Lately I've been brewing up a larger, more concentrated batch of ACRB + S. Rue. The concentration I've been reducing to has been 32g ACRB + 14g S. Rue, reduced down to 200mL.

I got the idea to try microdosing after reading the chapter on this exact topic from Fadiman's "The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide." The user accounts in the book chapter claim amazing things, and I can attest that it all holds true for microdosing Aya in this way as well (the book chapter mainly talks about sub-perceptual doses of LSD and psilocybin).

First things first. My experience to date has gone like this:

10mL on an empty, fasted stomach (~1.6g ACRB + ~0.7g S. Rue)
For reference, 50mL of this brew gives a super intense takeoff, full immersion, full surrender experience that begins to fade after 4 hours, and full return to baseline occurs at about 6 hours--basically a strong, but realistic journey that isn't over the top.

Lesson 1) If I hadn't had about 10 breakthrough experiences already, I might just think I was having a really good day. But having learned of all the sensations, feelings, and subtle increase in visual acuity, focus ability, outlook, sexual energy, social outgoingness, creativity, meditation ability, openness to love in my heart, feeling lighter on my feet, feeling energy flow through me, and a sense of tapping into a larger wisdom of the world, I really would have taken my first microdose experiment to be just a really darn good day (or good morning, since the peak experience is the best part, and then fades away after the 2.5 hour mark).

Lesson 2) Repeating dosing in a 24 hour period is CUMULATIVE in effect. In fact, the cumulative effect of repeat doses seems to even last with a day break in between. That is, taking a 2nd microdose 48 hours after the first produces a more powerful experience the 2nd time. Yes, we're still talking about sub-breakthrough, but if you are taking a microdose and planning on working on a creative project from your home office, and planning on sticking to your normal daily routine, finding yourself bumping into the ceiling of a breakthrough experience can be a little jarring.

The first day I tried microdosing I tried to ride the wave of the microdose experience by taking another 10mL every 3-4 hours. The second dose was a surprisingly hard takeoff, but I didn't think too much of it, and used the energy wisely to keep working (and work was prolific that day). But the 3rd dose of the day.... Oops! Total breakthrough to hyperspace! That was a seriously huge "oops." My afternoon changed gears very rapidly as I found I wasn't able to engage myself in any type of work anymore. Hallucinations had taken over, and I had to meditate through it, rest a bit, and chalk it up to experience. Accidentally breaking through to hyperspace should be avoided at all costs! It causes anxiety, even if you've been in a euphoric, happy, loving mood all day. It didn't help my cause that I was under a time pressure to get a project out under a hard deadline--not a good feeling to be drifting through hyperspace with that looming on the horizon.

Lesson 3) I waited 2 days before repeating a microdose experiment after accidentally breaking through. Day 3 began with another 10mL of this brew, and again, it felt like an unusually hard takeoff for a microdose, and I was bumping up against the ceiling of another breakthrough, (but luckily that didn't happen again). Work was great until it began to fade after 2.5 hours or so... At the 4 hour mark I took another 5mL to extend the experience. This worked very well also. Instead of going for a 3rd dose, I decided vaping a small amount of cannabis sativa to extend the duration of the sensations was better than flirting with an accidental breakthrough again. This worked great! I ended up working 13 hours on this day, and it was a great day, and very creative. Stimulants like caffeine and ALCAR during this experience didn't seem particularly helpful. I believe the best way to capture these experiences is to seek comfortable flow, rather than using stimulants to jack yourself into work mode. Gentle flow is key.

Lesson 4) Day 4, 24 hours after a good microdose day I tried again--again being conservative with dosing. I did a full body workout in the early morning (upper body + heavy deadlifts), came back to my home office before 9am and took 10mL, followed by another 5mL later in the day. Both doses gave me a hard takeoff again. I discovered that doing this on a fairly regular basis means it is better to REDUCE THE DOSE ON SUBSEQUENT DAYS. On Day 4 of this trial, I found myself feeling a bit lost in how strong the sub-breakthrough sensations were. My original logic felt like anything below a breakthrough experience should be roughly equivalent to the euphoria of the afterglow, but that is wrong. Even a sub-breakthrough dose can bring about the same emotional responses as a full hallucinatory experience. That is, fears, desires, anxiety can cloud the mind and end up being counterproductive. For this reason, even microdosing should be given the same respect as a full experience, and that also means giving yourself integration time between microdose days.

Lesson 5) I've begun noticing that on subsequent days after microdosing, some of the 'benefits' carry forward for another day or two, even if they are nearly impossible to detect at the cognitive level. Respect this stuff... If you do, the benefits last and you avoid surprises and counterproductive trouble.


Summary and Conclusions:

Microdosing is a powerful way to enhance:

*visual acuity
*focus ability
*outlook and well being
*sexual energy
*social outgoingness
*creativity
*meditation ability and depth
*openness to love in my heart
*feeling lighter on my feet
*feeling energy flow through me without the burned out feeling stimulants can induce
*a sense of tapping into a larger wisdom of the world, including a sense of unity with all life


It also seems to provide lucid dreaming on a regular basis.


The cons of microdosing:

*still have to integrate experiences
*still have to take it all very seriously. Give it deep respect.
*it can backfire and waste precious time if you are working on a creative project
*it doesn't last as long as I would like, and repeat dosing can be finicky/tricky
*it becomes easy to lose track of time, including the passage of days
*sub-perceptual sensations don't go away immediately the next day, which is more of a pro-, but I'm listing it as a con since seeing glimmers of hallucinatory patterns overlayed on normal experience can get tiresome (for me)
*hosting a small dinner party with close friends after a day of microdosing made me feel very tired, very early in the night
*I find that getting a small taste for the experience only makes me want a full journey again, which is probably just my own personal psychology at work, but it is something to remember and keep in mind when planning ahead. Full journeys have their place, as does microdosing.

I hope people find this information helpful. I meant to make it as realistic as a reference as an n=1 can possibly be. For reference, I am a 32 year old entrepreneur working in the tech sector after working for half a decade in computational neurobiology research. I am an active member of SfN. If my posts seem oddly OCD-like, perhaps this better gives you an idea of my personality. I've been an ass of a human being most of my adult life. I was driven by validation seeking behaviors after having my strong sense of independence crushed by an oppressive baby boomer household. I've been a very spiritual person my whole life, but I spent all that time suppressing it. So when I say things like "my home office", that's not code for something. That really means I sit in my second bedroom where I have a hobbly little desk that was originally meant for a studio apartment. Now I'm driven by a desire to pay down $90k in student loan debt without losing anymore important people in my life, without burning anymore bridges,and without seeking validation for my best qualities and accomplishments. Now I just want to be happy, and surround myself with like-minded, happy people. Happy people are good people. Good people are the kind of people you let into your life. Building a strong network of good people in your life is more precious and rewarding than anything else, in my humble opinion (besides getting a glimpse into the infinite void). I was an adventurous and curious child, and have never ever let that go. Curiosity drives me now. My heart responds. I listen. I do.

First of all - excellent thread. Quality stuff.

I think microdosing has some serious potential. I've experimented with microdosing Psilocybin alone and Syrian Rue alone and I found the experiences to sometimes be very beneficial (in similar ways to what you've written here) and warrant much further exploration, for which the time just hasn't come yet.

Are you using Syrian Rue tea made from seeds or an extract?

I find that tea from seeds can be quite a bit more sedating than extracted harmalas, at least for me - this makes me wonder if microdosing with a higher dose of Rue extract, and maybe a smaller dose of DMT, would both smooth out the rough takeoffs and extend the effects without being too sedating...?

You know what? I honestly have no idea why I hadn't yet thought of using more syrian rue... I'm using seeds. This is the best idea I can possibly think of to try next. I've tried it alone a few times and thought it was quite nice. I've tried 1.5g and 3g. The 3g dose brought on some mild nausea, but I believe this nausea is psychological, and is/was fear based. Tasting or smelling anything that reminds me of the purge was messing with me for a bit, but as McKenna put so well, after a certain point you get your "sea legs" about you. I'm trying this next. We'll see what happens. =)

Extractions I'll probably find some time to try in the New Year. It's scary to realize we're crashing into the Holidays already. 2013 feels like it's coming and going like a long, rumbling thunderclap.

Thank you, Desyka!

Nice thread microdosing is awesome. As for the 3g rue bringing nausea I don't think its just you I think its pretty common. I like to mix with ginger, or chew on ginger or something to alleviate nausea.

I have never microdosed for consecutive days sounds like an interesting thing to explore.

Thanks!

I tried doing my standard 10mL protocol today with 4g S. Rue tea sipped at t-30 minutes, and t+3 hours, (split evenly, 2g + 2g). I'm not entirely clear if the tea elevated, or brought me back to the place microdosing Aya does, but I was in a fantastic mood today. Really on it today. I had incredible flow and fluidity to everything I did, all day. I connected with people. I got great work done. I thought very deeply and reflectively on a variety of topics. Just a fabulous day. I hope I sleep deeply tonight so I can be solid and prepared for tomorrow.

The S. Rue solved the hard takeoff problem! It worked absolutely beautifully! That's a mini breakthrough in 'vegelista' wisdom in of itself.

That is so awesome!!!

I'm so glad. It truly gave me a huge grin.

On many of the days that I took S. Rue in the evening, I got the best, most restorative sleep I've ever gotten - in a shorter amount of time than I usually sleep. Experience anything like that so far?

you keep referring to getting work done, what kind of work is this? an art studio?

My sleep has been kind of all over the place. Some nights I've gotten less than 5 hours of sleep and felt great the next day. Other nights I've slept 7 hours and felt 'fine'. I keep a journal, so I could do a little bit more careful analysis and tell you the frequencies of weird stuff happening with sleep. Overall, I've felt great. I don't feel run down. Physically I feel well. So besides time passing a little strangely (i.e. this past week has felt like ~3 weeks of compressed time), everything is pretty typical for me, (besides the benefits listed). I wrote about a few out-of-body/astral projection experiences here.

I've been working on a quality of life mobile technology product in the theme of Quantified Self most of this year, and now I'm officially on my own with the beginnings of bringing it to market. I am working with a several professional artists for design features of it, but the majority of my work lately has been 1) market outreach related, and 2) social engineering of pitches for investors. I'm pretty good about working from home, but generally speaking, my body and mind do whatever they want (and always have). Getting myself to do solid, solid work takes tricks, or some external reward system, or working exactly when I'm at my best (mornings, post-workout, during periods of insomnia, and spontaneously when I "feel" it). I feel like my body and mind are most often like a stubborn mule. But I've been much better than ever lately.

Hey Nexians, I have a few updates to this thread. First of all, I want to apologize if I guided anyone to the wrong book. I had been reading both Strassman's newer book and Fadiman's "The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide" simultaneously, and had mixed up which book had the microdosing chapter.

Secondly, I want to report that I have gained tremendous, tremendous personal insight from disciplined use of both meditation and low/microdosing of this ayahuasca analog. In fact, I believe I can safely make the claim that there is simply no way I could have developed the broad, deeply trusting relationship with this plant medicine as rapidly and confidently as I have had I not spent the last few months experimenting with low doses. Heroic doses and moderately intense voyages, even when they 'go well,' can leave you with lingering fears about what the heck you saw and experienced. Low dosing allows for many of the emotional processing benefits without the fears of full voyages. That's not to say they are fool proof or should be taken lightly. Low/microdoses can just as easily cause emotional distress and feel genuinely difficult as higher doses. That's life though. But if you have a lot of emotional crap to work through that has impacted your life, you can get tremendous therapeutic value from this without walling off entire days of your life.

I have used low doses on a number of occasions to face social situations that were giving me anxiety I couldn't easily face head on.

Example: I had a disagreement with a close friend over a matter that was both business-related, more personal, and also slightly ideological. It was something I brought up with him and he got more upset about it than I expected (I thought it would be a 20 minute man-to-man conversation, but it turned out to be days of difficulty to work through). We were both invited to a brunch meeting with a number of other close friends before it was resolved, but I felt embarrassed for making my friend upset over what felt like chump change in the grand scheme of things. Skipping the brunch to avoid him would have been petty. Getting loaded (on anything) to avoid emotional challenges is an escape behavior I choose to avoid at this stage of my life. I know myself well enough that without getting him to a resolution point and hearing each other apologize and shake/hug it out I would sit quietly and be a grumpy-ass the whole meal. So instead I decided to open myself up, heighten my sense of emotional connectedness, and practice a meditative acceptance using low dose ayahuasca. And it worked beautifully! I shared genuine smiles and laughter with everyone, I didn't hang/fixate on what I perceived to be his previous overreaction, and I was able to fully accept the situation and have meaningful heart-to-heart conversation with this friend, even with unresolved difficulties between us.

Now, what's really incredible about this is that it seems that if you do this once to face a fear in your daily life it feels as though you gain the wisdom and lose the fear of repeating the situation/behavior at other times without taking anything. It's like you overcome fears by facing them in this headspace, and grow a much stronger psyche/spirit for dealing with challenging emotions.

Best of all, having microdosed on a regular basis for sometime I have spent sufficient time building this relationship to comfortably let my guard down more and more with it. With higher doses I can more easily let go now. I've gained intuitive knowing of the hows and whys of all the subtle sensations, and it allows me a clearer conduit to pure experience in the present moment, or to entering a deep trance on a voyage. It's allowed me to understand the neuroscience data available in the peer-reviewed literature. It's helped me communicate how powerful and transformative this plant medicine is. Having a couple of intense experiences simply wouldn't have gained me the same mileage as this. It's allowed me to keep a notebook and pen with me at all times, constantly recording spontaneous breakthroughs in understanding whether it's a day I've dosed, or an off day. Life has become a stream of fluid and seamless emotional processing.

It's also helped me feel more confident and happy by orders of magnitude in my daily life. I feel like I've almost let go of an entire lifetime's worth of fears of judgment (due to living an unusual life). Mood has stabilized in a very compelling way (I've suffered from bipolar disorder, and have measured self-tracked moods with a smartphone app for 10 months straight). I feel more loving in all the relationships in my life. I feel free to be myself without fearing my moods will hinder them, and that has paid for itself already because I suddenly find myself surrounded by the most generous, understanding, and deeply heart-felt friends I've ever had in my life. My life has been completely changed for the better. Having been stigmatized by a psychiatric label has been hard for me because it made me not want to deal with people at all. I never had a problem being myself, and taking care of myself. The problems I've had my entire life were the subtle kind, such as not accidentally saying something offensive or off-putting to someone you want to continue building a relationship with. My inner tensions have kept me in a state in which I don't fully trust myself socially, and this lack of self-trust has been defeating. But now those tensions have been sensed, processed, and released at regular intervals for long enough that I get it now. The problem feels 90% gone. Now I can walk this emotional tightrope without outside support (or so I believe today).

Microdosing Aya has taught me to love myself, and now I feel happy being me.
I have incredible respect for Aya and DMT, but I no longer fear them the way I did even a few months ago. We understand each other now. Now I feel like I have the sea legs to go on to become a shaman if that is where life lead me next. I know it's a slippery slope to make claims like that, but the feeling of how solid and stable I have become is just incredible.

My girlfriend, whom I live with, has tried ayahuasca once. She keeps me humble and grounded. I was reminded by how comfortable I am with this after having introduced her to it. I gave her an amount that would provide for a light breakthrough, during the daytime to music she likes, and she had a powerfully positive experience. The experience felt relatively light to me, so as soon as the comedown was happening, afterglow setting in, I was up and moving around. I started cooking a meal, cleaning things up. Even during a full breakthrough in hyperspace I don't have much trouble focusing to do almost anything at all. In fact, I am a master at chess on ayahuasca. The focus ability is incredible (I was always distractible before). I can cook or do whatever like it's no big deal. I've gained that kind of comfort, when previously I felt like a helpless baby floating through hyperspace. Now I feel like a seasoned psychonaut. My girlfriend thought I must not have had as much as her, or that I was some kind of superhuman for being able to behave like a normal, well-adjusted human being during the experience.

I feel as solid as a rock. I'm humbled. I feel grounded. I've let go of pride issues, let go of clinging thoughts about what the future could/should hold for me. I'm happy, and I'm not stuck on any medical crutches. It's just me. The shackles of my emotional mind have been liberated. I'm free to live now.

Thankyou Warrior

This is really useful, I know I'll be rereading this thread many times. I'm going to start microdosing in a few days time (iboga though, not ayahuasca) and it's encouraging to read about your experience and the benefits you have gained.

Wow, I would be interested to hear more about that. I don't even know what low dose iboga might be like.

Warrior, your report of this microdosing is fascinating and inspiring. I am planning on doing the same thing very soon, but with more traditional ayahuasca--B. caapi and P. viridis.

I have a burning question-- What happened to your diet when you did this? Did it change? Did you find yourself eating less? More? Fasting for periods? Did you find yourself attracted to different foods? Was there diarrhea?

Tell me everything about how microdosing Ayahuasca changed your relationship to food and different types of food.

Fascinating information. I am very new to this world and feeling my way around. I have been particularly interested in pharma as it seems to be the easiest method for beginners. I have experimented with extracted harmalas and capped mhrb approx. 3 grams mhrb and not sure about weight of harmalas. I definitely felt the effects and know I could go much further with higher doses. My question: Do you think I would have similar experience using 1 1.5 g mhrb and say 50 mg of extracted harmalas as the microdosed aya.

I am slow to reply because I feel an update is in order. Everything in my life is wonderful and harmonious right now. I can't really say that about any other period of my life, ever. I've learned incredible things about myself that I now realize I have been in denial of. I've been doing freelance work for friends, and have more or less given up the notion of steady income, (and have never been more comfortable and happy). I feel like rather than fighting to stay ahead of the rat race, that aggressive little part of me has metamorphosized into a humble being more interested in giving. I've been able to mend some old wounds with family. This has been a remarkable period of self-realization and acceptance for me. I've completely redefined myself, and have done it with an eye for style, and with compassionate love for everyone. It's truly been win-win for every single person in my life. No one in my personal life has been untouched by this, (and many of them don't even know what 'it' is).

Whatever 'it' is, people want it. It's infectious. Everyone wants it like it's going out of style. Who knew that being mindful and non-reactionary as a way of life could be so rewarding? It's all about sensing and feeling. It's fascinating to observe as an on-going process. I feel like I'm walking around studying spirituality, one unsuspecting encounter at a time, leaving happy smiles in my wake. It's a beautiful thing when you see the effect ripple from person to person. You visualize the cause and effect of feelings like an explorable CAD drawing. You realize that this soulful joy stuff is the heart of everything. With the right mindset, this stuff is capable of seducing police into committing crimes--acts they would have no regrets for after. It's just that seductive when I can fully feel it, and use skillful means to live it. Whether in nature, or congested social-whatever. 'It' is what other living beings want--human or otherwise. It's universal. It's what all the fuss is about in the first place. It's a joke. It's all for fun. It's all in the name of harmonious love. And if you see that, and can savor it in your waking, breathing day, then anything is possible. I mean anything. I don't believe that. I know that. Bigger than acts of war. Bigger than the name of science. Bigger than laws, or doctrines, or psychiatric diagnostic manuals. To live in a way that provides novel expression of feeling, and a sense of unity, without disturbing the pristine nature of it all--only disturb harmony with purified love (and then it's not really disturbing to anything, or anyone). That's what 'it' is. To be it all, and have it be you. Love. Give it away for free, and it comes back.

'It' appears to work beautifully. Microdosing seems to make the whole thing crystal clear to me in practical ways. It is this intangible thing that you simply cannot put into words. What you 'do' in life is a happening just like anything else, whether a bird song in the morning, or a car crash in the night. Things that happen. Smile. Breathe. Feel. Enjoy it now. Be it. It is you. You are it. Developing intuition for it all is exactly how our dreams consolidate our memories into usable, navigable information for new sensory experience. It's all the same stuff when you see it for yourself. It can invoke vertigo as you get to know it. It can be easy to play a dance of fear with. But love is the invisible wand behind it all. It teaches you to come out of your head, and fully embody how you feel. I've spent my entire life hiding my emotions behind complicated layers of nonsense, all for a sense of security (???). It has been teaching me how to let it all go, one day at a time. There's nothing to be afraid of. What is there to be afraid of? Creative nonsense coming from the void of chaos and everything? I don't think so. Life simply flows. To understand it may require existential suffering of some kind, but if you are lucky enough to encounter such suffering for yourself: Live it. Variety is the spice of life. Suffering allows us to sense and navigate the gradient of life. Suffering allows us to feel and understand love. It deepens and broadens our understanding of personal experience, and all there is to know.

/rant

Maybe I'm preaching to the choir. Or maybe I've planted a seed in another unsuspecting passerby, casually entering google search terms, minding their own business. To whoever reads this: Don't panic.

Parts of the Ayahuasca diet I just sort of adopted and have run with. I gave up cheese and almost all dairy, with a rare exception here or there. I found that cutting out dairy helped with headaches, nasal congestion, and with digestion. I am someone that went back to school after being inspired by diet and exercise (physiology/neuro-). And before formal education, and before Ayahuasca, my diet was also influenced by having ulcerative colitis. Everyone I've ever talked to about UC gasps in horror by the extremes, but here's the kicker: I haven't had a single issue, nor incident since introducing this fundamental change into my diet. I still run into the occasional deviation from the revolving norm, but I have no extremes to speak of anymore. There is no disease 'activity' left. It's in my makeup to express in this capacity, but as it stands, there is not a single problem to speak of. Life is good.

Typical diet for me these days is structured as intermittent fasting (link to an interesting source of good information). I break the fasting with either exercise, or with microdosing. I split the day up as 8/16 (feeding/fasting). My rule of thumb is to eat solid protein with every meal, and avoid extraneous calories. So I try to focus on eating fresh vegetables, as both solid, and in smoothies. I try to pick them myself from a farmer's market when possible, but often fall back on the supermarket. Otherwise I am a liberal eater, and when in the company of others, I eat what they are eating for bonding purposes. It is a powerful gesture to blindly order and eat whatever food your mealtime guest is having. It is an opportunity to share an experience.

I used to be very rhythmic and structured with my diet. Now I have a few simple rules (and targets) for myself, but I now just let all the fuss of it go. If my animal is happy, then it doesn't matter. It's all the material expression of universal divinity anyway. Let love guide you, and you can do no wrong. Good food + a roof over my head + someone to share it with = love. If you have that part down, then everything is going just fine.

Before Ayahuasca I was a basketcase about anything I could intellectualize about. Diet seems relatively trivial to me right now. Sometimes you are given a clue to work backwards from (an offending food, or pattern of consumption). But that's just it. It's application of skillful means. No need to fuss about it all. Eat. Be happy. Love is in the food we eat. No matter what the diet, love is in the food. I missed that part before Aya found me. I could feel it, but never put it into words. I would catch myself being in the 'now', and spook myself, but never really knew that the moment of savoring bliss was a universal knowing.

My relationship with food, and virtually all things related to food and digestion have been completely transformed. I'm walking proof of it.

However, I still have some tried-and-true foods and supplements I stand by. Daily supplements include NAC, fish oil, and ALA. I can expand on those if interested. I also like creatine, but I only take it post-workout at this point in my life (it's a luxury to use).

I am not done thinking about this question. It is a very good series of questions...

I think pharma microdosing would save you the trouble of masking the taste.

I can't say for sure about the doses. I have noticed people report different things from ACRB, different yields, different experiences, etc., and my impression is that the best way to do this is brew enough that you can do self-calibration with. Otherwise you can never account for time of year, time of day collection of bark. Make an estimate as to how much final product you need for a breakthrough experience, then work backwards with careful trial and error. The goal should be to wind up with a dose that is subtle enough that you can feel/sense if in a meditative state, but otherwise just feels like a wonderful day is occurring around you. You don't really want to feel much different. Feeling different can lead to paranoid thinking, IMHE. Pick and choose your adventures carefully. I like to make my target dose be 5mL. That way it is easy to slam it out of a cough syrup cup, or mask it in a smoothie.

Best wishes to all.

Thank you for your awesome answer! What you say actually matches up from what my few small Ayahuasca experiences have shown me. That it's ultimately not about what you eat, but what you do with your heart.

This is BIG for me, because my rheumatoid arthritis reacts to my diet very strongly. Certain foods aggravate it, and others don't. But more foods aggravate it than not, so it's been a very stressful time, honing down my diet to something very strict and basically OCD.

Now it's time to move away from that controlling mentality and let the Ayahuasca do the healing. Diet is important, but it is not a cure.

Thank you for confirming this teaching/attitude.

RS-

I got an early RA diagnosis when I was 24. But it was diagnosed only because I pestered doctors with elaborate hypochondriac silliness. Blood tests showed positive rheumatoid factor, and positive ANA. MRI's revealed mild joint erosion. I was on enbrel and methotrexate for over a year. But I stopped doing what I was doing at the time, and the blood tests changed, my joints stopped hurting as much, and I began appreciating myself more. I did a lot of heavy weight lifting for many years, and that did NOT help the joint inflammation problem. But monitoring the cumulative load and getting more light cardio helped tremendously. I found that listening to all the sensations my body was giving me ultimately led me to stop feeling a need to rely on other people to tell me how to care for myself, (if that makes sense).

Who knows. I might die from toxic megacolon in my sleep tonight, or wake up at 4:30am with stiff, swollen fingers and toes. Anything is possible. But as it stands right now, I feel healthy and happy.

FYI: Years ago I decided having specialized doctors for my head, gut, and joints was too much. Now I only see doctors as needed. I no longer subscribe to putting myself on the appointment rotation. I won't do it. Asking me to take toxic drugs requiring blood tests and weekly injections, as well as receiving regular colonoscopies, in addition to counseling and psychiatric meds simply was not working for me. In fact, when you consider it side-by-side with the beautiful simplicity of this sacred plant medicine, that notion seems completely absurd. The crap I had go through in order to have a colonoscopy alone is WAY more extreme than an Aya ceremony. It boggles my mind how bizarrely misguided life within the industrial complex has become. It's gross. Simply disgusting. I hope to never again be forced to undergo the unpleasantness of a very long camera up my arse.

Apologies again for a slow reply.