Hi fellow members!
I'm very new to this forum and I'm happy to be a member. I hope I'm not inadvertently breaking any rules, because I read all the rules, but, yeah, I'm still new here.
What made me make up my mind about joining is that I wanted to share a friend's experience which has been a little disturbing, and contribute to the experiences databases, and perhaps get some feedback or interpretations on this.
Since about 2 years ago my friend has experimented with harmalas from Peganum harmala, while living in a country where it is almost endemic and perfectly legal. 1st time they had a memorable experience, insightful, richly symbolic, met some "entities" (they's not a believer at all) from 7.5 g of seeds boiled to a putrid chills inducing "tea".
Throughout the year they tried more "tea" once in a while, and as usual in their experience with psychedelics, experiences gradually turned deeper, more archetypal, more "cosmic"... and nonetheless more "cosmically demonic" and terrifying. Not a bad thing per se, as the understanding and knowledge gained was very valuable indeed, as my friend informs me.
During the last year they decided to to experiment with extracted crude mix. Microdoses (or rather threshold doses, about 75 to 150 mg) proved quite beautifully effective as mood booster for a week or two after a single dose. Fully active doses of 250mg, varied from barely noticeable to "fully active" for the same dose. Possibly due to whether it was an empty stomach or not.
The full experiences again had a very persistently demonic feature to them, together with the realisation that this cosmic terror including dually benign and perverse gods and goddesses, was at least to an important degree influenced by a one sidedness on my friend's part towards being fearful, and seeing the dark/bad side of life as prevalent over the good, as a result of their psychological history.
Under this premise, my friend decided to further explore the depths of their unconscious mind and -inevitably- the collective unconscious, through harmalas.
Their last experience consisted of 250mg on an empty stomach. Throughput the experience she managed to fend off "the demons", while being attacked by them... permanently. Remember They's not a believer in the usual sense but mostly uses the notion of "demon" and "god" or "entities" as a useful symbolic tool, while not really discarding a priori a possible ontological reality of these entities ("Orch OR" theory will need to clarify this some day). Sleep was obviously impossible as it could be suspected by those well versed in these matters. It must be noted my friend was slightly stressed when doing that.
Next morning they awoke with a sense of disorientation, relatively impaired fine motor control, slightly impaired gross motor skills, sensation of dissociation; also something they could only refer as something akin to Tourette's/ tic "premonitoty urge", something like generalised discomfort (which might be the cause of the impaired motor skills, as they felt very weird, like a nausea/body tickling from trying to perform motor functions. According to them, even typing on the keyboard felt "weird"\) etc. The "generalised discomfort", had on the other side a "pleasurable" sensation to it, almost verging on the "orgasmic", as if performing the action further would cause an uncontrollable tickling throughout the body (something they had experienced sparsely when meditating, and usually with mescaline and shrooms).
They also noticed deep breathing and/or focusing on other things improved these sensations. Something like "doing it on your peripheral awareness" (here they used this as a comparison with the idea of using peripheral vision). Focusing directly on the action would make the "weird/anxious/orgasmic/unpleasant" sensation stronger. They had experienced this before during (but not after) experiences with mescaline and shrooms. On the other side, rational thinking oscillates from impaired to foggy, and sometimes fully functional.
Being a slightly "hypochondriac" person they immediately feared brain damage or something. Although existing evidence would suggest this is unlikely, and even the other way around (like studies suggesting neuroprotective effects), especially at a dose which is well within "safe" ranges.
As morning habit commands, they drank their first coffee late that morning. All the above "symptoms" worsened noticeably. For the next 2 days they naturally abstained from any caffeinated beverages. "Symptoms" oscillated throughout those 2 days on a daily basis. Almost non existent in the early morning (except for the dissociation) worsening later on, and receding at night, but overall less marked compared to "coffee" day.
2 days later, they decided to again go for the morning caffeinated sacrament, only to be smacked on the face by the Methylxanthines' Gods through loss of motor coordination, the weird sensation, difficulty concentrating etc.
Until now, my friend's still "impaired", with daily oscillations of "symptoms" etc. They are really wondering what neuropsychological issues could be involved in such a reaction. Dopamine? Serotonin? Deep psychology? (as yet unheard of) Possibility of MAO depletion? Mere so called HPPD? Residual elevated levels of serotonin/dopamine due to MAO inhibition?
Were it brain damage it would probably be constant not come and go throughout the day, they suppose, when we talked about it.
I'm very new to this forum and I'm happy to be a member. I hope I'm not inadvertently breaking any rules, because I read all the rules, but, yeah, I'm still new here.
What made me make up my mind about joining is that I wanted to share a friend's experience which has been a little disturbing, and contribute to the experiences databases, and perhaps get some feedback or interpretations on this.
Since about 2 years ago my friend has experimented with harmalas from Peganum harmala, while living in a country where it is almost endemic and perfectly legal. 1st time they had a memorable experience, insightful, richly symbolic, met some "entities" (they's not a believer at all) from 7.5 g of seeds boiled to a putrid chills inducing "tea".
Throughout the year they tried more "tea" once in a while, and as usual in their experience with psychedelics, experiences gradually turned deeper, more archetypal, more "cosmic"... and nonetheless more "cosmically demonic" and terrifying. Not a bad thing per se, as the understanding and knowledge gained was very valuable indeed, as my friend informs me.
During the last year they decided to to experiment with extracted crude mix. Microdoses (or rather threshold doses, about 75 to 150 mg) proved quite beautifully effective as mood booster for a week or two after a single dose. Fully active doses of 250mg, varied from barely noticeable to "fully active" for the same dose. Possibly due to whether it was an empty stomach or not.
The full experiences again had a very persistently demonic feature to them, together with the realisation that this cosmic terror including dually benign and perverse gods and goddesses, was at least to an important degree influenced by a one sidedness on my friend's part towards being fearful, and seeing the dark/bad side of life as prevalent over the good, as a result of their psychological history.
Under this premise, my friend decided to further explore the depths of their unconscious mind and -inevitably- the collective unconscious, through harmalas.
Their last experience consisted of 250mg on an empty stomach. Throughput the experience she managed to fend off "the demons", while being attacked by them... permanently. Remember They's not a believer in the usual sense but mostly uses the notion of "demon" and "god" or "entities" as a useful symbolic tool, while not really discarding a priori a possible ontological reality of these entities ("Orch OR" theory will need to clarify this some day). Sleep was obviously impossible as it could be suspected by those well versed in these matters. It must be noted my friend was slightly stressed when doing that.
Next morning they awoke with a sense of disorientation, relatively impaired fine motor control, slightly impaired gross motor skills, sensation of dissociation; also something they could only refer as something akin to Tourette's/ tic "premonitoty urge", something like generalised discomfort (which might be the cause of the impaired motor skills, as they felt very weird, like a nausea/body tickling from trying to perform motor functions. According to them, even typing on the keyboard felt "weird"\) etc. The "generalised discomfort", had on the other side a "pleasurable" sensation to it, almost verging on the "orgasmic", as if performing the action further would cause an uncontrollable tickling throughout the body (something they had experienced sparsely when meditating, and usually with mescaline and shrooms).
They also noticed deep breathing and/or focusing on other things improved these sensations. Something like "doing it on your peripheral awareness" (here they used this as a comparison with the idea of using peripheral vision). Focusing directly on the action would make the "weird/anxious/orgasmic/unpleasant" sensation stronger. They had experienced this before during (but not after) experiences with mescaline and shrooms. On the other side, rational thinking oscillates from impaired to foggy, and sometimes fully functional.
Being a slightly "hypochondriac" person they immediately feared brain damage or something. Although existing evidence would suggest this is unlikely, and even the other way around (like studies suggesting neuroprotective effects), especially at a dose which is well within "safe" ranges.
As morning habit commands, they drank their first coffee late that morning. All the above "symptoms" worsened noticeably. For the next 2 days they naturally abstained from any caffeinated beverages. "Symptoms" oscillated throughout those 2 days on a daily basis. Almost non existent in the early morning (except for the dissociation) worsening later on, and receding at night, but overall less marked compared to "coffee" day.
2 days later, they decided to again go for the morning caffeinated sacrament, only to be smacked on the face by the Methylxanthines' Gods through loss of motor coordination, the weird sensation, difficulty concentrating etc.
Until now, my friend's still "impaired", with daily oscillations of "symptoms" etc. They are really wondering what neuropsychological issues could be involved in such a reaction. Dopamine? Serotonin? Deep psychology? (as yet unheard of) Possibility of MAO depletion? Mere so called HPPD? Residual elevated levels of serotonin/dopamine due to MAO inhibition?
Were it brain damage it would probably be constant not come and go throughout the day, they suppose, when we talked about it.
