SWIM is going to try Yellow Caapi dry extract 50:1 (ordered from Maya) tommorow night. What would be an adequate testing dose ? SWIM is rather anxious about this, as he never tried ayahuasca. It has been suggested to him that he first try a caapi only encounter and so, tomorow night he is going to try and 'meet' the spirit of the vine.
What should SWIM do (and not do) tommorow during the day, to ease the experience he is planing for tomorrow night? SWIM has no sitter. How much should he take (as to feel some effects , to make an idea about how are the effects of caapi, but not to endanger himself because of doing it alone). Please, any kind of recomendations, suggestions are welcome. He does not want to disrespect the vine.
He read that fasting is really not necesary with aya unlike the synthetic group of MAOI's. However he agrees that it is prudent not to eat a lot and so will only be eating some apples tomorow and maybe some bread. SWIM feels like a total newbie when it comes to ceremonial aspects of doing aya and stuff, and is kinda asking for some (any) suggestions, that may relieve his anxiety. How is caapi like ? He read most of the pharmacology and stuff regarding it, so he expects the caapi-only effects to be something like ...sedative?-hypnotic-deliriant-kind of thing ? What dosage is safe for a first experience considering the fact that it will also be done alone ? (but not so low, that it would produce no effects, becasue swim doesn't have really a lot of it to 'waste'.

SWIM has had some really bad/sad/bizzare experiences a couple of years ago with hypnotic sedative substances (when he took a couple of times, large doses of zolpidem [stilnox] for example) so he is a bit scared not to become "unconscious" of what he is doing. He hopes caapi is not like that. I guess SWIM's greatest fear is that he will go outside the house, during the 'inebriation' produced by the caapi. Is that an unlikely scenario ? Can caapi-only make you "loose control" over yourself completely (so to say) just like some people have taken hypnotic-sedatives and then the next day found out they were painting their front door red, and having conversations with strangers that they did not remember?

Can you recommend SWIM some music that would please the spirit of the vine or help him during his trip ? Something traditional ,although he is aware that using a dry-extract of caaapi is not really traditional, but at least make up for this ,with some music or recordings that people use in traditional ceremonies? Can SWIM do some activities tomorrow that are beneficial for the trip ?

Thank you all.

i am by no means an expert. i also have recently begun my caapi only brew experiences. my first time i did 100g and last weekend i drank 60g.
i dont feel qualified to recommend a dosage for you but i can tell you what i experienced that pertains to your questions. hope that might help some.

i didnt fast either time but stopped eating 6 hours before i dosed. the second attempt i did eat some cantaloupe 90 min prior to drinking because it was pretty uncomfortable dry heaving from having nothing in your stomach my first time. i purged quite a lot. 38 years of emotional toxins coming out! dont sweat the purge its a good thing i swear!

i had no sitter i just tried to make everything safe and have all items very close, puke bucket, water ext... a sitter would have been nice but i dont like having to make arrangements with other people to do these journey's. when i feel the time is right i go. not to mention i dont have any friends easily available that have ever done ayahuasca so id prefer nobody rather than a person that has no relation to what im doing.

i cleaned my house that dAY AND smudged the rooms often. as the hour approached i took as much time as needed to calm myself and have a good open feeling. dim lighting, soft bed, clean house and bedding.... ahhh life is good!

the only other thing i think i should tell you is that i too do not like entheogens that completely disconnect you from all reality and self consciousness anymore. i used to use dmt quite a bit and after a couple of terrifying and potentially dangerous journey's i cant let go and give myself to those types of trips, ie. salvia, dmt, ketamine ext. its just not for me.

i tell you this because caapi was nothing like that for me. it was intoxicating, yes, very wobbly on my feat and moving was laborious but never did i feel disconnected of confused. in a way my thoughts were crystal clear of who i was, where i was, and what i was partaking in.

all of what im relaying to you were from the 100g dose. the 60g caapi plus 40g chacruna i drank last weekend i didn't feel much at all practically nothing. ill be trying again on Sunday this time i am going to take 80g caapi and possibly some nn-dmt in citris that i have laying around from when i was still using dmt. the chacruna seems pretty low potency so im just going right to the source next time.

please come back ant tell us about your journey. they really help the community learn and grow.
have a good one.

Thank you olympus mon. You've been very helpful sharing your experience.
If anybody else cares to share their experience or provide answers/suggestions SWIM'd be very grateful. It helps alleviate the anxiety.
peace.

Hi there,
well, hope this doesn't come "after the fact" for your plans, but...
just last week or two got my first "vine only" (with yellow vine) and "scaling up with chacruna" under the belt. Took baby steps until found out how the reactions felt, dosing, etc...

It's clear that small to some is large to to others, so a few experiments are in order before travelling too far ...

Got up to 60gm vine before feeling much effect. Mellow, a bit on the dreamy side, but was very happy to find it active (borderline psychadelic).

SWIM found that an aya formula of 60gm vine (or maybe only 40 for black vine) with 15 gm leaf launched off the ground, kind of like a level 1.3. Supposedly this particular SWIM prefers at least a 1.5, and perhaps in a few days will try an 80g/40g or 80/50 mix with red vine.

Once SWIM find the right spot for Level 2.5-3.0, then he could go up from there with the benefit of that research.

Best to you and your mates!

Effects won't be like a hypnotic-deliriant, so don't worry there. SWIM had a 20x Caapi extract that worked quite well once at 2g, and only okay the second time with approximately the same dosage. I think having two doses weighed out, 1g and 0.5g for the first journey. Take the 1g and wait 15 minutes, if you're not feeling *any* effects, eat a slice of bread with some butter, or something like that, to get digestive juices flowing. Gauge again at 30 minutes and just ask if you should take the other dose. Even with the second dose, you won't be in large dose space, more like going from knee deep in the pool to waist deep.

I <3 Mama Aya.

thanks to everybody who replied. So, SWIM's decided to postpone his first experience with caapi, to Monday night (tommorow), because a friend of his offered to be his sitter and SWIM thinks having a sitter is better that doing it alone. Second reason for delaying it is that SWIM have taken cold medicine this week including today (containing ibuprofen and pseudo-ephedrine) and SWIM think pseudoephedrine might not get along well, even though SWIM took it in the morning, and it's half-life is 6 hours if he is correct, but SWIM guess a 30 hour period till tomorow night should be enough distance. Correct SWIM if he's wrong.

Judging from the posts above, SWIM've formed an idea that taking half a gram of 50:1 yellow caapi extract would be too little to notice effects (it would be the equivalent of 25 grams yellow caapi) , so SWIM is thinking to take the whole (1 gram) bottle (that would be the equivalent of 50 gr caapi), but maybe in two doses. Take half of it wait half an hour or so and then if he don't feel any effects get the second half ? Would that be a good idea ?

SWIM is still looking for music or audio that would be good during the trip. Or perhaps should SWIM just put his favourite chill-out music, and that would work better on relaxing him then something recommended by others ?

The only time SWIM has tried music with Aya, she made some unfortunate choices. Every other time she has used ear plugs and complete darkness, which worked out very well for her. Chill-out music would probably work well. I remember hearing a Psychedelic Salon interview with one of the women running the mushroom research project on helping terminal patients overcome anxiety and they claimed that The Mission soundtrack was universally enjoyed.

dont put on pandora! the fucking commerciALS WILL DRIVE YOU NUTTY

Caapi is nothing like Zolpidem (Ambien)....Trust me.

They even do the television thing, where the commercials are louder than the music. Good watching out, thx.

i know right!!! it really sucked and i was way too caapi drunk to move and shut it off. i was wishing a had a sitter for sure that time.

i like the "english medicine songs" on ayahuasca-wasi. theyr very powerful to me. i think being able to understand them (vs listening to spanish icaros) is advantageous.

http://www.ayahuasca-wasi.com/english/icaros.html

i download them onto my ipod, then listen with noise cancelling head phones, and wear a eye mask so i focus inward.