Hello, guys. Semi-experienced psychonaut here, about to try ayahuasca for the first time. I'll be starting my first brew soon and have a few questions. I'm sure the answers are already out there on the Internet somewhere, but it could take a long time to find them, and I don't want to spend hours searching.

1. When doing three separate, three-hour brews, is it acceptable to add all the finished brews to a single pot as I go along, allowing the liquid to accumulate, or do they need to be kept in three separate pots until it's time to combine them for the final reduction? If I do need to keep them in separate containers while they're waiting to be combined for the final reduction, what's the reason?

2. The seller who shipped my vine and chaliponga included a small sample of peppermint, presumably to help with the nausea. For any of you who've used peppermint with ayahuasca, when do you think is the best time to take it? Should I take some before drinking the brew, or soon after, or should I wait until I actually start to feel sick? Is it most effective in a tea? If I feel the urge to vomit, how long do I need to resist to ensure the brew takes effect?

3. Some teks instruct me to combine the vine and admixture from the beginning, some say wait until the last hour of the brewing process to add the admixture, and still others advise doing two separate brews and drinking them separately. What's the reasoning here? Does a long brew time have any negative effect on the potency of the DMT-containing component?

I think that's it for now. Thanks.

generally all three brews are seperated until reductiong (brew first brew, pour it off through filter, add more water to the pot, brew second brew, etc)

the reasoning behind this, is that the fresh water from each brew has a lot more room to pull actives, than saturated water diluted with fresh water.

the way you say "three seperate pots" implies you have to brew the brews at the same time, or in different pots, which is mistaken.
3 brews in the same pot, with the same plant material, just cycling out the water a couple times.

i don't think peppermint would have a drastic effect either way, but i would eat it prior to drinking.


honestly? doesn't matter much.
you can combine or seperate.

drink at the same time or different.

as long as you drink the MAOI before or at the same time as the DMT, you should be good to go

I'll try to answer these questions as best as I can for as far as my knowledge goes.

1. You can add them all to one single pot (or two single pots, depending on your choice on question 3: one pot containing the vine extract and one pot containing the chaliponga extract). All three brews are just a part of the one brew that you'll be drinking and need to be mixed anyways. I don't see any possible negative effects from mixing them on-the-go.

2. I need to note that a lot of people feel the vomitting is an essential part of the ayahuasca experience. It is the fysical methaphor, so to say, of releasing your bad energies/demons/negative stuff. In my one experience with ayahuasca, one of the things that I found negative about this experience is that I didn't vomit. After reading a lot about it, I felt the purge belongs to ayahuasca. Because I didn't vomit, I felt I didn't really experience the true ayahuasca experience.

To counter what I just said:
Actually I do believe experiencing ayahuasca doesn't have to include vomiting. I do think that the fysical methaphor isn't needed to let ayahuasca be able to release these bad energies.

I haven't heard of peppermint being anti-nauseauting, but have also never really looked into this kind of stuff, so it could definately help. About the timing I have no clue.

I have heard about ginger being really effective. From my research back then, I can recall that at least one person adviced on chewing on whole ginger after drinking the brew or chewing on whole ginger when the first nausea comes up. I can't really recall which one it was.

If you really want to avoid the nausea, I believe I read somewhere on this forum that well produced pharmahuasca doesn't make you nauseated at all. Maybe you should look up something like this in google: "ayahuasca purge sitemt-nexus.me" (without the quotation-marks)

3. The reasoning behind drinking the vine-brew and the chaliponge-brew seperately is that you first want your MAO's to be inhibited, before you ingest the DMT. If these are not inhibited at the moment they can reach the DMT, an amount of DMT will be broken down by the not yet inhibited MAO's. Some say this amount is insignificant or even nihil. I don't know if any definative research on this is available. Otherwise, I would take into consideration that there could be a significant amount of DMT be broken down if you don't drink them seperately. Thus I would then advice to drink them seperately, spacing them apart about 10 to 20 minutes. (First drink the vine-brew, then the chaliponga-brew)

As far as I heard long brew times do not have a significant negative effect on the potency of both the MAOi- and the DMT-containing component. One (seemingly experienced) person on this forum told he always does 5x5 hour brews, which are always potent.


I wished that I could give you more precise answers to these things, but I lack the experience and the knowledge. Also, as far as I know, there is no one right way of brewing and drinking ayahuasca. You should listen to the advice that suits you best and try that out. If, afterwards, you feel you have to change something, change it and then try out that different way.

Have a lot of luck, and also a lot of fun while brewing and drinking!

Thanks, Parshvik and rickbreda. I should probably clarify my reasons for being concerned about the nausea. I'm very open to the idea that vomiting can be cathartic in this context, and am not strictly opposed to it; however, I don't want to a) throw up before the medicine has had time to take effect, or b) spend my entire ayahuasca session glued to a bucket or toilet. To do LSD or mushrooms while I was badly sick to my stomach would be insane--tantamount to begging for a horrible experience that likely wouldn't teach me anything. I have a hard time seeing why DMT should be any different (though of course I have absolutely no experience with it, so feel free to tell me why I'm wrong). When you guys vomit ayahuasca, is it pretty much a once-and-done thing, or are you repeatedly sick throughout the trip, going back to the toilet or bucket to attempt to get some relief every 15 minutes or so for hours like you would do if you caught some nasty bug? I'd rather not volunteer for *that* experience. There's a part of me that thinks I'm insane to want to try ayahuasca at all, considering what a long history I have of being a complete wuss when it comes to nausea. Once-and-done, or even twice-and-done, is all right, even if the purges are incredibly violent and awful while they're happening. Over and over again for hours...not so much. Basically, what I want to know is, can I be reasonably sure that once I've puked, my psychedelic experience will be undisturbed by any further feelings of sickness? How much does this vary from person to person?

Thanks for the clarification on the setup of the pots. Looks like I'll be using two pots--one for the brew that's being heated, and one for the brew that's already been heated--and putting the vine and light together from the start.

I'm very excited to have this experience. Every psychedelic experience I've had so far has made me feel reborn, more self-aware, and exquisitely grateful to be alive. I don't know if it's possible that ayahuasca can affect me this way as strongly as mushrooms do, but I'm more than willing to risk a little sickness to find out.

In my (limited) experience, once I've vomited at the beginning of the trip I feel way better and don't have a problem with nausea again. Though, your mileage may vary.

It's the caapi/rue/harmalas that causes most of the nausea, so if you have a very caapi-heavy brew, you're more likely to vomit/have diarrhea and maybe for an extended time.

Good luck on your experience, I think you'll find it very enlightening.

"When you guys vomit ayahuasca, is it pretty much a once-and-done thing, or are you repeatedly sick throughout the trip, going back to the toilet or bucket to attempt to get some relief every 15 minutes or so for hours like you would do if you caught some nasty bug?"

Both scenarios are common with ayahuasca. It really can be like catching the psychedelic swine flu at times if you get the brew just right. Or not.

For myself, if I'm gonna puke, it'll usually be a good one or two and then I'll be nausea free for the rest of the session. On other unfortunate occasions, I can't puke no matter how hard I try, and am forced to bear the nausea for the duration of the experience. I've never taken anything from ginger to smoking weed and a couple things in between that has actually successfully relieved the nausea. Sounds to me like that peppermint might be best taken directly after you've consumed the ayahuasca. It very well likely may have been little more than the distributor's complimentary way of saying, "this stuff is going to taste awful, so to avoid bad breath, we've provided you with a peppermint "