Thought this may be of interest.

http://www.vice.com/read...481-v20n3?Contentpage=-1

That is awesome. I watched an interview with Morris recently, cannot remember if it was the one in a taxidermy room, or the one with Adam Green and Daniel Pinchbeck. But, Morris had referred to knowing about a sponge that contained a form of DMT, glad to finally get the full scoop.

interesting indeed.

if you plan on trying anything with this, tread carefully into these murky waters.


this reminded me of azurescen paralysis

..very interesting read, thanks fractaleyes..

there was a thread on 5,6-Bromo-DMT here> https://www.dmt-nexus.me...spx?g=posts&m=284727

it is thought bacteria may be responsible for it's occurrence in sea sponges..
.

Very Neat read. In Florida, at a university I dont want to name, students in the Marine biology program were using a slime found only on the spines of a certain species of catfish as a mild psychadelic. I experiment with plants from all over the world, but I have had high hopes for psychadelics from the sea. More info as is arises please.

This is nothing new. Shulgin mentioned in TIHKAL that the seasponge species Virongula Rigida
contains 5-Br-DMT & 5,6-DiBr-DMT. However I'm glad to see this discussed here.

One problem is that sponges grow rediculously slow and therefor they aren't sustainable
tryptamine sources. Another is that these sponges are caribbean and possibly hard or
impossible to find anywhere else.

The synthesis of 5-Br-DMT is described in detail in that Vice article, but it seems far too
complex & possibly dangerous for any non-professional chemist to attempt.

Perhaps 5-Br-DMT could be bio-synthesized by feeding DMT to Brominating Bacteria, Plants or Fungi?

The facts are that humans know almost as little about what is under the sea as what is out there in space. I am sure that given the time and research many tryptamine and other interesting compounds will be found in oceanic organisms.

SillyPlantGuy,
that's intriguing about the catfish slime. How do you know about this - hearsay or did you know some of these people? Were they eating it, drinking it, or drying it and smoking it? Or something else? And more to the point, what inspired them to try this in the first place?

According to this it was an April Fool's Day hoax that grew legs -

http://www.fieldandstrea...daves-place-sailcat-zone

Dave's Place: The Sailcat Zone
The dope on the catfish-slime-licking phenomenon.
Article by Dave Hurteau. Uploaded on March 12, 2005

Big news for catfish lickers and their parents: No doubt many of you have heard (or tried to discover firsthand) that licking saltwater catfish-commonly called sailcats-can produce a hallucinogenic high, and that hooked teenagers along the Gulf Coast are paying up to $200 for the opportunity to lap up the gooey substance that oozes from the skin of a freshly caught specimen.

News of catfish licking first broke five years ago in a Florida sportfishing magazine, but a more recent article in the Tallahassee Democrat ("Catfish Licking: A New High?" quickly spread over the Internet and became a hot topic among fishermen, teenagers, and concerned parents. In it, Dr. John Hitron of the Florida State University marine lab is quoted as saying, "I've heard of people licking [BRACKET "catfish"] and getting zoned like they're on LSD."

Reportedly, when ingested, sailcat slime produces the sensation of being underwater. I should note, however, that the cats I have licked-for journalistic purposes only-have merely produced the sensation of having whiskers. And in fact, I do have whiskers.

* * * * *

The Democrat article doubtless informed many otherwise ignorant or skeptical parents, who were made aware of the need to investigate fishy odors, to periodically check teenagers' bedroom closets for saltwater fishing tackle, and to discourage unchaperoned parties at piers and beaches. Since then, uncorroborated anecdotal evidence seemed to suggest that parents might also check dresser drawers and book bags for doughballs, which, supposedly coated with the hallucinogenic slime, may go by the street names "dopeballs" and "cat-nips."

With the practice widely known, the question of how long people have been secretly licking catfish became a topic of some speculation. Several anonymous and unaccredited linguists took a second look at the slang term cat. Thought to mean "happening dude" and widely used during the freewheeling jazz era of the 1920s and revived during the drug-induced years of the late '60s and early '70s, some believed it to be a reference to early catfish lickers.

These people and others, however, were no doubt shocked by the latest development: In a follow-up article, the Democrat has revealed that catfish licking is a hoax. Staff writer Tony Bridges announced:

OK, listen up catfish lickers.
You've been punked. There's no hallucinogen in the slime.

According to the article, Doug Olander, editor-in-chief of Sport Fishing Magazine, made the story up for an annual April Fool's special in 2000. Parents who suspected their teenagers of catfish licking are breathing a collective sigh of relief, while some would-be catfish lickers are likely breathing a collective sigh of disappointment. Despite the revelation, however, there is concern that it may do little to discourage the practice now that it has caught on.

Siding with caution, sportfishing authorities continue to discourage catfish licking, though with the news that catfish slime is actually harmless, they have since softened their stance. For those anglers who just can't help themselves, authorities merely recommend that if they intend to only lick, and not eat, a given sailcat, they should lick it as quickly as possible and return it to the water immediately thereafter.

Ha!
Theres always a thread to match your thoughts on the nexus
I would say dmt or dmt analogues are almost certain to be found in the sea.

Wonderful article, very interesting, thank you for sharing!

This reminds me of a very sad post on the shroomery, where this guy had a pet bufo toad that died, and the guy decided to extract the toads body in xylene, and he died.
Oddly, one of his last posts in the toad extraction thread was a very random reference to Shulgin's work in Tikahl about these sponges, and that it should be researched.

I don't think i could hurt a living sponge, but i feel like this is something calling me.

Iam completely against any animal research, like that part about the scientists injecting the rats something with something, and watching how long it took to get exhausted and die in a cylinder glass of water WTF man! These people are psychotic!

QUOTE from the VICE article:
"Now let us examine the honeycombed curiosity that is Smenospongia aurea, the species primarily associated with the presence of 5-Br-DMT and other related tryptamines. S. aurea is a small reef-dwelling sponge that rarely grows beyond the size of a human hand. It is widely distributed in both shallow coastal waters and deep-reef twilight zones, from the Gulf of Mexico through the Florida Keys and into the western Bahamas and Caribbean. In life, S. aurea exhibits color morphs ranging from cinnamon tan to creamy yellow with occasional purple and green accents. Of particular interest to spongologists is the fact that Smenospongia species exhibit a curious aerophobic color-change reaction; when removed from the water the sponge becomes rubbery, exuding copious quantities of mucus and spontaneously transforming from brown to violet black, a color that is preserved after drying. The prominent spongologist Felix Wiedenmayer was the first to note the species’s unusual necrotic behavior: “The flesh becomes slimy soon after death, flowing out of the specimens, so that in most dry ones the black remainders of flesh merely coat the fibers and tympanize some of the meshes.” Multiple Aplysina species produce the tryptamine 5,6-dibromo-hypaphorine and also display aerophobic color-changing reactions, evolving from yellow in life though darkening shades of blue when removed from the water and proceeding to blackness in death. Similarly, Verongula species, which contain both 5-Br-DMT and 5,6-DiBr-DMT, display a dramatic aerophobic empurplement, accompanied by necrotic slime exudation. The response is analogous to the discoloration reaction observed in tryptamine-containing fungi, which form indigo-colored bruises when plucked from their substrate or are otherwise roughly handled.2

Funny how psylosibin mushrooms react the same way, and color, when exposed to oxygen.

Hello people its been a while, psychedelics aren't really a large part of my life these days however I still have an amateur interest in plants and phytochemical analysis etc.. Anyway just thought I would mention that there is still some official research being done into alkaloids and marine molluscs. Its ongoing so nothing concrete but if I hear of any interesting findings I will report back.

hi there DreaMTripper stay well

all these sea sponge entheogens remind me of Are You Experienced.. like 'not necessarily stoned but beautiful..'

it's 5 Bromo DMT which should have entheogenic activity, according to the late great Sasha Shulgin...

Hey nen, good to see you still around fighting the good fight!