Thank you to this community for existing, and for its participants who are sharing their knowledge and wisdom.

This body: 40 years old, male, 63kg (140lbs), healthy (don't smoke, don't drink alcohol/tea/coffee, do exercise, eat very clean/whole/natural in general), spiritually inclined. Have taken many consciousness-altering drugs in the dim and distant past (including a lot of LSD and mushrooms), but never anything with DMT in it.

I feel drawn to take Ayahuasca and perhaps other forms of DMT for no particular reason than it seems to be indicated (by the universe) that I should go on a journey with it. For healing/guidance/insight/de-conditioning.

Target dose:
- 50g B. Caapi
- 50g P. Viridis

Ingredients:
- 250g yellow B. Caapi (whole, thick, old looking vine)
- 100g dried Chakruna leaves (matte green and brownish tinge in places, crumbling when crushed in hands)
- Liquid used: About 13L of distilled water in total, with around 2 tbsp 6% white wine vinegar per 1L
- Utensils: Stainless steel pots, stainless steel spoon, cotton filtering cloth
- Ceremonial music, incense, prayers to the universe

Run-up to ingestion:
- Last ate pork and cake 1 week before (not ideal)
- A couple of ejaculations 5 days earlier
- Last ate some 99% cocoa chocolate about 4 days before
- Ate very clean after that, MOAI diet
- Went without food for 30h before
- Went without water for 8h before

Preparation of B. Caapi (250g):
- Wrap in T shirt, hammer, then pull apart with hands until only fine strands exist
- 3x3 hr gentle simmering boils, water always just above the level of ingredient
- Combined water from all 3 boils and reduced down to 1L (5 x 200ml doses)
- Each 200ml/50g dose looked to be about 15% sediment, which I did not decant

Preparation of P. Viridis (100g):
- Crush with hands into fine pieces
- 3x1 hr gentle simmering boils
- Before 3rd boil the leaf matter went into a blender
- Combined water from all 3 boils and reduced down to 200ml (2 x 100ml doses)
- Each 100ml dose looked to be about 50% sediment, which I did not decant

Setting:
- 1am Sunday morning
- Office room in house
- Lights off, no music
- All electricty off
- A variety of plants moved into the room
- Instructed wife as sitter (letter for E.R. if bad reaction, etc)

Ingestion:
- Tried a few small sips of vine as a tester, puked up mostly saliva and stomach acid (likely combination of nerves and over-acidified stomach from fasting so long)
- Drank 200ml B. Caapi with approx. 15% sediment in 2 mins, kept it down easily
- 15 mins later started sipping P. Viridis with approx. 50% sediment - vomited terribly after about 5 minutes, vomit contained much weird looking mucus
- I extracted all the mucus and redrank the clean stuff I had vomited (probably not a good idea, but I didn't want to waste the brew)
- Started sipping the P. Viridis again, vomited again after about 10 mins
- Redrank the cleaned-up vomited liquid and finished the P. Viridis
- Vomited it all up 5 mins later, couldn't face a redrink
- Some more dry heaving followed shortly after

Effects:
- Body feeling 'spaced out' in general
- Very slight/weak and fleeting background 'fractal' patterns when eyes closed
- A few minutes of conversation with internal voices which were not my own
- Sleepiness (after 2.5 hrs of not much happening, I went to bed - don't remember any dreams)

Example dialogue (that I can remember):
Me: "What do you want?" (spontaneous question)
It (unexpected reply): "Everything"
Me: "I offer you everything. Uhh.. But please leave this body alive to look after my family"
It: "That's not really everything then, is it"
Me: (after some time in silence) "OK.. so take it all then. Everything. Do it."
(silence... nothing happens afterwards)

Other interesting things that happened:
- During the cooking, I involved my 2 year old boy in the blessing of the house. When we started cooking, he spontaneously started making rhythmic chanting patterns (vocal) and tribal dancing movements. He looked exactly like a midget shaman. He has never done anything like that before. My wife and I were amazed.
- Some time after I'd taken the dose, my wife (upstairs, directly above me) woke up and felt an expansion of consciousness, followed by 'the presence of several entities' of a neutral character. She was spooked and asked them to leave, and the whole thing shut down immediately. My wife has no experience with psychoactive drugs at all, had taken nothing, is very grounded, and has never had an experience like this before.

I would very much appreciate all comments on any of the above, and some input on the following questions if possible:

- Did I make any obvious mistakes
- What could be done better
- Is it normal for a 1st time experience (no breakthrough)
- Will reducing the sediment decrease the chance of vomiting but also decrease potency?

If you read this far, thanks so much for your time. :-) Namaskar. _/\_

Hail corto, welcome to the Nexus.

Sounds to me like a mild intro to aya, which may be better than an overly intense one.

There area many possible reasons for the underwhelming experience. Old or low quality chacruna... not fully MAO inhibited... too high temps for the chacruna (p. viridis doesn't need such long or intense extractions)... not keeping it down long enough... etc. etc.

Next time you might want to reduce your brew even further... less water is easier to get down and keep down. I find that the amount of water is proportional to the purge. I often get my brews down to syrup and even gel cap the stuff.

Perhaps you were about to have a trip, but your wife banished the entities.

It is also possible that your falling asleep and not remembering your dreams is not what happened exactly. Perhaps you had some experiences in between that you are not remembering. Some people have trouble recalling hyperspace events.

Sorry I can't be more specific in my help, but there are so many variables. Even experienced ayahuasceros have failed brews... though we tend to have some supplemental materials around which can salvage such things. (more brew, harmalas, spice or changa to smoke... other tryptamines etc.)

I don't think that there is a always a direct correlation between the amount of an entheogen I take and the experience I receive. I have taken a small amount of a brew and tripped balls hard... only to try the same exact brew some days later in an even higher dose and gotten almost no effect. My friends and I call that getting locked out, and it can even happen with powerful vaped spice.... spice which works fine for other people in the room.

At any rate, stick with it. You seem to have the right attitude, and I am sure you will achieve the full blown experience.

Was cool to hear about your son playing mini shaman. He may be yet another one of those indigo crystal kids I keep meeting.

Be well.

HF

Thanks for the reply and the welcome, Hyperspace Fool (love the name)!

Next time I can increase the caapi dose and reduce the chakruna down even further for a 1-gulp dose, that should help some.

I have some follow-up questions if you have the time/inclination to answer them:

1) Is fresher better for the chakruna?
2) For dried chakruna, how can one tell 'too old'?
3) What would you say is the best chakruna extraction method (?x? hrs)?
4) How long to keep each ingredient down, minimum? Is not vomiting at all 'the best'?
5) Is the chakruna sediment high power? If so, can I extract it into liquid? I think the main objection of the stomach was to the sediment.



Could well be. The conversation with the entity mentioned ended abruptly, indeed. It felt like a telephone call that had got prematurely disconnected.



I've read about variability (where the variables are quite unknown) quite a few times in my research. Some people can take a mega dose and wait 2h for an effect, but then take a lower dose and be getting a full on experience in seconds. "Locked out" - hehe, nice terminology.



Anything is possible of course, but I don't think so.



I'll look into these things. What is 'spice' by the way? Pure DMT to smoke?

All the best,

corto

Yeah, spice is what we call pure DMT around here.

1) To a point. If chacruna isn't stored well, it can lose potency.
2) This is not always obvious, but more brown and more brittle dry can be indications.
3) With pulverized material and enough acid, most of the alks are extracted pretty quickly with chacruna. I might be wrong, but I remember hearing that the majority of the actives are gotten in as little as 15 min. I boil my caapi, but keep the chacruna at a threshold temp that never gets truly boiling. 3 x 20 min is usually plenty.
4) Not vomiting gives the longest trip, but purging can give quite a rush if you have held it down at least half an hour.
5) The sediment should be nearly devoid of actives. Brewing the stuff should have moved everything into the liquid. Nearly everything anyway.

I would consider taking a good B vitamin complex, some vitamin C and some other brain food just before you trip. It makes a difference for me. Some good choline source (CDP Choline, Alpha GPC Choline, Lecithin), maybe some other nootropics like L-Tryptophan or 5-HTP... a racetam perhaps. Try them out sober to see if you have a strange reaction, and do some research about whatever you take. Nothing worse than a negative interaction with the MAOI that won't stop for 8 hrs.

Anyway, take care.

HF

All your points are noted, many thanks. I know 5-HTP, I used to combine it with E and use it for comedown recovery.

PS what does a negative MAOI interaction look like? And how to manage it?

Well serotonin syndrome can be very traumatic, loss of bodily controls, seizures, and can be potentially fatal.

From what I have seen a bad reaction can involve feeling very confused, strange feelings in the extremities, fluctuations in temperature or at least sensitivity to temp. I have never experienced this myself just seen others experience it.

I really wouldn't worry about it too much unless you are on prescription medication or have used prescription medication in the not to distant past. Otherwise I have and many others have not followed a strict diet and have had no problems. Obviously avoid overly stimulating things or just really processed food, salty, sugary, spicy food etc.

Also 50g caapi is a pretty low dose and 50g chacruna is pretty low too, you may want to up both of those.

Thanks adam. :-) It's good to know what the symptoms are, so I can tell my wife (the sitter).

I'm not worried at all - I can't remember the last time I took any pharma, and I eat very plain and clean for the most part (raw veggies, good quality organic/free range flesh, young cheeses, and fresh juice).

I was already avoiding aged cheese, smoked/pickled goods, sugar, salt, canned foods and spices before I even heard of Ayahuasca. I feel now that maybe in some way the diet was 'prep' for becoming conscious of Aya later.

I will up the dose of both ingredients, thankyou. I will probably double them.

All the best,

corto

Here I will sum what I have learned from myself, this thread and the nexus chat room in preparation for next time:

Dieta:
- fast less beforehand (maybe 6h for food and 4h for water) - my system is already very clean
- no sexual activity whatsoever (I do suspect my brain was still 'fried' from edging 5 days earlier)
- no pork or refined sugar at all

Reduction of liquid:
- reduce to a very small amount - 1 small gulp or less (easier to keep down = longer trip)
- can decant (not necessary to consume sediment - again easier to keep down)

B. Caapi:
- 100g+ base dose next time for yellow or white, 80g+ for red or black
- use thick t shirt for filtration (better consistency, less nausea)
- reduce very slowly during last 3-400ml (avoid damaging sugars = less nausea)

P. Viridis:
- fresher is better
- 3x20m extractions, keep just under boiling temperature
- 100g base dose next time
- mimosa hostilis is perhaps better for price, predictability and taste

M. Hostilis:
- 3x3 hr full boils with vinegar
- cotton t shirt filter
- keep in fridge until sediment has dropped
- leave sediment and reduce to 1g:5ml ratio (250ml for 50g)
- use syringe to measure doses (1cc = 1g)
- 1 dose is 3-5g (start low to assess potency)
- can test potency with S. Rue before dropping with B. Caapi
- Note to self: UNFORGIVING IF DOSED WRONGLY

S. Rue with M. Hostilis:
- 2x1 hr boils
- add 3-5g of processed M. Hostilis to reduction phase of (or pre-cooked) S. Rue (creating one fatty milky liquid instead of two clear liquids)
- cooking together (as above) better than taking separately
- administer in 2 shots, 5 mins apart
- can have 1g on hand for booster
- 1:1 rue mimosa is good
- versatile, responsive, but high doses can be scary

B. Caapi with M. Hostilis:
- almost tastes just like B. Caapi
- add 4-5g of processed M. Hostilis to reduction phase of (or pre-cooked) B. Caapi

Boosters for harder trip or trip extension (I will not do any of these because after researching a little it seems quite dangerous and risks serotonin syndrome):
- co-enzymated B complex
- vitamin C
- watery fruits, juice, berries, light fat nuts
- good choline source (CDP Choline, Alpha GPC Choline, Lecithin)
- nootropics: 5-HTP or Tryptophan or a racetam

Stuff to research:
- "ayahuasca is not an maoi, it's a rima, so it doesn't interact with tyramine metabolism" (seems right, but I still don't want to mess around healthwise, so I'll keep it safe)

Many thanks to all those responding on chat and this thread.

Vomited it up, couldn't face a redrink.... Hardcore, thats all i think. Now SWIM smoked DMT he has no wish to drink pukey jungle juice.

Salutations brother!

Wow, seems like you have all the preparations and knowledge down, very detailed!

This self has only drank the ayahuasca once, and it blasted me through all of the dimensions.

I don't believe I prepared as extensively as you, it was a few years ago but I don't seem to remember fasting for longer than a day or two, and definitely didn't cut out the whole range of foods that you have listed. While this may not have been ideal, after one cup of the medicine (provided by a shaman that came over to Europe and conducted a ceremony in a local forest) I was *there*. I was melted through 10 levels of hell which were excruciatingly physically and mentally painful, before being catapulted into inner worlds of bliss and divine stillness. I had no recollection of the physical purging because, as I mentioned, the first cup was enough.

So, I wouldn't say it was normal for first timers to not have breakthroughs.

Perhaps it was something to do with your preparation, setting, intention, or the vine itself.

Very interesting (for me) side note: my intention was to be immersed completely, to have my ego shattered and to be pulled through to the other side. I had an open mind and knew that this was extremely powerful 'magik' to be respected. Whilst I was gifted my intentions my brother who drank the medicine next to me in the circle had zero happen to him. He had no visions, no feelings, no emotions arise, zilch. Very, very intriguing. Same medicine and same setting but nothing resulted. The way I see it the Goddess was not ready for him, or he was not ready for the Goddess. Possibly something to think about..

Blessings

drinking the purge is...errr...commited to say the least.

props to you corto.

Haha! :-) I may try the spice at some point, but right now it seems to be all about ayahuasca.

I don't relish the thought of another drink, but of course I'll do it anyway. :-) I might try a vine/jurema brew first though, and then go back to the chakruna.

Hey LS! Yes, how do we know what it is. So many variables as people have often pointed out on this forum. Preparation was magical, and the intention was prayerful and directed (although acknowledging that whatever would be bestowed, if anything, would be appropriate - universe does not make mistakes), and it was taken with reverence. I'm not disappointed, it was obviously just meant to be that way this time. :-)

The way I've come to think about it is that the ejaculations a week before plus some pork eating at around the same time had something to do with it. I felt this was not ideal going in, although it was not contra-indicated and so I went ahead anyway. Like someone said elsewhere very sagely (IMO) - "If you're going to see the dentist, it is polite to have a clean mouth".

Other things that seem credible are a low dose, and that my wife 'banished' the entity/entities at around the same time my conversation with the entity was cut short. Or it could just have been substandard ingredients, haha!

A lot of this 'ego' (conditioning around being a separate entity who has to fight for survival in a hostile world) has already been brought out into the light of full consciousness and dissipated, although it is an ongoing lifelong work.

Hey 3rdI! The vomitous mix didn't seem too bad compared to the chakruna on its own as it went down the first time... <brrrr> <shudder> :-)

I did feel afterwards that redrinking was perhaps unwise. Kind of flying in the face of what my body was telling me - "get this out". I will have more supplies on hand and drink those instead next time. That was a once-only experience, I think!

I guess its good to try everything once

Next time I would just keep a bottle of Aya next to you and just knock that back as and when. I would reduce it to a shot or 2 per dose so you don't have to drink to much.

Good luck with your future journeys.

Ayahuasca experiment #2.

Cooking:
- Already had 100g yellow caapi from previous boil (see first post)
- Cooked 50g M. Hostilis finely shredded root bark, 3x1hr boils
- Combined jurema boil outpus, put in fridge for 3 days
- Decanted, to end up with a liquid with no visible particles in it (very clean tea)
- Boiled down to 250ml (1g:5ml), liquid became a lot darker

Preparation:
- Ate extra clean starting 36h before
- Started fasting 12h before
- Stopped water 6h before

Dose:
- 100g caapi (in 5 small shot glasses of 20g each, plenty of sediment)
- 5g jurema (in 25ml, no sediment)

Administration (times rounded):
- T: 40g caapi, 2g jurema simultaneous
- T+10: 20g caapi (60g total), 2g jurema (4g total)
- T+60: 20g caapi (80g total), 1g jurema (5g total)
- T+90: 20g caapi (100g total)

The caapi is bad tasting, but nothing on earth can be as bad as charkruna for me, so it was OK. The jurema had what I've come to know as an 'alkaloid feel' to it (very bitter, almost a 'dry wetness', puckers the insides of the cheeks up). I had some clenched jaw and heavy salivation moments (close to purging) but I busied myself temporarily at those times and the distraction worked - I didn't purge orally this time.

Effects:
- T+30: spaced out, same feeling as last time
- T+90: stronger, but still just 'quite spaced out'
- T+120: peak spaced outness

I was mainly sitting in pitch black room. No visuals to speak of (maybe a little strobing, some points of light where they shouldn't be etc). Just 'pretty spaced out' body feeling. Balance affected. Got very cold at one point, had to move into bed. I felt 'sedated', 'mongy', 'drugged up', tired. It was almost like the feeling of a heavy comedown after 2 days non stop drug partying (long time ago). I purged out the back end once, about the same amount that went in.

After a couple of hours of just feeling quite heavily sedated and nothing else, I put on some progressive psy trance, which I appreciated greatly (but not in a different way than normal).

One thing of note is that even though my eyes were open most of the time, vision would fade out to black quite quickly if I didn't move them. So I was open-eyed staring into a black void for a lot of it. Got used to it easily.

I had 7h sleep (can't remember if I had dreams) and then woke up feeling OK, just tired and not feeling particularly like driving a car was a good idea. Had some plain porridge and hot water to drink and felt OK, drove off to town. Mental and physical energy levels were a bit up and down all day, with a background 'mildly spaced out' feeling (which is still going even now, although faint).

Summary:

I'm surprised, really. This was a double caapi dose compared to last time and 5g of jurema is supposed to be a 'respectable' size. And yet no 'breakthrough'. I feel that I didn't really get any light with the strength (if I'm using the right terminology) on either of these expeditions. Maybe my DMT materials are bad? Anyway, I feel like 100g caapi is just 'more in the same direction' of 50g, and so I'd probably stick with 50g in future, it's the DMT component I've got to get right somehow.

I've got 50g chakruna left that I'm scared of drinking just because of the taste, and a whole lot of jurema that seems to have no discernible effect. But I am hesitant to up the dose of jurema because I've heard stories of people doing that and it sometimes didn't go well.

I'm all ears with regards to opinions on this second experience, if anyone has anything to offer. I'd be very grateful. :-) Wondering what to do next.

any vinegar involved in cooking?

Hey! :-) Yes, a generous 1-2 tablespoons of 6% acidity white vine vinegar per 1L of distilled water. For both vine and jurema brews.

drink more vine but not more dmt (jurema). 5g is strong enough with good vine ratio
And drink jurema always 45min AFTER the caapi not at the same time

Pretty much all the other posts/articles I've read say to take them together or up to 30 mins later, and that the delay is subject to what one has eaten etc...

Would you mind saying where you are getting this information from? Is it personal experience? 45mins delay contradicts so much that I've read, I'd have to understand a bit more about it before considering it. My current impression from reading is that the delay should be 0-30 mins (30 mins being a kind of maximum), and somewhat dependent on how much one has eaten in the run-up, and so on.

Upping the dose of caapi... I think 100g was enough, any more and I would have been immobilized. My instinct is that the DMT just didn't work, or wasn't enough, or whatever.

I read earlier this evening that 5g is a 'light' dose of jurema, but should be the first dose of a new batch, to test its strength.