From Pinchbeck's book "Breaking Open the Head":
Quote:For many people,Ayahuasca-a slowed-down low-res interface of the DMT flash-seems to convey strong messages from the natural world, of nature as sentient energy and spirit matter, of the need to protect the planet we have been given.
Yag whispers that human beings are meant to be gardeners of this reality, journeyers, storytellers and singers, weavers of the sacred. DMT, on the other hand, conveys no overt human or humane message.
2/5/2018 condensed version update: (with some additional insights)
For reasons that aren't fully understood, the actual plant brew from good Hawaiian psychotria can be many times more powerful, all encompassing & longer lasting than anything that can be purified out & added back in. This is poorly understood, it could be the superior salt form of the actives in the leaf, or other components along with the leaf + the dynamics of digestion of the leaf form. Traditional Ayahuasca can be quite powerful & long lasting with good plants and considered to be caapi + psychotria by the Shuar Indian, UDV, and Santo Daime. It is safe and traditional. Benny Shanon in his book "Antipodes of the Mind" also mentions he used caapi + psychotria for all of his 130+ sessions. Recommendations for good caapi would be yellow cielo caapi vine or caapi extract. Recommendations for good leaf would be Hawaiian psychotria.
Clearlight experiments that involved several people back in the day (over a dozen trials) found the leaf brew form superior to extracted actives, they found the leaf brews very strong and powerful & clairavoyant (+5 Shulgin scale), while they mentioned that the extracted actives were mild (+3 Shulgin scale) at best, even up to 100mg. Again, this is poorly understood, but refer back to page 8 & 9 of this thread for more info.
Even Jonathan Ott found that in his 20 experiments posted in his book "Ayahuasca Analogues", that none of his later experiments with extracted actives quite matched the power of his 1st actual Ayahuasca brewed with caapi and good real leaf (experiment #1), he had no explanation for this. He did however find 70mg to be close to it, but still not the same.
I should mention that I also enjoyed reading Julian Palmer's book "Articulations, On the Utilization and Meaning of Psychedelics", very down to earth book written by an Australian expert (brilliant writer as well) with over 20 years experience...in chapter 4 he covers "Ayahuasca" and what doses worked for him in dreams (see pages 76 & 77 for his pharmahuasca dose levels) where he gives his thoughts on 60--80, 100, 150, 200+ mg, and how this varies with different people...and even how this differs in quality from an actual plant brew.
His book website is good too, lots of free articles to read...
The best book I have ever read on real Ayahuasca is "Antipodes of the Mind" by Benny Shanon from Oxford Press, in the 500 page book is covered over 130 of his journeys (and interviews with hundreds of others) taken in not only the Amazon, but with the Santo Daime and UDV and personal sessions, remarkable piece of work, will go down as a classic just like Aldous Huxley's "Doors of Perception" forever.
"Articulations" by Julian Palmer (bottom of page 77):
Quote:It came to my attention after an embarrassing number of years, that taking freebase crystal DMT orally was not as potent, colourful, or clear as taking the equivalent amount of DMT in a tea that was brewed from the plant. For many years, I couldn't see how there could be a difference, but after doing some comparisons, it was obvious that the tea was much better, and the experiences resulting from the crystalline extract were inferior.
You could take twice or even three times as much DMT crystal as the equivalent in brew, and the experience from the crystal would never be as bright or full as that from the tea. Why could this be?
He answers his own question over the many paragraphs thereafter.
In dreams, a brew of blended up psychotria leaf can be boiled in 1 and 1/4 bottle of spring water (21oz) for 1/2 hour, then filtered thru a wire mesh strainer to get out the course leaf fragments, then filtered thru a cotton ball in a funnel to get out the fine leaf sediment, changing out the cotton ball when/if it clogs. Having two large funnels, each sitting in a separate glass with a cotton ball stuffed into each funnel's tube, and transferring the liquid back and forth between the two funnels when the cotton would clog up, allowed the filtering to go fast and would only take up a few minutes at most. Then put the filtered liquid back on the stove and reduce it down to 2oz, and add your caapi. Phenomenal dream with good plants. The cotton ball gets out any fine muddy leaf sediment which is irritating to the intestines, for a nausea free to the stomach/intestines brew, this of course does not reduce "brain nausea" which can result from using too much leaf.
Taking a small sip of the leaf brew (before adding the caapi to it) can be done to determine the approximate "strength" of the leaf beforehand...depending on how bitter a sip of it is, you will be able to help gauge whether the admixture part (light) of the dream will be weak, medium, or strong ornamentally. If it's too crazy bitter, back off on the leaf amount used as this may signal a "too strong" leaf brew. The leaf brew and caapi (power) are taken mixed together (marriage) at the exact same time (just as the Shamans do) for best & strongest effects ornamentally.
As a poster somewhere else posted, the 1st 60 minutes from when the caapi takes effect is when some weak nausea or slight dizziness might be noticed during the dream, whereas after the 1st hour, there is usually little to zero nausea or dizziness as the harmine in the caapi has mostly worn off by then, as the half-life of harmine is around 1.5 hour. Then all that is left working is the more desirable tetrahydroharmine in the caapi and any leaf actives for the duration of the rest of the dream.
Why traditional caapi over rue?
Just as Bancopuma wrote earlier, "the more caapi the better." Caapi contains tetrahydroharmine as it's second largest alkaloid, and contributes greatly to the experience in many postitive ways, besides it's visionary, brightening and coloring abilities, it goes way beyond that....it seems to partially inactivate barriers or filters in the brain so that "mind at large" as coined by Aldous Huxley can be let loose a bit.
Mind at Large:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_at_LargeTetrahydroharmine on it's own will also yield the same type visions as harmaline, it just takes more of it. For example, around 300mg of THH will yield the same visions as about 100mg harmaline...even if the THH dose or caapi dose is split in two over several hours, the visions will still be apparent some time after the 2nd dose takes effect, the doses are additive.
THH in the caapi also seems to strongly activate the right hand hemisphere of the brain-- the side that performs tasks that have do with creativity and the arts, feelings, visualizations, imagination, holistic thinking & intuition, empathy, spirituality & connectedness. In the first book mentioned below, researchers found that the right side of the brain lit up in brain scans of people who took LSD, mescaline, or mushrooms. The world is largely moving in the direction of the Left Brain: technology and science. What the world needs is to move in the direction of Right Brain development.
Quote from TIHKAL by Dr. Shulgin "More studies on tetrahydroharmine are absolutely imperative."
Trips (from this forum here on 12/2/2011):
Quote:
As to how the THH altered the experience -> I find rue extract+DMT to be very similar to mushrooms. I found the THH added to the rue+DMT to shift the experience to a state much closer to that provided by LSD. It was more clear, more energetic, more euphoric, more focused, and when confusion struck it was definitely more "acid-like".
The world is moving in the direction of the Left Brain: technology and science. What the world needs is to move in the direction of Right Brain development: empathy, spirituality, connectedness. Compounds like tetrahydroharmine in Caapi could be said to improve emotional intelligence. Is this component of caapi a smart-nutrient for the right side of the brain? you be the judge. See "Return to the Brain of Eden: Restoring the Connection between Neurochemistry and Consciousness" by Tony Wright for more info.
Mistakes made in the beginning years:
1) using a leaf brew (from the early days of using Peruvian) that had no bitter taste resulted in no admixture effects (tasteless leaf)
2) seperating the caapi and leaf brews by 15 to 20 minutes and not taking them at the exact same time mixed together always resulted in "hit and miss" sessions, whereas taking them together at the exact same time always resulted in strong sessions.
3) not using a cotton ball in a funnel to get out the muddy leaf sediment resulted in nausea in the stomach/intestines...whereas pre-filtering with a wire screen then a cotton in a funnel resulted in a dark tea colored brew with no stomach nausea, as the irritating fine particles of leaf removed--learned this from sync and meteor back in the day.
4) still using a leaf brew that was "crazy bitter" instead of only using half of it resulted in 90 minutes of way too strong admixture, overexposure of images, too much "light", moving to the side even a few inches would result in hundreds of new CEV's forming, open eyed images like the layers of an onion being peeled forever would extend into infinity, totally amazing but way too much, whereas using the proper amount of leaf was heavenly, contained oceans of love and resulted in many of the same type visions mentioned in Shanon's "antipodes of the mind".
With open eyes, the world appeared immensely beautiful, magical & transcendent and boundless feelings of love manifested for hours. Sound was not only heightened and clarified but audio hallucinations were produced -- sounds were quite different than normal, and music was exceedingly beautiful.
Examples of visions I saw with closed eyes in dreams: zooming in and examining the ancient city of Atlantis, beautifully decorated elephants from India, artwork from various civilizations of incredible beauty rivaling anything ever seen before, beautiful women wearing sparkling technicolor fabrics encrusted with microscopic diamonds & remarkable colors rivaling anything man-made, carnival scenes, totems on distant islands, chalkboards full of scientific discoveries and complex mathematical equations and concepts, personal biography, many animals especially birds, beautiful waterscapes & waterfalls, beautiful gardens, half-naked women twirling/dancing in front of slowly spinning marble pillars, breathtaking architecture, scenes of homes & people from the medieval renaissance, ships on the ocean, detached female faces, complicated spinning geometrics which usually indicated when a new stage or series of visions would begin. Flying like a bird is commonly reported, and I experienced this twice, once flying over Atlantis, and the 2nd time flying over what looked like modern present day Los Angeles...I could view all the swimming pools, homes & parks below, this went on for several minutes, other visions: too many other things to mention.
5) using a brew that had cooled down to cold would result in nausea & purging even if the brew was filtered properly, it had to be hot for the stomach to like it and process it effectively.
6) the first 90 minutes were always the strongest (just as Shanon mentions as well) then the session would go down in strength several notches for the next hour, so just know if the brew is too strong, it will lower in intensity after 90 minutes from when first noticed.
7) even the strength of the Hawaiian leaf can be variable, for example, with one batch would reach in and every 2 weeks would dream 15g of the leaf from many years ago, and it would be a moderate strength experience...this is still true with present day leaf, 15g is plenty! just remember the active levels in the leaf can vary depending upon the exact time in the morning they were picked, etc. This is why it helps to use the power of taste to get a good sampling of what is to come. Nothing is written in stone, some variability is the name of the game. It's always better to undershoot then to overshoot and have a challenging hour to 90 minutes before it lowers in strength several notches. If a challenging experience is encountered, it helps to close the eyes for an hour and not move much--find a happy place in silent meditation and the visuals should slow down quite a bit so long as you remain calm and focused, this helps to teach real world meditation techniques when normal as well.
8. Using an acid of any type such as phosphoric, citric, lemon juice, vinegar etc. to aid the extraction does little imho other than "mask" the taste of the leaf so that you can then no longer detect just how "bitter" the leaf brew is, and thus how strong it will be. Psychotria viridis is a member of the Rubiaceae (Coffee family). You don't see anyone adding acids to a coffee bean extraction to increase the extraction...the alkaloids in the leaf are already in a superior salt form in Psychotria and will easily dissolve into hot water along with the other components of the leaf, fats, oils, etc. I've never noticed any kind of increased potency by using any form of acid added to the leaf brew beforehand. It's true the water in the Amazon is slightly acidic, but only by a very tiny margin. Just make sure you have good plants, no amount of acid is going to make the plants stronger, just like with coffee, brew with plain very hot water, and pre-chop the leaf up into tiny bits in a blender--the cotton ball used later will remove all the muddy like leaf sediment from the brew and leave everything else important in the brew: all of the essence of the plant will remain.
Update:
There is highly active ornamental Hawaiian psychotria out there in dreams right now that is very exceptional at just 20g. Accidentaly dreamed with 35g the other week in dreams with real caapi only and it was way, way too strong for 90 minutes, all could do was sit still for 1.5 hour and keep eyes closed in an attempt to slow down the visions/visuals (and they can be slowed down to a crawl with concentration) because with eyes open the whole place fills with fluorescent colors & visions, beauty is to the nth power, but too much leaf or light can be frightening in a mental sense as all sense of ego is lost and she holds on to you with a fine grip, difficult to describe, but it's definately not something you want to repeat...ended up there about 4 times in the past and once recently due to accidentaly using too much leaf.
Found 20g in dreams mixed in with good caapi (always taken mixed together in a 2oz reduced hot brew form at the exact same time) to be very exceptional however 2 weeks before that, just heavenly moderate strength experience with beautiful closed eye visions, open eyed beauty is still to the nth power just no frightening state as it's more controllable, music is beautiful, and there is most always a spirit guide seen (Mother Aya in beautiful female form) or sensed with closed eyes who helps guide the experience. Try not to overshoot your dream or it could be challenging for 90 minutes...best thing to do if this happens is to close eyes and meditate into a happy place and not move an inch (moving triggers hundreds of new visuals) so that a focused & calm place can be found....it goes down in strength several notches after about 60 minutes to 80 minutes later.
One of the best feelings from the dream experience is that of feeling as if one has finally arrived home & encountering the divine. Beauty is unique in that it has the power to reveal to us humans the existence of an ideal world beyond the world of sense. This, in turn, is a prime source for happiness. These feelings and insights are very common under the Ayahuasca intoxication.
For one whole year drank nothing but caapi in dreams before even adding in the admixture (had no access to good leaf during that first year). Some of the most far out vision sessions I dreamed during the 2nd year resulted from the drinking of 1/2 a caapi dose by itself around 2pm, then at 5pm drank a whole caapi dose with a small amount of hawiian leaf admixture, this would result in amazing caapi heavy visions which were brightened & colored by the admixture, this would go on for hours even still seeing them before trailing off to sleep, don't take too much admixture if doing this or it could easily result in purging too early.
I avoid purging entirely by using proper filtering described in this thread (eliminates stomach and intestinal nausea) but this will not exclude purging due to using too much leaf or admixture which can cause brain-related nausea. So keeping admixture at a decent mild or moderate level helps, just avoid too strong an admixture dose. The built upon filtering techniques were initially learned from Meteor and Sync, and made easier by using cotton ball stuffed into a large brand new clean automotive funnel all sitting atop a large see thru glass.
If you are wondering how the 1st paragraph mentioned visions are possible, it's because the longer acting alkaloids in caapi such as the visionary tetrahydroharmine (2nd highest alkaloid in caapi) has a half life of 11 hours, so additional 1/2 of a caapi brew is additive throughout the day or night, adding to the visionary power of the 2nd full dose. The side effects of this method are slightly increased dizziness and not wanting to move around much for a few hours, the benefits are powerful long lasting visions, many of which are like movies and not just static scenes that change, some are even interactive like allowing you to zoom in and view certain parts of the inside of an Egyptian palace to get a closer look at the details for example. Flying like a bird over parks and palaces and cities and landscapes is very common for many people with heavy caapi doses.
The caapi heavy visions with closed eyes that would result from this during the 5pm dose were spectacular with visions of twirling half-naked very beautiful woman dancers in front of slowly spinning marble pillars, beautifully decorated elephants from India, glistening water falls in remote places, entire scenes so elaborate and breath-taking it boggled the mind, many upon many elaborate meaningful things to see in scenes one after another. I still to this day wonder where do the visions come from? Perhaps the "akashic record" astral plane where all is known and all of history and the future is stored, and all that has ever been thought of by every human and animal has been stored. Perfect Platonic places and things are revealed, all appears new and immensely beautiful as if just created, some otherly world beyond this one of perfection and super beauty.
Caapi heavy visions are what I really seek...as a session that is just high on admixture only often results in closed eye visuals with little meaning--just an hour and a half long parade with closed eyes of fancy spinning, morphing, weaving, colored, beautiful patterns & geometric moving admixture effects, but with a session heavy on caapi--it's a whole nother place with real divine, transcendent, nature, cosmos, fantasy & culture inspired visions--the kinds of visions talked about in "Antipodes of the Mind" = visions with real meaning and hidden messages made known to the drinker--often paranormal in nature with solutions to problems you may have had for some time. On more than one occasion was shown where lost objects were hidden that I had been searching for quite some time, another time received the answer to a very complex unsolvable problem that had been eluding me for nearly half a year.
People who are artists or who are artistically inclined have some of the most impressive visionary experiences, just as Shanon mentions in his book. If you are an adventurer, you tend to have adventure related visions, Ayahuasca matches the experience to suit whatever your interest tend to be, if you are a cartoonist, you will tend to have some cartoon like visions with slapstick imagery, etc. It matches your personality to a high degree. I have indeed found this to be true.
From Benny Shanon:
Quote:The Ayahuasca experience is miraculous. Amerindian legends associated with the brew typically contain elements of the supernatural and the non-ordinary. The doctrine of the Santo Daime Church proclaims that the brew makes one enter another reality, the astral.
The UDV characterizes the brew as cha misterioso, mysterious tea. With this, people are prone to entertain ideas and reflections of an esoteric nature. Time and again, informants have reported to me that Ayahuasca made them appreciate the existence of a hidden reality to which human beings are normally blind. With this, people claimed, hidden forces were revealed and hidden meanings recognized. With this, questions regarding the paranormal and the possibility of miracles become especially pertinent. Indeed, having undergone the Ayahuasca experience, most people--including ones with higher levels of Western education--tend to believe that all sorts of paranormal phenomena are actual.
You may remember me as 69Ron. I was suspended years ago for selling bunk products under false pretenses. I try to sneak back from time to time under different names, but unfortunately, the moderators of the DMT-Nexus are infinitely smarter than I am.
If you see me at the waterpark, please say hello. I'll be the delusional 50 something in the American flag Speedo, oiling up his monster guns while responding to imaginary requests for selfies from invisible teenage girls.