A Journey of a Thousand Miles...

[IridiumAndLace]

...requires a lot of gas. Or, a quart of Heptane!

Hello friends, I'm Iridium! I suppose this is where I tell you about myself, so the first thing to know about me is that I'm very bad at answering that question. I'd consider myself a beginner-level psychonaut? I've only recently started exploring the realm of psychedelics, but from the experiences I've had, I can already tell this is going to be a Big Deal for me. Something about catching a glimpse outside the box and realizing how much there is out there to explore, I guess.

Personally, I'm a thirty-something married woman in the far northern Midwest USA. Have a wife, work a job, live in a house, serve a couple cats. The usual.

Besides being a beginning explorer, I'd also consider myself an intermediate-level chemist. I studied a significant amount of chemistry in undergrad and own a modest set of chemistry equipment just for my own silly projects, but I'm not a chemist professionally. Probably why I'm working on designing my own tek, intended to maximize yield and purity while minimizing loss and waste of both product and chemicals. I don't know if "Iridium's Tek" will be practical for anyone else, or even present a meaningful improvement over existing teks, but I'll give it a try anyway. I'm extra like that.

Meanwhile, I'm continuing to work my way through the Nexus questionnaire (it's surprisingly long, is anyone actually reviewing all those answers?) in hopes of getting access to some of the higher-level forums here. Does anyone know if hexane is a useful component to have in my NPS??

Cheers,
Iridium

 

[Voidmatrix]

Clever title into your introduction.

Welcome to the Nexus. Happy to have you.

Yes, there are some of us actually reviewing your questionnaire:grin:

Please please please do share your tek with us, regardless of if you think it won't be applicable to many. It'll still be valuable as it adds relevant resource material for the community. People will be able to extrapolate useful information regardless. I know I will. My background is philosophy, and while I lump the sciences into that, I am not as technically grounded as I would like.

What other psychedelics tickle your fancy?

What were your first DMT experiences like?

And if I'm not mistaken, hexane is fine as your NPS. I believe it is more selective. If you're mixing it with another NPS (since you said in), I think it'll depend on which one you want to mix it with and with what volume. I'm sure a few others will weigh in on this particular question.

I enjoyed your introduction and look forward to the details of your tek and future posts on the forum.

One love

 

[downwardsfromzero]

Hello and welcome.

One problem with hexane is its neurotoxicity, or more precisely its neurotoxic metabolite, hexan-2,6-dione. Its lower boiling point should also be taken into consideration along with its attendant implications.

That said, it has been noted to extract DMT quite selectively, as Voidmatrix says.

Looking at your choice of nickname, iridium itself (as I'm sure you'll already appreciate) is a fantastic element that I dearly wish had its presence in my element collection. Alas, it is also insanely expensive!

The questionnaire may play a role in promotion to full membership, but participation in the forum can contribute equally, if not considerably more, to one's chances - so let's hear about your tek! Lately, quite a few new members have been promoted after surprisingly few posts, on the basis of the quality of those posts.

So, what led to your recent interest in psychedelics? What were some of your 'silly' chemistry projects that you're willing to mention?

 

[Bisy]

hello and welcome, i foresee a rather speedy promotion for you. cant wait to hear some experience reports. see where the path leads you. And to see what you will bring to the advancement of extraction efficiency. with any luck, you can triple our yields.

 

[IridiumAndLace]

Oh boy! See, specific questions, that's how I roll!

I like to say my background is philosophy as well; all roads lead to Rome, as they say. I studied a whole bunch of science, engineering, and philosophy in college. Of course my financial aid ran out right about the time I settled on a real major (microbiology), so now I work in logistics (and I'm darn good at it, thankyouverymuch). If I had to pick one, I'd say metaphysics just slightly beats out ethics as my favorite philosophy topic. Whisper "hard determinism" in my ear and watch me get goosebumps.

I got interested in psychedelics after reading something somewhere about microdosing LSD as a remedy for various issues, ADHD being one of them. Being decidedly non-neurotypical myself, I decided to give 1cP-LSD a try. A 30mcg minidose in March changed my life. I'm still working on figuring out how to make the most of it; it's definitely more of a behavior-modification training aid than a take-this-and-you're-cured kind of thing. Experiments are ongoing, although sourcing RCs here in the US is becoming non-trivial. Reeeeaaallly don't want to have to buy street acid, ugh...

Of course, once I got into the big world of psychedelics, it didn't take long for me to learn about DMT and all it has to offer. One thing led to another, and now here I am talking to you fine people.

As for my chemistry side projects, the big one has been refurbishing lava lamps. I love love love lava lamps, I have about a dozen of them, and some of the ones I've bought were in pretty rough shape. I had the idea of homebrewing my own wax for them, but that turned out to be non-trivial so I ended up buying a GooKit instead. Works pretty well!

Funny story, I've actually had a distillation apparatus for a while, I just haven't had a chance (or an excuse, really) to use it yet. Preparing for my first extraction gave me a great opportunity to set it up, and I've been having a lovely time playing around with it. Maybe I'll post another thread about it!

I asked about hexane because when I did a simple distillation on my Bestine (see other thread), I found a not-insignificant fraction distilled over at 70°C, the boiling point of hexane. I didn't measure how much, maybe 50-100ml, and I just tossed that into the Waste Organics can. Now I've been eyeing that can, thinking about doing a fractional distillation on it to see if I can't recover that hexane. Is it worth isolating the 70°C fraction and using it for a pull? Would I be better off adding it back in to my distilled Bestine? Should I quit fussing over my distillations and get to extractin' already?? :lol:

Looking at your choice of nickname, iridium itself (as I'm sure you'll already appreciate) is a fantastic element that I dearly wish had its presence in my element collection. Alas, it is also insanely expensive!

Oooh, I always thought element collections are soooo cool. Do you collect pure samples, or representative samples? Looks like a nice little sample can be had on eBay for about $45, but that's out of my budget too these days.

I think all the Period 6 elements are delightful, but I picked iridium to be one that I connect to the most, since I also fancy myself to be both a writer and a space nerd. What do pen nibs and meteorites have in common? As for the other half, IridiumAndLeather would have been a lot more apt for me, but that's too long of a username for a lot of sites. Oh well, it still works. lol!

Hmm. How many interests do I have to have before I get to call myself a polymath? Is there a test for that?

 

[downwardsfromzero]

What do pen nibs and meteorites have in common?

Great reply! :thumb_up: I've gone for pure samples of element where possible, or instances of practical use in the case of rhodium. In that case, I should just get myself some of those expensive spark plugs (or a pen nib?) for iridium.

Hmm. How many interests do I have to have before I get to call myself a polymath? Is there a test for that?

I think you have to be reasonably good at all of them, otherwise you get called a dilettante, like my father called me (thanks, Dad...) That's a lot of 15000 hours-es.

 

[shroombee]

I got interested in psychedelics after reading something somewhere about microdosing LSD as a remedy for various issues, ADHD being one of them. Being decidedly non-neurotypical myself, I decided to give 1cP-LSD a try. A 30mcg minidose in March changed my life. I'm still working on figuring out how to make the most of it; it's definitely more of a behavior-modification training aid than a take-this-and-you're-cured kind of thing. Experiments are ongoing, although sourcing RCs here in the US is becoming non-trivial. Reeeeaaallly don't want to have to buy street acid, ugh...

Seems you like tinkering and experimenting. You might want to look into growing your own shrooms or extracting mescaline from cactus. Both can be used for microdosing as well as regular journeys. And they work well for behavior modification when combined with supporting practices such as journaling and meditation.

 

[Voidmatrix]

the consideration of determinism and freewill reduce to a paradox to me personally.

And I can't pick just one, so I have four concentrations: Ethics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, and logic which for me, encompasses math.

What was 1cP-LSD like? Why do you think it was so transformative?

I sure do love a good dynamic lava lamp. You should post some pictures for us. Sounds like a fun and trippy little project.

Relative to your hexane,that sounds like another side project for you. If I were you I'd experiment with that on the side, but move on to that extraction!

I have a plethora of interests myself. I fine it paralyzing lol. However, I'm in the same boat as df0 about it.

One love