So,

Just registered here as there are some folks I'd like to communicate with. I've just been a lurker for a few months, but have posted several experience reports over on the SR Forums in the Breakthrough Club and Brotherhood of Deemsters threads.

I promised myself back in the 80's that if I ever got the chance to try DMT I would do it.
Also worthy of note, up till my recent explorations with DMT, I have been totally sober/clean for 7 years. (!)
Back in the 80's I enjoyed the benefit of exploring pretty much every psychedelic available, going on some very deep journeys. I took the psychedelic experience and exploration very seriously, and did much research (Library), journaling, and long discussions and comparisons of notes with fellow travelers.

DMT has been everything that might have been promised, and more. Truly something that exceeded (transcended?) expectations.

That's my "Hi, I'm Xerxes" for you, I'll post recountings of a couple of experiences presently.

OK, so Friday night I had my first harmala/harmine/harmaline experience, courtesy of the "Lemonade recipie" extraction from Syrian Rue seeds.

Did. Not. Like.

Xerxes is not a fan. Wow. Now, did the experience have merit? Yes. Was it, on balance, possibly a psychological growth experience? Well, in hindsight, yes. Was it worth the "cost" of the primary and secondary effects? Nope. Nope. Bleh.

Now whether or not I'm just sensitive to it, the seeds were stronger than average, or perhaps I just "misunderstood" the dosing suggestion at the end of that recipie, IDK.

Let's just say that DMT is far better vaped, (for the amount it requires to get where I want to go) and that the harmala is...powerful. Read here: https://www.erowid.org/e...ubs/exp_Syrian_Rue.shtml to see what I mean.

So I drank about 300 ml of that lemonade. Far. Too. Much. Even though that's what the suggestion was. If you're gonna do it to get the MAOI effect, start low. Much lower. Apparently that suggestion was for a huge pharmahuasca trip. See here: https://www.dmt-nexus.me....aspx?g=posts&t=1363 for suggestions.

So, I drank around 200 ml of the harmala, then ~15 to 20 minutes later took 100 mg of DMT; consumed with the remaining 100 ml of the lemonade. Pretty nice mild trip started to ramp up about 30 minutes later, for about an hour and a half total trip (approx). Not the most intense or impressive experience, either. Like an extended version of a "didn't break through" 20 mg vape.

So:
The DMT portion of the trip "masked" what was going on with the harmala. That latter part of the trip lasted for eight more hours! What made it unpleasant, although I didn't puke or have other GI problems, was that if I was upgright or walked around, I felt nauseous. But that's not the worst--I was "drunk clumsy", so getting up and going to the bathroom was a challenge.
Just sit around? Nope. The "tracers" were a huge disruption of reality.

If you haven't seen 'em, by "tracers" we don't mean "trails" like you get with acid or mushrooms! These are like the tracers from machine gun fire or lasers in a Star Wars film! Like strobe lights hitting Wolverine's claws as he rips through the fabric of reality in front of you! They're more vivid, "real", an distracting than ANY OEV's I've ever had. Ever. Only "cool" to look at for a minute, then they're extremely frustrating. Can't get 'em to go away, gotta keep eyes closed, gotta walk to the bathroom eyes-closed with hand on the wall for guidance. "I don't feel drunk, I'm just wobbly and want to take a piss! Why I gotta have the fabric of reality ripped apart when I just wanna go take a piss?
Hard to focus on a spiritual enlightenment in that sort of situation, you know?

Once I realized that the only effective thing to do was "lay down and stay down", things did turn out interesting. I reflected for hours on the nature of my life, and what experiences led me to think the way I think, behave the way I behave, and look at the world the way I do. High-value stuff.
The CEV's were impressive, as there was a "control" over them that just doesn't exist for DMT--when I thought of a person, I was able to visualize them and clearly see their face, as long as I concentrated--if I relaxed my focus, then the face would alter, change to another person's (even people I didn't/don't know? Not sure...)
That would probably have been rather...disturbing...for an inexperienced psychonaut. I played around with it a bit. Sometimes the faces would shift or twist when I relaxed my attention, looking like they were either melting or being shaped by a fun-house mirror. Again, could have been frightening if one didn't understand the situation.

And...I couldn't fall asleep. But even after a few hours when I felt "sobered" a bit, the damn tracers were still there, meaning I couldn't read, watch Netflix, etc. Had to lay there, awake, eyes closed. Blah.
The meditative reflection? Worth it. Dealing with that, just to get it? Nope.

Never. Again.

It's back to the Vapor Genie for me. Five minutes in Hyperspace, 15 minutes of spiritual examination, and back on earth, externally "as if nothing happened" a half hour after it began.

For the fellow traveler: take less harmala than you think you need.

Welcome the nexus xerxes.

I'm interested in this lemonade recipe you mention I don't believe I've ever come across it, could you perhaps provide a link?

I cringe that a thread titled "Brotherhood of Deemsters" even exists, I have to admit that one left a palm print on my face. The "Breakthrough Club" doesn't sounds so bad. I get the impression that whole SR forum is more than a little dodgy. We tend to shy away from discussing the deepweb and highly encourage self sufficiency on this forum, so that might be a good thing to keep in mind.

Anyhoo, I'm sorry your experience with rue didn't float your boat, different strokes for different folques I suppose. Once again, welcome to the nexus, glad to have ya on board.

Welcome to the nexus! I find harmalas to be fairly miserable myself, have had some adverse reactions to changa with straight caapi leaf that kept me up for hours and made me quite ill. I found rue ground into powder and put in gel caps to be my best option thus far-

Hi, Dreamer,

The Rue extraction was from Erowid: https://www.erowid.org/p...an_rue_extraction1.shtml

Rather than do the "fruit punch and sprite" sort of thing in the description, I followed the suggestion at the bottom by "Collectively Unconscious" and just added sugar and lemon juice rather than the sprite and fruit juice.

Hi and welcome to the Nexus! I'm new to forum as well!

Well, much like Dreamer, I too have not heard of that lemonade mixture nor the fruit and sprite mix provided in the link. Do you think it may have been simply doing too much all at once? I've mixed entheogens as well, but with great caution. The ol' "A little dab will do you" may be slow, but it's far safer? Also, do you meditate or perform any exercises to prepare yourself before going on your "Journeys". IMHO, I find that works great and helps A LOT for myself and others I've encouraged.

Great to see you're here and hope you enjoy it!

It could have been far too strong of a dose of rue, and in hindsight I would perhaps have taken far less of it and just seen what effect it had. My description isn't in full detail, I did start slow, but of course after a few minutes I didn't feel anything, did some more, then started to feel it, and drank up to the 200 ml.
I'd read, and read, and read some more, and thought I had a pretty good idea what I was doing.
Again, it's not like I'm saying I had "a bad trip, a horrible trip"--it's not that, it's just that I didn't feel like the results were worth what I had to go through. They were still worth quite a bit. On reflection, I understand myself better, I think, than I did beforehand. And that's much of what this exploration is about.

I don't formally meditate, but I do "think and focus, be mindful, and aware of mind and self" beforehand. I say a few things to myself about why I'm doing what I'm doing, and prepare for whatever happens.

The breakthroughs that I have had, have been amazing, one of them taught me about the oneness of everything. Which could sound cheesy and hippy-esque but for the fact that if you're here and have been there, you probably understand, and see the truth of it. Wow.

That doesn't sound too "hippy-ish" or silly at all. And even if it does, it's like I’ve said before.. For as serious as it is on one side of the spectrum, you have to acknowledge the opposite is a great cosmic joke! Hehe

Well I'm relieved to hear your experience wasn't THAT atrocious. Did sound quite exhausting however, which I suppose delving into a pit of self discovery for hours can do that. It doesn't sound like you've spoiled yourself for future endeavours, so *phew* to that!

Are you planning on taking another journey any time soon? If so, what will you be utilizing?

Next is me retracting my "never again" and doing 1 g of rue seeds followed by 80 mg of DMT 30 minutes later.