I recall reading this somewhere and have been unable to find any further info on the notion.

Thank you for your help.

I do this all the time and I feel that it works. I have taken cuttings from the same cactus (same size) and used them stressed & not-stressed and I always trip harder from the stressed cuttings that sat in the dark closet for at least a couple months. In other countries where they have been using cactus for centuries they will stack all their cuttings up and place a big blanket over them for months before using.

Some people swear by it, some people say it doesnt do anything. One thing is for sure...it certainly doesnt make the cactus any weaker.

Just make sure you dont leave them sitting for too long because they will eventually go bad. I lost a lot of cuttings that I had sitting in a dark closet for almost 8 months.

Way cool. Thanks for the response. Does this process make them any more difficult to skin after they've sat for a month or two?

My intent would be to create a powder and consume it straight up.

FrenchMachine said:


Everyone has a subjective opinion about increasing cactus potency.

However, there is no actual quantitative proof(as far as I know) that stressing cactus increases mescaline.

I've made mesc syrup from fresh and old cuttings. Never felt a difference.

Your best bet for higher potency is to find a good specimen.



edit: for spelling

Star Shine said:


Cactus powder and moisture = gooy, slimey, snot. Not fun when you puke it up.

Look it up and make a tea, syrup or resin.

interesting guys anyone know how long one can keep a cutting before the mesc content begins to degrade? Will it stop producing mesc if it popping roots?

Star shine heres a thought Ive heard of a guy who will take the skins and a nice layer under them and discard the rest. He puts the skins in a steamer for 10-20mins till the cactus Is nice and soggy then he can scrape the layer off the skins nicely with a spoon and discard the unwanted skin. He then leaves it to dry and is left with cactus powder.

Never tried it myself but it sounds good to me.

We still need solid data on this. On this moment we do not know if stressing a cactus will yield more, let alone what kind of stressing. Also, if stressing a cactus might yield more mescaline, it can be that letting it grow further instead of stressing will yield more mescaline in the same time span.

If you have cuttings then they will have had their stress anyway since you need to dry the chop off point before sending.

In my opinion, the best thing to do with a cactus cutting is to plant it in soil again, let it grow like crazy and then chop off the top half and let the bottom half life to grow new pups. That way you get the most mescaline out of your cactus in a sustainable way.


Kind regards,

The Traveler

If only I could find a reliable source for live cactus. I accept PMs

Thanks in advance.

Did you ever look in the the Sustainable plant and seed suppliers subforum?


Kind regards,

The Traveler

I have used several of them (6) and all are out of stock.

I will dig some more and see what I come up with.

Thanks for the push to not give up Traveler, and have a great weekend

The mescaline content will not degrade when being stressed. The main thing I noticed ime of stressing cuttings was that around the 6-8 month mark, I had quite a few SP cuttings start turning a weird orange/light reddish color and they started to smell really bad. Had to throw quite a few away but was able to still salvage quite a bit by cutting off the bad parts.

Cactus was still as strong as ever, if not a bit stronger, than it was when I used it months prior. These were all cuttings from the same plant and all roughly the same size.

Just try it for yourself to see what YOU think. If it works for YOU then thats all that matters right? Try to stress the cuttings for roughly 2-3 months in a dark closet, wrap them in newspaper. Make sure to check them every few weeks to make sure they arent going bad.

With all my trips with stressed cactus...they were always the deepest, most profound, most introspective, and most importantly they were the most healing trips. Its almost as if the spirit of the Cactus really lays into me for trapping it in the dark closet for months lol. Like it knows what I did...so then the spirit says to me "You gonna trap me in a closet for 4 months? Here...take this!" Next thing you know I'm having deep thoughts about some random time I was a prick to someone years ago and I'm balling my eyes out like a baby while the Cactus lets me know what a piece of shit I am. Gotta love the medicine!

The thing is, this can be a placebo effect while with a different way of handling the cuttings you might REALLY get more mescaline.

So since this site is about research and learning about entheogens, just leaving it at ones own subjective interpretation will not be enough: we want solid data.


Kind regards,

The Traveler

Is there some way to test the comparative mescaline content of different cuttings? Given how subjective the psychedelic experience is, a bioassay doesn't strike me as the best way.

Its a good point. To resolve this issue, we really need to conduct some serious experimentation. However, Traveller´s note made me think about this.

If we have no way to "scientifically" decide about which method is better at present moment, why not sticking to the placebo-method (i.e. stressing the Cactus in the dark closet)? If we feel we are getting "better" results from placebo than from ´more stuff in the Cactus´, then why not pursuing this method?

excellent post!

There is a reason why humans have been stressing cactus long before all you folks ever existed. That reason is because it makes them stronger and makes them kick your ass more. God forbid any modern day human should understand that all the old stupid humans of centuries past had anything figured out. They were stupid, we are the smart ones, right?

Ok I'm done with this. Going to go listen to more Morrissey songs and then cry myself to sleep.

In the past people also burned 'witches' in their eternal wisdom, so why do you think they were always right with their ideas?


Like stated before in this thread, assuming things is nice, but actually scientifically testing them will give real answers.

Besides, in the past they did not have neat extraction teks like we have today. It might be that if stressing makes for more mescaline that it was done to have to eat less cactus to get the same effects, that way it can be used to have less side effects from drinking/eating that horribly tasting stuff.

So on this site, which we also call the "Entheogenic University" as you might have seen, we want real answers by scientific research instead of assumptions and hearsay. It might be that the people from past centuries were right, but we have to test that to make sure we are not hunting a non existing phenomenon.


Kind regards,

The Traveler

Amen

Amen ~ Thanks to everyone for contributing. Glad to be a part of this community.

Glad to find this thread because about a week ago the following occured

Also by taking the advice of stressing the cactus,placed 2 in a box another bunch stashed in a blanket in a garage one left just lying about inmy room

the result,all the cutted parts when checked in the box had the reddish orange stains French machine spoke of,but this was not after 8 months easily 2 days same when the blanket was opened all cut parts were stained and even gettin deep red at certain parts

the one left outside was perfectly fine(if it matters though i doubt the covered ones were all san pedro and the lefted out one torch)

My conclusion rather leave it open and exposed,a friend shed light on it by stating in nature cactus doesnt fall into boxes or dark rooms its left about getting fresh air and sunlight

and some pics to fully illustrate the phenomenon