Changing homes

I know its only been a week, but if anyone is following this blog head over to http://www.entheo-genesis.com/!

Thanks for reading!

Christmas Vine Follow Up

WARNING!

I mentioned two things in my early posts that might seem like a good idea to mix! They are not!!

You may have thought to yourself "Hey if a MAOI and DMT makes ayahuasca, then a MAOI and LSA must also be great!" You would be correct... if you were taking pure LSA!

Unless you have extracted LSA from the Christmas Vine or Hawaaiian Baby Woodrose seeds you will be consuming much more than LSA.

MAOIs are highly dangerous when mixed with one of the other alkaloids in the seeds that can potentially raise your blood pressure to FATAL LEVELS, especially if you have a heart condition.

DO NOT MIX LSA CONTAINING PLANTS WITH THE FOLLOWING MAOI CONTAINING PLANTS:

• B. Caapi (Traditional Ayahuasca Vine)
• P. Harmala/Syrian Rue/Harmaline
• Passion flower
• Moclobemide (MAOI-A) (Pharmahuasca)

This is a public service anouncement to anyone who might think it is a good idea!

IT IS NOT!

YOU COULD DIE!

ACTUALLY!

Datura and Other "Witches' Weeds"

Datura

Today's post is going to be on a plant that has a lot of rumors going around about it but I knew very little about. I first heard about datura in the book Aya Awakenings by Rak Razam but it went by the native name, or possibly spanish name toé. One of the shamans uses it as an admixture that causes a rushing sensation in his brew. Another ayahuasca tourist talks about smoking the leaves like tobacco or weed.

Then I heard the plant mentioned in the psychedelic thriller Into the Void. The main character's junky friend says something like "Datura is so fucked up you don't even realize you're tripping. You talk to people...vividly remember people and your conversations with them, only weeks later to realize that you were talking to yourself" 

Finally I heard it come up in this reddit post about someones brother who ingested Datura seeds and is now threatening to kill himself if a close family friend didn't marry him. Here's the link. Every one in the comments seemed to agree that Datura was bad juju. I decided to get to the bottom of it myself. I started my journey, like most of these plant studies, at wikipedia.

Deadly Nightshade

It turns out this plant has a ton of names associated with it. Jimson Weed, Thorn Apple, Angel Trumpet, Moonflower, Apple-peru, Kanak, Umatt, and Toloache. It's one of four plants known as "Witches' Weeds" that include the familiar sounding Deadly Nightshade, Hensbane, and Mandrake. I lumped all 4 together into this post because they all contain the same active compound, tropane alkaloids.

The two most common species of Datura are the D. Inoxia and the D. Stramonium. Every part of this plant is toxic in some way shape or form.

The plant has been used in cultures all over the world and its hard to pinpoint exactly who started using it first. One of the most widely noted cases of Datura use is after a group of settlers in Jamestown, VA cooked and ate a Datura plant and suffered temporary insanity. 

Its been used as a poison by the Europeans of the middle ages.

Mandrake Root

Almost no other plant has such a history of crime. In the Middle Ages, especially in Italy, professional poisoners would concoct a brew of Datura that would be almost painlessly fatal. That Quality of deadening the senses before death, or during the perpetration of a crime, made it of the greatest value to criminals.

It was used by Indian and White slavers to knock their victims unconscious and enslave, transport, or rape them. It has been combined with morphine to ease the pain of child birth and hiking accidents. The FBI experimented with it in the 60s and 70s for use in interrogation.

It has also been used in shamanic tradition for 1000s of years, and has been utilized for its psychotropic visions in shaman rituals. More recently it has been experimented with as a recreational drug.

So why does Datura work? I mentioned earlier that Datura, along with Mandrake, Hensbane, and Deadly Nightshade all contain tropane alkaloids. These include atropine, scopolamine, and hyoscymine. 

Hensbane

TROPANE ALKALOIDS- Atropine (dl-hyosciamine) a plant alkaloid, is the prototype drug of the group, and when used systematically in adequate doses, it provides all of the affects described above for the group as a whole. In most cases, it produces and initial transitory central vagal stimulant action before the blocking effect is manifested.

The CNS is stimulated by atropine; restlessness, mental excitement, mania, delirium, and hallucinations occurr with large doses. Large doses also cause hyperpyrexia because of a combination of central and peripheral effects (decreased sweating).

Atropine is well absorbed when given orally, and is rapidly eliminated from the body. About equal amounts of unchanged atropine and inactive metabolites are excreted in the urine; excretion is nearly complete in 24 h. Usually, 3 or 4 doses/day are needed to sustain pharmacologic effects, but cycloplegia and mydriasis may persist for days after a single dose, especially if given topically. The usual dose of atropine sulfate is 0.4 to 3 mg/day orally or parentally (s.c., IM, or IV). Above 3 mg, mental status and behavior usually change. The dose and maximum tolerated daily dose is usually given orally in 3 or 4 divided doses. Its use in the treatment of sinus bradycardia and incomplete atrioventricular block is described under CARDIAC ARRYTHMIAS in Ch. 25. In opthamology, it is used topically as a mydriatic and cycloplegic drug (for cycloplegia, 1 drop t.i.d. for 3 days prior to examination and 1 drop on day of examination; for iritis, solution or ointment b.i.d. or t.i.d.). Atropine can also be given orally as tincture of belladonna (0.03% solution, 0.3 to 3ml daily) or belladonna extract (15 to 60 mg daily).

Poisoning with atropine is best treated with physostigmine salicylate (see above), which antagonizes atropine effects both in the CNS and the priphery.

Scopolamine (hyoscine) differs from atropine chiefly in being a CNS depressant instead of a stimulant. It is used mainly in obstetrics (where its sedative and amnesic properties are useful), as an antiemetic, and to prevent motion sickness. The usual dose is 0.3 to 3 mg. Many hypnotics sold without a prescription contain scopolamine in combinations with a mildly sedative antihistamine; the hypnotic efficacy of these preparations is minimal.

Note: hysocyamine, a chemical in Datura species, does not seem to be in the merck manual. Also, doses indicated are not given in mg/kg ratios. Doses almost certainly may be different for someone who weighs 120 kg than for someone who weighs 60 kg.

Further research on the chemicals by themselves yielded this vice documentary that shows how Colombian criminals use the drug to rob people blind, especially tourists and travellers. The drug makes people so compliant that one man actually assisted his robbers in cleaning out his whole apartment. One prostitute in the documentary says how she uses the drug to rob rich looking men after sex. And it goes into how some women are dosed with the drug over a period of days and gang raped repeatedly. Supposedly the person administered the Datura loses all memory of what happened to them, making the criminals hard to catch.

I decided to turn to Erowid for some info on people actually using this stuff for fun. It sounds pretty dangerous and sketchy to me just from what I've read, but there are people who swear by the stuff.

Eating the seeds

So we took about two pods worth of seeds and pulverized them in a mortar and pestle until we ended up with a bowl of the stuff, so we each decided to take a teaspoon full. We downed the quite nasty tasting semi-powder with a half galss of water, five minutes later we decided to take another teaspoon each fearing it wouldn't be enough. About 25 minutes later I started to feel strange, not like I was building to a peak, but a genuinely strange and inexplicable feeling. 

I remember laying down and feeling kind of tired and then going up to go outside. I needed to get to the plants I wanted to look at them very badly. My friend stopped me from leaving I think, because I ended up sitting down on the floor. 

I remember thinking about a sandwich I had eaten the day before that I left in my friend's fridge, but then I remembered I had not eaten a sandswich at all and if I had eaten it it sure as hell wouldn't be in my friends fridge. 
I remember things were strange but didn't feel strange. I looked up and the sky was as blue as could be, but then dark clouds filled the sky and lightning started flashing in the sky, a woman's face appeared to me and I knew it was Her. The plants were an extension of her life force. She was calling for me. I tried to run, but then I was back in my friends apartment, sitting on the floor. 

I tried to get up I needed to see the plants, I needed to do something or else she would have my soul. I remember walking towards the door but not making it there I would always forget what I was doing, and then when I got there there was no door at all. 

I felt trapped I needed to get out, I looked over and my friend was lying down on the couch with his eyes closed, I remember wondering if he was dead and then I started to see his hair and fingernails grow really long. He appeared very old to me, and then I saw what was happening. She was taking him. I saw his eyes flash open just then and it was normal again. 

I remember asking myself where my cigarettes were. Just then there was a knock at the door, it was my girlfiend wondering where i was, she had brought three friends with her, all people I had went to school with in earlier years and had moved away, this did not seem odd to me at the time. I invited them in and we started talking about something. I can't remember exactly what, I reached in my pocked for a lighter light a cig my girl had given me, but when I looked up they were gone. I mean VANISHED. The odd thing was I still had the cigarette. 

I shrugged this off and tried to light the cigarette, but every time i tried the lighter wasn't working right or I'd forget what i was doing. 

I reached over to pet my dog, which is strange considering my dog died when I was twelve. 

I don't remember much after this except lying down on the floor and wondering if I would wake up with my soul still mine. I woke up still feeling weird, but it was manageble. Things were still where I put them ten minutes later, but my eyes were fucked up for about a week after. I conversed with my friend who had told me hat he had never been asleep at all. Pretty weird. All in all, an amazing substance, but not for beginners (or even some of the more experienced) Only for those who want to be able to say they've seen everything. 

Drinking a tea from the Leaves and Flowers

I'm there with my sister, 3 year old nephew and girlfriend of many years. We decide that I'll be the first to do this, and perhaps that they will try some the next night, depending on how it goes for me. I make sun tea out of the flowers, stems and leaves by stuffing a bunch of them into a waterbottle, and sitting it on top of the van until the sun goes down. I mix some up with a chai tea, and do my best to get it down. A pretty foul brew, and of course I make that choice I always recognize as foolish later - after my initial dose, and waiting for a short while, I feel nothing and decide to pour myself another dose. Almost immediately, the first dose kicks in. Considering the anti-emetic effects, I am lucky to vomit almost right away before it becomes impossible, kicking out some of that second dose before it piles on top of the first one. 

There's a process of being taken to the porta-potties and back to camp by my g/f. At this point, I'm having difficulty tracking the proper direction to and from these destinations, and an intense, horrid thirst. Absolutely the most parched I've ever felt in my life, and I don't have my water bottle with me during the trek. It's not pleasant in the least, and I'm squeezing my g/fs hand very hard, being mean and cranky and difficult to sit for, constantly pulling her off course and complaining loudly about how frustratingly thirsty I am as we make this little journey. Fortunately, this was probably the worst part of the whole experience, and things began to get better as soon as I managed to get back to camp and ingest some fluids. 

Nonetheless, things are coming on strong, with a lot of body buzz. After a small bit of exploring in camp, including apparently unsuccessful attempts to touch the pink flamingo attached to the van antenna, I decide that before I'm ready to deal with the world in this new state, I'm going to need to lie down in the van on the mattress and relax under the covers, and get used to my body. As I say to my companions, 'I feel like my feet are made out of something other than feet'. I spend some time in the dark, expecting the kalidescope fractals of other hallucinogens, but there's actually very little of this. 

I spend a bit of time reading (I think it was Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, but it may have been Inifinite Jest - I really can't remember at this point, except that it was one of my two large blue books, so it had to be one of them) and discover the visual distortion that will follow me through the evening. To wit, everything appears to be about six inches closer to me than it actually is (explaining my failure to make contact with the flamingo earlier that so amused my companions). I discover this because I'm unable to read my book with my glasses on, but if I take them off and hold the book at a normal distance, I'm able to read the book just as I would if I were holding it too close to my face with them off. 

Now, after a bit of accustoming myself to my new world, I get up out of bed and decide that it's time to play. My sister and g/f are not in camp when I climb out of the van and, reflecting on how unpleasant the trip to the bathroom with the g/f had been, decided to throw caution to the wind and left camp without a babysitter. When I eventually returned, I discovered that this had, of course, totally throw them for a loop, and that my g/f had a pretty good panic and went hunting for me, unsuccessfully. 

Once I set out on foot, I found that, while still present, the sensation of increased gravity began to lift away and my spirits rose. Other than the issue of depth perception, which made it seem to the people around me that I was trying to pet the things I was really trying to reach for, I didn't have the noticeable fluid visual hallucinations associate with many other hallucinogens. But, with the fact that I was at Burning Man of all places, and my lack of a babysitter to corroborate my story with, I frankly have no idea what I saw and heard that was real and what was purely a construct of my mind, making it hard to piece together a narrative of my experiences. 

I definitely experienced some disorientation, occasionally wandering into other peoples camps inappropriately. I was also subject to the phantom cigarettes and other items that so many other users report. In my case, I also had a phantom water bottle. I suspect that this phenomenon, while most commonly reported with the cigarettes, is actually something that is a user subjective occurence based on whatever repetetive actions they commonly perform. This would explain the water bottle for me (as keeping hydrated is the most common repetetive action I have going on out there on the Playa), and what I've heard for other people, like gamers who will fall into playing a game with a phantom controller. 

I had an extensive conversation with one fellow sitting under the scavenger hunt board, who I assumed was real, and a few other people encounters, but I do not recall imagining meetings with people I know, which seems to be something most people do run into. Instead, the most unusual effect is that I had what I can only call hallucinatory memories. I would find myself acting on a memory of something said or done, only to realize that not only had I not actually had the conversation or taken the action that triggered what I was doing, but that I hadn't even hallucinated the conversation or action, but that I was remembering something I had not experienced at all. Disconcerting, to say the least! 

One such scenario happened as I was trying to find my way back to our camp, and realized that I was bearing in the wrong direction, because I remembered distinctly having a discussion with someone about how a whole row of sites had been moved one row further out. Suddenly I realized that there was no way that would have happened, and that the conversation hadn't actually happened, nor had I even experienced a hallucinatory conversation, and that I was remembering something completely false. 

I also spent quite some time searching for my bicycle, which I had distinct memories of leaving... somewhere. In a very dreamlike state, I would wander looking for it, lose track of my self, start doing something else and then remember that I needed to find my bike. Eventually I gave it up for lost, and I did make it back to camp and reassured everyone that I was still alive and OK. I had never had my bike with me, it was in camp the whole time. 


Smoking Datura leaves

The last time that I took datura is also worth comment as it demonstrates how the strength of the plant varies. It was the following summer and I hadn’t smoked it for 8 months or so. I had grown a few new plants from the seed that I had and felt a strong desire to try smoking the flowers again. My girlfriend was away so I would get no grief. I rolled a joint with only part of a flower which should have been a very small ‘stoned’ dose. I cruelly tricked my mate into smoking it with me telling him it was MJ and me and him took only a few tokes each. For some reason the joint was way strong. Both of us tripped off it. I was totally unprepared and received proper acid style distortions and patterns, traces etc… We went to the cinema and I couldn’t concentrate of the film I was getting big perceptual distortions the whole time. The trip was dark, I felt very uneasy and paranoid at some points and had a dull stimulation in my mind that wouldn’t calm. I tried smoking MJ later but it only made me more para. I lay in bed all night unable to sleep with a racing pulse that was a quite unpleasant experience. It was surprising as the effect from this was very different to the other times that I have used it was much more powerful and physiological, trippy in the same way but not much fun. Needless to say I have not used datura since. 

My conclusion? Don't do Datura or other plants that use tropane alkaloids to get you high. It's pretty dangerous and the trips all seem pretty... dark. It doesn't seem like it is worth the risk of dying to uncomfortably lose your mind for a few hours when better, safer alternatives exist. There will be people who read this and decide to do it anyways. Thats just the way it goes. Datura is not a controlled or regulated substance in the US.

Vegetal Reality Theory

So on this blog I've given a lot of attention to the "how" of entheogens. How they work. What chemicals are active. How to use them. But, once you know how to access these spiritual places you start to have very different questions. What does it mean? Why do all these plants cause this... thing to happen!

The answer is... there currently is no answer! But there are a number of theories, and to take a break from looking at pictures of plants and the religious history of the cultures that use them I'd like to talk about one of the more interesting theories out there. This theory is called the Vegetal Reality Theory, but in a lot of ways to fully grasp VRT you need to have a firm understanding of the Gaia Theory.

Gaia Theory, first proposed by James Lovelock in the 1970s, proposes that organisms interact with their inorganic surroundings to form a self-regulating, complex system that contributes to maintaining the conditions for life on the planet. In other words every living and non living thing on planet Earth is working as a large super organism in order to maintain the fragile conditions that make life possible. The theory seems to hold up considering how rare life is in the universe (to our knowledge). Earth is the only place where life is known to exist.

This idea of the Earth as an integrated living being is not a new idea in human history, and dates back into the earliest of human mythology. Gaia, the namesake goddess for the theory, was the primal Greek goddess personifying the Earth. Many of the people mentioned in the entheogenic cultures speak of a "mother earth" figure and respect and worship nature, be it plant, animal, water, air, or stone.

In western culture as far back as the 1700s scientists have been suggesting a correlation between geological and biological processes. James Hutton, Alexander von Humboldt, Vladimir Vernadsky, Aldo Leopold, and Stephen Harding all have supported the idea of a "living Earth".  In Stephen Harding's Animate Earth he posits perhaps the best summary of the idea.

It is at least not impossible to regard the earth's parts—soil, mountains, rivers, atmosphere etc,—as organs or parts of organs of a coordinated whole, each part with its definite function. And if we could see this whole, as a whole, through a great period of time, we might perceive not only organs with coordinated functions, but possibly also that process of consumption as replacement which in biology we call metabolism, or growth. In such case we would have all the visible attributes of a living thing, which we do not realize to be such because it is too big, and its life processes too slow.

It is important to note that the theory does not believe that the Earth is, in the strictest sense, an organism. Instead, as stated by microbiologist and coauthor of the Gaia Theory, Lynn Margulis, the Earth is "an emergent property of interaction among organisms... the series of interacting ecosystems that compose a single huge ecosystem at the Earth's surface. Period... Gaia is just symbiosis as seen from space."

So what does all of this have to do with eating a Mushroom and seeing things? I'm glad you asked.

Gaia Theory forms the basis for a new theory proposed by media theorist, Roy Ascott. In his theory he creates a model of three VRs: virtual reality, vindicated reality, and vegetal reality.

So we are all pretty familiar with the first two VRs. Vindicated reality is the reality you are experiencing right now most likely. You can touch, feel, smell, see and interact with everything in "the real world". You can feel the hard ground below your feet. Your world works based on certain rules, and try as hard as you can, you are not able to break those rules.

Virtual reality exists... kind of. You can get on a computer go on to a minecraft server and interact with everything in that server so long as you play by the rules in that reality. Again, try as you might, unless you go in and change the rules you have to play by the rules of that reality. This applies to many games and immersive technological experiences. The difference between virtual and vindicated reality is you need an interface in the vindicated reality to access virtual reality. A computer, or some kind of hardware.

Vegetal reality is similar to virtual reality, theorizes Ascott. You need an interface in the form of an entheogen to access the space. Much like with computers certain entheogens are better for getting into this vegetal reality than others. Once in this reality there are certain rules that apply much like the code in virtual reality, or the laws of physics in vindicated reality.

When you take an entheogen in a low enough dose you are not fully in this vegetal reality. As a result you see the physiological effects of chemicals. Breathing walls, altered perspective, brighter lights, possible open eye visuals if you are close. Its almost like a loading screen, but if you don't have enough to break through the door to this other reality you'll peak and come back down without ever glimpsing this other place.

When you take, say, DMT, Iboga, large ammounts of Psylocibin you are able to break through into a fully immersive new reality. Vegetal Reality takes hold of your senses, you no longer feel connected to your former self and ego-death happens. You are no longer conscious or aware of vindicated reality. Many people describe feeling a part of the all. Everything is one. All life has a common source.

Vegetal Reality is the mind of Gaia. It is the rules and regulations that run all living creatures on the planet including plants and animals some theorize. It is the collective being of all organisms and the spirit of life on the planet.

An excerpt from Rak Razam's Aya Awakening

Indeed, the parallels between shamanism and cyberspace have been brewing for a while now, and seem to be dovetailing in many ways. The development of the technosphere is all based on networks, and bio-mimicry, copying pathways first established by nature. There's even something organic in code itself

Roy Ascott, a "network artist" and figurehead in Ars Electronic, an early web-based art movement, see hyperspacial dimensions plant sacraments can take us to as equally valid as cyberspace. The only difference is that plants are the interface not computer chips...

Virtual reality, dependant on interactive digital technology is telematic and immersive. Vindicated reality, based on mechanical technology is prosaic and Newtonian. Vegetal reality is quite unfamiliar to the Western praxis... and is often viewed with fear and loathing by those entombed in vindicated reality. Vegetal reality can be understood in the context of technoetics as the transformation of consciousness by the plant technology and the ingestion of psychoactive material.

One reason for this prejudice by those in the vindicated reality is the paradigm itself is a product of a disconnection from and an ignorance of the plant kingdom on an experiential level. It's no coincidence that the rise of the industrial age, when Charles Babbage invented the Difference Engine, the first prototype computer, was also the period when the Western connection to the Earth was at its lowest. The knowledge of the sacred mushrooms, mescaline, and peyote had been virtually eradicated  along with the Indians that revered them in the Americas, and ayahuasca and other plant sacrements were yet to make it out of the jungle.

Without plant interfaces, the victorian era made its own tools, and came to see the world as part of a mechanical universe. Humans commodified and consumed more than the fair share of nature's resources, and that concentrated gorging also produced the technological marvels of the 20th century. The potential energy in the great green web was just redistributed.

While biologists are quick to point out that humans are in a form of seed-carrying symbiosis with plants, how many I wonder, would be able to see the full tapestry the plants have woven, and how the green web, having activated deeper levels of consciousness in us seed-bearing humans, could be seen to have seeded the digital web, in its own likeness? Not many, I'm sure, because the vast majority have yet to wake up to the idea of plant consciousness itself. 

Its only a theory. And not a very well supported theory at that. But I think it makes for a fascinating
read and definitely something to think about and potentially refine.

Thanks for reading!

Iboga - African Spiritual Entheogen

Have you ever heard of Bwiti? Bwiti is one of the official religions of Gabon and practiced in western equatorial Africa. It is a Catholic sect. It incorporates animism, and ancestor worship, and Christian dogma into a syncretistic belief system. One of the major components of the Bwiti religion is the use of a psychedelic, dissociative root bark from the plant Tabernanthe Iboga. The Bwiti believe the use of Iboga promotes rapid spiritual growth, stabilizes community and family structure, and also use it for healing.

According to Bwitist genesis the root was discovered by the Pygmy tribes deep in the jungle and then shared with the with the neighboring people. It is quickly gaining followers in Gabon's struggle to create a post colonial identity. Bwitists do consider themselves Christians, even more so then traditional Catholics. Nengue Me Ndjoung Isidore, former supreme court Magistrate of Liberville, says this of the religion:

The Catholic church is a beautiful theory for Sunday, the iboga on the contrary is the practice of everyday living. In church, they speak of God, with iboga, you live God

So what is this godly plant exactly, and how does it work? Iboga is a jungle shrub that produces an orange fruit in pairs. Its roots contain Ibogaine which is a strong hallucinogenic that is also found in the plants V. Africana, and T. Undulata.

Ibogaine was first sold to the western world in France, beginning in the 1930s in 8mg tablets advertised as a mental and physical stimulant. It was semi popular among post WWII atheletes but eventually was taken off the market when the sale of Ibogaine was made illegal in 1966. Ibogaine was classified as a Schedule I drug by the FDA in the late 60s.

The chemical has since been proven to fight addiction well, and has been very successful in Heroin treatment. It boasts an 80% success rate, but research is slow due to the controlled nature of this substance.

Traditional use: In Bwiti religious ceremonies, the root bark is pulverized and swallowed in large amounts to produce intense psychoactive effects. In Africa, iboga root bark is sometimes chewed, releasing small amounts of ibogaine to produce a stimulant effect. Ibogaine is also available in a total alkaloid extract of the Tabernanthe iboga plant, which also contains all the other iboga alkaloids and thus has only about half the potency by weight as standardized ibogaine hydrochloride

Modern use: Currently, pure crystalline ibogaine hydrochloride is the most standardized formulation. It is typically produced by semi-synthesis from voacangine in commercial laboratories. Ibogaine has two separate chiral centers, meaning that there are four different stereoisomers of ibogaine. These four isomers are difficult to resolve.

Synthetic: A synthetic derivative of ibogaine, 18-methoxycoronaridine (18-MC), is a selective α3β4 antagonist that was developed collaboratively by the neurologist Stanley D. Glick (Albany) and the chemist Martin E. Kuehne (Vermont).^[43] This discovery was stimulated by earlier studies on other naturally occurring analogues of ibogaine such as coronaridine and voacangine that showed these compounds also have anti-addictive properties.^[44][45]

Iboga trips have two main phases. First is the visionary phase which has been described as Oneirogenic. This means it is dissociative and dream-like. It is a totally immersive psychedelic experience similar to Ayahuasca and DMT.

The second phase is the introspective phase, and is responsible for many of the therapeutic uses of the substance. It is during the introspective phase that users are able to conquer their fears and fight addictions. The combined effect of the two phases leads people to analyze their memories, life experiences and issues of trauma to help better over come them.

From the Erowid experience vault:

After my first dose I began to hear a buzzing/ringing noise in my ear. It would get louder and louder and eventually the buzz would get very high pitched. The treatment center is on the ocean so the waves crashing started to sound very very different. I can't explain the sound. 

Then I closed my eyes and I was able to see as if my eyes were open. Eyes open or closed, what I saw was the same. Next, I saw my own face. It would come towards me and pass by. I saw weird shapes, and was even looking at a little round spaceship that was in a maze. I was able to completely control which way it moved. The coolest thing I noticed was that every hallucination I had, I had complete control over it. If I wanted to see a specific person, I can just think of them and they would appear. 

The way I felt was not good. I had a horrible stomachache, my legs were restless, and I couldn't sleep. Another patient who was doing the treatment at the same time as me had no stomach problems, so that must mean that everybody just reacts differently to it. It must have been from not having had food for so long. I couldn't stop moving around and if I was under blankets I was too hot, and without them I was freezing cold. Eventually I forced myself to stay still for about 20 minutes, feeling pain everywhere, and I realized I was drenched in sweat. I took off my shirt and blankets till I dried off. 

I moved over to the next bed, which was dry. I would constantly call the nurse complaining about my stomach problems and eventually they gave me a cocktail of drugs to ease it. It helped a bit. I couldn't tell if I ever slept, if I did they were short little naps. I remember I wanted to watch tv on my laptop or iphone so I closed my eyes and there it was, I was watching tv on my laptop. I noticed that the better my memory of something, the more vivid and real it was. I watch tv on my laptop a lot so I was clearly able to see it. 

The trip was intense. Eventually I went into extremely deep thinking and realized how peaceful human beings must have been when we first came to be, requiring no money, job, war, and all other problems we've created for ourselves over time because we want more and more. Compare the beginning of humans when we needed no money to live, people simply enjoyed earth. Today, we have poverty, war, need to work our asses off, deal with stresses, have to fit in and be accepted, and realized then that over time things are just getting worse and worse. Then I realized our own greed and need for more will eventually be the end of us. We literally have nuclear weapons, ready to destroy the world, which is unnecessary. We are way more self-conscious and insecure than we used to be, and it made me feel like we are pathetic. 

I remember being in space and being able to travel to other planets, and also to earth, but in the beginning of time. I also saw my youth, and realized how long I've been alive, and how much longer I have to live. I realized how long an hour really is if you think about it, and how much longer a day is than an hour, and a year than a day, and so on. I began to question how the FUCK we can stay happy for our whole lifespan under these conditions, and why god would make our lives so long. Then I realized that god solved the problem by giving us the gift of happiness. He has the power to change the amount of happiness we receive from any given situation, and he has gifted us by being able to attain happiness from simple things like eating food, being with friends, and so on. 

I feel like the trip is essential to keeping me clean. As I write this its been 3 days after ibogaine and I feel no desire to use at all. While I tripped, I would realize exactly why I started using, and I would prove to myself, logically why to never do it again. I would realize what I've lost in my life from using. For me, I realized that using drugs depleted me of the gift that god gave me - to attain happiness from a certain situation. For example - I have a view of the ocean from the balcony in my room. Its literally on the beach. When I first arrived, I looked out at it, and said to myself 'oh, an ocean.' I just recognized that it was there, but felt no emotion from it. Others would look out and say 'oh how beautiful it is!.' 

The trip ended the next day around 12pm when I fell asleep until 6pm. I woke up still feeling the physical effects but not tripping. I lay there for hours and eventually was given sleeping meds. 

Ibogaine is a schedule I drug. I do not recomend anyone to bring this drug into the U.S. Consumption and possession of this drug are legal in Mexico and much of Africa.

Christmas Vine- LSA Plant?

So tonight's post is coming from my friends suggestion that I do it!He stumbled upon it a few weeks ago when looking for entheogens online but didn't know anything about it except that a few of the comments were saying it was great for gardening with, and the rest said eating them got you high. Me, being curious decided to track down these mystery seeds.

Reading through the wikipedia page for morning glory it bounces around as to where its from exactly.

-Medicinal use in china as a laxative
-The Japanese cultivated it as an ornamental flower. And so there are hundreds of varieties in all different colors.
-Then it gets down to Mesoamerica some how. Where they... used it to convert latex from the castille elastica tree. A proccess that predates goodyear by 3,000 years... wait what? I had no idea ancient mesoamericans could make rubber
-And then the Aztecs find a way to get high off of it just like everything else

There we go. Next to that entry was a blue ( see Rivea corymbosa ) 

That takes me to a plant called the Christmas Vine. So this climbing plant is from North Mexico and Cuba. And aparently its seeds were the most used hallucinogen used by the natives. The meso american word for the drug is "round things" and actually refer to its seeds which... contain LSA.

In 1941, Richard Evans Schultes first identified ololiuhqui as Turbina corymbosa and the chemical composition was first described on August 18, 1960, in a paper by Dr. Albert Hofmann. The seeds contain ergine (LSA), an ergoline alkaloid similar in structure to LSD. The psychedelic properties of Turbina corymbosa and comparison of the potency of different varieties were studied in the Central Intelligence Agency's MKULTRA Subproject 22 in 1956.

Okay thats where wikipedia left off. Onto Erowid.com

Here's where I found some firsthand data from Albert Hofmann in 1971

Three magic drugs were used mainly by the Aztecs and neighbouring tribes in their religious ceremonies and medical practices, which were strongly influenced by magical concepts; these drugs are still used today for the same purpose by the witch doctors in remote districts of Mexico. They are: 1. peyotl, a cactus species; 2. teonanácatl, certain foliate mushrooms; 3. ololiuqui, the seeds of bindweeds.

 Ololiuqui is the Aztec name for the seeds of certain convolvulaceous plants which have been used since prehispanic times by the Aztecs and related tribes, just as the sacred mushrooms and the cactus peyotl have been used in their religious ceremonies for magic and religious purposes. Ololiuqui is still used in our day by certain tribes, such as the Zapotecs, Chinantecs, Mazatecs, and Mixtecs, who live in the remote mountains of southern Mexico in comparative isolation, little or not at all influenced by Christianity.

An excellent review of the historical, botanical, and ethnological aspects of ololiuqui was given in 1941 by Schultes in his monograph "A Contribution to Our Knowledge of Rivea corymbosa: The Narcotic Ololiuqui of the Aztecs" ([38] ). The following information on the history of ololiuqui, its botanical identification and its past and present use have been taken mainly from Schultes' monograph.

One of the first descriptions and the first illustration of ololiuqui were given by Francisco Hernandez, a Spanish physician who between 1570 and 1575 carried out extensive research on the flora. An extract of a free translation of the 1651 Latin version reads as follows: "Oliliuhqui, which some call coaxihuitl, or snake-plant, is a twinning herb with thin, green, cordate leaves, slender, green terete stems, and long white flowers. The seed is round and very like coriander."
In this work Hernandez claims that priests ate ololiuqui which induced a delirious state during which they were able to receive messages from the supernatural and communicate with their gods. He reported that priests saw visions and went into a state of terrifying hallucinations under the influence of the drug.

If we are to judge from the many ancient writers quoted in Schultes' monograph, ololiuqui must have been very extensively used in the valleys of Mexico in prehispanic times. It seems to have been more important in divinity than peyotl or teonanácatl. However, the medicinal use was also very extensive. Ololiuqui served to cure flatulence, to remedy venereal troubles, to deaden pain, and to remove tumours. Ololiuqui was believed to possess a deity of its own, which worked miracles if properly propitiated.

Ololiuqui was used by the ancient Aztecs not only as a potion but also as an ingredient of magical ointments. At the present time the crushed seeds are taken in water or in alcoholic beverages such as pulque, mescal, or aguardiente. Reko described in detail the present use of ololiuqui in his monograph "Magische Gifte" ([39] ). Usually the professional soothsayers, "piuleros", give their clients advice under the influence of the piule drink, another name for ololiuqui. Sometimes they also give the ololiuqui drank to their client or patient, who then replies to the piulero's leading questions in a narcotic-hypnotic state produced by the drug and thus reveals facts or discovers his illness, for which the piulero then finds the medicines.

The only report on chemical investigations with the seeds of Rivea corymbosa mentioned in Schultes' review on ololiuqui is that of the pharmacologist Santesson in Stockholm in 1937. He was, however, unsuccessful in isolating definite crystalline compounds. Alcoholic extracts produced a kind of narcosis or partial narcosis in frogs and mice. Certain chemical   reactions seemed to suggest the presence of a gluco-alkaloid.

Okay. So I guess I stumbled upon a natural plant that contains LSA. I guess that this discovery was the first time anyone had discovered LSA  in a plant. Ever. According to the study:

The discovery of ergot alkaloids in ololiuqui i.e. in R. corymbosa and I. violacea was quite unexpected and of particular interest from the phytochemical point of view because lysergic acid alkaloids, which had hitherto been isolated only from the lower fungi of the genus Claviceps, Penicillium, or Rhizopus, were now, for the first time, found in higher plants, in the phanerogamic family Convolvulaceae. Subsequent chemical investigations in various other laboratories confirmed the occurrence of ergot alkaloids in lpomoea species 

Well... wait why isn't this common knowledge even in the pretty wide drug community. LSA is really easy to get and even legal, considering that these seeds aren't even a controlled substance. There is no scheduling on them. I bought 30 tonight off Ebay.

How to ingest these guys.

From the experience vault.

One seed produces very light hallucinogeniceffects.

the subject aquired 10 seeds of rivea corymbosa from a local supplier here in vienna. 

one seed was coarsely crushed with a teaspoon, the crumbs were poured into a glass of water. the glass was kept in a dark place for about 25 minutes, occasionally stirred. the water was filtered through a coffee - filter. 

the end product was sipped over a timespan of around 45 minutes. the water was held in the mouth for some time before swallowing. 

this amount (1 seed, water - extracted with mediocre efficiency) produced noticeable, albeit not very dramatic psychotropic as well as peripheral effects (hands seemed a bit numbed, maybe just an illusion). 

the psychological effects are hard to be put into words, since they were quite subtle. it did have a little spiritual tonality to it. 

15 Seeds Produce mild effects. Not worth it to write about.

45-50 Seeds are very rewarding experience.

After learning of it a little over a year ago, I have really wanted to have an experience with LSA. Having tried Hawaiian Baby Woodrose seeds with no affect (I think I bought inferior quality seeds and did not take a high enough dose), I have tried quite a few different drugs but would consider myself pretty new to physcoactives. Having read a lot about HBWR and morning glory I came across rivea corymbrosa seeds and as there was only one report on someone taking just one seed I thought it would be good to explore this plant. I read about two different methods of taking the seeds of which I tried both. The first time I took around 15 seeds crushed them up and soaked them in water for 12hours. I then drank the LSA water and ate the seed pulp. The affects were barely noticeable and not really worth writing about. 

The second time was a lot more rewarding. I have a very boring weekend job so I thought I would try these seeds a second time just before I left for work one day. This time I took around 45-50 seeds and chewed them up for about 30minutes then swallowed them. After I'd swallowed the pulp I sat down to put my work shoes on and looked around the room. I was already noticing visual distortions, as I looked at a chair across the room the legs looked as if they were bending and distorting and the cushion on top of it appeared to be melting. I only noticed these visual affects when I looked at something for more than a couple of seconds. 

I walked to work feeling a bit strange, kind of a slightly stoned feeling I guess. About 30 minutes into work the visual distortions were getting stronger. The floor looked as if it was flowingand moving up and down like water. Things on the shelves (I work in a supermarket) appeared to move apart then get closer to each other. Work was certainly beginning to be a lot more fun! Another 30 minutes on I was feeling really happy and was smiling a lot. I also kept humming without realising I was until someone went to talk to me. The stupidest things would make me laugh and everything appeared more interesting than it actually was. 

2 hours into the experience I was feeling a bit ill, I hadn't eaten anything since the night before so thought I might just be a bit hungry. I had my lunch and shortly afterwards began suffering from quite a bad stomach ache. But after a while I was able to ignore it and it didn't really bother me that much so I got back to work. I started finding it very hard to concentrate on anything and was still in a quite euphoric mood. 

The visual distortions and euphoria lasted for around 6 hours, my entire shift at work, and was a really enjoyable experience. Although it made my job a lot harder to do since I kept getting distracted by the liquid floor and moving shelves, work was a lot more fun that day 

It is possible to extract the LSA from this plant but it is illegal to do so! I do not by any means think anyone should look up how to extract this chemical from these seeds. LSA is a schedule III drug.