After a 6-year hiatus from psychedelics I decided in 2016 to order a growbox to grow some hallucinogenic mushrooms. I hadn’t done mushrooms since 2006; when I had some beautiful experiences. Back then I didn’t have any problems eating dried mushrooms. And I don’t remember experiencing physical discomfort on them. There seemed to be something more profound in them than in LSD and I knew that one day I would return to them. From 2007-2010 I only used LSD because it was easier for me to find.

But fast forward to 2016 and I am finding these mushrooms to be discusting to eat and they make me vomit. So I make a lemon tek. Much better but still a lot of physical discomfort; feeling like there is a poison in me, all sweaty; on higher doses it makes me experience myself as a kind of fantasy animal walking like a limping dwarf, an animal lacking a prefrontal cortex. I feel dumb and unrefined. Waves of nausea. Hot and cold. A divine battle between the ego and the Mushroom but I can't take it seriously.

Making me whish the experience was more LSD-like; clean, without the physical discomfort, and not coming and going in waves but with a clear build-up and come-down. I feel kind of stupid during the whole experience; it feels more like a ‘drug’; not the magical substance it used to be. The visuals are not like in 2006; they are more like LSD; different but still they remember me of LSD. Nothing like the visionary stuff of 2006. The message: “Why did you return here?" It ends with a nice afterglow. Not worth it.

I wonder what has changed? In 2006 I was a young college student. Today I am 30 years old and I have a career and a house. I lift weights. I am more mature. Control is the central theme. I wonder if I should just stop psychedelics forever.

But another year has passed and I’m finding myself back into looking into psychedelics. I’ve never done any other psychedelic than mushrooms or LSD. I wonder what I might try. Maybe I should try another kind of mushroom; or are they all alike? Or maybe yet another method of preparation. Like an MAOI with a low dose of mushrooms.

I'm looking online at the other stuff I can get legally: Yopo or Cebil seeds, LSA-seeds, mescaline-cacti, the ingredients for ayahusaca, changa, or dmt-extraction. I consider research chemicals but find that an analogue law has been put in place in 2017 making all tryptamines illegal. Salvia is also illegal.

The idea of physical discomfort and vomiting turn me off. I could try learning dmt-extraction and vaporizing (I don’t have any experience with smoking devices vaporizers, bongs or pipes) but I’ve become too risk averse to consider inhaling a naphta-infused product.

So my question is: What advice would you give me after having read all of the above?

Actually, i wanted to start a Thread about this exactly. Wondering if Tripping age correlates with Biological Age.

Something similar happened to me. Back in College, my Trips were magical and awe inspiring. But so was my life back then. The last ones i took after a longer break felt more like a chore. I suspect this has something to do with the ego having a tighter grip on oneself. Also, life in general feels more like a chore and less playful. If you want, you can read my two latest reports, starting with post #44 here: https://www.dmt-nexus.me...osts&t=10183&p=3

I somehow suspect that a largish DMT freebase Dose could work break down the ego to allow more magical trips with longer acting psychedelics. If you don't want to use a tek utilizing naphta, you don't have to as there are teks that only use food grade solvents and chemicals.

Similar situation to yourself. In my early 20s I did shrooms, LSD and other stuff occasionally. Then about a 6 years break, life changed, I matured and after a while psychedelics started to call out to me again... mostly a spiritual need I think. Then I grew some of my own shrooms (previously always pick wild) which led me to DMT. After a year or so of that life changed again and I had another 3 year hiatus. More recently the call came again. So it's been about an 18 year journey for me so far.

I like the brief, deep and clean spice experience nowadays. Its a complement to the rest of my life, not a substitute or escape. My partner does her own spiritual stuff with meditations, chanting etc. I take a different path but ultimately to the same destination. The difference between now (40 years old) and then (20-something) is that previously it was intellectual curiosity whereas now its more a spiritual friend. I've had an amazing life (lived in many different countries, seen and done things most people aren't fortunate enough to experience). I'm content, happy, putting down roots finally after being a professional gypsy all my adult life. Never been interested in religion, and I feel this satisfies a deeper need. I can't (and am not interested) in doing 10 hour trips anymore, so this is perfect. With maturity I also think its easier to let go and abandon ego temporarily. DMT is perfect.

Happy and safe journeys

ps. don't stress about the process or solvent - learn the science, be picky and patient and you'll reward yourself.

Is there a reason not to consider the naphta or lye a health concern?

Could just be an age thing. I used to have amazing closed eye visuals prior to sleep when I was a teenager and younger, like within 1-2 minutes of closing my eyes - this was prior to psychedelic use. These days it doesn't happen spontaneously that much. I put that down to vitality and nervous energy wasted through sexual activity.

All adults are sort of rigid and depleted.

Could be part of it maybe. Just throwing it out there as a possibility.

As for naptha, the minimum security precaution is to do an evaporation test to make sure they did not adulterate it. If it evaporates clean, i personally would not be too afraid..since the naphta, well..evaporates. Lye is of course kind of dangerous to handle, so always wear nitrile coated gloves and eyeprotection. Also, make sure to work in well ventilated spaces because inhalation of naptha is a concern for sure.

https://www.dmt-nexus.me....aspx?g=posts&t=8503 non toxic teks are available.

I would just opt for precaution and a standard A/B or STB Tek.





Ouch

Cubensis can be more physical than other types (i suppose cubensis is what you're growing). And even within the cubensis family, there are strains that are more physical than others. Semilanceata and cyanescens are some realy good ones, and there are some dutch truffles that are realy great as well.

There are two other things worth mentioning: don't underestimate LSD. LSD can be just as profound as good mushroom experience. The magic of LSD just happens to be more vulnerable to tolerance by doing it too often. If you do LSD regularly, and then one day you take mushrooms, the mushroom experience may seem more profound because you've got used to LSD, and it is becoming a bit boring. The magic of LSD is just more fragile in that way.

Secondly, could it be that you smoked some weed on your previous mushroom experiences? Even a tiny bit of cannabis can make a huge difference. If not, it is worth trying a very small amount of oral cannabis along with shrooms. It realy helps against most of the physical discomfort that you can get with mushrooms. It also amplifies the effects of the shrooms, so don't overdo it. Less is more when it comes to cannabis here. Realy microdosing the cannabis is the best way to do it. It does add something to the mushroom experience though, when done right. It becomes smoother, more immersive and more euphoric.

Definitely agree with this! Mushrooms have actually always made me feel like I poisoned myself, at least at first. It was still always an interesting experience and I handled it. A little bit of cannabis can go a long way, especially if it's something your body and mind are relatively used to.

Speak for yourself. The only thing all adults are is is over 18 y.o.

Personally the discomfort i get from shrooms is pretty much totally mitigatedby making a tea with water, simmering finely chopped material in water for 30-45 minutes, staining the matter, adding honey and lemon and that's it.

People swear by ginger to alleviate stomach issues, I've never needed to with tea.

I think our digestive system gathers sensitivities as we age, digesting the large amounts of fibrous mudroom material is pretty hard,,and if i eat the fruit bodies themselves do experience certain discomfort and gas.

Touched a nerve huh? Get real man, it's a fact of life. As you age your body wears down and your mind becomes far more rigid. Assuming you've done nothing to accelerate the process that's the bare minimum that will occur!

An 18 year old is miles away from a 30 year old. Legal definition of age means nothing in regards to health and vitality.

Yeah, we do become more rigid. But at the same time, our capacity to overcome rigidity grows with every new experience. Especially the experience of failure is realy usefull that way.

How would you define being mentally rigid? If it is something to do with not being open to new experiences like taking psychedelics when one is older, why weren't these drugs experienced when younger, when one is supposedly less rigid?

To the OP i would recommend vaping DMT with a vapour genie. It is short lived and you can be back to baseline in half hour easily. As far as wow factor/questioning reality/spiritual stuff etc versus time spent tripping it has had the biggest bang for buck for me in my limited experience of these sorts of things.
If it is dried properly naphtha inhalation will not be a problem . But you will have to ditch the being in control thing for the duration of the trip.

Being open to taking a psychedelic isn't really a good yard stick, anyone can bung something in their cakehole, but the building up of contextual knowledge surrounding psychedelics would be a good indicator and the capacity of the person to drop preconceived notions for example, open up to new psychological possibilities etc. A young person is more of an open book in that regard and prepared to embrace new possibilities beyond the conventional paradigm, whereas the older you are the more solidified and less adaptable your worldview tends to become.

That's just one component. Another would be elasticity, horizontal thinking, and the ability to take in new ideas and churn out new conclusions. Whilst you may gather more wisdom as you age the overall dynamism of your mental apparatus does depreciate, unfortunately.

There has been a lot of research going on, on cognitive decline. The general pattern is that the brain is at it's peak in terms of speed and short-term data storage in our early 20's. What we from then on very gradually lose in terms of raw processing power, we compensate with the knowledge we've gained through the years.

You could say that relying on knowledge or routine, more than on realtime data input, is a form of rigidity.

From a more philosophical point i would say that rigidness is just the flipside of consistency. Any worldview that is even somewhat consistent, is by definition also rigid in a way. It's innevitable. Science is rigid. It only becomes a problem if consistency stands in the way of learning new things, adapting, thinking outside the box...creativity.
Einsteins relativity theory is an adaptation of newtons laws of motion and gravity. We tend to think of einstein as a smart guy because he managed to combine rigidity/consistency with creative thinking.

Now i don't completely agree with the above. And i don't think it is because you've touched a nerve. Or maybe you have because i have taken the time to write back. I'll have to have a think about it tonight before i go to sleep but i guess that it doesn't really matter because by the time i wake up in the morning i will probably have forgotten all about it.

Anyhow from what i have observed, is that older people that want to give these kinds of drugs a try are just as open to different paradigms. Perhaps more so.
I would say that most of them were doing it with the specific intentions of opening up to psychological possibilities. Apart from me. I just wanted to see weird shit. Still, my contextual knowledge of psychedelics is far greater than when i was in the 18-30 bracket. Context is enhanced by experience. Which comes with age.



Taking the philosphical point of view, if the capacity for reasoning is considered to be a cognitive ability and given that the act of reasoning is the act of thinking about something in a sensible and logical way, wouldnt that suggest that the decline in the ability to be logical would lead to a reduction of rigidity? Logic being a concept that is the epitomy of rigidness.

Just out of interest what is everyones definition of an adult and an older person age wise?

I hopeyou're not just another white male millennial seeking to make someone feel unwelcome because of a part of their being due to an ideological "ism" of yours no matter how supported it is on your curated culture-receiver of choice.

And I'll repeat the quote. I'm sorry you feel the way you do. I'm basing my comment on more than one thing.

First, as i explained, your black and white thinking is easy to do but will fail you at some point. Somewhere along the line, you'll understand what it is to actually age.

And no it's not something that bothers me as you seem to insinuate. It's something I'm very proud of, my years. They represent life lived, every single moment of which however spent or misspent taught me something.

And the last thing it taught me is to be rigid. I've learned how to flow. If anything, my years have given me flexibility i never could have had in my youth, in my twenties, in my thirties...the experiences I've had and the things I've survived-are the very things upon which i now thrive.

I look back at the various faces that have stared back at mine from the mirror at all the various stages in my life. All those stages reflect changes both deep and superficial, lines in my face grooves in a record-cutting new hits all the time. And changing beat and style along the way.

There are deep undercurrents, the river flows downstream on its course, but it cuts new furrows along the way as it encounters sand or rock. There are things I'll never let go of that define me as who i know myself to be. But my general world view has plenty of room for change. And i have indeed changed both my mind and my body into "middle-age"

And maybe it's my genes, maybe it's because it didn't take psychedelic awakening to quit eating McDonald's, only reason, and besides the drugs I've treated my body pretty well. It's funny, I'm in better shape having survived 20 years of heroin addiction than many peers who only ate processed food and drank socially.

Second, yes, the stereotype of an "old" is someone rigid and staid, locked into a way of thinking. If that is what you feel awaits you, thenindeed i do feel sorry for you.


I feel like i qualified for "old" at 47. In my society, that is America, with its culture of coddling it's youth, probably 25 is the youngest I'd consider calling someone adult based on sheer virtue of age.

Adult isn't an arbitrary age. One is mature, or not.

Years-wise, young is below 30-33 to me. Old is 45+. In between depends.

Already said he is 30+

I tend to agree though...on average people over 30 become incredibly stale, some even before that. There are exceptions and they are not that rare if you look in the right places. Neuro plasticity is real and continues. As for mental powers...yes, i've long peaked and it is very very noticable. The creativity i had in highschool is unparalelled.

Some facts of life you just have to accept. Doesn't mean you can't live out the rest after your peak days with some joy

To give an extreme example, a person with dementia may see a marked reduction in reasoning and other logic based thinking ability, which from the outside may be observed as inability to complete relatively simple activities. However they can still retain their rigidness in pattern thinking or pattern behaviours, despite being frayed around the edges so to speak - the core is still rigid.

I don't think that logical ability and rigidity are necessarily bound, it's more a question of whether a person has the ability to step back (mentally) from their own inner paradigms or patterns of thinking/behaviour and see a new possibility or route. That's an ability that not every person has developed and IQ has nothing to do with it either. It's more to do with some level or power of self-awareness, some sort of inner potential or voltage, which the young person has more of than the old person does. Conversely there are rigid young people, which we may mistake as low-IQ when in fact they still retain that ability to shift mentally but apply it in different arenas and excel there (sports/mind-body connection, for example).



I am white male and 30+. Nothing I said was taking aim at anyone. Just fuel for discussion.

What I stated was of course a generalization. You yourself offer proof in that regard, to which you should be chuffed about because for the majority of people there is a marked decline in mental ability due to poor life choices. Keeping sharp is a great achievement. I have a relative who is 90+ and is amazingly lucid, which is no doubt down to her lifetime of clean and simple living.

That said, despite being in good shape mentally, there is rigidity present. The capacity to do the inner mental shifting just isn't what it once was. She's still smart and everything, I don't know.. don't you sense this in people? In yourself, comparing where you were at 18 to where you are now? There's something the young person has that the older person doesn't, some sort of non-neurological potential or voltage that can be used to shift gears quicker and in greater extent that isn't bound to IQ level, level of wisdom, or other attribute.

Oh yeah. Definitely touched a nerve there! The lady doth protest too much methinks!

Edit..for clarity, i didn't say anything about anyone being a white male millenial. You have mis-quoted me, which is probably down to your declining cognitive abilities...

Well, then, F you very much, hug. It's your attitude that sucks, and no i did not misquote you, just inferred what you are from what you write.

I don't generally get offended by some ignorant internet name-caller, but it does bother me that you would do that here. I always felt welcomed by a community here. Until now.

Good going Hug you show your true colors. It's the ignorant ageism of yours that offends me.