I'm struggling with my first steps into changa and would really appreciate any advice to be shared! This changa process has really been a journey spanning at least 5 months. I'm enjoying the travel, and I feel that it has grown with me. I apologize if this is a bit windy.. I've been holding it in for months trying to find the answers as the questions occur.

(Before I registered at DMT Nexus)

The first changa that I made was a total disaster. I acted before I fully researched the topic. I ordered some syrian rue 20x extract, and added it directly to the mullein/dmt (1:1:1). I mistakenly thought it was harmala as advertised, but it was just seed extract. It of course ended up as more of an enhanced leaf with small hard black "tar" clumps of saturated syrian rue extract.

(After I registered)

I researched more and discovered that one should separate the harmaline and harmine from the toxic compounds. I knew that the changa had vasicine/vasicinone/deoxyvasicine, but I didn't want to waste it. The original blend did not cause excessive nausea, so I thought I was okay to proceed. I performed multiple extractions until "I got it right" with a mixture with 2 cleanup manske crystallization stages. I separated the harmine and started to saturate the mixture with harmine. 1:1:1:1 (Leaf, DMT, Rue Extract, Harmine)

Here is a pic of the original blend:


Tasting the "nectar"...

Smoalking this blend gave me a true changa experience. I was able to go further than I ever have with just DMT. It was technically "harmala heavy", but I had very little nausea. I noticed that I would occasionally get the psychedelic yawns, as I occasionally do with mushrooms. I also eventually noticed a clear tolerance with my changa. I didn't try to smoalk it back to back, but if I smoalked it two days in a row, the harmala visuals appeared to drown out the dmt. In fact, I found that I would have better experiences if I waited a whole week between sessions. This goes against the reports that I've read on the forum. I started to think that the "tolerance" was somehow from poor technique when I created this blend. I also questioned if the ingredients were thoroughly mixed - sometimes I would have a heavy harmala experience, and sometimes I would be blasted into another universe. I had many great experiences, but I started to think about making a better blend.

So I started to manske, and manske, and manske! I mansked about 4 times, and then separated the harmine and harmaline. I added a step that I omitted originally, and removed the excess NaHCO3 and Na2CO3. It was by far my best harmala extraction to date. I weighed out a mixture: 1:.5:.5:1 of mullein, blue lotus, blue lotus stamens, and pao d arco. I then added 1g of the whitest DMT in my collection, and 1g of Harmine. I salted 91% alcohol with MgSO4, and added it to the blend. I then twiddled my thumbs and read more about changa lol. I started to question if I added too much harmala, so I decided to increase the ratio. I added more DMT and carriers to make the ratio 2:2:1. It soaked for a few days, then I evaporated it with the assistance of a dehydrator. I really put all of the love that I could into this one.

Harmala HCL:


Harmine (It was still dark, but I felt like it was pure enough):

Harmaline:

DMT:




Changa:


It was beautiful, and I was so proud to have a true success! The changa sparkled with magic. I was eager to try it in my new hand carved vapor genie.

I quickly tested it out after some meditation (60mg). It had a really good flavor, but it seemed to lack the magic that I was expecting. I don't know if I loaded too little, didn't heat it enough, or if something else went wrong. Logically, it had enough DMT to take me to where I wanted to go, but it felt muted. Muted in a way that I would attribute to technique/quantity/tolerance, not a hyperspace block that occasionally happens. To be fair, I did smoke my other changa blend 3 days before, so maybe it was my tolerance. I battled this, and decided to give it another go with more heat. This time I made the mistake of not weighing what I put into the VG. I eyeballed way too much - I suspect that it was about 150mg. I don't remember the experience, but when I came down I felt the harmala stoning effect. It was just too much. It was hard to process thoughts, speak, and I was pretty tired.

I gave it a few days and decided to omit the VG - to truly smoke it to rule out technique/tools. I loaded 60mg into my pipe and optimistically slowly smoalked all of it. It was identical to my first experience with the VG. It didn't take me anywhere near where I wanted to go. I also noticed that the intense psychedelic yawns during the comedown. I attribute these to the harmine, as I never got them with pure dmt. The harmine didn't have a "stoning effect", so I don't think the dose was too high.

When I started writing this, I had a ton of negative thoughts that I made a mistake somewhere along the process. I now think I'm going to take a break for a week to rule out tolerance. I feel that 60mg should be enough, but I'm open to suggestions if the dose is too low. I also would like to hear feedback on the yawning - is it normal for harmine to do this? I embrace psychedelic yawns, but I couldn't find many reports of this side effect. I'm scared that it is an unwanted contaminant that is making me yawn. Another thing worth mentioning is that I do not have a dmt tolerance - it is only when I combine it with harmala. Does anyone else experience a tolerance with changa? It feels like a true physiological tolerance vs a mental/spiritual one.

Make sure it's 100% dry. I've had blends that seemed lacklustre first time trying them out. If you can find a desiccant (damp-rid, or something similar) use it to super dry it just to make sure. Not entirely sure why, but this always seemed to clean up the experience and ensure that your blends have the punch you're looking for

You posted several photos sized 5184 x 3456 pixels. Very few people view the nexus on a screen that is that big. Would you mind resizing the images to some more reasonable size before uploading them? A width of 640 pixels is more than enough IMHO. People who view this site on older computers or who use a mobile device and are charged for data use will thank you for it. If you really want to share the full resolution glory of your crystals, just include a href link instead of an img link to the larger image.

Your 20 x rue extract was probablyly in salt form, as that ishow it occurs naturally in the plant. This is not the best form for vaporization or smoking, for that purpose you want the freebase alkaloids. Besides, the fact that it was tarry suggests that it was not a very pure extract anyway.

The non-harmala alkaloids in rue are not actually that toxic, it seems. In fact they may have some beneficial effect on the airways. Higher amounts, when orally dosed can have some uterotonic effects on women, but the amounts typically consumed in smoked form are not likely to be of much harm.

I'm not sure if isopropanol is the best solvent for changa. I use methanol and boil it to get the harmala freebase to dissolve before adding the dmt and herbs. Finally I distill off the methanol. This is reasonably safe when it is done in a closed system, but it is not safe when done in open vessels, because methanol is rather toxic and flammable. If you do not have distillation glassware, forget about using methanol.

Instead of methanol, ethanol can be used. It is a bit less effective as a solvent for harmalas, but the vapors are also less toxic. Ethanol is still very flammable though. If you work outside and use a hot water bath for heating, I guess it would be safe to work with ethanol.

Of course youcan use isopropanol, but is less effective IMHO. Make sure that you dried it properly before use. The epsom salt must be baked very hot in order to make it anhydrous and useful for drying solvents. You can test how dry it is if you have a steel cup that you can heat strongly over a gas flame or stove, until the bottom glow red or orange. Put some of you dried epsom salt in it and heat strongly. If there is still water in the epsom salts, it will "bubble" while the vapor escapes. Give the salt some time to work on the solvent and shake the mixture a few times.

If your solvent contains too much water and it takes too long before the solvent has evaporated off the mixture, some of the alkaloids might react with atmospheric CO2 and form salts. That would affect their vaporizability negatively. Even if you started out with dry solvent, but you let it evaporate slowly in a moist atmosphere, it will still draw considerable amounts of moisture while evaporating, slowing down the process even more. So try to evaporate the solvent as fast as possible, using a hot water bath.

When almost all of the solvent is gone, dry the changa in an electric oven. Preheat the oven to 100 degrees celcius and after putting in the changa, keep the oven door slightly ajar while drying the changa.

I'm not sure about tolerance and changa. This may be a psychological effect too. In fact I've noticed a strong reverse tolerance when smoking more changa consecutively within less than an hour. Apart from the rather huge dose you reported, did you try repeat dosing on other occasions, and with smaller amounts? Did you yet try smoking several small doses in one "session"?

I have not noticed a tolerance...
Your pictures are godly and the yawns are normal and beautiful.

Hi there,

I'm really sorry but I can't help with your predicament. I just wanted to comment on how impressed I am by the methodology and quality of your approach. If you continue to proceed with this level of attention to detail, with the help of the knowledgeable Changians here I'm sure you will have success.

Regards
ELG

Thanks for the replies!

Pitubo: I resized the pictures. I'll make them this resolution going forward. Thank you for all of your advice! It is all new information for me to absorb. I'm currently drying the changa in a large container with drierite. My RH is around 25%, so the blend dried relatively quickly with the dehydrator/cap off. It took about 1.5 days before the changa quit "crawling" when I stirred it up. I hope it is psychological, but I fear that it really does feel like a physical tolerance. I have not attempted more than two in a row, but I can try that soon. I have noticed that when I smoalk a harmala heavy blend, the harmala really takes over if I do it a 2nd time in a row.

eastlancsguy & obliguhl:

Thanks for the feedback! I am a scientist at heart. I'm amazed by how much I've grown since I started this project. My attention to detail was lacking in the beginning though. Sometimes I act before I should. It is reassuring to know that the yawns are normal!

Changa in the Bonga! One big rip does it for me.

I yawn so big sometimes after changa my jaw pops loudly. Like I'm oxygen deprived and super tired. Pretty normal occurrence for me. A bong is definitely where it's at though.

By the way love the cat pic, hilarious

Peace

Thanks for resizing, these load much better now! The fruits of your labor look beautiful.

Yawning is completely expected for me with all psychedelics. With vaporized dmt there is not enough time to yawn as it hits, but during the more gradual onset of mushrooms, yawning is the first sign of activity.

I don't associate yawning with oxygen deprivation, but instead with deep relaxation, waking up and revitalizing. Expelling a physical cramp from a fixed position or a psychic trance from a fixed focus.

I always try to fully immerse into the yawning impulse. It is the true and natural form of yoga, the one that your body performs spontaneously. All animals practice these forms of spontaneous yoga. There are many more forms than yawning and IMHO psychedelics use is a great occasion for indulging.

I plan to test this blend tonight to see if two days in the desiccant chamber helped any! I'll definitely give an update - good or bad.

I'm still a little confused on how much to smoalk. Some of my best experiences with the original blend were around the 100mg range (25mg DMT: 25mg+ Harmala). With a 2:2:1 blend, 60-75mg should be a good starting dose right?

Spaced Out - I love the picture too! It instantly reminded me of one of my first changa experiences. I looked at my hand and a weird creature was shifting in and out of existence on various parts of my hand. It had eyes like a frog - sometimes many eyeballs, a small nose and a mouth. I didn't realize when I chose the pic, but it is kind of appropriate for our user name!