Ahoy! I am just out here trying to function, blossom with my shamanism and attempt to connect myself with the universe. I want to become a full member because I have lurked around this forum for a long time, and have appreciated a whole lot of the posts here. I've found myself having a lot of probably valuable input for a few topics and a fair number of valuable questions I think people here may be able to help answer.

I am knowledgeable with regard to chemistry, plant biology, fungi and cacti and would like to become more knowledgeable with regard to sacred brews.

Welcome to the Nexus!

Glad to have you onboard

Would you mind expanding a bit more on your experience with psychedelics in general, and also extractions?

Be well!

Sure thing. I have been extracting alkaloids from plants for pharmaceutical reasons for some time now. Ibogaine is of particular note for this forum. I have some experience with mescaline as well. I have had to do a DMT extraction one time in lab conditions and would not say I am an expert on doing the same thing at home, but I could certainly figure it out.

The bulk of my psychedelic experiences come from Mushrooms,both Amanita and Psilocybe. I have spent a great deal of time with a mushroom Shaman I had come to know in Mexico. She has since passed away, but I carry on her tradition to the best of my will and purpose. Since my meditations and learning with mushrooms, I was driven to learn from Ayahuasca.

I have participated in four aya ceremonies, and experimented personally with it many times. I have experimented with the brew and botched a great number of them. Of my experiences, I have had one successful aya journey even as I watched the other participants blossom in awe for the brew. Basically, I am trying to find the sweet spot with the brew that will conquer my body and my ever-active mind.

EDIT*

It may be important to note that I have never used iboga or ibogaine. I just happen to know how to produce it for pharmaceutical use and hence I am familiar with its safe use outside of shamanic tradition. I intend to explore iboga as well, but I will wait until I find the qualified person to guide me.

Welcome, fellow mushroom man!! We share many of the same interests. Although, I've had no "formal" training, sometimes listening to your heart can teach us a lot.

I do a lot of work with rieshi, as well as the Psilocybes and Amanitas.

What are some of the values that you share in your teachings?

Welcome! You carry quite a unique story. Glad to be apart and have you on board. Plant teachers are a valuable, sacred source of healing and vision. It'll be interesting to see your input on your stepping stone to the great frontier of aya that you seek.

I have learned many valuable lessons from the mushrooms. But the major value I have come to try and embody is the kinship I personally have with the ground and the great network of creatures and spirits. Particularly I try to share the custodial work that you might understand psilocybe mushrooms take on. Basically I mean to integrate the human strength in intellect with the way they form their own vision and create things in this world. I also effort to serve as spiritual conduit for the people who are interested in the human place among the ethereal but don't know how to approach it, but that is probably a result of my training and not my psychedelic experiences. If I was to reduce it to one word, I would say repeat ENTHUSIASM! Seven times and then laugh forever.

I have been VERY interested in reishi and chaga, but I haven't put enough effort into growing my own. I prefer not to consume mushrooms I didn't help fruit most of the time. Except chaga, because it seems its nature is to be found (that said, I've never found any). I'd be happy to discuss that, AcaciaconfusedYah.

And it is true, Cognitive Heart, I aya is so fast a frontier that I can't step deep through the threshold without community. That's actually part of the guidance my only aya experience brought to me. Can't wait to share it with you [folks]!

Welcome goodbrother - It's always good to see new converts from "Lurker" to "Contributor".
You sound like you have a good amount of experience and knowledge. We would certainly like to hear some more details on your lab condition extraction of DMT

Well, I did my first and only extraction of DMT at university from MHRB. This was a while ago, mind you. But more or less it was an experiment to see how DMT crystal formations looked. I was one of five people making the attempt, I did a standard extraction with polar/nonpolar solvents. The process was the same as for mescaline, but at a somewhat smaller volume.

I think the reason to specify lab conditions is that I had large flasks, a good heating plate, separator, lots of time and lots of reagents: HCl, Petrol, dichloromethane, methanol if I remember correctly. I don't remember exactly what base I used at the time. From what I've seen of the teks commonly used here, the popular extractions here are way more environmentally friendly, accessible and cheaper. My end volume of resin was 8g I think. After that, all five of us combined our resins and dried them out to view them. As far as I know, the end product had not been consumed.

Honestly, the only thing separating what I did from what conceivably is done at home is that I had the equipment and reagents to be VERY thorough with the substrate. I used the same substrate at least twice, and then did a secondary extraction from the substrate/solvent mix after it had been used.