Continuing the tradition

[Subtlevibrations]

Hi there friends Happy to be here. Truly grateful to be privy to the secrets of the spice and to have this incredible entheogen available to us. For a long time, I have been the caretaker/sitter/advisor/guide for my friends and community. Life has blessed me with the opportunity to be well educated and well experienced with these kinds of medicines, and I am happy to help my friends and family connect with what matters most in life with the help of these substances.

Currently 30, I started experimenting with tryptamines and phenethylamines when I was 18. I accidentally ended up healing a lot of childhood and generational trauma on accident just partying with my friends eating acid. After a few profound experiences, I was lucky enough to get turned on to the entheogenic trajectory.

A friend of mine suggested that I could handle extraction and was ready to hold spice and help others on their way. The thing I admire most about this community is the attitudes and shared values. Truly feels meaningful to be here. Thanks everyone

 

[Pandora]

Subtlevibrations,

Welcome to the Nexus, .

That was a fine introduction and I enjoyed reading it.

You sound like a great addition to this community.

So, how did your extraction go? Have you completed it or just decided to attempt it?

Also, have you actually tried DMT yet? If so what did you think?

Regardless, you seem like a good fit and I look forward to seeeing you around.

 

[Subtlevibrations]

Hey Pandora! Thank you for your kind words
I suppose I was a little brief, huh?
I did indeed extract, twice, and learned a lot. I decided on using Noman’s tek with slight modifications per the suggestions of so many other helpful users. The first extraction I ended up with a rather low yield and chalked it up to learning; the biggest obstacle was using jars the first time around. They just aren’t the move when it comes time to scrape. I did my best to document my second extraction so I could share the results. I was less than precise measuring my yield, but didn’t really care in the moment because the success level and yield was obviously majorly improved from my first run.

I performed both extractions using 750ml water/50g lye/50g MHRB. On the second extraction, I also included 50g rock salt, which did seem to significantly improve my yield, but there were also many other mechanically and procedural improvements from the previous experience, so it’s unfair to attribute the increase solely to the salt.

I decided, on the second extraction, to let the bark/basic solution sit for 2 days, shaking it whenever it was convenient, prior to pulling with naphtha. For each pull, I used room temp naphtha and rolled it throughly without creating emulsions for about 8-10 minutes. I let it sit for another 30 min and repeated the agitation. The first pull, I let the naphtha sit in the solution for about 24 hours before pipetting it off; I was rather busy the week I decided to extract and so there were times I felt as though the naphtha sat with the basic solution longer than it needed to, but it didn’t negatively impact the end result in any perceivable way. I performed a total of 5 pulls. I froze a final sixth pull, but the resulting freeze precipitated xtals were slightly discolored and few in number so I chose not to harvest them.

I found 20ml naphtha (again, using 750ml water) the ideal amount to saturate fully but also be relatively easy to pipette off the top. I used a small shot glass as an intermediary for any moments when the pippette also pulled up some of the basic solution with the naphtha.

The biggest single improvement I made on round two was freeze precipitating in rectangular Pyrex instead of jars. It also made evaporating the last little bit of naphtha after the pour off, a lot easier vs a jar. Scraping them was a moment of pure joy hahaha! Scraping the jars effectively was close to impossible.

The first couple pulls yielded around 200mg xtals. After that, my measuring was less than accurate.


As for experience, I have had a couple opportunities to try spice before setting out on my own learning/extracting journey, but I will make a follow up post with all the details to help me stay organized I have tried some of the herb and “scrap” xtals from cleaning up after scraping and VERY MUCH enjoyed the moderate~middle dose experience, which was relatively easy to maintain and continue enjoying because I was still able to effectively interact with material reality.

Thank you so much for taking the time

 

[Subtlevibrations]

The first time I experienced spice was about two years ago. At that point, L had become my chosen entheogen for sometime, and I was using it regularly both in a party context and Entheogenic context, depending on the circumstance.
A close friend of mine knew my hearts intention. He had been experimenting with DMT and 5-meo for the past few months and I let him know I had come to possess a small amount (less than half a gram). After an hour on the phone, listening and learning from him, we decided that he would serve me the dmt.

He and his friend, we will call her Sara, came over during the day to my home and we all shared some hape and some mellow trance music to set the tone. We hung out for an hour or so, talking about our past psychedelic and spiritual expetiences and also about what to expect from the spice and what the experience might hold.

I had been enjoying the expanded space for quite some time and, truthfully, it took me a little bit of extra courage to hop on the spice diving board. My friend suggested I start with a small handshake dose, but I refused, as I had my courage and wanted to lean on it while I had it in hand.

While it wasn’t enough to break through, my first experience will always stick with me. I remember feeling as though electricity was passing through my entire body, and a warm feeling of love and peace enveloped me. My courage had been rewarded with comfort. I remember realizing that I could still speak and told my friend that I was “vibrating with love”

 

[Pandora]

Subtlevibrations,

Thank you so much for writing more. Congratulations on your extractions. I think your yield could be better but I am not a chemist and unable to offer advice. Hopefully others will comment.

I cannot help but wonder if maybe you somehow got impotent bark.

One thing I can say is I use Noman's and routinely get 1.3 to 1.5% yields. I don't know if it matters but once I have all the pulls at the end I evaporate off about 50% of the nahptha to get it super saturated with spice, then I put the remainder in a small jar and freeze precipitate.

It sounds like your initation to DMT was wonderful. There are such diverse stories. It is nice to read one like yours.

It really sounds like you are on a grand adventure and you certainly have my vote. Feel free to join us in the chat sometime.

 

[Subtlevibrations]

Thank you!! I really appreciate it
To clarify; you are collecting all of your pulls into a single container? And are you heating the naphtha or doing anything in particular to hasten the evap prior to freezing?

I’ll definitely poke my nose in the chat

I’m grateful to have the friends I have; I know not everyone has the blessing of a truly fit sitter or guide.
I’ll also make some follow up posts with short write ups on my experiences with the “clean-up” herb.

 

[Subtlevibrations]

Oh! And as to the nature of the bark; I believe it was alright. Perhaps I chose my words poorly;
During the second extraction, the first two pulls yielded approx 200mg. The third, fourth, and fifth pulls, each yielded a similar but slightly smaller amount than the previous respective pull. I am storing the spice in cleaned, glass dab containers that came as grams of badder from a dispensary. At the end of the second extraction, I have two, each about 3/4 full. I hope that helps a little.

Could I have a much higher yield with the same amount of bark?

 

[Pandora]

Oh, ha ha I should have read more carefully. Your yield is per pull. That is nothing to complain or worry about in particular for a first extraction.

Yes, personally I do consolidate all of my pulls together, then from that volume I evaporate about 50%. I let the remainder sit and do several decants then I seal it tightly and pop it into the back of the freezer. I usually go about 24 hours but if you have a good freezer 8 hours should do it.

 

[Subtlevibrations]

I’ll try your method of consolidating the pulls on my next extraction just for funsies it would be nice not to use/scrape so many containers anyhow.

 

[The_Embalmer]

The idea behind it is you want to get your nps to be as saturated with DMT as possible so that when it goes into the freezer it has an easier time crashing out. Combining all of your pulls and evaporating some off is an easy way to do this and also like you said you don't have to deal with a bunch of dishes. Also you can reuse your naptha for later pulls so be sure to save it in a mason jar or some kind of glass reciptocal you can cover after pouring it off.



To answer your evap question there is no need to speed up evaporation in any part of this process. It is better to have patience. Just leave the dish out somewhere well ventilated for a little bit and pay attention to the level of the NPS. It doesn't take long for it to evaporate to a good level of saturation, like 10-15 minutes depending on how much solution you're working with even less time than that and then pop into freezer. I just watch mine closely and once I see the level of NPS go down about halfway then it's ready to go, don't even really need a reference for time.

Something else ive noticed is the slower you evaporate the larger the crystals will form. So hotter faster drying temps will give you more of a powder and colder slower drying methods will give you crystal formations.


Also if you accidentally create emulsions its no big deal just submerge your container with your soup and naptha into a water bath and make sure you have the lid cracked a little but not enough to let the NPS escape, and watch the emulsions dissipate before your eyes in minutes! You'll get a glass level surface between your nps and soup. You can create as many emulsions as you want actually and I did some experimenting with this just for curiosity. Hot baths are a miracle for emulsions.


Hope some of this info helps and safe travels!

 

[Subtlevibrations]

This follow up was really helpful thank you! Makes perfect sense. I’ll be sure to let you both know how it goes on the next extraction using this technique.