didn't even vomit for the first 15 minutes. Consumed some yucca to help bring on digestion. Was not sure if this was due to sleep deprivation or the effects of fasting but he immediately felt something, especially when he was lying down on his back. Felt slightly dissociated, sleepy, and brain become sensitive to sounds and light. Drank the chacruna which was as horrible as he remembered and was able to keep it down for 30 minutes before overwhelming nausea took over. The experience reminded him of when he was sick in bed with a high fever and was delirious. Finally was not able to keep it down and purged, and the feeling was intense. He felt a prickly sensation over his entire body like when your foot falls asleep. Standing up, the world was spinning and could not walk straight. He felt sort of normal when sitting up hunching over but as soon as he laid down on his back he felt as if he was drunk and stoned at the same time. Was drifting in and out of sleep and the stage consciousness that was between it. Again, could not tell if this was due to sleep deprivation.

Did not see any visions, and did not get any answers but felt enormously relaxed, buzzed, but slightly sad. Had the best sleep he had in months and felt refreshed but still did not feel has if he had the full experience. Felt like it gave him the relaxation and high that weed was supposed to give him but couldn't (weed makes him extremely paranoid, depressed, and tired). He wants to know if he is doing anything wrong or if he is just getting a weak caapi/chacruna batch. He will try again (in the end he will escalate to the legendary Hawaiian chacruna) but still is waiting for the life-changing experience and understanding that aya has to offer.

Hey omasagei, please edit your post to remove the reference from sourcing, that can't be discussed here.

Hello omasagai,

Welcome to the Nexus. Yes, please immediately edit your post. Also, you may want to review these links:

https://wiki.dmt-nexus.me/Attitude_Page

https://www.dmt-nexus.me...aspx?g=posts&t=38302 and the links contained within this one.

Also, this place is super secure. If you feel insecure, use TOR and/or VPN. Basically, we encourage you to put SWIM out to the ocean, put the dog out for the night and harvest your plant. I am the extractor and entheogen user here as I hope you are too.

Although, we cannot recommend entheos for mental health purposes, there's no denying that banisteriopsis caapi and all it's MAOI's is Mother Nature's anti-depressant. In future brews I'd suggest going high on the vine and low on MAOI plant.

But, I am no aya expert. This is why it pays to really look around and research this place. There are a plethora of relevant sub-forums, such as https://www.dmt-nexus.me...t.aspx?g=topics&f=51 .

So, please read up, take a good look around (lots going on here), and I hope you can find what you are seeking.

Again, welcome to the Nexus.

Sorry about that, I've removed the source. Also my dog has posted on other forums so he has gotten used to it. I, on the other hand, feel that if you don't have a policy, then I'll officially make my stay here.

Omasagai,

Sorry to hear about your troubles. I've been depressed in the past, and I know there are some here that have been too. Some have even been brought here, like you, searching for something MORE that might give them a reason to live. I've found that there are a limitless number of things in the world to live for, if you're brave enough to search them out.

Are you determined to go down the Ayahausca route? It's pretty heavy stuff. How about changa? You can have intense spiritual experiences with that, and there isn't as much preparation and it's hard to go wrong.

Also, If you've been battling depression, have you been taking any anti-depressants? MAOI's and SSRI's do not mix and can be fatal. Be careful.

I've been lurking on this forum for for a couple months so I'm aware of the drug and food interactions. After being three or four years on SSRI's and anti-psychotics I've had enough and believe psychiatry is for some people but not me. It helped with the suicidal thoughts but only because it slowed down the thoughts and numbed them in the first place. Not to mention the headaches, nightmares, extreme weight gain, and the health problems associated with it.

Since I've already bought a host of ingredients, I'd like to focus on aya for now. I'd also like for the experience to be as authentic as possible. I've read around that aya compared to pharma and changa is a more soulful experience. You may disagree. I've got some ways to go and I'm looking forward to trying out the Hawaiian chacruna so we'll see

Btw, you said go high on vine and low on MAOI plant...isn't the vine the one that contains the MAOI in the first place? Perhaps you meant go low on the chacruna and higher on caapi? I've read that higher doses of caapi can make you more sensitive to the DMT.

Okay so let me refine my post for clarity sake. I know chacruna can be really fickle, but does anyone have any recommendations on different or better techniques or room for improvement based on what I've told? Any methods that can make the most out of ingredients without too much refinement? Switching from vinegar to phosphoric acid made the experience a hundred times better.

Perhaps is there something I need to keep in mind for filtering? Is more sediment good or does it not matter? Do I need to boil the ingredients for a shorter time or at a lower temperature? Perhaps I need to add more acid? Higher caapi to chacruna ratio or visa versa (currently doing the 50g/50g ratio)? Any advice would be greatly appreciated

I just wanted to say I feel your pain and anguish, and I offer my sincere hopes that you can overcome your depression as I have done. For me it was Salvia that helped lift me out of it, believe it or not

I'm not going to suggest that these substances will cure you of it, but they have helped me tremendously in changing my perspectives on life and becoming more in tune with myself and my well-being. They can be a very valuable tool in aiding you on your path to true happiness and self-love.

Brewing is something that I learned through trial and error. And there were a lot of errors and disappointment along the way I will have to echo zedwings and mention changa as a possible alternative. I have found changa to be every bit as meaningful and spiritual as any of my ayahuasca journeys. After all, it is the exact same substance, just a different form of administration. You might want to consider it, as getting the right technique and dosage with ayahuasca can be frustrating to say the least. Much less so with changa.

That said, here's the advice I can give you. I tend to leave more sediment rather than less. I boil rather vigorously and for an extended period of time. I add little or no acid. As for the quantities of the plants, that's not really something I'm comfortable giving advice on, as many factors can come into play there. What works for me might not work at all for you, or could even give you a terrifying, horrendous experience.

I wish you all the best in your quest with these wonderful plants. If you choose to stick with brewing, try not to get too discouraged at first, it can take some time to get it right.

Hey Omasagai

I truely get where you are coming from.. I am at work at the moment otherwise this would be more elaborate, but Dioxippus is dead on the money

I would highly suggest some changa with a close friend or relative on a mountain with a view.

My ex had severe depression, and had attempted numerous times to cut her clocks short, but then I took her to the mountain.

She tried to smoke the same dose I did, but stopped midway.

I asked her if she knew why she aborted the experience and she said she didn't know.

I told her its because she was not prepared to die once she felt it might actually be happening.

Since then she had a much more positive outlook in life.

The way I see it, these plants offer us the opportunity to die, and realise that we are not ready to die, and then still bring us back.

Suicide on the other hand... Well, if you get it right, there is no coming back and I can't help but wonder how many people who have succeeded actually regretted it in those last few moments.

Stay strong man, life is a test, and we are all supposed to pass with flying colors in the end.

Consider it your mission to get this right, it will teach you a lot about yourself..

Sending loads of love and luck your way

Safe travels

Thank you for the kind words. A mini-death...kinda counter-intuitive to what most people want but it's actually what I want. I'm not afraid of death but I have seen death and the effects it has one people especially loved ones. I'm not about to go down that road for the sake of them, but I do want to see my life flash before my eyes.

Salvia was actually my first fascination. Unfortunately like many things in my life, the door to that opportunity quickly closed as soon as I found out about it, as its illegality spread across the country like wildfire. I am watching the legality of it where I live...so many online vendors have refused service simply because of "pending" legislation...even refusals if the pending legislation had died. No one wants to take a chance these days, the drug war is too pervasive. Hopefully when the opportunity comes along I will be able to find a way to try it, though there are some scary testimony to its dissociative effects.

I've been doing some light reading around the forum about changa and apparently you need to infuse the herb with spice? I have a hard enough time as it is finding barely legal plant sources, I doubt I will find something that refined. I am actually pretty removed when it comes to anything having to do with drugs/medicine, let alone psychedelics, so I wouldn't know the first place to look. I'm guessing the spice is extracted by most people at home? Considering how it is so prevalent in the plant world, I wouldn't see how with a little knowledge and equipment you could do that. I'd like to start off low tech and work my way up if I need to. But I'm optimistic. The Amazonians have been doing it the same way for centuries something has to give eventually right?

That's unfortunate that it's so hard to get access to now, even in states where it isn't currently illegal. Not shipping because of some "pending legislation"? My god. I understand it, but it still seems a bit much. Maybe that's because I live where I live, and I have free access to it and it remains legal.

As for the dissociative effects, that is true. But so is that "mini-death" you speak of. That's exactly what it took to wake me up and pull me out of those self-defeatist thought patterns. I thought I had died, that I had finally done it, and I was never coming back. When I did, I realized how wrong I had been about life and it was much easier to make the changes I knew I needed to make.


This is exactly how I thought in the beginning as well. How can I, someone who didn't even take chemistry in high school, perform an extraction like this...in my own kitchen?! Seems ludicrous, doesn't it? Well, it isn't. It's a fairly simple process, and there is TONS of information on this site. Everyone has done it and gone through the trial and error already, so it's just a matter of becoming familiar with the process and gaining confidence enough to pull it off. Let me tell you, it is very rewarding (not just in terms of the end product) in a very real way. Just accomplishing something like that can really give you a boost in your confidence and self image.

Brewing is definitely more "low tech", and I hope you don't feel that we may be pressuring you to take on an extraction. Just presenting my experience with it, and how rewarding it can be.

Again, I wish you luck in your future experiences with these plants, in whatever form you may choose. There's always this great community here to lend a helping hand and offer some sound advice where it's needed.