This is a first time Changa experience post, but it's less about what I experienced while on it and more about what I've been dealing with afterwards. Previous to this I have had two guided Ayahuasca ceremonies. I wanted to reach out to all of you who may have had a lot of changa and/or syrian Rue experience, and maybe help others who are about walk down that path for the first time.

I did not make this changa myself, but my supplier ensures me this is a blend of mimosa extract, syrian rue seed extract, and damiana leaf. I stupidly packed a bowl of 200mg's in a bong(150mg's was the recommended dose, which would have contained 50mg's of DMT). My GF had the 150mg's. Both of took down the whole bowl at once in one huge rip, and held it in for a while. The supplier has since informed me that was the wrong move, and it should have been stretched out into a few smaller hits.

The experience was extremely intense, momentarily out of body. Started off with a vision of a seated buddha, some revelations about the nature of the material world, but then led into what I would have imagined a "little death" ayahuasca experience to have been. My gf had a similar experience, death trip kind of thing. That alone would have been fine, but what brought me here, after many hours of searching online for answers, is what happened afterwards and continues now, almost a week later.

I imediately begain to feel a feeling of unwellness, like the core of my soul has been infected, and a slight, ever growing headache. The headache was localized, mostly left frontal lobe, and felt like pressure. It continued to grow throughout the night, and lasted for a full day afterwards, sporadically coming back the next couple of days after that. That has been accompanied by a pretty big headchange. Cognitive function was tough, though it has been getting better. Still, I feel the presence of something, a hangover of sorts, and what feels like pressure in my head. My GF has had a variety of other symptoms and even broke out into a fever that has thankfully subsided.

I was previously aware of MAOI and food/drug interactions, though I think I may have underestimated it's importance and risks from what I have come accross online. That day I abnormally had a couple of tap beers at lunch, also a little bit of blue cheese on a salad, as did my GF. I waited about 6-7 hours until the Changa sessions, thinking it would be enough. Did we have a hypertensive crisis? Seems unlikely since the only real symptoms were headaches. What are these headaches anyway, is it from cranial pressure from increased bloodflow? Is the MAOI from the rue still in our system? What am I feeling right now and why this long? Brain damage from ICP headaches? There's a lot of contradictory stuff out there on rue. Is it just a DMT hangover from a heroic dose? I know no one out there has definitive answers, but just hearing someone who has gone through something similar I think will help the two of us recoup in the time ahead. It feels like it could be a long while if ever that we will feel "right" again. Staying sober a long while after this for sure.

I'm sorry for the long ass post, but my intention with Changa was to have a similar healing/learning experience I had with Aya. Aya was so beautiful, I glowed for weeks afterwards. It felt like psychodelic nutrients. What I got was the opposite, but I don't want this to be the end of the road for me with the benifits of this sacred medicine.

Welcome, IcaroDreamer.

As you know yourself, you guys went a little over the top with the dosing... I wouldn't do that particularly with a blend that I have not prepared myself. But regarding your question, a hypertensive crisis due to food interaction with harmalas is very unlikely, more so when smoked. Harmalas are reversible MAO inhibitors, and a very strict diet is not necessary. So at least I think you can rule that out.

Alcohol doesn't wix very well with harmalas IMO, but interactions with other substances or the intense nature of the experience seem more likely candidates for the post symptoms you describe. Or perhaps a little of all of the above.

Sodium Hydroxide comes to mind. I had the same symptoms my first 1-3 tries. Slight headache and fogginess after those sessions.

Possibly still some NaOH (Lye) in his mimosa/rue extract. Personal experience from not washing/rinsing extract first time.

The way I could tell was by tasting the end-product.

- Acrid and caustic taste indicated lye. (Kinda like licking a battery but more acidic and less electric)
- Bitter with no caustic taste is clean or more clean IMO. (Alkaloid is naturally bitter)

You may want to do your own extraction, so you know what is and is not in your end-product.


.....Or it could be a totally different reason. My .02 cent.

Peace&Love

Thanks for your feedback. It sure is possible that this is tainted with some impurities that may have hindered my experience. However, it is now 7 days later. Today I took a suppliment, that I normally took on the days before the Changa with no problems, which contains L-Tyrosine. This, as most of you know, is on the do not eat list for MAOI's. It brought a world of pain, headaches came back full force, as if it was just hours after my Changa session. Also accompanied by a fucked up confusion kind of feeling and slightly blurry vision. The information out there on reversable MAOI's, including the stuff on Nexus, can't possibly be accurate, at least when it comes to syrian rue. Sure, it wasn't hypotensive crisis, I was not in danger of death or serious injury, as I tested my blood pressure to make sure, but damn does it suck to feel like that all over again. It seems like it's going to take at least the two full weeks for the MAOI to get out of my system, and hopefully things will go realitively back to normal.

So frustrating. I think I'm done with with this Changa/RMAOI/RIMA business for good. Aya I'll do, if I ever get the chance again, and maybe pure spice sometime in the distant future.

I have been sick for days after ayahuasca once when I had way way too much vine..never 7 days though...

I have tons of experience with both vine and rue and headaches are def possible if you overdo it. I am not even really sure this has anything to do with food interactions but I will tell you this..many recipes I read here on this site for changa that contain extracted harmalas or extracts of harmala plants contain far too much harmalas..this is just my opinion though.

50mg of DMT is just a giant overdose for my body..especially with harmalas.

Smoking harmalas brings out the absolute worst of the harmala effects in my opinion. I tried to smoke about 15-20mg about 2 weeks ago and got quite strong harmala dream effects followed by horrid nausea and tracers for hours that made it hard to walk..I think it is safe to say smoking harmalas is not for me besides plain caapi leaf in changa..im not even into that 10x caapi leaf stuff man. I wont smoke that stuff. My body just does not like vaped harmalas. Harmalas are about 100x more potent vaped than smoked anyway..so 1mg should be enough. I read reports of people adding like 25mg harmine per dose of changa etc..

It is best to make your won changa to be honest. That is the only way you know what you are getting. The same goes for ayahuasca. I dont really smoke DMT that often as I do almost all of my work with ayahuasca and rue brews these days..but when I do make changa I just use caapi and passiflora leaf, unextracted. That alone is strong enough to synergize.

So, you could have smoked like 20mg of harmine/harmaline mix along with that 50mg of DMT..In my experience higher doses of harmalas can set off some kind of neuro feedback chain of events sort of thing and you can have some nausea or other effects for a few days. It is rare but it has happened a few times in the few hundred times I have drunk the tea. I would not worry about it..worrying can just make it worse than it really is. Relax and eat some grounding food..maybe eat some ginger its a nice vasodialator and might help the headache.

If I was you I would just not smoke harmalas..work with ayahuasca or take a few mg's of harmalas sublingually before you vape..thats better than smoking the harmalas anyway.

Thank you, Jamie! That kind of reply is precisely why I made this post. I think you must be right about the level of rue extract in this changa blend. I had 200mg of Changa in one big hit, which would have been closer to 70mg's of "spice"! The amount of harmala's in that hit is anyone's guess, although now 10 days afterwards, I can still feel that familiar feeling creep up after having some garbanzo beans or something like that, though not quite as bad. I'm feeling better though overall, which is a relief. Definitely laying off this blend of Changa for good. As you suggest, and after spending some time on this site, I do feel inspried to one day do my own extraction in the most clean and "organic" way possible. I'm also interested in making my own caapi leaf changa blend one day, as the spirit of the vine is something I can get behind.

I've had a similar blend before and so many people on the Nexus say that diet doesn't matter as much because it's a reversible MAOI but I urge you to reconsider that notion. I had the worst headache in the world having smoked rue changa and then had some chinese food with MSG in it. The headaches were so bad it felt like my head wanted to explode. It was really the first time where I thought this is it... Im going to die from this pain(so much that I couldn't move), I puked from the pain/pressure in my head. Same thing happened to my brother. Since then Ive dosed the same blend with even high dose with a strict diet and no headache occurred.