Amount: 30mg
Weight: 97kg

Set/Setting: Recovering from difficult previous day mentally and emotionally, slight lingering negative mindset. Late morning/early afternoon in apartment with light indoor construction work audible at times. Not a perfect setting.

I am still quite new to vaping/smoking, my first experiences having been with ayahuasca. I had some time and was hoping that a light voyage would give me some clarity with some things I had been struggling with for a couple of days.

30 minutes before my first voyage, I smoked a small bowl's worth of ground caapi. Being an ex-cigarette smoker, I actually did not find it that harsh until the end of the bowl. No large effects, a bit of a glow and pleasant body buzz. I commenced meditation for 20 minutes, letting surface thoughts come up and play until they were tired, then began to dive a bit into my intentions and focusing on my third eye.

Not having the best vaping apparatus, I use the "sandwich" method in a basic glass cannabis pipe. I know from reading here and personal experience (now) that this is holding me back. I "sandwiched" 30mg of yellow DMT extracted from chacruna between two layers of ground caapi, went into the bathroom with the vent fan on and sang a few calming/centering phrases to prepare myself.

Given the equipment involved my technique was good, not touching the flame to the caapi and vaporizing the spice as best I could. Within two hits I felt the body rush coming on enough that I knew I had to stop for the moment and lay down although I knew there was spice left. Walking to the living room was somewhat difficult, but there were no open-eye visuals. Laying down on the couch, I put a thick blindfold on. Somehow I could still "see" the daylight in the room, which was distracting from the experience. With closed eyes I did have some colorful, swirling patterns for a couple of minutes, but it stopped shortly after. It was a very quick, incomplete experience.

I took some time to let myself come back down to about baseline, which was hard to determine with the lingering effects of smoked caapi. Knowing I had spice left in the bowl, I went back about an hour after my first experience. This time I got music set up in the bedroom which was a bit darker than the living room. I started off with good technique again, but as the body rush began coming on and I was determined to finish what was in the bowl, I got a bit more sloppy. I recall looking out the fifth floor bathroom window, my knees slightly weak, and seeing a woman walking down the sidewalk across the street. "That's weird, how did she get here?" I thought. Then I knew it was time to lay down, my face feeling somewhat distorted and alien. The walls and floor were breathing with me.

Lying down in bed I put the blindfold on again and experience more intense swirling, colorful patterns than the previous experience. A shadowy figure became super-imposed atop the swirling colors, dark matter in the shape of shoulders, neck and head atop the display. I was still too aware of my surroundings and reality, and could not really sink into the experience.

My mental defenses did come down, however, allowing for some introspective work. A few issues came up, such as the fact that I have been putting many things off, a recurring challenge of mine. Am I good at my job? Am I following the correct path? The shadowy entity that appeared on top of the colors seemed to be asking the questions at first. Was this an image of myself? As the visuals died down, though, the introspection continued. I sunk into the Mozart clarinet concerto and let my mind and the experience unwind, the negativity slowly turning into more clarity and positivity about what I have been doing well. The depth of the orchestra's strings and the solo voice of the clarinet built a structured conversation that aided in grounding and engaging my mind.

Overall, not totally amazing experiences but I do feel like I mostly got what I needed as far as introspection goes. Today I have a slight headache and sore throat, presumably from smoking a fair amount of ground caapi vine. Any tips on technique other than buying a VG? I may go there, but am the sort of person that doesn't like having lots of paraphenalia around and won't be vaping regularly.

Thanks for reading!

Firstly I'll link this thread, from a very knowledgeable member. A great read through if you hadn't seen this yet:

Attn. If you're having a hard time breaking through read this.

I'll add my 2c, though I know some will say that it's a better route to 'tip toe' yourself in, which can be a fine method for sure, but I mostly disagree with that 'easing in', then again personal preference.

- If you're still planning to do the sandwich method look into getting a small, stationary glass water pipe/bubbler, or possibly a small 10-12in glass bong [or even the cheaper acrylic versions].

- When making the sandwich layer it's a good idea to make a reasonably thick bottom layer that's reasonably tightly packed [though with you still being able to draw a good breath through], so when the fb dmt starts to melt and work its way down through the bottom layer of herb that it will be somewhat slowed down vs leaving it very loose. **Make sure you have a screen below this bottom layer of herb also.

- For the top layer you only need a thin amount, enough to visibly cover the fb dmt, not being able to see any if you were to hover over looking down at the bowl.

- Hover the lighter closely over the herb and try to warm up the dmt underneath, allowing it to sort've 'heat up' the dmt to the point of being very close to start melting. Though I know that if there's an herb layer over top that you won't really be able to discern whether or not the dmt's doing this. I typically would just wave it over top very close to the top layer of herb for 8-10 seconds.

- Then lips up to the pipe/bong, nic the top layer of herb and draw the first hit in fairly slow and controlled. Take as big a hit as you can and hold it in til you start noticing some effect - if by then that doesn't already start to get you far in. By this time the dmt will obviously be melted down into the bottom layer, so now repeat this step and go for broke - another long, slow, controlled hit, as big as you can and take it deep deep into the lungs. Then hold this indefinitely. If the experience comes on like it's supposed to by this point ..then you most likely won't be aware that you even blew it out to begin with - gone you will be.

** If you're feeling up to it on that specific day/night ..with these devices a dose can be cleared in close to one hit, if not the whole hit. It's possible. Ice cold water is a must though. Makes the smoke/vapor significantly easier to take in through the throat/lungs. Night and day difference when the water is ice cold versus just 'cold'.

**** Also, if you do any and/or all of the above and still nothing, try increasing the dose by 5-10mg. I know really that going up 10mg is a big jump, though there's a good chance usually with the sandwich that some dmt is going to get burnt, at least to some degree, so 'ime' it's better to overcompensate in that sense.

Report back.


Also you did right by predosing some minute amounts of smoked harmalas. I would personally continue doing this, though you don't have to if you don't want to.

Thanks for the great reply. I had read some of that thread but apparently didn't recall all of the details. His thread on changa is also great, and I will certainly be making some in the near future.

I will certainly report back, though it may be a while as I journey only occasionally.