My friend has been having a very difficult time recently. He has purchased MHRB from 5 different vendors, some in the US, some outside of the US. None of the RB purchased has left him with anything that produces anything more than VERY mild CEV much less a breakthrough. Something is very wrong. Some of the RB he knew was bad, as the end product had a very slight indole smell and when vaporized smelled slightly flowery. This particular batch also would not recrystalize and whatever it was would fall out very quickly as powder Other batches have looked perfect, smelled strongly, but when vaporized only produced the vibrations and euphoria without any visuals. Others produce purple and grey CEV lines, faces and shapes, no colors, no vibrations, and no breakthough... Each batch has its own distinct mild effects, and each of these effects are repeatable with each given batch. He even tried a blind test, labeling each vial and having his wife pick one out and load up the pipe. My friend has tried A/B (at various pH's 2-4) with and without heat and STB and nothing has produced quality results. At one point he even took his one of his final products to a friend who noticed the same results. He uses naptha (VM&P) and 100% NaOH crystals. These are the same supplies he used for his first few extractions. Since I haven't seen people complaining about problems with their vendors and root bark I assume my friend is having a problem with his extraction or brain chemistry, but it is very strange that his first three extractions worked very well and everything since has been bunk. Recrystalization in heptane does nothing to fix the problem, but he has learned how to make very nice inactive crystals! The only thing med my friend takes is Benicar for blood pressure (low dose, minor hypertension). He has tried being off his meds for a few days to see if it is somehow blocking the effects it doesn't seem to matter. He even thought that maybe his twice a month mushroom useage may have been causing some tolerance to the sacred spice, but it has been over a month since his last psycadellic usage (save the repeated spice attempts). All in all over $300 has been wasted. The best my friend has gotten was 5 minutes after smoking 50mgs (with very little effects) putting another 50 in the vaporizer and hitting again, he did get some serious OEV for a few minutes (very minot OEVs), but this effect could not be replicated the next day. My friend uses a bent "meth style" pipe that fits into another large glass chamber (looks like a mini glass bong). This is the pipe he has always used for spice. Thinking he has some residue from previous bad spice he has throughly cleaned the pipe with 99% IPA, heptane, and naptha between each batch of spice. He uses the same smoking technique that he has been using since he made his first batch a year ago. The spice was something that he was embracing as a sacred sacrament but it has turned into something that is now brining him frustration and dissapointment. Does anyone have any ideas on what is going on? My friend really thought he had gotten down the A/B extraction (Marsafold) and the STB (Normans) teks, but he is at a loss and VERY frustrated. Any suggestions other than take a break for awhile (which he is planning on doing after his last recrystalization attempt on some garden's RB).

I hardly see how crystals could be inactive. I mean if you got crystals from MHRB extraction and if that crystals melt at low temp and are looking like DMT crystals, they are obviously massivly DMT. The problems must be in your brain chemistry or ability to let go. It seems you are experienced with shrooms and therefore you know how to let go or you would'tn repeat it Why not try some 'enhancers' : cannabis, kratom, syrian rue ? Hmm, Syrian rue is maybe not recomended for blood pressure problems ? Kratom may be a bit stimulant and may increase BP. My friend reported me pretty weak results when he smoked the spice during the afternoon while the same batch gave awesome trips just before sleeping. The brain might be more 'receptive' at certain times...

My friend uses Kratom daily because of an opiate addiction he has been kicking. Syrian Rue may be the answer, he has some sitting around and may try the salt extraction trick or just take some ground up seeds. My friends BP is not very high when off the meds 120/85 usually, but he usually takes them daily. He also uses cannabis on a daily basis, but has cut back alot thinking it may be dampening the effects. He will try a massive amount of cannibis tonight before his last try. Letting go is not the problem, At least I don't believe, my friend is quite experianced with dozens of psycadellics, mescaline, lsd, mushrooms, and a host of rc's (both phenethylamines and tryptamines)... and enjoyes the detachment that many of them produce. 500mg of mescaline or 4grams of Cubes are not an uncommon doses for him. Inactive maybe the wrong word....what my friend is producing is active. Not effective at producing more than a threashold effect at 40-50mg would be more accurate. He may just go all out and put 80-90mg in the pipe tonight with his newly recrystalized batch...the crystals he is producing are just beautiful...I may ask him to take a pic to post up here.

Ah ok... seems that your friend's neurons are already loaded with tons of stuff [quote:31ced7b450]he has some sitting around and may try the salt extraction trick or just take some ground up seeds.[/quote:31ced7b450] Why salt ? Elkabong reccomend a Syrian rue juice and smoked DMT half an hour after. This seems very wise to me.

"Take rue, powder it, place it water with small amount of acetic acid (distilled vinager) bring to simmer, cool and strain, repeat at least once, on the last batch, add the strained water hot and dissolve a good quantity of non iodized salt into the water, place in fridge/freezer (watch it so it don't freeze and break your container) and cool down to really cold, brownish orange flakes will percipitate out, let set in fridge until flakes settle to bottom, pour off excess liquid, then filter the rest through a coffee filter, wash with cold salt water, dry and scrape off the powder. This is extremely efficient and I understand is the technique used in the field to test for harmaline." It works well and gives almost pure harmaline crystals. My poor friend is worried his HT receptors might be fried...

I thougt that too once, that I lacked enough HT-5 receptors, or fried them all, but they must 'grow back' ... ! I believe in a diurnal rhythm in our brains, making us more and less sensitive to dmt depending on time of day - I don't know how to breakthrough in the day time, it seems. Otherwise I've wondered if some of us are endowed with uber-MAO enzymes, or have a diet that actually keeps more MAO enzymes around in the blood..? Are we to assume the smoking technique is down pat...? Slow draw with thickest vapour possible, and no residues left behind...? using a 'bed' of leaf and multiple screens..? I guess with Rue seed done via a vinegar and salt extraction / precipitation, you can smoke the harmaline crystals, too then...? One could test their body's sensitivity to dmt by eating 80 -100 mg on a good dose of Syrian-Rue juice; it's NOT the same as a huge breakthrough lungful of dmt, but the combo' will show you how many MAO's you really have to inhibit, in order to get 'there' ... Also there's that idea about flooding your body with smoked meats (bacon) and lentils before smoking dmt - You 'sensitize' your body to dmt by eating lots of bacon and beans... the food will have MAO enzymes already inhibited or 'busy' cleaning up the tyramine and tyrosine amino acids in those foods so the dmt can slip by.

But Elkabong, a 40mg dose does produce some closed eye visuals, in the day or at night, right? Was there a point for anyone where there was a serious lack of visuals, day or night. I mean, my friend is not even talking about a breakthrough...just a glimps at the veil is more than he has had in the past few weeks. Also with the rue salt extraction the crystals are pure enough to smoke, snort (damn painful), or just weight out and eat. Rue juice sounds just awful to me (no offense), the smell of it when extracting is enough to make me a little queasy, although that may be some mental conditioning from my first aya attempt. I posted a detailed rue extraction for anyone that has an interest in the extraction page. The harmine crystals are very cool to work with (always used for mushroom potentiation) and glow like the dickens under black light.

yes, that's it ... daytime launches with known breakthrough amounts (>35 mg) seemed 'inhibited' ... bouncy, black and white CEV, no enjoyable OEV, and then feeling all 'wrong' in terms of space-time upheavals and when to do these things. I don't mean day trips can be 'negative', but they have been a rough, non-penetrating ride into hyperspace. Not warm and welcoming, as I find the Rue seed extract makes it - a soft entry as the veil melts over you. Almost like the veil was 'hard' when I have tried day time launches. They have been poor enough that I just avoid daytime now, so I really don't know enough to say anything for sure. The lemony-rue extract I know tastes like lemon juice; it's non-nauseating which a serious consideration for me, and it's so simple to make the day before. I'm a slow learner but I like the sound of harmaline extract for when I get a kilo of seed !

Ok! My friend finally launced from his last recrystalized batch.... It was not the spice but my friend who was having the problem (however, prior batches were finally concluded to be VERY tainted with unknown alks). Still no veil (which I consider amazingly beautiful) but a pair of lips came at my friend very slowly, and growing in size as they came forward, then POP, a multicolored creature formed around these lips, and threw me into the beyond. He remembers very little after that, but when he regained his ego, the comedown was a little speedy and shaky, however he was so happy that he could still enjoy this sacrement. He thinks maybe a combination of being lazy with his smoking methods, too low of a dose, and some other factors may have played a part. One theory he is about to try out is melatonin. He has been taking melatonin pretty regulary to help get to sleep, but for the past 3 weeks has stopped taking it and switched to a perscription sleeping aid (Ambien) every few days...last night he decided to go ahead and take his melatonin instead. I wonder if melatonin levels have something to do with breakthroughs and/or sensitivity to DMT. EL Ka Bong and others have noted that breakthoughs happen a lot easier at night than during the day... So I wonder if ones melatonin levels inhibit or enhance DMT's action. Melatonin is also produced along with DMT in the pineal gland, so there may be something there (or maybe not). I know of no way to actually test this other than bioassays on and off of melatonin, but there are so many other factors. Any ideas on Melatonin's action with DMT?

If I remember correctly, Rick Strassman's work found that some people (was it 5% of us..?) have no, as in zero, reaction to dmt when injected. Once I thought I had become one of those dmt-insensitive types ... but no, it turned out to be a bad batch that had oxidized to a blackish brown - giving rough, "red jungle spice' type trips... Rick worked with melatonin too I think, I can't remember if he tested it's cross reactivity with other tryptamines...

Ambien works very fine with DMT (remember it's a hypnotic). THe problem is that it's even harder to remember the trip the next morning Melatonin should to be taken 1 hour before smoking to unsure a possible influence. But I doubt it works seriously.

a definite link between melatonin and DMT here are some ites with somewhat ague info, but if u run a search for the link betwen them u will find more. i can remember when i first became interested in dmt and did some research, i found some article that if i remember correctly, said that they are both metabolized by some of the same receptors to initiate dream-like/mystical expereinces, and that both were released during sleep in order to maintain the level of consciousness that sleep falls into. like i said im not claiming that this was it, but i do reall something vaguely along those lines. these links have some info regardin melatonin and dimethyltryptamine. http://www.akasha.de/~aton/NeoDMT.html http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1193368 http://sprott.physics.wi...edu/Pickover/pc/dmt.html http://www.geocities.com...2000/dreamcircadian.html these are out of the first ten hits from googling dmt and melatonin- parallel searches would likely yield much much more.[/quote] this is a really good one that describes the transformations of serotonin into melatonin and how this metabolic process only occurs in the pineal. http://www.scribd.com/do...-Gland-LSD-and-Serotonin