Greetings from central North America! Sorry if this is a bit verbose.
I've been trying to think of something to introduce myself with for quite some time now to no avail, so I'll just write a few blurbs.
I partook in my first recreational-ly*** induced altered state of consciousness less than a year ago (cannabis). At first I noticed that it helped my depression ( a state I had struggled with for a third of my life.) Then realized that I had actually changed and improved my regular state of being, rather than just feeling ' good ' while under the influence.
My interest in psychedelia goes back to when I was around a decade old. Various anti-drug campaigns (school, media, parental, mostly the former two) prompted me to do my own digging, as it were. After having weighed the risks and the benefits and shattering a lot of the myths (health-wise, anyway - though incidentally I still kept to a few of the cannabis myths [negative] until far more recently) I decided that if I were ever going to try anything it would be LSD. LSD that I have made "because the street purity is unreliable." (Heh, I still remember what I said to myself.)
That's actually what got me into chemistry and physics ( as did an obsession with things that "go fast" ).
The very first place I heard of DMT was in the song
Detach From The Outcome ~ Scar Symmetry (I have since deduced that it must be talking about ayahuasca). See
here for lyrics, if interested. Wherein, incidentally, it is mispronounced in order to rhyme with "harmine", so I went around saying it wrong for a while. A cursory google search yielded the wikipedia page for N,N-Dimethyltryptamine and a quick glance over the top of the article didn't pique my interest any (figuring it was just some random 'thing' ) so I ignored it for the time being.
Later I read an
Ask Me Anything by a chemist (A recent PhD actually) who synth'd LSD and was open to questions, in one of his comments he mentioned he 'stuck to easier things like DMT and (other drug)' for personal use. This caused me to do some more in-depth research, actually read the whole wikipedia page, and began to sift through other sources, Erowid has been particularly helpful, and decided that it was something that was worth a shot. Admittedly my motivations (for DMT) weren't those of 'spiritual advancement' but to experience something that was ostensibly ineffable. My desire for LSD was a little different, I just wanted to do something, anything really, having been subjected to parentally induced social isolation for the first sixteen years of my life, and then another year due to undeveloped social skills - but that's another thing for another time and place.
I eventually found myself in the possession of some dmt freebase and set about making a machine, it was poorly constructed and no one present got any more than a body-high out of it, though we all enjoyed it. I have since made a few more effective machines and have been introducing my friends to this... experience (Usually first by talking about and
stressing the physical effects and starting with a small-ish dose, then explaining what I do I higher dosages followed by giving them a higher dose in my carefully crafted setting complete with incense and optionally music whilst I supervise. I've only had one freak out happen and after 8 minutes I couldn't take it anymore and told him to open his eyes and he came back immediately, he thought he literally lost his tongue). My experiences have been really all over the place, I remember after my first 'breakthrough' (at least I believe it was) all I did for twelve minutes afterwards was occasionally utter an expletive, in retrospect it was pretty stressful even though I was in sheer awe and laughing the entire time.
At the time of this post I have had cannabis nine times and dmt thirteen (various dosages)
I suppose what I want out of membership here is a place to share my experiences, thoughts, and ideas without either annoying someone or being subjected to any kind of stigmas solely related to the nature of the chemical. It also helps that those reading my writings will be able to relate.
***what real word goes here to mean what I'm trying to convey? It's really starting to bother me.
~~Ygg