Hi crew,

A couple of Afghan veteran friends of mine have been doing annual get togethers to deal with their demons, bounce ideas off of one another and develop strategies for the year ahead.

One friend in particular has been the 'brains' of the operation, and has made a substantial effort to pace things out and set the right example. Intent. Set. Setting. All have been drilled into the ritual/routine for the better, and substantial gains have been made. This has been a three year process.

From what I hear, psilocybin mushroom dosages working up to 3g have been employed with significant, excellent results. Microdoses have been used along the way, but the time has come where both parties are ready to cross over and break through properly.

As things are getting more serious, careful attention to ritual is now being looked at. This is where this friend could do with some advice.

Where to start? Music? If so, in your experience - what? How much further than thanking the universe for the sacrament is suggested?

TLDR - As two friends approach breakthrough doses of Psilocybin, they are looking to employ a ritual that can then be applied to further explorations into the ether. In my humble estimate, dialling in a ritual now sounds right. It should help as the substances change and the intentions shift somewhat. But what? How? Why?

Extra points: Would you venture towards heroic, or add rue/harmala (given the intent)

Apologies for the length. Replies will be genuinely appreciated.

Good vibes.

Cheers

X

I'm always happy to see veterans exploring entheogens, much healthier than the drug cocktails that the VA dishes out.

I don't really know how to help you as far as ritual, but I would say that I think intention is everything, and it seems your intention is noble. That's what I get from the entheogenic experience anyway, intention trumps ritual and dogma.

Perhaps you could look to the indigenous groups who use mushrooms for ideas, or to the mushroom itself.

Good luck

Harmalas may bring on a breakthrough with much less mushrooms needed.
But seeing as their work thus far has been solely with mushrooms, i'd say continue increasing the dosage slowly until a breakthrough is achieved.

If they want to go the harmala route, start them working with harmalas the same way they did mushrooms & when they know the medicine well & are used to the effects start low say 75-100mg harmalas with 1g of mushrooms.
Increase harmalas as needed with the 1g mushroom dose throughout various sessions.
Once they find what dosage of harmalas suits them best individually with the mushrooms, go with that dosage & increase the mushrooms by 0.5g every 3rd session.
It should show you where the breakthrough limit is rather quickly.
I'd say go with harmalas from caapi rather than rue as well.
Harmalas have a very healing & gentle vibe to them when used correctly in appropriate dosages especially with the guiding feeling brought on when mixed with tryptamines so they may fit the intent a little better.
Keep in mind, harmalas seem to work their magic better in a body that is kept healthy & has a good diet (they will make one very sick if you've been eating nothing but fast food & greasy stuff for weeks before hand).

x1000

Harmalas are obviously very special, but the combo with psilocybin can be very heavy, and extended.

So, I would not recommend going there yet, especially if there are "demons" in the mix.

My suggestion: just increase the mushroom dose a bit, because they're not too far from the point where the dose/response curve typically shoots up anyway, roughly about 5g for "typical" shrooms/users. It sounds like they got a good thing going on, and it would be a great shame to screw it all up with a trainwreck! Perhaps try smoking or drinking some mild MAOIs pre-flight? Lemon balm or passionflower. Nice and gentle, unlikely to slap you!

A teeny hit of changa can be spectacular near the peak of a shroom trip, if you want a little extra...!

Maybe try harmalas separately? Caapi would be preferable to rue, but maybe not an option in Oz? It takes most people a few goes to work up to the point where they can comfortably handle an MAOI dose, without nausea and wobbles. Only then, should you start thinking about bringing LOW doses of psilocybin into the mix. Extracting the harmalas (Manske teks) is highly recommended too.

As for ritual, I'm slowly working my way in to that too: clean and tidy space, incense of some kind, and if you have space to do this safely, candles to mark out a circle, or square, inside which you can all sit, without catching fire!

Nod to the four cardinal directions, and the three worlds (upper, middle, lower). Intent. Done.

Music: anything beatless and low volume, so quality ambient works for me. This is excellent, esp disc 2.

Afterwards, I love this mix, with a spliff, to re-enter the world

Good luck!

Thanks for putting some soul into the answers guys. I really appreciate it.

Train-wrecking all of the previous hard work was never on the agenda, but there is a clear and definite intent of wanting to break through completely for the medicinal benefits that were only being felt in a mild way prior.

I feel that both journeymen are ready for better or for worse, and there will be two consecutive nights to get it right before peeling off and getting back on the bike.

Given that there are two days/nights back to back - there should be room to go heavier second time around if needed. Might just be a case of needing to walk the warriors path and man up that second night.