• Members of the previous forum can retrieve their temporary password here, (login and check your PM).

Thinking Ahead - Changa vs. Bulb

Migrated topic.
Lift

Lift

SWIM
As I pointed out in another thread, I have this 3/4" bulb vaporizing pipe that has caused me some "issues" in the past. I'm convinced, after reading up on the forum tonight, that I have been overheating the spice. I wind up with a significant amount of liquid slopping around and the only place the vapor can "escape" is through the surface of the liquid. End result, inefficient vapor creation, overheating, etc.

So I was thinking I would give Changa a try, which would create an enormous amount of surface area for the spice to escape from. The question is, would I benefit from putting the changa mix into the vaporizing pipe and heating it from below? Probably not, due to uneven heating, right?

As a non-smoker, I don't want to be forced to inhale a heroic amount of harsh plant matter, but the idea of consistent heat and rapid vaporization is attractive.

Also, regarding "The Machine," has anyone tried simply using several classic "screens" sold at headshops rather than steel wool?
 
I think someone has tried it, but can't find the post. I'd fear to have all the spice drip through the screens. Why not just use the steel wool (not the fine brillo pads, the coarse ones!!!) ? It's cheap, everywhere to get and works very nicely.

You should still use screens even with the coarse brillo.

Oh and my friend hasn't had much luck with changa..lots of burnt spice. But quite a group of people swear by it. Just try it by melting some spice into your favourite herb ..I think the whole solvent thing made it doesn't work for SWIM
 
Lift said:
As a non-smoker, I don't want to be forced to inhale a heroic amount of harsh plant matter, but the idea of consistent heat and rapid vaporization is attractive.
Click to expand...
It's not harsh at all, I've given it to a few non-smokers and they all handled it with ease, it's in fact very enjoyable to smoke. You can either do what obliguhl suggested or make some changa, both work fine you just have to get a good bong. Good luck, it's a bit tricky at the start trying to work out the best method for administration but after some time you get a fair idea of what works best for you.
 
The origin of McKennas "leather lung" myth lies in the stuff he was smoking, which was yellow and had a consistency like earwax...so he was smoking lots of plant oils as well. Moreover, burning spice is indeed very very harsh and I suspect it happening very often.
 
I highly suggest using a water bong. It's almost impossible to burn the spice (dunno why, but I haven't been able to), VERY easy on the lungs, and almost every try is a breakthough (with the right dosage).

I double up the screen in the bowl, add leaf (usually blue lotus, but anything will work) put my 40-60mgs of spice on top and then add another thin layer of leaf so that no spice is exposed. Light the top layer and the spice partially vaporizes and the rest melts into the lower bed of leaf. This works wonderful for me.

I've made a lot of enhance leaf over the years, but really find that I prefer the leaf bed method.
 
Well, one thing is for sure--this "crack" pipe is for the birds. I thought I could modify it to work, but no. Maybe a crack warbler or something.

That's funny obliguhl, I hadn't heard him talk of the "leather lung" until last night, found a really cool DMT video w/ excellent animation.

McKenna DMT Youtube

The physics of this dilemma are clear. I'm completely on the fence about the dang machine thing. I understand the concept, and it sounds great on paper. The brillo acts both as a surface area distribution site and an heat conductor that allows one to get it "just right." There is enough surface area to prevent the spice from liquefying and dripping away.

OTOH, Changa apparently adds an herbal dimension, which improves flavor, reduces harshness, and *may* have additional psychoactive enhancements. Burning untreated herb on top of a bowl of spice or changa, as acolon suggests, sounds way better than counting on smoldering changa herb to provide that "just right" heat needed for vaporization vs. combustion. The irritation and additional lung capacity required to include the herb may prove counterproductive for "silk-lungs" like me. Completely speculative, after all, we are talking about a mere pinch of herbs at 1:1!

Does Changa help prevent the accumulation of crystals over your smoking apparatus? That's my biggest aversion to the "bong" method, aside from unrecoverable dripping finding its way to the bottom of the bong.

But why not combine the best of both worlds? Maybe I'll create "the machine" and pack some herb on the end. This might prevent and flame from sneaking in and liquid spice from sneaking out, while adding "aroma."

I'll report back
 
It seems that everyone has their preferred smoking method allowing them to best vape their spice so it might take a little experimentation to see what suits you best. As for the brillo, I was just wondering why people burn off what ever it's coated in rather then use a solvent to wash it off? I think that if I were using brillo then id prefer to do this rather then take the chance on inhaling something unexpected and nasty.
 
Well, I just bought a 3-pack of 3 different grades of steel wool and only the heaviest grade, which I think is a "00" didn't burn right up. Instead, it burned off the shininess and left the steel a dun gray.

I guess the thinking is that since heat is the main conveyor of reactivity, start with pure, direct flame. I see your point, tho.
 
Well, I tried adding some steel wool to the 3/4" diameter bulb of the "crack pipe," hoping I'd have a makeshift "the machine," or better. I loaded up approximately 60 mg. I think the problem could have been too little steel wool, which didn't allow the glass to adequately distribute the heat, via conduction, to all the tendrils of steel. I think it needs more steel?

Best experience so far, but no breakthrough. My body felt very heavy, exactly like someone turned up the volume. I was very much in control of my thoughts. At the very peak, the window started to blur with the outside scene and the frame of the window. I could sense the individual movement of every leaf on the tree outside. That lasted only a few seconds and then I was on my way back home.
 
Steel wool can burn! Iron has to be really coarse or it will burn.

Part of the Machine's success is because it's upside down while inhaling: any melting DMT flows towards the heat source because of gravity, and evaporates instead of running away from the heat and accumulating somewhere in the device!

My most recent experiments were with a glass bong equipped with a machine-type copper wire filled head. The problem was that vaporization was too sudden: first nothing, then an explosion of vapor... hard to control. The head should be upside down to work better.

It's a bit of a quest to find the method that suits you best... anything can work if done properly! My best breakthroughs were with a simple testtube setup.
 
obliguhl said:
The origin of McKennas "leather lung" myth lies in the stuff he was smoking, which was yellow and had a consistency like earwax...so he was smoking lots of plant oils as well. Moreover, burning spice is indeed very very harsh and I suspect it happening very often.
Click to expand...

I might be wrong but Mckenna's dmt experiences- the ones he talked about in detail anyhow- dated in the main from the late 60's early 70's. Obviously he partook over his life but the 'raps' we all know him from would seem to be taken from experiences around those times. Synthetic dmt was available, extracted dmt was still a product of crop science labs. Plenty of counter-culture lit from that period on synth not much about extracting; I'm unaware of any popular material on the subject until the Entheogen Review/DeKorne period. Would be fascinated to here any though...
I believe the tendency to equate 'McKenna' spice with modern, impure extracted spice to be barking up the wrong tree. At the time of his death, home extraction was still in its infancy.
Apologies for the off-topic-ness:)
 
Hey, so i recently started to use the lightbulb method, but it was very harsh for my lips and lungs, so does it mean that i burned the spice, and that caused the smoke to be so harsh then?

Also, no real breakthorugh occurred, only a pure visual trip, i actually have never really broke through, and i want it so bad, you have no idea, i just haven't found a good method yet....

Also, after using the lightbulb there is some oily looking liquid left in the bulb, and after a couple of hours it recrystalizes into DMT, but it looks brownish, when before it was pure white DMT, does it mean that i have burned it?
How can i prevent it from burning then, it seems a bit difficult.

Help is appreciated enormously.
 
It would be totally ok to smoke spice from one of these wouldnt it? I mean if you just heated the glass slowly and evenly then it wouldnt burn would it?
l487.jpg
 
I believe the tendency to equate 'McKenna' spice with modern, impure extracted spice to be barking up the wrong tree. At the time of his death, home extraction was still in its infancy.
Click to expand...

So?
He explicitly said, that the "stuff" he was talking about was yellow, like earwax with a mothball smell. Doesn't sound like clean , synthetic spice to me.

And you definatly don't need leather lungs for pure white spice. So your post makes no real sense at all.
 
How do we really know that someone wasn't extracting from chacruna or chaliponga back then?..I mean ayahuasca has been known about in the western world for longer than "hippies" have been around..not sure about mimosa..Not saying people were doing it at home, but I am sure some chemists had tried it..at least in south america.

Most of the stuff probabily was synthed back then..but I dont know why synthetic DMT would be yellow and waxy..Look at LSD..it was quite pure back then..why wouldn't synthed DMT be the same?

Back in the 60's tim leary was injecting DMT..I doubt that was yellow stuff..jerry garcia was injecting it as well..so was gracie slick and the rest of the airplane...that stuff must have been quite pure..so who knows what that yellow wax that mckenna had really was?
 
Czepa said:
It would be totally ok to smoke spice from one of these wouldnt it? I mean if you just heated the glass slowly and evenly then it wouldnt burn would it?
l487.jpg
Click to expand...


Yes, I would suggest using a "torch" style lighter for it. You may also want to switch the glass pieces around so the bulb is at the top.

You will need to baby the bulb with the lighter. You cannot hold the flame of a torch lighter on there for more than a second (litterally) or your spice will burn and you experience will burn up with it. I usually keep the flame a good 3-4" away from the pipe, only bringing it in close when the oil stops smoking strongly and then backing it right off again.

Also, for this type of pipe I strongly suggest cleaning up your spice. Yellow spice does not work well in this type of smoking device...the oils will burn, and make the smoke HARSH as hell.

Overheating DMT will produce brown oil that will recrystalize back on the glass, this is a sure sign that you have burnt the spice. If you are using clear crystals (not yellow) you want there to be no residue when you are done. Hard to do, yes, but that's what you are aiming for.

I have something similar I used to use. Some of my best (and worst) DMT experiences were from using this type of pipe. I suggest trying and see if you can make it work for you. It's not the easiest way to smoke spice, but I think (if done right) it is the most efficient method.
 
thanks for clearing that up but i dont exactly know what you mean by wanting me to switch the bulb with the mouthpiece? i would be sucking water and getting no smoke XD
 
He explicitly said, that the "stuff" he was talking about was yellow, like earwax with a mothball smell. Doesn't sound like clean , synthetic spice to me.
Click to expand...

The purest white dmt will degrade over time if improperly stored, there are numerous threads on the subject on this very forum.

Back in the 60's tim leary was injecting DMT..I doubt that was yellow stuff..jerry garcia was injecting it as well..so was gracie slick and the rest of the airplane...that stuff must have been quite pure..so who knows what that yellow wax that mckenna had really was?
Click to expand...

Of course the psychedelic/rockstar elite would have injected dmt salts, certainly not yellow wax freebase.
 
In his audio collection ranging from the several multi-session talks in the She Who Remembers Archive to the History Ends in Green talk, he references DMT as a yellowish substance smelling strongly of mothballs. In one of the talks he mentions white spice, but also comments on it being incredibly rare. The impression he left on me was that he had possibly tried the white stuff once or twice, was more accustomed to the yellow and because his focus was spreading "the gospel" of psychedelics to the public, he talked about the spice he assumed people would most likely come across: the yellow stuff.

fourthripley said:
Of course the psychedelic/rockstar elite would have injected dmt salts, certainly not yellow wax freebase.
Click to expand...
Except that according to his own words, McKenna wasn't injecting DMT at all. As to Leary and Garcia, I have no knowledge and had not heard that before your post. Referencing the above recordings yet again, McKenna's most oft repeated instructions regarding DMT are to take three hits. He says the first hit will start to get you, the second will feel like you're already there and you'll have to struggle to take the third and will feel it to be unnecessary, but it is necessary to break through. He never mentions DMT salts, nor does he ever mention injecting spice. In fact, he died 8 months prior to Strassman's publication of The Spirit Molecule, which to my knowledge was the first widely circulated and publicly documented case study (in either a formal or informal research environment) on injected fumarates.

***EDIT***
Just found some articles on Leary. Seems they're claiming he injected synthetic DMT. Assuming McKenna's was extracted and theirs was synthesized, that could easily explain these differences in both appearance and administration methods. Additionally, given the circles that Leary and Garcia ran in, it would probably fairly safe to assume that DMT synthesis would have been easily within realm of curiosity and ability.
 
Back
Top Bottom