My not-so-thrilling ayahuasca experience

[TalkingMeatSuit]

Not trying to be funny but can it be taken up the back passage? Apparently many drugs can be as there is a good supply of blood vessels. Be a bit embarrassing but nothing ventured nothing gained eh?

As for your own failed experience, I wonder if the fact that the drug has to be mixed with a mono-amine oxidase inhibitor, perhaps some people have far more of the enzyme that breaks DMT down in the stomach and therefore the usual amounts of MAOI in the mix might not cut it for you?

You'd be better off just smoking DMT and avoid all this sickness stuff. Or, try Ibogaine - it does make you puke but there is no chance it won't work.

That's actually not a bad idea. I know that ya can get drunk off of wine enemas. As sacred as everyone treats the entire thing, I don't know how happy they would be to have me cramming jungle juice up the ol' mud-whistle in the circle. From what I've read, smoking DMT lasts less than 10 minutes but is very intense in a different fashion than the Amazonian option. Doubt I'll try it any time soon - in no hurry to cross paths with illegal drugs in the motherland.

Ibogaine is pretty intense stuff. I have a friend going to Amsterdam next month with one of the facilitators from Peru to experience it. He's required to get a clean bill of health on his liver, heart, etc before she would consider taking him. It lasts for more than a day I'm told. That's a really damn long time to be in that state (not that I know what it feels like), plus it makes you ill too.

 

[TalkingMeatSuit]

I think the indigenous people have it right in that these things are done with reverence and under supervision. It's certainly not something that should be sourced on a street corner from a dealer who does not know what he even has.

One of my friends that came for the experience is a former heroin addict, coke addict, lots of acid trips under his belt - he's been a mess this guy. He said that this wasn't something that he would ever even think of trying on his own. No one needed his help, but before we started the shaman instructed us to call him over if we were having a bad time or it was too intense, that he has some way to regulate the experience for you (no clue how). Denying your body of anything but plain fish, fruits, and vegetables for a couple weeks just to get intentionally sick and face your demons isn't exactly something that I would call recreational. I was raised in a cult religion, so anything smacking of religion or ceremony makes me a bit uncomfortable. That being said, although there were a few cringeworthy moments, I did appreciate the ceremonial respect and attitude of gratitude that we were guided to have for the experience.

Really I was pretty bummed for days after. I had read so much about it over the last few years and was hoping to experience something "other worldly", perhaps even spiritual. As with everything in the paranormal though, it seems like the answers are always just out of reach.

 

[Stagger Lee]

Even if you had experienced something "other worldly" -I don't think you could label it "paranormal" , seeing as your experienced would have been a direct result of ingesting. Although I understand what you're getting at. I'm not familiar with this particular potion, or it's effects... but if I'm following you correctly, a couple caps of a particular mushroom will take you to this place you seek. This thread takes me back, much younger, following a particular band who's fans were quite serious in this same(similiar) quest.

 

[Charlie Prime]

I did feel that my equilibrium was off a bit, and it sure made me sick, but nothing else. I was so disappointed.

After investing that much time and money, I would be disappointed as well.

To what do you attribute the lack of effect, too low a dosage, it only works on some people?

It sounds like you went about it correctly.

 

[TalkingMeatSuit]

After investing that much time and money, I would be disappointed as well.

To what do you attribute the lack of effect, too low a dosage, it only works on some people?

It sounds like you went about it correctly.

I still don't have any idea why it didn't work. It wasn't a con - I had two friends that there with me who were both in a mind-blow euphoric stupor for hours afterwards. I've had other entheogenic experiences in the past, all of which were successful. I would try it again some day if I had the time and money to do all that traveling and felt like I was getting stagnant, but for now it's just an irritating memory.

I asked a medium that I was testing out (wound up just feeling kind of "gray basket" about the experience) for her insight into the situation. She claimed that my subconscious blocked me from having the experience, that I was too fearful (I WAS scared) and not ready for it yet. As with pretty much all medium experiences, it's not exactly a reliable source, so I never really gave it any credence. The medium claimed to have never even heard of it.

 

[Todesangst]

Thanks for sharing. I've actually known someone who was almost completely unaffected by various hallucinogens when he tried to experiment with them, mushrooms, acid, etc. Although he seemed far too eager than I think is a healthy attitude towards such substances.
I'm personally not sure if I want to give ayahuasca a go at this time (a couple years ago I'd have said different). From what I gather its basically a shroom trip stretched out for hours with the inhibitors. Ive had a couple bad trips with shrooms, and although they sort of "right" themselves, like a hump you get over and then its smooth sailing, I don't know if I would want to have those low points stretched out for an hour+. Ayahuasca meme was kind of being popularized in west without much mention of the harrowing aspects.