I've been noticing in my own experiences as well as lots of reports I've read that a lot of people seem to think low dosed sessions are more difficult and anxiety provoking then higher dosed sessions.

I figured I'd start a thread to collect people opinions on this phenomenon to help the community out. I'll get the ball rolling.

My first two ever DMT freebase session were both 50mg a piece and smoked out of the machine. I did not breakthrough in either session but these were difnstely the two sessions that produced the most visuals and visions. However my mind did not move either time. There was no anxiety,fear or that feeling of oh no I'm not ready or I shouldn't have done this.

In all my lower dosed sessions since then two being 25mg and three being 15mg I've had no visions,some visuals but in all of them I've had a immense amount of fear and that typical negative feeling I associate with past entheogen trips in which I thought I'd never come back to reality and that the experience seemed as if it was taunting me or evil.

I do not understand this and I've still yet to breakthrough so I have no idea what to expect when I do. However these low dose sessions have me hesitant to up the dose out of fear the high dosed session may be difficult like these have been and therefore even more disturbing.

I to get a feeling of something is evil with the lower doses , or taunting entities are mocking me , but it takes alittle time to get you're happy medium to were you're completely comfortable with just totally surrendering !!

5-HT modulates a ton of different emotions and mood states in the brain, including fear. It doesn't surprise me that a low dose of DMT might tickle the amygdala just enough to generate a fear response, but doesn't activate enough receptors to create that feeling of universal well-being and wonder associated with high doses.

I've found it to be similar to the come-up anxiety I get on mushrooms, or the general uneasiness I get on a low dose of mushrooms. Terrence McKenna was really onto something when he preached the virtues of the heroic dose.

Try meditating or doing some breathing exercises as you explore the lower doses of DMT. Focusing on breathing, meditating and feelings of compassion are all known to quiet the amygdala and reduce fear/stress responses.

For me, no, not even close. I've had those dysphoric and very uncomfortable low dose experiences before (especially subbreakthroughs), mostly in the beginning of my work with it, but after doing it hundreds of times I realized it's just a small but intimidating barrier of initial anxiety, as if your left brain consciousness can sense the growing threat of obliteration. In my opinion it can easily be dealt with, with some practice. Low doses of changa to me are just like a nice mild mushroom trip really. Just shorter.

If you want, try taking some harmalas (or caapi or rue) orally or sublingually, then doing yoga and meditating before doing the low dose. Just slow, deep breathing. The best way to have a great low dose experiences for me is to move around to psychedelic music, just letting the energy move my body around in a sort of weird stretch yoga, and/or vocalize. Chanting is incredibly underrated in the western psychedelic community IMO. Even just for sober meditation, it is an invaluable tool. One memorable time during the comedown of a larger dose I went right back in simply through chanting whatever tones came out of me.

And I have to disagree slightly Nathanial. I think low doses can be very thereaputic and fill one with universal well-being and wonder etc. But sort of in line with what you said, I do think that the overwhelming feelings of love, wonder, ecstacy, understanding, oneness, and so on, of higher dose experiences can often overwhelm the mechanisms of fear-based experiences, unlike some subbreakthroughs where you're sort of straddling the dimensions, which can be confusing and scary at times. But those can be great to

Yea I've really been thinking about trying change lately as I never have. Just wondering if I should just make the 20x caapi leaf I've been planning on or if I should extract pure harmalas and infuse that way.

A rue extract seems way to time consuming given my situation right now. So I'm looking at a caapi extract if I go the pure harmals route. What about taking them sublingually? I've heard there more potent this way? Also do u think I should try a caapi or harmalas experience alone before adding DMT to it?

This whole thing fascinates me as I stop using entheogend for over a decade due to a series of bad experiences with LSD. And I just can't quite get them memories out of my head. I've used mushrooms since then a few times and had nice experiences though there's always anxiety in the back of my head waiting for it to go south. But my first two high dose DMT sessions where totally u like what I thought they'd be. Lower doses however have me either scared d that I'll be lost in hyperspace forever or there's dark tsu ting entities present.

I'm thinking my next expericne will either be with change or after peaking on MDMA as I had a super intense LSD trip even after all the bad ones while.on MDMA in the past.

Be careful mixing changa with MDMA. If you're using enhanced leaf that contains harmalas (for example, I use caapi changa), you're mixing an MAOI with MDMA which is a bad idea.

Yea definitely avoid changa + MDMA as Nathanial said.

As for the other questions, it's really all up to you. I just like to experiment with all sorts of methods and see what works for me. And yes sublingual is more potent than oral harmalas, but doesn't last as long, and IMO oral has nice effects on the digestive system.

I've had similar prolonged anxiety after bad LSD trips. I would look into ayahuasca and pharmahuasca (or rue/mimosa/etc). Oral might be a better way to work through that old baggage, especially if combined with other beneficial lifestyle changes. No doubt smoked DMT is capable of helping too, but the long duration and more personal content of oral DMT/harmalas is more conducive to that sort of thing, generally speaking. Although they are just tools and it comes down to you.

I used to get very frustrated with low dose experiences of any kind and then they usually would turn sour on me. They just never got me where I wanted to get to but rather had me going in loops of negativity concerning all the things that weren't right in my life plus the feeling of wasting time and precious psychedelics. Basically a low dose is too little to fully let go and explore the realms of deep consciousness but enough to alter your mind significantly so that you don't have your negative emotions under control, if they are there to begin with.

Once I became free of this kind of negativity I was able to enjoy low doses as well. As for anxiety I can't say. Only high dose DMT trips have ever been scary for me.

I accidentally kicked my own ass by taking a sizeable dose (for a GVG considering its brutal efficiency) in one quick hard breath. It shocked my system and really sent me into a panic, it hit so quickly I couldnt even put my GVG down I simply thought Id killed myself somehow. It was probably the most terrifying experience of my life. I was stuck between realms, everything was all minecrafty, I felt dead and I felt stuck in a void, like I would never be able to go back.

That said, I deicded to go backwards and start over. Im currently experimenting with 5-8mg doses with my GVG and will be working my way back up. For me and my GVG, 15mg over 3 hits delivers beautiful results. Euphoria, immersive sacred geometry, embrace and love, peaceful entity contact, 3D space, you name it.

So far, from what Ive seen, the 5mg area has been very slightly uncomfortable and last time felt very jagged, vivid, and I felt like I kept seeing flashes of evil looking jesters.

I feel like its still just my uneasiness/anxiety from my previous experience mentioned above. But I never had a trip so lifelike to date. It wasnt normal dmt space at all for me. It was like I was watching a movie reel that was all chopped up and flashy, and the surprising thing was it was the first time partaking outdoors on a beautiful evening. I was expecting it to be even better than my best experiences, which were all indoors.

I need to rid myself of the jitters and relax though for sure. As universecannon said, those fears are defeatable if we choose to.

"I was stuck between realms, everything was all minecrafty, I felt dead and I felt stuck in a void, like I would never be able to go back."

That definitely sounds familiar!

I should have also noted that I find the low dose effects of changa (or DMT while on some harmalas) to be vastly superior to just DMT on its own.

I have only experimented with lower changa doses (maybe 10 times).
The thing is i get ALWAYS to the same place, i get the same visuals (snakes, spiders and octopuss pattern), and my self/ego is completly intact. I know perfectly well where i am what i've done and i even feel more clear (more present in the now).
Basicly everything is normal, no entity contact, no fear, no nothing, just an intense euphoric display of sacred geometry.

My Friend who has taken the same dosage from the same batch as me, was completly floored (maybe even broke through), while i said to him afterwards it was "mild", and even dared to call the experience "slightly boring".

My impression is that i simply need more because of my brutal metabolism.

Except the initial velocity of the experience, i found nothing which made me feel uncomfortable.

My friend was mumbling that it was too strong, way too much and simply unbelievable, before he took another hit , and another....
It was uncomfortable for him (body distortion, extreme velocity), but didn't stop him from doing it again, so i assume it wasn't as extreme as some of you guys experienced.

It seems to me most people are having predominantly difficult experiences with DMT. Even those I hear about break through have difficult times feel like there dead or fried there brain and will never return to normal.

My question is if this stuff is so terrifying why do we keep doing it? Does anyone have beautiful breakthroughs or exprinces that aren't difficult or fearful or is that part of the exoeirnxw. I feel like I am always afraid and full of anxiety except on my high dose sessions bit I still haven't broken through.

I'm thinking Changa is my next trip. Just need help on the best way. Can anyone comment on how say 10x caapi leaf would compare to infusing with 1 gram harmalas?

Can I expect the same effects from the enriched caapi as compared to if in where to extract it and then infuse leaf with it?

I can't say I've ever used the 10x caapi, but I'd imagine it would not be as potent as 1g of pure freebase harmalas. It will definitely work, but I personally like my blends heavy on harmalas for what I use it for

I feel like its just one of those situations where we hear about the negative experiences because people need help interpreting, or just to share their experience. The beautiful journeys are to be expected to some extent, but theres always that one mindbomb.

Like with mine that I mentioned above, I certainly had Id say a good 3 or so prior experiences that were just outstanding. They were beautiful and everything I could have hoped for and then some.

In my case, what I learned from that horrible experience was that this stuff can really blindside the crap out of you, and that more care and respect is required. I took away that increasing dosage is not the goal with this, it's to take time and care learning to navigate each experience. Just because I was comfortable at X dosage didnt mean it was time to bump it up.

It was almost like I was being told "Ah ah ahhhh, do not pass go do not collect $200. Start over, start slower, and learn."




I really, really need to makea myself some changa