greetings to all the lovely neo-shamans who call the nexus home! i have been a lurker on here for years, ever since i first started to play around with the dearly beloved and sorely missed root bark of mimosa. it wasnt unusual for my team to process a kg of mhrb into 5-7g of sparkling, pale yellow crystalline dimensional gateway using a basic stb tek custom rigged for volume. ive tried extracting a/b on desmanthus illinoensis, which grows abuntantly in some parts of the world, but i was foiled upon freeze precip. by the goo! then i tried evaporation, and found i could get a decent product, but the waiting and the horrid smell! well now im experimenting with acacia confusa, doing an a/b. ill post my issues with that in another thread, but here ill divulge more about aneyema. he is in his 20's and was raised by a parent with borderline personality disorder. he grew up wanting to be a career soldier, until he discovered the writings of a certain anarchist by the name of alexander berkman on the internet, which prompted him to do a 180 in life and reject all forced-based forms of authority. from there he entered the drug world through the gateway of marijuana, and was a proper stoner/skater until the system caught up with him and put him on the diversion/probation circuit. it got hard to pass urine tests so aneyema started investigating other highs, and found erowid and dxm. from there his passion for altered states bloomed into a force of its own, and he proceeded to abuse cough medicine with reckless abandon as his legal troubles mounted and before he knew it, he was a full-blown druggie and in state custody as a repeat juvenile offender. to make a long story short, he continued pursuing his passion (getting loaded in every concievable way) and stayed on the wrong side of authority until he was an adult and the law had had enough with him, and left him to his own devices for a while. well time passes on and aneyema incurs a back injury at the ripe age of nineteen, never to heal. he begins drinking daily to kill the pain, and before long becomes an alcoholic. by now hes 'dealt' with addictions to dxm and methylphenidate already (continued using occasionally instead of chronically), didnt think alcohol would overwhelm him like it did. Aneyema becomes a homeless drunk, smoking crack and shooting meth, doesnt really care if he lives or dies. fast forward, and hes back in the suburbs, under his parents roof, and now hes experimenting with achuma cacti and mimosa bark. life-changing stuff. he begins to develop a sense of identity and purpose. reading the work of carlos castenada changes his perspective, changes how he thinks about life and reality. he begins to develop a spiritual life, but continues to drink to deal with the physical pain. he discovers 12-step programs, and that was the final straw. his demons reacted with brute madness, and in a relapse he became very aggressive and antisocial. he didnt directly hurt anyone, but he caused enough damage to get locked up for 2 1/2 years. in the can he learned more than he had ever learned in all his life before, about life, human nature, the system, and the nature of reality. now he labels himself as an open minded skeptic, a libertarian and a christian, but none of these labels truly define him and there are many areas where he deviates from the pattern. But what is of interest here is his ongoing affinity and relationship with the psychedelic substances of this world, which have taught him more about how to be a man in this world and a child of god than any book or teacher ever could. he feels he owes it to his people to use psychedelics, especially the ones that come from plants, and especially dmt in particular, because these substances transform him, they guide him into becoming a more whole person, and as he is healed, he recieves the capacity to heal those around him. we live in a sick world, haunted by malevolent forces (surely youve met them as i have) and it is our duty as spiritual warriors to use the tools god left us to fight, to resist, and to replace fear with love. and understanding. aneyema is a work in progress, to be sure. he borrows from a number of disciplines, and loves to let his soul pour out on the dance floor at edm shows. he wants to grow to achieve as much of his potential as he can in this lifetime, and he wants to learn to love everyone, to surrender all to god and place others before self. thank you for reading my brief story, i intend on sharing more in the community and joining in the pursuit of knowlege with my fellow nexians!