Long before I raised a pipe to my lips, I'd had my life forever changed by the Spice.

My first contact with the Spirit Molecule was via some late-hour youtube algorithm, a few years back, a moment that launched me down a rabbit-hole of research, relating to quantum mechanics, near death experiences and trip reports.

By the time I'd found a way to realise the experience for myself, I'd already shifted my internal needle from atheism to agnosticism, and my philosophy from nihilism to spirituality, all as a result of what people like yourself had relayed about the medicine.

Despite an apparently herculean tolerance to the Spice, the benefits of fortnightly micro-dosing have been numerous, including ayahuasca-like emotional outpourings (usually a few days following) and radical personality shifts.

Meditation, veganism, rigorous exercise, fasting, floatation tanks, affirmations, cold-exposure, chanting, and of course, psychedelics, are just some of the concepts I've been throwing at the wall lately, to see what sticks.

In answer - everything!

How much I've learned and grown over the past couple of years, is only an indication of how much more I have to learn and develop, and I'm hoping that this is a healthy place for further growth, and also somewhere that I can be of service to others.

Thanks.

Welcome Fractical! It would be nice to hear a bit about your practices. What have been the ones you have been carrying on the longest time and which ones do you find the most useful?

Hi Tomtegubbe, thanks for your response.

The first major positive change in my life was about two years ago when I switched to a plant-only diet, and saw immediate health and mental gains, through weight-loss and increased self-esteem, even though B12 supplements would thereafter become necessary for iron-replacement.

Giving up my car for a mountain bike was the next step, which led to further fitness increases, especially after I moved 4 miles away from my place of work.

Those are the two longest-running changes I made to my life, and with the exception of the odd nutritional mistake, or bike-related accident, they've both been constants.

As for the most effective, it'd have to be meditation, which hadn't worked for me when I'd tried it a year or so previously.
During a time of extreme frustration,related mostly to ADD/ADHD, at the start of this year, I bought a 'game'/experience for the Playstation 4 VR (virtual reality), called TRIPP.
Using binaural beats, soothing voiceovers, fluid immersive visuals, and breathing exercises, it had a profound effect on me within a week, especially when paired with grounding techniques (focusing on the senses, or the breath).

To be honest, the only approach that I've not had any success with is yoga, mostly due to being incredibly inflexible, but hopefully in time I'll stick it out, maybe through palates, which I've heard are gentler.

Do you have any recommendations yourself, either for positive mental or physical change?

Sounds familiar! Very good decisions.

I don't have anything big ones in mind, but I believe it's often the small things that matter most. Be it in the way we communicate with others, neglect our responsibilities, etc. The small things can become big things in both good and bad.

Absolutely. Sometimes you bound up the mountain in a single leap, while sometimes it takes a thousand small steps.

Either way, you'll get to the top.

Welcome, Fractical! I wanted to hop in and join the conversation because you are touching on several topics that are near and dear to me. One of them, oddly enough, is yoga. To clarify, meditation IS yoga. In fact, the postures were originally introduced simply to help sit longer and more comfortably. Eventually some yogis did achieve union through the postures or asanas and so hatha yoga was born. I am not one for the postures either so I focus on one, siddhasana or perfect pose, which is the quintessential pose for meditation and any time I can settle into that pose well, I can feel the geometry aligning so I will keep working on mastering that one pose.

Having said all that, I too have embraced a more plant based nutrition, and made some other incredible changes in my life. I still enjoy fish, eggs, milk, and some cheeses, but my diet consists mostly of fruit, honey, and Ezekiel bread. My skin feels electric. I have been able to manage stress so much more effectively. I haven't had a bad day since I chose this new path. I have had some challenging days, but no bad ones. My meditations are now 2 to 3 times per day for 15 to 20 minutes, and I am giving maximum effort to at least one practice within each limb of yoga as I have experienced some miraculous benefits so far and am very curious to see what else is possible.

Three big change phases have happened in my life over the last 6 years. The first was quitting drinking and going to AA (this taught me how to act). The second was therapy and workshops (this taught me how to feel). The third is plant medicine and yoga (this is teaching me how to think... or rather how not to?). I connect the latter two as I probably never would have tried yoga if it weren't for the medicine. It has opened me up to the possibilities and now I just want more and more, to grow, to expand, to be at peace, have joy, etc...

I don't have any suggestions either other than to move toward joy. Whatever brings you true, absolutely joy, move toward that always. You deserve it.

Anyway, welcome to the nexus, and enjoy your journey of self realization! I am happy for you

"I am not one for the postures either so I focus on one, siddhasana or perfect pose, which is the quintessential pose for meditation and any time I can settle into that pose well, I can feel the geometry aligning so I will keep working on mastering that one pose."

Hi Th3_tRuTh Thanks for the suggestion. I just had a look at the Siddhasana variations, and from trying it a few months back, I think I'd need to start on the 'easy' modification. I'm very top-heavy in terms of my physical build but with a weak lower spine - not a good combo for an unsupported back.
I plan on having a go later today by breaking myself into shape :-D

"I too have embraced a more plant based nutrition..." Fantastic. I'm not surprised that you feel a whole lot better. The further you take it, the better you'll feel, too, but there's a chance that you'll need supplements, especially if you live an active lifestyle.
You might find that you hit a wall without them, and also I'd recommend researching the varying brands of vitamins - some I've found to be completely ineffective. I'm using INCITE 'multivitamins and minerals' just now, and they're keeping me in fresh energy.

"My meditations are now 2 to 3 times per day for 15 to 20 minutes" Each? Wow, you're putting me to shame. With the exception of occasional 30-40 minute stints, I normally do 1 meditation per day for between 10 and 20 minutes.

Congratulations on having stopped drinking. That couldn't have been easy. While I enjoy alcohol-based oblivion every so often, my monkey is weed. I'm not a 'stoner-type', although it hardly matters in this context because I do smoke it every day, albeit in small amounts and almost always alone, at the tail end of the day.
Between that and my rampant sexual appetite, there's still a lot of 'animal' in me, although, I suspect that, given time, I'll hopefully be able to slough off these hedonisms.
After which I'll probably start smoking crack and attending orgies, ha ha.

"...move toward joy" I hadn't thought about the journey in that way, but that makes perfect sense to me. Thank you.

My pleasure, and honestly, I had to break myself into the pose. It is not the best way to approach asana but I am middle aged and my knees are jacked so really I would be working my up to it for months most likely. I said screw it and just pushed myself until I could sit in the pose comfortably. It's been a few weeks now, but the last few times I did it, I was well settled into it.

Good luck, go at your own pace, trust your body, etc.

1 <3

Welcome! Nice to see that you have already made positive changes!

Thanks. This year's been the most beneficial I've had as an adult. I won't be remembering 2020/2021 the same way that most will be, especially as nothing really changed for me (other than not seeing friends).

Hi there - just seen this thread and I'm glad to hear that the past year has worked out for you.

One great thing you can do for your lower back is to improve your "core muscular strength". Strengthening your pelvic and abdominal muscles will help you to support your back more effectively. Is this something you've tried? There are a number of well established exercise to that end and they should be fairly easy to find.

My lower back was seriously injured well over a decade ago but core strength awareness has kept me fit and mobile without the use of painkillers (save for extremely infrequent cannabis use).

That's great to hear that you've recovered from the trauma to your back.
I'm hoping that yoga, and in particular the seated position (I forget the name) will prove to be beneficial for strengthening the lower part of mine.

Yeah, I also subscribe to a little smoke, although for me it's more habitual than beneficial, in all honesty, something else I'll have to address soon enough.

Fractical, it sounds like you are making amazing progress on yourself and I truly hope you keep it up.

How have you been feeling and progressing since the OP?

What other psychedelic medicines do you practice with and enjoy?

If I may, did you experience an injury or some sort of other trauma to give you that weak back? Depending on the cause, I may have some tips to help you strengthen it.

Can you share with us what your first DMT experience was like? (Apologies if you've already posted it and I missed it.)

Good call on the B12 to supplement iron. Have you considered taking iron supplements as well? And if continuing on the vegan road, make sure you're getting your essential amino acids ("essential" because out bodies do not produce them (more accurately, our bodies are unable to synthesize them fast enough)), often found in legumes (incomplete in profile for all necessary aminos), soy and such. There are also supplements for some of them, like phenylalanine and tryptophan. As for flexibility,try stretching twice a day, everyday, with special emphasis on lower back and lower body. Look up different stretches, and stay consistent on the ones more challenging to you. You may be surprised where you're at in a month. Sorry, my inner personal trainer came out .

Because I am too detail oriented... @Th3_tRuTh, do you feel it would be more accurate to say that yoga is a kind or type of meditation? In my mind (to highlight the subjectivity in my over-analysis ), meditation is the broader framework and yoga is a subset. And there's meditative practices removed from yoga. I am aware and will concede that this kind of distinction may have different answers in different traditions (such as a particular sect of Hinduism).

Welcome to the Nexus. We're very happy to have with us... "Gooble gobble, gooble gobble, one of us, one of us, gooble gobble, gooble gobble..."

One love

I did recently process a vision I had a few months back (the other Nexus members helped me work through it;
https://www.dmt-nexus.me...;t=97547&find=unread

My political outlook has dramatically shifted also, from being a staunch leftie to now having no political affiliation. The priority for me now is to help people cast aside the same narrow perspective I had, and for both left and right to find the common ground so that we can recognise our real enemy - big business and government, with their divide and conquer mentality.

Although I've had experiences with numerous substances in the past (cocaine, small amounts of acid, speed, MDMA, etc), the only other 'drug' I regularly enjoy is weed.

My first DMT experience really freaked me out, and it was a fairly mild one, too.
I'd been trying to experience the spice using a regular lighter, which didn't work, and after so many failed attempts, it came as quite a shock when it finally DID work!
The scales I had weren't accurate enough for a measurement, so I eye-balled what I thought looked like a 'reasonable' amount, not really expecting any results anyway.
I drew in the smoke and within 5 seconds I felt a strong tug at my essence. "Woah" I said, blowing a lot of smoke into the air, which I'm thankful for.
My entire body tensed and I felt a strong wave of anxiety fill me for about a minute or two as I reflexively resisted the substance, before I noticed the hallucinations, which distracted me and calmed my mind.
My curtains were breathing, and the patterns on them were writhing like snakes, while the led light for my TV had been duplicated hundreds of times all across the wall opposite me.

Of course, the euphoria afterwards was worth the price of admission alone, and months later I had a vague impression of corn fields during the trip, and of nostalgia for something.

The terror of the opening minute of the first successful trip definitely haunted me for months afterwards and I feared to try any more than micro-doses for a while.
Now I can't get results with 43mg! I can't really believe that I had more than that on my 'trip', or that I need such an amount. I suspect that technique might be the problem, or weak extractions.

My dodgy back's a result of delivering kegs of beer in a previous job, but I'm working on it now, and I'll definitely take your advice.

What psychedelics do you experiment with, and which would you recommend?

Here's a good summary about core strength exercises:

https://www.verywellfit....or-core-strength-3120054

I could do with following my own advice after knocking things out of alignment diving badly into a pool a few weeks ago.

If I may, I suggest looking into the Divine Tribe v4 crucible. It's extremely useful in vaporizing DMT. One would just need a mod as well. That way you can eliminate worries related to heating.

I've started looking at the fear and paranoia as a kind of effect or symptom brought about by the molecule. I've been using it for years and still deal with a lot of fear and anxiety even before I've inhaled (sometimes I purge before the journey oddly, granted I do have a few clinical diagnoses that may influence that). Some of it I attribute to the "tryptamine rush" that's common, but slower, with mushrooms and LSD.

Thank you for sharing about your experience. I really enjoy reading and hearing what other people encounter and how it affected them. I've had instances where I felt possessed and others where I could watch entities or the space enter me. Last time was tendrils through my ears. Think a few may have gone into my nose as well.

Your body constitution may play a factor in 43mg not breaking you through if you're a heftier individual. It's probably method though. It takes a little practice. With freebase, I've sandwiched, meth piped, dabbed, and vaped juiced, before landing and sticking with the Divine Tribe v4 crucible. I had initially been going for emesh, but was unable to get the necessary supplies.

As for that back, there's actually a whole lot you can do so, will only be giving you a bit to work with at this time so as to not overwhelm. Some things I'm going to recommend you research because it would be too much to get into here. For starters, look up the psoas muscle and how it functions. It's the only muscle that occupies both the upper and lower portions of the body and plays a big role in lower back health and strength. Second, start hitting your glutes; kickbacks, squats, bridges, band abduction, fire hydrants... really it may be best to look up glute exercises too because I go on, I realize there's a number of them. Third, general core work; planking (facing down and on sides), crunches, "six inches" (lying on your back, feet extended, lift them off the floor roughly six inches and hold for time interval (extend the time over time as you progress to increase strength and core endurance)), leg lifts (single and dual)... and from here you can look up more . Fourth, stretch, stretch, stretch (pushing your edges over time). Often when one feels they have a bad back they can tend to baby it and not do much to work it to protect it, but that can lessen blood flow and lead to further pain and discomfort. If this may apply to you, just keep in mind that that increase of blood flow may relieve a lot for you. Sometimes a heating pad can also help with this.

Psychedelics-wise, for me; DMT terrifies me, but I love it truly and dearly. It has and continues to teach and show me so much and helps me be resilient and increase resilience in life. Mushrooms are my second love. Nom nom nom, I've eaten a lot of those and grow them now (just put some fully colonized grain in a monotub today). Definitely try them if you haven't. That's all I'm going to say otherwise this will get really long . LSD and I have a weird relationship and I don't do it much because of that and because it's very time consuming and I'm relatively busy all the time. I've recently been experiencing deep experiences with cannabis using ceremony, intention, body awareness, and breathing to evoke the experience (as well as a good cannabis blend). The method at the start involves smoking a relatively large amount of cannabis blend (blend because the entourage effect is used to aid in the experience so usually more than one cultivar is used at a time) in a short time. Music plays a huge role in this too. I think my MDMA days are behind me. I already have pretty severe depression, and it usually makes it worse the days to weeks after, despite attempts to mitigate that effect. I intend to try ketamine in a clinical setting with the same organization that performs the cannabis ceremonies. It'll be my first time. I've microdosed San Pedro, which is very lovely. I'm hoping to be part of a peyote ceremony in October; sweat lodge and all.

It's been a good talk. Feel free to reach out with any questions

One love

Yoga means unity or union. It is the union between the purusha and prakriti, the "I" and the "everything else". The primary practice is meditation as that is the perfect tool for every aspect of yoga. I don't want to hijack the topic, but am available to chat any time. Either way, to answer the question, yoga is the overall goal; meditation is just one of 8 limbs or paths to yoga. Fun fact: Plant based medicines do not fit in the yogic lore and/or doctrine, but do have their place in the unknown or uncharted path. I have been doing my best to practice at least one aspect of each limb of yoga while also using plant medicines and art to hold a space on the uncharted path as well.

Ha! It's funny, some of what you said came to mind a while after I posted. It also shows that our distinction lies in a semantic realm; in Hindu schools, yoga is the overarching system and meditation is a subset (as opposed to roles being reversed, which can be said to be the case for many other practices; mainly because those systems don'tnecessarilyhave the "yogic" component). I think it's also prudent to note that yoga in this context is far removed from the common appropriation of yoga in the west.

Thank you for humoring me

One love

Fantastic. Many thanks for the link. I'll add the suggestions to my routine.

Many thanks for the advice. You're an invaluable source of information here.

I tried to assemble an e-mesh as well, but didn't have any luck getting the correct components, so I'll definitely have a look at the Crucible.

Yeah, DMT is a terrifying substance, albeit incredibly rewarding. I may yet try shrooms, although the length of the trip concerns me, to be honest.

I can't really talk more just now but I wanted to acknowledge your message.

Thanks agian.