hi

Drug of Interest: Salvia divinorum

Salvia divinorum is a sprawling perennial herb found in the Sierra Mazatec region of Mexico. Its leaves contain the extremely potent Salvinorin A. It has a history of buccal use as a divinatory psychedelic, and has been widely available since the mid 1990s primarily as a smoked herb. Its effects are considered unpleasant by many people.

This is Erowid’s description of Salvia, and it’s fitting. Saliva fucking sucks. For the sake of this article, I will try my best to put this bias aside, but understand- it is a pretty big bias.

EFFECTS CLASSIFICATION:

  Atypical Psychedelic

DOSE:1 hitsmokedSalvia divinorum(extract - 10x)BODY WEIGHT:135 lb

A friend gave me some ‘10x’ salvia divinorum that was a mixture of homegrown leaf strengthened with a purchased extract. I believe my previous experiences were also with a 10x extract, although it could have been merely a 5x. I had kept it tucked away for future use. Tonight, my friend sent me a trip report of a salvia user in his household that sparked the notion that it was the right time. Another issue involved was that I have recently been feeling some resurgence of my fear of mortality and death (perhaps because my usual ritual to come to acceptance of this, Burning Flipside, a regional Burning Man event, was less than transcendent for me this year) and thought perhaps the loss of ego I had found in previous salvia experiences might help. Finally, one of the oddest notions that had come to me in the immediate aftermath of tripping recently on DMT (but still obviously experiencing the psychological effects) was that salvia and DMT were seeded on earth and/or allowed communication with opposing extraterrestrial (extraplanar?) forces. I didn’t expect the trip to lend any further polish to this weird idea (and it didn’t) but it definitely was on my mind. I did my best to prepare the environment: I turned off my computer and the A/C because I remembered that distracting noises had been annoying during previous experiences. Expecting to take several hits, I prepared a sizable bowl in my bong. I shut off all the lights, but was once again struck by the fact that my apartment just isn’t all that dark with all the lights out — there is too much ambient light. I fished out a blindfold I keep for kinky purposes and placed it on my head but without covering my eyes, with the intention of pulling it over my face as the trip came on, to shut out all light. My cat comes over as I am about to take a hit and I hope she doesn’t bug me during the trip, but in actuality I have no awareness whatsoever of her until some semblance of normal consciousness returns. I lift up the bong and the lighter. I take a strong, deep hit and hold it, expecting it to be the first of two or three. As I hold my breath and count to 60 in my head, I watch the blinking lights on my cable modem (which I had not shut off) across my apartment. I become conscious that they seem to be receding far into the distance. A thought, remembered clearly: This is coming on very quick. I don’t think I’m going to have time for a second or third hit. Another thought that followed: Hmm, I didn’t fix my intentions for this trip in my head as clearly as I normally attempt to do before taking a psychedelic. I exhale and all concrete thought is obliterated. As is so frequently the case with this kind of experience, the very act of putting it into concrete language diminishes the experience. The very nature of the psychedelic experience, by it’s very real otherness from everyday experience, means that it cannot be properly defined in the language of that everyday experience. Often, when ‘coming up’ onto a more gradual entheogen like mushrooms, I have had a thought along the lines of ‘Oh yes, this is what it’s really like to be here,’ because I realize again anew how much my recollections and writings after the fact can only pale in comparison to the reality, or maybe more properly the unreality of tripping. This drastic shift is made perhaps all the more stark by the fact that on this salvia trip, as is so common with this drug, I completely forgot that I had taken anything; indeed I forgot so completely that maybe I couldn’t even have explained to you (to the extent that I could have done anything) that such a class of substances we call ‘drugs’ (or psychedelics or entheogens or whatever) even existed at all. I set the bong down, and some part of me is aware that my torso is falling back so that I will lay prone on the bed, only it seems like an incredibly long fall. A very long fall indeed. I don’t know if I actually pulled the blindfold fully on. Because my time sense was temporarily non-functional, the rest of this paragraph seemed to happen/coexist simultaneously. All statements were true at once: I was a five-pointed wheel. Reality itself was the five-spoked wheel. It was actually not ‘flat’ in the way a wheel is flat. It had infinite depth, like each spoke of the wheel was a long shelf stretching out into the distance. It was kind of like a paddle wheel on a boat, only each of the five buckets was infinitely long and deep. I was actually a consciousness inside the tumbling object, rotating in it’s chambers while aware of all the chambers. They were full of light and beautifully riotous colors. As I tumbled in my colorful bucket, through an opening in my chamber I could sometimes see out into another world, the base or real reality. What I could see of this world consisted of a grassy green plain upon which an infinite number of feet (wearing sneakers??) were moving — engaged in the act of rolling or rotating the bizarre wheeled object I was inside; I could even hear the feet striking the ground and feel the vibration from all those marching feet in my body. I became cognizant that my entire life, or what I had perceived it to be, all 27 years, were actually an illusion. They were merely a fancy I had generated while watching the interplay of light, color, and shadow in my bucket. Any minute now I would be tumbled out onto the grass, forever lost from this false, comfortable reality and loosed into the base reality outside, forever cut off from the illusion of my life I was used too. A profound sense of panic and fear came over me. I didn’t want to be cut off from the life I had known, I really liked it! I began to struggle and flail in my chamber, trying to pull myself away from the opening. If I pulled away at just the right moment I could return away from the base reality to the reality I was familiar with. If only I could just … Some tiny semblance of normality came back (remember, all of the above occurred to me within the space of minutes or seconds of normal time) as I again became aware I was lying on my bed with a blindfold on my face (I think maybe only partly covering my eyes) which I removed with great effort. The memory of smoking a hit of very potent salvia divinorum slowly, very dimly, struggled back into my mind. As if for reassurance of this fact, but really still with little conscious thought, I groped for the bong. Somehow I found it without knocking it over. The panic and fear were fading but the room kept threatening to continue it’s maddening rotation. Everything was jiggly and turning. It felt stiflingly hot in my apartment. Still not really sober, I got to my feet and managed to turn the A/C back on. I had the fleeting notion, obviously false, that for the last several minutes I hadn’t been breathing at all. Realizing I shouldn’t be moving much yet I sat for a few moments in the chair by my computer before I had enough balance and togetherness to go out onto my deck for fresh air. I sat by the door for a bit, breathing the humid but lightly breezy seeming night air, then went to lean on my balcony and look at the world. Another fleeting, irrational thought: what if someone sees me on drugs and calls the cops? This paranoid impracticality was quickly suppressed by the everyday logic that there is nothing about a shirtless man leaning on his balcony to suggest a drug user or to otherwise merit a call to the police. Probably because I was fighting so hard against the effects of the drug, which right then didn’t seem pleasant at all, the comedown seemed to take much longer. I went back inside and pet the cat while sitting on the small bed in my living room that I use mostly as a couch. I thought about the notion I heard secondhand from the Tibetan Book of the Dead which suggests that when you die entities come whose job it is to dismantle your ego — what makes you the person who you are. If you are ready for them, they appear as angels but if you struggle they seem to be demons. That night, they had definitely been demons rather than angels. I decided to go for a walk — I felt trapped inside the four walls of my apartment and even more so inside the boundaries of my skull (a peculiar feeling). I managed to find a shirt and shoes and my keys. I walked around my apartment complex, then I decided I needed a shower to cool down and cleanse myself. I walked to the corner store and got some cold iced tea to drink and a bar of soap since I had run out. I felt more stable and balanced now, well enough grounded, but still distanced from reality as if I was watching everything from a remove. The shower was very refreshing and pretty much cleansed the rest of the weirdness and brought me more or less back down to earth, leaving the customary feeling of groundedness I usually have after salvia trips. I feel quite alive and very glad (also, relieved) to be so. This is a good feeling. However, I don’t think I’ve achieved increased acceptance of the impermanence of all things (what my new acquaintance earlier tonight referred to on IM as the ‘law of undulation’).

dee-lirium:

Let’s talk about Mushrooms.

The effects of psilocybin mushrooms come from psilocybin (right) and psilocin (left). They do create short-term increases in tolerance of users, thus making it difficult to abuse them because the more often they are taken within a short period of time, the weaker the resultant effects are. Poisonous (sometimes lethal) wild picked mushrooms can be easily mistaken for psilocybin mushrooms. When psilocybin is ingested, it is broken down to produce psilocin, which is responsible for the hallucinogenic effects.

The mushroom effect is described as a “trip” because it is a long (4-6 hours) and powerful experience which takes you beyond normal perception and then back again. At low doses, mushrooms induce a tingling body feeling and sense of euphoria and lightness. You may feel happy and giggly. Colors seem more vibrant, music sounds richer.

(Source: holymoleculesbatman, via groovyamericano-deactivated2013)

Drug of Interest: Peyote (aka Mescaline) (aka 3,4,5-Trimethoxybenzeneethanamine)

Due to overwhelming demand- this week’s phenethylamine of choice is Peyote, sometimes referred to as Mescaline (only 30% of the active alkaloid in Peyote buttons is mescaline, the other 70% is a wide variety of other fun compounds)

Peyote (Lophophora williamsii) is a small button shaped cactus 2-5 inches in diameter, which grow in Mexico and the Southwest United States. Peyote is a hallucinogen, producing significant physical, visual, and perceptual changes. It is traditionally dried and eaten in a ritual setting to induce visions, and has been used by natives of Mexico for thousands of years.

Yeah, that’s an interesting bit. So far, all the drugs I’ve examined in these articles are research chemicals, and while they can be synthesized and used by the general public, Peyote is the first psychoactive substance I’ve written about that has a history of ethnogenetic and recreational use by humans.

Which humans, you ask?

No, of course I’m not talking about the majority of your Anglo-European ancestors; the average white man was too busy inventing property taxes and fighting century long oligopolic wars to eat some cacti and meet his spirit animal.

I’m talking about some god damn native north americans

How old is the Peyote cult? An early Spanish chronicler, Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, estimated on the basis of several historical events recorded in Indian chronology that Peyote was known to the Chichimeca and Toltec at least 1890 years before the arrival of the Europeans. This calculation would give the “divine plant” of Mexico an economic history extending over a period of some two millennia. Then Carl Lumholtz, the Danish ethnologist who did pioneer work among the Indians of Chihuahua, suggested that the Peyote cult is far older. He showed that a symbol employed in the Tarahumara Indian Peyote ceremony appeared in ancient ritualistic carvings preserved in Mesoamerican lava rocks. More recently, archaeological discoveries in dry caves and rock shelters in Texas have yielded specimens of Peyote. These specimens, found in a context suggesting ceremonial use, indicate that its use is more than three thousand years old.

What did I say? This drug is old as balls. This the shit your grandpappy took when he got bored decapitating dumb spanish boys.

Sahagún’s writings are among the most important of all the early chroniclers. He described Peyote use among the Chichimeca, of the primitive desert plateau of the north, recording for posterity: “There is another herb like tunas [Opuntia spp.] of the earth. It is called Peiotl. It is white. It is found in the north country. Those who eat or drink it see visions either frightful or laughable. This intoxication lasts two or three days and then ceases. It is a common food of the Chichimeca, for it sustains them and gives them courage to fight and not feel fear nor hunger nor thirst. And they say that it protects them from all danger.”

        It is not known whether or not the Chichimeca were the first Indians to discover the psychoactive properties of Peyote. Some students believe that the Tarahumara Indians, living where Peyote abounded, were the first to discover its use and that it spread from them to the Cora, the Huichol, and other tribes. Since the plant grows in many scattered localities in Mexico, it seems probable that its intoxicating properties were independently discovered by a number of tribes.

        Several seventeenth-century Spanish Jesuits testified that the Mexican Indians used Peyote medicinally and ceremonially for many ills and that when intoxicated with the cactus they saw “horrible visions”. Padre Andréa Pérez de Ribas, a seventeenth-century Jesuit who spent sixteen years in Sinaloa, reported that Peyote was usually drunk but that its use, even medicinally, was forbidden and punished, since it was connected with “heathen rituals and superstitions” to contact evil spirits through “diabolic fantasies”.

Yeah, not exactly making the best name for itself in a post-inquisition world.

Sahagún’s description of the Teochichimeca ritual could very well be a description of the contemporary Huichol ceremony, for these Indians still assemble together in the desert 300 miles northeast of their homeland in the Sierra Madre mountains of western Mexico, still sing all night, all day, still weep exceedingly, and still so esteem Peyote above any other psychotropic plant that the sacred mushrooms, Morning Glories, “Datura”, and other indigenous hallucinogens are consigned to the realm of sorcerers.

        Most of the early records in Mexico were left by missionaries who opposed the use of Peyote in religious practice. To them Peyote had no place in Christianity because of its pagan associations. Since the Spanish ecclesiastes were intolerant of any cult but their own, fierce persecution resulted. But the Indians were reluctant to give up their Peyote cults established on centuries of tradition.

        The suppression of Peyote, however, went to great lengths. For example, a priest near San Antonio, Texas, published a manual in 1760, containing questions to be asked of converts. Included were the following: “Have you eaten the flesh of man? Have you eaten Peyote?” Another priest, Padre Nidolas de Leon, similarly examined potential converts: “Art thou a soothsayer? Dost thou foretell events by reading omens, interpreting dreams or by tracing circles and figures on water? Dost thou garnish with flower garlands the places where idols are kept? Dost thou suck to blood of others? Dost thou wander about at night, calling upon demons to help thee? Hast thou drunk Peyote or given it to others to drink, in order to discover secrets or to discover where stolen or lost articles were?”

I can imagine 17th century PSAs about dudes using mescaline to date rape women wait no that was condoned back then wasn’t it

yeah nevermind

The Peyote hunt is literally a hunt. Pilgrims carry tobacco gourds, a necessity for the journey’s ritual. Water gourds are often taken to transport water back from Wirikuta. Often the only food taken for the stay in Wirikuta is tortillas. The pilgrims, however, eat Peyote while in Wirikuta. They must travel great distances. Today, much of the trek is done by car, but formerly the Indians walked some two hundred miles.

        The preparation for gathering Peyote involves ritual confession and purification. Public recitation of all sexual encounters must be made, but no show of shame, resentment, or jealousy, nor any expression of hostility, occurs. For each offense, the shaman makes a knot in a string which, at the end of the ritual, is burned. Following the confession, the group, preparing to set out for Wirikuta - an area located in San Luís Potosí - must be cleansed before journeying to paradise.

        Upon arriving within sight of the sacred mountains of Wirikuta, the pilgrims are ritually washed and pray for rain and fertility. Amid the praying and chanting of the shaman, the dangerous crossing into the Otherworld begins. This passage has two stages: first, the Gateway of the Clashing Clouds, and second, the opening of the Clouds. These do not represent actual localities but exist only in the “geography of the mind”; to the participants the passing from one to the other is an event filled with emotion.

        Upon arrival at the place where the Peyote is to be hunted, the shaman begins ceremonial practices, telling stories from the ancient Peyote tradition and invoking protection for the events to come. Those on their first pilgrimage are blindfolded, and the participants are led by the shaman to the “cosmic threshold” which only he can see. All stop, light candles, and murmur prayers while the shaman, imbued with supernatural forces, chants.

        Finally, Peyote is found. The shaman has seen the deer tracks. He draws his arrow and shoots the cactus. The pilgrims make offerings to this first Hikuri. More Peyote is sought, basketfuls of the plant eventually being collected. On the following day, more Peyote is collected, some of which is to be shared with those who remain at home. The rest is to be sold to the Cora and Tarahumara Indians, who use Peyote but do not have a quest.

        The ceremony of distributing Tobacco is then carried out. Arrows are placed pointing to the four points of the compass; at midnight a fire is built. According to the Huichol, Tobacco belongs to fire. The shaman prays, placing the Tobacco before the fire, touching it with feathers, then distributing it to each pilgrim who puts it into his gourd, symbolising the birth of Tobacco.

        The Huichol Peyote hunt is seen as a return to Wirikuta or Paradise, the archetypal beginning and end of a mythical past. A modern Huichol “mara’kame” expressed it as follows: “One day all will be as you have seen it there, in Wirikuta. The First People will come back. The fields will be pure and crystalline, all this is not clear to me, but in five more years I will know it, through more revelations. The world will end, and the unity will be here again. But only for pure Huichol.”

        Among the Tarahumara, the Peyote cult is less important. Many buy their supplies of the cactus, usually from Huichol. Although the two tribes live several hundred miles apart and are not closely related, they share the same name for Peyote - Hikuri - and the two cults have many points of resemblance.

        The Tarahumara Peyote dance may be held at any time during the year for health, tribal prosperity, or for simple worship. It is sometimes incorporated into other established festivals. The principal part of the ceremony consists of dances and prayers followed by a day of feasting. Oak and pine logs are dragged in for a fire and oriented in an east-west direction. The Tarahumara name for the dance means “moving about the fire”, and except for Peyote itself, the fire is the most important element.

        The leader has several women assistants who prepare the Hikuri plants for use, grinding the fresh cacti on a metate, being careful not to lose one drop of the resulting liquid. An assistant catches all liquid in a gourd, even the water used to wash the metate. The leader sits west of the fire, and a cross may be erected opposite him. In front of the leader, a small hole is dug into which he may spit. A Peyote may be set before him on its side or inserted into a root-shaped hole bored in the ground. He inverts half a gourd over the Peyote, turning it to scratch a circle in the earth around the cactus. Removing the gourd temporarily, he draws a cross in the dust to represent the world, thereupon replacing the gourd. This apparatus serves as a resonator for the rasping stick: Peyote is set under the resonator, since it enjoys the sound.

        Incense from burning copal is then offered to the cross. After facing east, kneeling, and crossing themselves, the leader’s assistants are given deer-hoof rattles or bells to shake during the dance.

        The ground-up Peyote is kept in a pot or crock near the cross and is served in a gourd by an assistant: he makes three rounds of the fire if carrying it to an ordinary participant. All the songs praise Peyote for its protection of the tribe and for its “beautiful intoxication”.

        As with the Huichol, healing ceremonies are often carried out. The Tarahumara leader cures at daybreak. He first terminates dancing by giving three raps. He rises, accompanied by a young assistant, and circling the patio, he touches every forehead with water. He touches the patient thrice, and placing his stick to the patient’s head, he rasps three times. The dust produced by the rasping, even though infinitesimal, is a powerful health- and life-giver and is saved for medicinal use.

        The final ritual sends Peyote home. The leader reaches toward the rising sun and rasps thrice. “In the early morning, Hikuli had come from San Ignacio and from Satapolio riding on beautiful green doves, to feast with the Tarahumara at the end of the dance when the people sacrifice food and eat and drink. Having bestowed his blessings, Hikuli forms himself into a ball and flies to his shelter at the time.”

        Peyote is employed as a religious sacrament among more than forty American Indian tribes in many parts of the United States and western Canada. Because of its wide use, Peyote early attracted the attention of scientists and legislators and engendered heated and, unfortunately, often irresponsible opposition to its free use in American Indian ceremonies.

To make a long story shorter; then the man decided that it was Bad and therefore should be illegal for personal use.

However, a couple guys decided to say fuck that, and kept on doin their trippy thing

Under the auspices of what came to be known as the Native American Church, in the 19th century, American Indians in more widespread regions to the north began to use peyote in religious practices, as part of a revival of native spirituality. Its members refer to peyote as “the sacred medicine”, and use it to combat spiritual, physical, and other social ills. Concerned about the drug’s psychoactive effects, between the 1880s and 1930s, U.S. authorities attempted to ban Native American religious rituals involving peyote, including the Ghost Dance. Today the Native American Church is one among several religious organizations to use peyote as part of its religious practice.

Peyote and its associated religion are fairly recent arrivals among the Navajo in the Southwestern United States, and can be firmly dated to the early 20th century. Traditional Navajo belief or ceremonial practice did not mention the use of peyote before its introduction by the neighboring Utes. The Navajo Nation now has the most members of the Native American Church. According to some estimates, 20 percent or more of the Navajo population are practitioners

alright, now onto the fun part. Chemistry and Pharmacodynamics.

Your average peyote trip lasts about 5 to 8 hours, with the first 1 to 2 hours spent puking and wishing that cool shit would start already. I would give some dosage information here, but since Peyote is a plant instead of just a chemical, the numbers get kinda iffy.

Mescaline concentration in cacti varies from one species to the next. Peyote is traditionally eaten in pairs of buttons, with anwhere from a single pair (2 buttons) to dozens of pairs of buttons (24 or more) being consumed over the course of an evening/night. Dosages of columnar cacti like San pedro and Peruvianus are generally measured by the number of inches of cacti consumed. One rule of thumb for a relatively potent variety is one foot of cacti (approx 4 inches in diameter) per dose, another says a piece of cacti the length from your elbow to your fingertips.

Same goes for price. I’ve been looking up shit all night and I’ve seen dudes claim to have paid 10 bucks for a single button while others rant about paying ten times as much and having seen god or whatever. My advice; let the other dude offer you a price, then consider how much a quality trip is worth to you.

If you’ve managed to get your hands on some pure, crystallized mescaline, however

A standard dose for oral mescaline use ranges from 200-500 mg. One of the more common myths around its use is that it can come in the form of tiny microdot pills. Even 200 mg of material fills a medium size capsule, so obviously microdots are not mescaline.

Pure crystaline mescaline is very rare in the underground and is usually expensive when available (40+ USD per dose). Live trichocereus range in price from 10$ per foot for the cheapest cut columns to 80$ per foot or more for rooted columns. Prepared trichocereus is almost unheard of for sale. We have no data on the current price of peyote buttons in the US. (August 2000)

The effects list is pretty standard on paper, plenty of OEVs, blooming colors, feelings of deep insight and euphoria hand in hand with chills, shortness of breath, stomach pains, major nausea, and the occasional feelings of panic. Most of the positive trip reports I read had focused on either the general beauty of the world or deeply personal visions and confrontations, but I like this one because it packs a little of both.

My first vivid show of mescal colour effects came quickly. I saw the stars, and then, of a sudden, here and there delicate floating films of colour—usually delightful neutral purples and pinks. These came and went—now here, now there. Then an abrupt rush of countless points of white light swept across the field of view, as if the unseen millions of the Milky Way were to flow a sparkling river before the eye. In a minute this was over and the field was dark. Then I began to see zigzag lines of very bright colours, like those seen in some megrims. I tried to fix the place and relation of these tints, but the changes were such as to baffle me. One was an arch of angled lines of red and green, but of what else I could not determine. It was in rapid, what I may call minute, motion.
The tints of intense green and red shifted and altered, and soon were seen no more. Here, again, was the wonderful loveliness of swelling clouds of more vivid colours gone before. I could name them, and, sometimes rising from the lower field, and very swiftly altering in colour tones from pale purples and rose to greys, with now and then a bar of level green or orange intense as lightning and as momentary.
When I opened my eyes all was gone at once. Closing them I began after a long interval to see for the first time definite objects associated with colours. The stars sparkled, and passed away. A white spear of grey stone grew up to huge height, and became a tall, richly finished Gothic tower of very elaborate and definite design, with many rather worn statues standing in the doorways or on stone brackets. As I gazed every projecting angle, cornice, and even the face of the stones at their joinings were by degrees covered or hung with clusters of what seemed to be huge precious stones, but uncut, some being more like masses of transparent fruit. These were green, purple, red, and orange; never clear yellow and never blue. All seemed to possess an interior light, and, to give the faintest idea of the perfectly satisfying intensity and purity of these gorgeous colour-fruits is quite beyond my power. All the colours I have ever beheld are dull as compared to these.
As I looked, and it lasted long, the tower became of a fine mouse hue, everywhere the vast pendant masses of emerald green, ruby reds, and orange began to drip a slow rain of colours. All this while nothing was at rest a moment. The balls of colour moved tremulously. The tints became dull, and then, at once, past belief vivid; the architectural lines were all active with shifting tints. The figures moving shook the long hanging lines of living light, and then, in an instant, all was dark.
After an endless display of less beautiful marvels I saw that which deeply impressed me. An edge of a huge clif seem [sic] to project over a gulf of unseen depth. My viewless enchanter set on the brink a huge bird claw of stone. Above, from the stem or leg, hung a fragment of some stuff. This began to unroll and float out to a distance which seemed to me to represent Time as well as immensity of Space. Here were miles of rippled purples, half transparent, and of ineffable beauty. Now and then soft golden clouds floated from these folds, or a great shimmer went over the whole of the rolling purples, and things, like green birds, fell from it, fluttering down into the gulf below. Next, I saw clusters of stones hanging in masses from the claw toes, as it seemed to me miles of them, down far below into the underworld of the black gulf.
This was the most distinct of my visions. Incautiously I opened my eyes and it was gone. A little later I saw interlaced and numberless hoops in the air all spinning swiftly and all loaded with threaded jewels or with masses of colour in long ropes of clustered balls. I began to wonder why I saw no opals, and some minutes after each of these circles, which looked like a boy’s hoop, became huge opals; if I should say fluid opals it would best describe what was however like nothing earthly.
I set myself later to seeing if I could conjure figures, for so far I had seen nothing human in form, nor any which seemed alive. I had no luck at this, but a long while after I saw what seemed a shop with apothecaries’ bottles, but of such splendour [of?] green, red, purple, as are not outside of the pharmacies of fairy land.
On the left wall was pinned by the tail a brown worm of perhaps a hundred feet long. It was slowing rotating, like a catherine wheel [pinwheel], nor did it seem loathly. As it turned, long green and red tentacles fell this way and that. On a bench near by two little dwarfs, made, it seemed, of leather, were blowing through long glass pipes of green tint, which seemed to me to be alive, so intensely, vitally green were they. But it were vain to find in words what will describe these colours. Either they seemed strangely solid, or to possess vitality. They still linger visibly in my memory, and left the feeling that I had seen among them colours unknown to my experience.
Their variety and strange juxtapositions were indeed fascinating for one to whom colour is more than it is to most men; nor is it possible to describe the hundredth of what I saw saw. I was at last conscious of the fact that at moments I was almost asleep, and then wide awake. In one of these magic moments I saw my last vision and the strangest. I heard what appeared to be approaching rhythmical sounds, and then saw a beach, which, I knew to be that of Newport. On this, with a great noise, which lasted but a moment, rolled in out of darkness wave on wave. These as they came, were liquid splendours huge and threatening, of wonderfully pure green, or red or deep purple, once only deep orange and with no trace of foam. These water hills of colour broke on the bench with myriads of lights of the same tint as the wave. This lasted some time, and while, it did so I got back to more distinct consciousness, and wished the beautiful terror of these huge mounds of colour would continue.

A knock at my door caused me to open my eyes, and I lost whatever of wonder might have come after. After dinner I ceased to be able to see any further display of interest. Now and then a purple or pink fragment appeared, but that was all. For a day after I noted the fact that my visions could be easily recalled by a memorial effort, but with less and less sharpness.
These shows are expensive. For two days I had headache and for one day a smart attack of gastric distress. This came after the first dose, and was most uncomfortable. The experience, however, was worth one such headache and indigestion, but was not worth a second.
Dr. Prentiss and others describe mescal as causing insomnia. My first experience with the tincture was made early in the morning. I became deeply flushed by noon, but had no visions. I felt drowsy and slept very well the following night. The extract used, as stated, did make me sleepless up to 4 a.m., but neither restless nor uneasy… .

Pretty interesting, I wonder what a bad trip sounds like?

At the begining, right when it touches my mouth, I immedeately start to feel different. I don’t eat all 24-26 buttons at once, I I start out with about 2 fresh buttons that I chewed, they were cleaned (the Fuzz or Hairs were removed), then right after I ate about 4 teaspoonfuls of very dry finely grounded powder, then came the mush about another 4 teaspoonfuls, then throughout the night they will pass the peyote around and I came up with about 24-26 buttons but probably more like 30-34 buttons. This is a very high dosage, I eat this plant quite often just about 2 times per month for the past 10 years sometimes I eat it every weekend for months straight.

Within the first 10-20 mins, I can feel my stomache start to ache, I start to belch a lot. Slowly I start to feel the effects.

20-60 mins later, I start noticing that all light and objects seem to be more intense. Everything starts to look sharp and bright.

1 Hour to 2 hours, I start to feel a lot of nausea, but I don’t feel like puking, I probably would have if I would have made any sudden moves, I start noticing my thoughts start to move around more and they start to come alive, when I close my eyes I start to see blue, orange, Green, and red designs that are very brightly colored. The designs that I start to see are very geometrical, and I start to even see the designs starting to form people and objects along with other things. I can’t keep my eyes open at this point as I can’t keep my eyes in one place they start moving a lot, and I prefer to close in case they start to roll back and I start to freak out people. Suddenly I start to go into some deep dream states, it’s as if I’m having lucid dreams, they last very short seconds maybe just a second but a lot happens. I start seeing other people’s thoughts expressed to me in the form of dreams, I see intricate details of people, things that they only know. I start hearing people talk to me in the dreams. I start flying to the universe and I see bright bright colors now, the designs move slowly and not fast contantly changing like mushrooms do to me. I see colored lights pass over me as if I’m flying in the universe filled with bright stars. I suddenly find myself in a world where everything is crystal, and I see holy beings that look like Hopi Kachinas and a mixture of Northwestern totem poles a long with a japanese feel. I start to receive info about my life and how to become a better person, I learn ways on how to be in life, humble, loving. How to pray better, how to heal, how to find a better job, right decisions. I moved around into different worlds and different thoughts.

Now 3-4 hours I’ve eaten the rest of the peyote, at this point i’m very nauseas and can’t move much, I feel heavy and I see a lot of things now, I feel very emotional, and I feel like I want to stand up, but I can’t, I still feel a lot of peyote in my stomache and I’m belching a lot now. I now get the guts to walk around, the clouds are moving fast and I see bright colors everywhere. Symbols, I start to hear a vibration, and I hear things in a different language, my thoughts sound like a different language, it’s like a code, and I start to understand it clear, I learn the most beautiful things and some very bizarre understandings that make so much sense but there are no words to express this spiritual connection, but I’ve understood it quickly, I know that these teachings are a part of me even though I forget after this dosage. I don’t feel safe walking alone so I go back in the teepee and feel good. I feel so happy, I can’t take off this smile, I continue to feel like this, I see designs of many things. Six hours later the nausea is almost gone but it comes in waves. The peyote is still working on me very strong, 10-12 hours later I feel fine, still feel good and the effects slowly will go away.
I feel like a new person, I feel good alive and get this, days later I got what I asked the peyote to help me get. The peyote told me it would be 4 days, and I got exactly four days later…what a good blessing.

Yeah, it was actually really tough to find negative trip reports about this stuff. People seem pretty pleased with it in general. I guess you can’t knock the classics.

"Use them with care, and use them with respect as to the transformations they can achieve, and you have an extraordinary research tool. Go banging about with a psychedelic drug for a Saturday night turn-on, and you can get into a really bad place, psychologically. Know what you’re using, decide just why you’re using it, and you can have a rich experience. They’re not addictive, and they’re certainly not escapist, either, but they’re exceptionally valuable tools for understanding the human mind, and how it works."

- Alexander Shulgin - PiHKAL (via committedpsychonaut)

(via subconsciousflow)

Drug of Interest: 2C-B (aka 4-BROMO-2,5-DIMETHOXYPHENETHYLAMINE)

okay, so in keeping with the entheogenic, intellectual theme of these articles over a more recreational one, the link for today’s drug takes you to the always fantastic Dr. Alexander Shulgin and one of the sections in his book “Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved: A Chemical Love Story”. I want to take a moment to talk about this book, since not only is it completely free online thanks to Erowids, but because it is absolutely the greatest book ever written about the synthesis (yep, he tells you how to make these fun chemicals the easiest way possible (which is still really insanely hard, but he tries his best)), testing (yep, he also tests them himself and writes trip reports and stuff), and criticisms of various Phenethylamines (aka psychoactive chemicals (aka yes, drugs))

He also has another book called “Trypatamines I Have Known and Loved: A Continuation” which is also online for free. In it basically is the last color of the psychoactive spectrum that he didn’t cover in his first book (the difference between Trypatamines and Phenethylamines is the difference between LSD and DMT, essentially. It’s shit that only matters to chemists and chemistry buffs but fuck you this is my blog)

Anyway

back to being hardcore and using drugs and being cool and shit like that, yeah!

(with 20 mg) The room was cool, and for the first hour I felt cold and chilled. That was the only mildly unpleasant part. We had been hanging crystals earlier that day, and the visions I had were dominated by prismatic light patterns. It was almost as if I became the light. I saw kaleidoscopic forms—similar to, but less intense than, when on acid—and organic forms like Georgia O’Keefe flowers, blossoming and undulating. My body was flooded with orgasms— practically from just breathing. The lovemaking was phenomenal, passionate, ecstatic, lyric, animal, loving, tender, sublime. The music was voluptuous, almost three-dimensional. Sometimes the sound seemed distorted to me, underwater like. This was especially so for the less good recordings—but I could choose to concentrate on the beauty of the music or the inadequacy of the sound’s quality, and mostly chose to concentrate on the beauty.

I dunno, that seems pretty cool to me

Meet 2C-B, most psychonaut’s intro to experimental chemicals. Wikipedia tells me that people “call it Bees or Nexus” but those names are fucking stupid and Wikipedia is a lying whore. This is the only experimental compound I’ve read about in books while also having spoken to people that have used it, and they just called it 2C-B. I have a feeling that this is due to the fact that it is probably easier to get people wanting to buy “this new experimental shit called 2C-B” rather than “this new experimental shit called Bees”. Sounds more credible to me.

2C-B is often sold at ecstasy prices at clubs & parties, from 10-30$ per ‘dose’ (usually 15-25 mg)

2C-B is usually sold in power or pill form, and can be taken orally or insuffulated. If you snort it,it has a much faster onset (20 minutes as compared to 2 hours) , but is also considered to be one of the most painful drugs to snort, with users almost always reporting intense sinus pain for 5 minutes exactly. The recommended “threshold dose” of 2C-B is 7mg and the average “high dosage” is 20 mg.

Possible side effects include: mild diarrhea, gas, and nausea. Some users have said to experience a slight irritability for roughly a day or so after use. However, these effects are rare and the drug is generally easier on the body than MDMA (Ecstasy).

POSITIVE

• mood lift, euphoria
• increased giggling and laughing
• feelings of empathy
• feelings of insight
• brightened colors / enhanced visual perception
• closed- and open-eye visuals
• mental and physical stimulation
• enhanced tactile sensation/eroticism
• increased access to spiritual ideation

NEUTRAL

• general change in consciousness (as with most psychoactives)
• decreased appetite
• pupil dilation
• restlessness
• unusual thoughts and speech
• change in perception of time
• unusual body sensations (facial flushing, chills, goosebumps, body energy)
• change in body temperature regulation
• ego softening (but less than LSD, mescaline, or psilocybin mushrooms)

NEGATIVE

NOTE: likelihood of negative side effects increases with higher doses

• uncomfortable changes in body temperature (sweating/chills)
• nausea and/or vomiting
• tension, muscle twitching
• confusion, difficulty concentrating, problems with activities requiring linear focus
• insomnia
• unpleasant visions
• unwanted and overwhelming feelings
• paranoia, fear, and panic

That’s all just copied from Erowids, but let’s see what my man Dr. Shulgin himself has to say about this 2B-C thing

(with 64 mg) I found only mild visual and emotional effects at the 20 milligram dose, so I took the remaining 44 milligrams. I was propelled into something not of my choosing. Everything that was alive was completely fearsome. I could look at a picture of a bush, and it was just that, a picture, and it posed no threat to me. Then my gaze moved to the right, and caught a bush growing outside the window, and I was petrified. A life-form I could not understand, and thus could not control. And I felt that my own life-form was not a bit more controllable. This was from the comments of a physician who assured me that he saw no neurological concerns during this dramatic and frightening experience.

Okay, now read that again, and notice to the very first couple words.

Did you catch it

(with 64 mg)

if you paid attention earlier, than this should have immediately stood out, as this is more than 3 times what is considered a “big hit”. Dr. Shulgin knows this, he just likes to go hard as a motherfucker, as he explains here

There have been reports of several overdoses that prove the intrinsic safety of this compound. Prove is used here in the classic British sense; i.e., to challenge. “The proof of the pudding is in the eating,” is not a verification of quality, but an inquiry into the quality itself. (The French simplify all this by using two separate verbs for prove.) One overdose was intentional, the other accidental.

This man intended to overdose on the extremely potent hallucinogen, just to prove that it’s safe.

That second overdose that he mentions though?

Yeah, that time, he accidentally took 5 times the recommended dosage, and instead of simply writing his mistake off as a mistake, he took notes for us to read.

(with 100 mg) I had weighed correctly. I had simply picked up the wrong vial. And my death was to be a consequence of a totally stupid mistake. I wanted to walk outside, but there was a swimming pool there and I didn’t dare fall into it. A person may believe that he has prepared himself for his own death, but when the moment comes, he is completely alone, and totally unprepared. Why now? Why me? Two hours later, I knew that I would live after all, and the experience became really marvelous. But the moment of facing death is a unique experience. In my case, I will some day meet it again, and I fear that I will be no more comfortable with it then than I was just now. This was from the comments of a psychologist who will, without doubt, use psychedelics again in the future, as a probe into the unknown.

boss.

And, let’s get this out of the way ahead of time, I will never be doing Drug of Interest articles on:

• Weed (if you follow me you probably know everything about weed already; if you have any specific questions about stuff about weed then feel free to ask)
• Ecstasy (not an actual drug, it’s more like a term for a cocktail of drugs that too many people assume is the same as MDMA) 
• Coke (too boring)
• Acid (an awesome drug and it’s fun to read people’s trip reports, but besides posting about individual experiences and it’s therapeutic value, there’s not really much to talk about)
• Mescaline (same reasons as acid)
• Psilocybin (same reasons as acid)

There are a ton of other drugs I plan on avoiding talking about too (PCP, lean, xanax, almost all of the prescription opiates come to mind) because I kinda want this page to focus on the thousands of experimental psychoactive compounds that have been synthesized that barely anyone besides me and other tryptamine-buffs have heard about because I am a huge drug nerd like that c:

Drug of Interest: Bromo-DragonFLY (aka 1-(8-bromobenzo[1,2-b;4,5-b']difuran-4-yl) -2-aminopropane)

So here’s a neat little phenethylamine. It’s called BromoDragonfly in part due to it’s cute molecular structure, which sorta looked like a dragonfly to scientists I guess!

Also, it is an extremely potent hallucinogen, slightly less potent than LSD, with an extremely long period of activation, rounding out at around 2 or 3 days.

Yeah, 72 hours of tripping balls, nonstop.
It does have a super slow onset to make up for this ridiculousness though, taking around 6 hours for it to start to peak past baseline for most users.

When it is sold on the streets, it’s usually in the form of blotter tabs (because of that whole “300 times stronger than mescaline” thing), and as a result, is often confused for and sold as LSD. The key difference between it and LSD, however, is it’s extreme toxicity.

Laboratory testing has confirmed that in October 2009, a batch of Bromo-Dragonfly was distributed, mislabeled as the related compound 2C-B-FLY, which is around 20x less potent than BDF by weight. This mistake is believed to have contributed to several lethal overdoses and additional hospitalizations. The batch implicated in these deaths also contained significant synthesis impurities, which may have contributed to the toxicity.

Nice job, scientists.

How about some trip stories though? I’m sure some dudes have had fun with this stuff before!

On May 7, 2011, in the United States, two young adults died after overdosing on Bromo-DragonFLY, which they thought was 2C-E, and several others were hospitalized during the same incident. The deaths occurred after a fatal miscalculation in dosage. Those who took the drug received, in some cases, 100x the normal dose. Both deaths were very violent, resulting in massive seizures, vomiting blood, and terrifying hallucinations, and several surviving victims are still suffering from its effects.

Oh.

Well that suc-

On October 3, 2009, a 22 year old man from Copenhagen died after ingesting Bromo-dragonfly. His friend described the trip saying, “It was like being dragged to hell and back again. Many times. It is the most evil [thing] I’ve ever tried. It lasted an eternity”

Well fuck. I guess this stuff is probably not all that fun th-

Also, a Swedish man had to have the front part of his feet and several fingers on one hand amputated after taking a massive overdose. Apparently the compound acted as a long-acting efficacious vasoconstrictor, leading to necrosis and gangrene which was delayed by several weeks after the overdose occurred.

:c

Drug of Interest: Foxy Moxie (5-MeO-MiPT)

okay, so this is going to be a regular thing now I swear to god. every week (at least) I’ll find an obscure entheogen or psychedelic or maybe an anesthetic or two and talk about it for a while

this week we’re looking at Foxy Moxie, a relatively unknown thing sometimes sold as E (another reason not to use E unless you own a pill testing kit!) but is usually mistaken for it’s somewhat more popular cousin moxy (5-MeO-DiPT). It’s a tryptamine, so at lower doses it causes euphoria, a sense of openness, and an energetic feeling. At higher doses some of the psychedelic visual-auditory effects kick in (auditory synesthesia is common at doses of 10 mg or more) and the ‘energetic’ feeling is ramped up considerably.

Orally, 5-MeO-MiPT is active at 4-6 mg. The drug can also be smoked, but unlike most other tryptamines, this route requires a much higher dosage. 12–20 mg is usually smoked. It typically produces a very strong odor.

The toxicity of 5-MeO-MiPT is not known but as with all research chemicals doses should be carefully weighed on an accurate milligram scale and users should take caution because overdoses are not listed.