That's a good way to preserve your spice. It will last a very long time that way . Keep moisture out as much as possible. I use desacant in my storage files to absorb moisture. Should last for years that way.

I think the trick to a smoother experience is having an idea of your own limitations and also knowing your own mind and when is the right time to launch. As someone that gets apprehensive before any psychedelic experience, I think it natural to feel some anxiety before a venture into the unknown, just as you would feel if you were to jump out of an airplane on a skydiving venture. You never know if this jump is gonna be the one that the chute decides not to open or something else catastrophic that could happen.

To paraphrase the wise Hyperspace Fool, it would be stupid to jump out of an airplane without checking that all your equipment is in top shape and that you have the prerequisite training to do so, and the same holds true for entheogenic use. It would be foolish to jump into these realms without knowledge of the territory and your own mind and also with skills in dealing with a bad trip. Learning a form of meditation (I got a lot from mindfulness meditation) can be a great way to gain more control during entheogenic voyages for instance.

For myself, I only have moderate experience compared to a lot of other Nexus members, and because of that, and knowing my own mind and limitations, I am damn careful with when I choose to take that metaphorical jump out of the airplane that is entheogenic traveling and especially DMT traveling. It has been awhile (bar some cannabis use) since my last journey but am slowly feeling a pull towards some low dose changa meditation work to ease myself back into the fray... But that is me, and some are folk are fine with diving in the deep end and emerging relatively unscathed every time, each person is different and I know that that approach is too dangerous for me.

Know your own mind and know thyself is some sage advice I have taken from the best on the Nexus and in life in general. Peace be with you in your travels brother

It should be fine. It will color a bit with age. I keep mine in the cool, dry dark, and it turns from white to beige to reddish.

In terms of psychedelics being so scary, I find the most fear is often right before I take them. So if I'm smoking DMT, I may have anxiety right up until the point that I've got the vapor down in my lungs. As I'm holding in the hit, I instantly calm down. Likewise in the case of acid, I get nervous right up until the point that the tab hits my tongue. Now in my mind, I know that it will take quite a while for the acid to kick in, but the anxiety instantly vanishes, and I think this has to do with "executing the deal". Before that vapor hits your lungs, or before the tab hits your tongue, there's still time to back out for whatever reason. You make the commitment, and what's gonna happen will happen.

Also in the case of DMT, I find that my pre-flight anxiety is more biological than psychological fear. It's not "me" who is nervous, but rather more akin to a series of automatic fight/flight kinds of responses. In the case of acid, I think I probably tend to be a bit more afraid as it tends to be a bit more physically uncomfortable for me, and the notion of getting caught in a long-winded bad trip is not always the most desirable thought to be stuck with going into a trip.

Another question comes to mind....


Why is sobriety so scary?

I think a reason why they're both scary is due to a sort of ceasing of control of emotions. When you're sober, if something really terrible happens, you have to work through it the old fashioned way. If you can just smoke weed or something like that, it's a way of keeping certain emotions (particularly anxiety - though it works reverse for some people in this department) under control. Although both psychedelics and cannabis are drugs, with psychedelics you are likewise playing roulette with your emotions. You may get lucky and hit on heavenly bliss and love and warm fuzziness, or petrified, frustrated, and unconditionally upset as examples.

@ op

i find that after the experience i am less afraid to repeat it, also if i keep it fairly often in my routine its less daunting. the longer i go without immersion into entheogenisis the more i fear it. i think the ego slowly puts up stronger and stronger defense towards its dissolution


@ eliyahu

sobriety i guess could be considered scary, but i dont consider a healthy entheogenic diet (every couple of weeks-months) to be a lack of sobriety. obviously a habit of dosing something to get off is not a healthy routine and couldnt be considered sobriety regardless the substance. i feel that entheogens are a necessary part of most peoples diet so they may have a catalyst to respond to in such a way that they consciously attempt to better themselves and develop psychically. i think addicts find sobriety scary, most people are addicts of something.

It does become less scary. It does get easier to just let go.

Humans are always stronger and more resilient then they think they are.
That also applies to YOU. Trust me on that.

I have been trying to jump back into hyperspace for the last couple of weeks and everytime I get the same insane anxiety and fear. I believe now that it's simply a fear of myself or a fear of the unknown.

The fear of myself is that I for some reason will not be able to control or manage what I'm being shown or where I go... I'm starting to believe that through meditation, yoga or other methods of self exploration that you can to some degree control or manipulate the trip but I really don't have enough experience yet to prove this, only time will tell

I think a lot of it is simply fear of the unknown or fear of personal change, the greatest fear in life is change but it occurs all the time, evolution is an example of impermanence I think.

Thats just me anyway

I think this is your main issue right here, and it's an issue of control. DMT does not respond well to those who are trying to manipulate or control the experience. It's much more of a passive experience than an active one, and the quicker you can internalize this, the sooner you'll have smooth sailing. Training yourself to surrender and relinquish control over to the experience make those out-of-your-mind, crazy intense experiences so much easier to deal with. Negativity and negative energy become the alchemical fuel from which to produce the "gold" that the experience has to offer.

I agree with Global, it is very important to surrender to a trip. You can control external factors, but once the trip has started all you can do is let it run its course by surrendering. For me there's no fear in surrendering to DMT. DMT takes care of me if I treat it with respect by being mindful of external factors beforehand and surrendering to it upon consumption.

I also agree with polytrip

I would suggest you to consider oral DMT (Ayahuasca or Pharmahuasca). It actually helped me a lot to "understand" the dynamics of smoked DMT... And, besides, it´s not that different from Mushrooms (or, perhaps better, from Mushrooms + MAOIs)

Experience with Pharmahuasca made my smoking sessions with the Spice actually less scary

This is thread is making me ask a more basic question: Why do we do it?

No one here describes anything enjoyable, so why so we put ourselves through this? Hard to integrate, hard to go on with normal life, hard to go back... why do we do it?

Who said that it´s not enjoyable? It´s challenging for sure. But so is rockclimbing, skydiving or pregnancy.

Really? Wow, I feel bad for yall. I'm a borderline DMT junkie at the moment. I've always loved psychedelics. I had a few bad experiences when I was younger on LSD and shrooms, but that was from a lack of respect and bad set/setting.

I took a 12 year break from psychedelics and only just recently came back after discovering extraction. I have a deep respect for DMT. I always put that pipe to my lips with trepidation, but then whooosh I'm in heaven.

I could see if someone was in a bad place mentally etc. DMT could really scare you. Luckily for me I always have amazing experiences with it. The only negative for me is having to face this screwed up world after having been to Heaven all night/day.

I cant wait to try Changa. I cant believe it can get any better, but it sounds like Changa is even better than pure crystal.

[]Deace

huh..intersting choice of words. DMT "junkie" is the last term I would use to define my relation to this molecule.

Totally agree. Now that I'm older and have been through soooo much I feel like life has taught me the art of surrender. After taking a long break, I was surprised to find out how well I handle this medicine now. My ego has been crushed, humbled, bruised, and battered. I've had to learn how to put my mind on the back burner and just be.

The only negative experience I've had on DMT was after coming home from a terrible day at work, all caffeinated out and then smoking dmt.

I find it helps my trip if I ruminate my intentions, my goals right before I take a toke.

I was trying to illustrate my affinity for "the molecule". Its not uncommon from what I've read from other folks on the Nexus to state that early in their work with "the molecule" they had a tendency to over do it.

I've been experimenting quite a bit and have had extremely positive results thus far. I meant it more as a term of endearment, but I can see how "junkie" could come off sounding bad. My apologies.

A trick I have come up with for myself is understanding the fear as a natural mechanism of protection -- in other words if I'm terrified before smoking dmt its a good sign that my fear mechanism is in working order. Then I feel reassured that what I'm feeling is 'correct' and all those smaller knowledge-context experiences are soon going to be out the door anyway. As soon as I feel the dmt it becomes a great big joke and then vanishes into the ...

The terror is reassuring.

I also smoked small amounts of dmt dozens of times to get used to the feeling. Would really like to do pharma but haven't had the time yet. I found that doing small doses really helped me flesh out bits about what might be happening and to get used to the sheer speed of the whole shebang. I've been to the end of countless thought-directions and so am able most of the time to short circuit thoughts as they start because I know where they lead for me, so I can just be done with them from the get-go. Now that I am able to handle the spice fairly calmly, it helps my less experienced friends to stay relaxed just by my being there with them.

Interesting question, Shiva... I have been asking myself the same question as of late. I am 100% miserable lately, something which I only partially attribute to my DMT consumption. Actually, it is a symptom of the same disease that led me to smoke DMT in the first place. Now that I have smoked it, I am made more acutely aware of the things in my life that I need to address, the ways I earn my living that I need to change... The only problem is that the DMT didn't really give me the courage to make the change, and now I'm miserable because I KNOW I need to do something different to be happy, but I'm not brave enough to do so.

fear of the unknown.

You can learn to cope with it, but it never leaves you. Thats why you won't find someone who can dose whatever psych at whatever physically safe dose and repeatedly get a positive/good/productive/whatever hackjob word used to describe a relatively positive expirence, and never have a bad time.

You can only learn to work with the intamable that is the unknown. But deep down you know its beautiful, shocking, and terrifying potential to be intristically unpredictable in profound ways.