Good evening tryptamine-enthusiasts!

Those who indulge in this activity of ours via vaporisation are sometimes heard mentioning a feeling of being unable to breathe whilst in the early part of the experience.Those who have experienced mu agonist opiates/opioids I suspect are troubled less by this subjective sensation, having experienced respiratory depression willingly (and probably repeatedly).

Heres an interesting abstract to a paper which considers a possible role of the 5HT2a subtype of receptor in mediating respiratory drive in a gasping fashion.Its been shown that 5HT2a receptors in the human brainstem are pretty crucial to promoting respiratory drive in the presence of raised blood CO2 after a prolonged epileptic seizure and those on SSRIs tend to get less hypoxic after seizures, quite possibly through a resultant agonism at these receptors.

http://www.jneurosci.org...tent/26/10/2623.abstract

I hope this physiological explanation allows venturers to trust their brainstems wiring just a little more implicitly!

Very interesting stuff, CC.

Not that I was worried... actually, the deep gasp following hypoxia often makes me laugh

Thanks for sharing.

I once had an experience of not breathing while using freebase... I was in a very metallic but watery space, with lots of metallic- seeming wormholes popping ... Anyway I distinctly remember NOT breathing, and feeling like there was amniotic fluid In my lungs and I was in no need of air. T everyone else, it seemed scary as I reported it - but for me it felt blissful... At least dmt is metabolized so quickly I suppose

It's not true though. In Straussman's "DMT: The Spirit Molecule", many subjects felt like they had stopped breathing or that their hearts had stopped, while in actuality while being hooked to hospital measuring devices, they were breathing normally and only had slight elevations in heart speed and pressure, like 30-40 points. This happened to almost all subjects on high doses. Straussman and his assistant were sitting right next to them watching and observing. After I read this it made my fear of accidentally killing myself go away.

I smoke ayahuasca leaves or Syrian rue seeds beforehand to dramatically lessen this for myself, it is then more of a glide instead of being violently pushed off of a cliff

^^The ROA in Strassmans study was IV DMT fumarate over 30 seconds; vaporising freebase DMT has not been studied in the same way (AFAIK) and the apneustic effect could well be different between these 2 modes of delivery.

I had the same experience my first time. I didn't even break through, but I felt that I was being lifted into space, and I specifically remembering gasping for air, I like I COULD. NOT. BREATHE.

When I cam back, I told my friend what I had experienced and he was like, "Nope. You were breathing just fine the whole time."

So crazy.

My body wants to move, breath, see, hear in a completely different way relative to what I'm used to doing. For me, psychedelics provided a quick glimpse into that, but it took me a long time to put two and two together.

If I focus on letting go of my breathing, it stops. It's not a subjective sensation either, as I have fainted several times doing just that without any drugs. Eventually, a different kind of breathing kicked in, and I'm still working on holding on to that. My everyday breathing patterns still suck, but there is hope.

My point here is that psychedelics facilitated a view into the actual state of my body, but for a long time I mistook that for an altered state.

Smoked some changa a few weeks back from a small bong. It hit me like a train and I was left gasping from the sheer intensity. My partner told me I was breathing very deeply and I remember that trip being a real struggle. Visually it was a feast, rainbow serpents and all, shame about the physiological reaction.