What a journey it has been... From start to finish it took approximately 2.5 months due to some unexpected interruptions and the overall complexity for a noob like me.

As an extraction choice I went with cyb's fantastic Max Ion Tek using ACRB. After a relatively unsatisfying result, I was left with several clusters of crystals in the freeze dish, and I took them out first so I could snap some pics:




After I scraped off everything along with the big amount of plant fats and goo that was left in the dish, I took a rather bad decision to mix that with what was left over from a previous MHRB failed extraction (the extraction itself was incredibly successful yielding around 1 gram of great looking spice from around 40 grams of MHRB, but the subsequent acetone wash was disastrous in most aspects, leaving me only with yellow goo and plant fats, and an unknown but definitely decreased amount of spice in) and wash it all with acetone. Of course I was left with quite a lot of yellow goo and no visible crystals. I dissolved this in IPA and let it sit in the fridge while I was sorting out the harmalas extraction.

The latter took a surprising amount of time due to some unplanned interruptions, as well as the tedious initial filtrations. The guide I followed for this one was the greatly written Harmalas Extraction and Separation Guide. Here's a general timeline with pics of the stages:

First basifying stage filtration:


Three pics of the second manske stage result (a bit brighter crystals):




Two shots of the third and final manske stage with great looking light crystals:



Third and final freebase conversion step, yielding fantastic light freebase harmalas:


With a great deal of satisfaction and gratitude I moved on towards making the actual changa. For this stage I followed with excitement The Art of Changa, a guide to making the perfect blends. A phenomenal guide made by this extremely interesting being that is olympus mon. Following his expert advice, I heated up IPA and soaked in it for around 20 days the following four herbs:
1 - Lavender
2 - Lemon Balm
3 - Cloves
4 - Spearmint

On day 20 the IPA had an amazing aromatic fragrance that I immediately fell in love with. Filtering and heating it up, I dissolved in it around 1.1 grams of freebase harmalas, the already dissolved in IPA spice and goo that were sitting in the fridge, and poured that mixture over a combination of mullein and lemon balm (ratio 70-30, total weight of plant material ~1.6 grams). I left that to dry in the air for approximately 5 days, and the result was a fantastic mix with the fragrances of fresh spice and that herb-infused IPA, looking like this:



Right now the mixture is put in a small lid-off mason jar that is in turn put into a bigger jar with silica gel granules on the bottom and sealed in the fridge. I'll leave it like that for at least a week, since the changa is probably still a bit wet. I am also uploading a video of how it moves around in the jar - looks like something alive, so cool! It's uploaded to Streamable, since the video upload option here in the forum threw back a gateway error of some sort that I couldn't get around...
https://streamable.com/qfhzu

The entire process taught me so much about the art of extracting and making changa, and it gave me a new perspective and appreciation to all the people that have mastered those processes.

Soon I shall put the changa in the bonga, and see what hyperspace has for me. I am a bit anxious, but also I feel ready. I am on a challenging path, and I know there's a lot in store for me in the future. I trust that DMT will give me the means to ask the proper questions, whose answers will become the foundation for my spiritual growth. So much more to learn...

Wrapping this up, I want to express my endless gratitude and deep love to every single person that took time out of their busy day and reached out to help me when I struggled. The most notable mentions are:
1 - a fellow nexian that gifted me the rue seeds, as well as made it possible for me to acquire the ACRB (they know who they are, won't mention names);
2 - rOm (whom I love and respect deeply) with his expert advice, hints and support;
3 - CatPharm (whom I also love and respect deeply) for being a supportive presence in PMs, giving me advice on the harmalas extraction and guiding me through the more tricky parts, whilst enduring the plethora of noob questions I threw at him;

And finally a very deep and sincere THANK YOU to the gurus that compiled, wrote and perfected those guides for us laymen to follow and get fantastic results. You are without a doubt the real MVPs.

My journey is just beginning, my friends. It is an honor to share it with you all. May Mother Nature shine her blissful light upon your paths and illuminate them with profoundness for an eternity to come.

With the deepest love and respect,
Nydex

Cool! I love the pics. And that changa is looking good

Well done, Nydex. Beautiful Manske crystals. You've obviously done your homework, enjoy the wonders hyperspace has in store for you. Please let us know how it went. Travel well!

Very nice work Nydex, manske are pretty
I think you'll fall in love with change

Keep up the good work !

Well, today I took my first step in hyperspace...

After a good night's sleep, I woke up and did some stretching. Following that I had a wholesome breakfast and started cleaning up my apartment, organizing stuff around and making it tidy. I knew doing that would create a better, more calm experience. After putting the apartment in a desirable state, I took a shower and sat on my bed doing some breathwork, focusing for what was to come.

I was ready. I weighed out approximately 150mg of changa with no clue what part of that was spice, and packed the bong with some ice and cold water. I used a small BIC lighter to heat up the changa in the small steel mesh in the bong cup.

As soon as I started inhaling the smoke I could see the bong in my hand literally come alive, with at least 20 little cute eyes opening on its surface and looking at me while I was taking the hit...it was so weird, but also was kind of expected. Shortly after my vision started vibrating, everything started melting, shifting and breathing, and 10 secs later open eyed visuals began...

I could see mysterious unknown patterns on every surface, and if I focused on my white ceiling a tiny colorful and perfectly geometrical figure with thousands of microscopic tentacles resembling hair protruding out of its tips, of which there were an uncountable amount. The whole thing moved and pulsated around my vision and it was absolutely stunning.

I never broke through, and thank fuck for that. The intensity with which all of this happens is absolutely scary. I've never felt something so intense. And that is changa, mind you. I can only imagine what freebase spice is like. Massive respect to all the experienced people around here that breakthrough on freebase and handle it well.

Long story short I got some visuals, some body load, an unpleasant pressure inside my skull and not much else. I redosed several times with small chunks of changa to the point where I felt my lungs getting stuffed and clogged leading to a sense of uneasiness. Also the strong effect I observed in the first hit was not present at all in the subsequent tokes. Maybe there wasn't as much spice on the smaller chunks I redosed with, or maybe I had developed a bit of tolerance - no idea.

At some point I felt that there was not enough air in my apartment and had to go out. A couple of times I was very close of actually feeling sick. That was my lesson for being greedy and redosing after the first lunge.

A true breakthrough is where it's at, but I don't yet have the balls to go that deep. One massive bong toke, and you're out. A very interesting substance. I will experiment more with it for sure.

I am wondering a few things. First of all - did I vaporize the changa correctly. Basically what I did was I got the flame as close to the chunks as possible without touching them, and I could see a few of them bubbling up with the goo that was on them. But after inhaling a bit stronger, they caught fire and basically turned into glowing embers that I was inhaling - is this the proper way to fire up changa, or do I need to keep it in that boiling state where it's not an ember on fire, but bubbling? The smoke didn't feel as harsh as I expected it to be, but it also didn't have anything in common with the smell of the fresh changa - none of the breautiful aroma was felt in the smoke. Maybe I burned it?

I know for a fact that at some point during the experience I felt like I wasn't doing it right. I didn't have the proper technique of vaporization, and I'd very much appreciate if some of you more experienced changa travelers give me a few hints on vaporizing it correctly. I'll get a torch lighter for my next journey.

Second thing that I wonder is if everyone feels that intense pressure in their head while blasting off? As I put the bong down the pressure in my skull kept rising a lot, along with the visuals. Is this normal? Or is this a result of me burning the changa?

Love you all.

I sometimes feel the pressure in my head as well. I don't think it's anything to worry about. Maybe it has something to do with anxiety or not enough oxygen, I don't want to pinpoint it for you because I don't even know why it happens to me.

It's probably not good it caught on fire, but the only way to get better at lighting this stuff up is practice and experiment with various methods. Maybe keep the flame further away? Maybe light it for a shorter amount of time? Maybe something else?

Anyway, congratulations on taking your first step into hyperspace!

Yeah experience comes with practice. By the way I took your advice for tidying up my room before I blast off man. Great thread you got there about being comfortable in hyperspace. Thank you.

Congratulations on extraction. It looks very beautiful and clean. Well done!
Nexus is definitely a place from where one can learn a lot. I would say it is the largest University on Earth

You have made excellent travel and preliminary cleaning. I believe that this is indeed a positive charge. It's good to write down some notes for you from your trip, because in the meantime it will be interesting for you to read it after time.

Broke through will happen when you decide you're ready and it will happen. I believe in you.

I have experienced such pressure in my head, but in other things like mushrooms, and some dreams. (psychedelic dreams) Even this has awakened me. I have speculation for the pressure in the head. I do not know whether they are true or wrong, but they are personal speculation.
The brain during the trip needs more blood. The body understands and the heart starts to pump more blood, which leads to higher pressure in the brain. (and other pumps in the body begin to pump more, including the second brain) At the same time, I believe that some magic in the brain happens during the trip... my knowledge is poor and for this I will say that I believe there is a reorganization of the brain and its function, which results in pressure in the head. But these are just my thoughts and speculations. This subject is very interesting for me and I will follow it with interest.


Good luck, be well and love