ildruido said:
downwardsfromzero said:
Do you notice anything from the harmala concentrate alone?
Nope, what kind of effects should I feel?
In addition to what VM stated above, I find the effects vary with the time of administration, the dose, the batch of material, and the method of preparation. Not to mention whatever else might be in my system at the time - both dietary and supposedly 'non-psychoactive' herbal teas [with perhaps the exception of hemp leaf or hemp flower of the low THC variety].
I've had effects ranging from barely discernible to fairly strongly psychedelic - which I could tentatively link to the aforementioned hemp but also a high enough dose of harmaline in a rue brew goes in this direction, at least for me, without any other inputs. What a lot of people consider to be a down side of harmaline is often described as 'dizziness' and perhaps other people experience it as such. However, I've found with the higher harmaline doses there is an overall 'sensory buffering' which manifests in various sensory modalities. There will be visual trailing, where moving objects seem to leave a smear across the visual field; similarly, at higher doses there is auditory buffering which I perceive as a sort of metallic echoing or flangeing - turning the pages of a book was quite fascinating to listen to when I first noticed this (I have done a fair bit of sound engineering over the years so this was quite amusing for me). Another adio phenomenon to which this bears some resemblance is the way high frequencies of white noise, such as rushing water, wind or crowd noise including applause, gain 'coloured' artefacts that may sound like the tinkling of bells or breaking glass.
Then there is the proprioceptive and kinesthetic buffering. This is what I think a lot of people must perceive as 'dizziness'. There is a time delay in the feedback from the muscular systems, just like the visual delay that leads to trailing, which leads to an unsteadiness in gait. In my case - and I've heard this from other people too - I might find myself tipping to the side when walking. This is of course nothing surprising if one's righting reflexes are working in slow motion and with 'echoes' in the normal signal - literally like an audio delay effect, but with central sensory processing signals. The other thing that really cued me into the fact that it was a sensory processing delay was when I walked up to the toilet to pee: I stopped walking, or so I thought, when I had arrived at the correct proximity to the toilet but was then a little surprised to find myself crashing into the pan! So that was my 'aha!' moment.
Harmine doesn't produce anywhere near as strong of a buffering/delay effect as harmaline and people thereby report harmine as being much easier to deal with and far less debilitating. Personally, I find harmaline quite entertaining in that it forces me to sharpen my awareness and become more focussed on my bodily equilibrium. The auditory effects are best appreciated somewhere fairly quiet, I suspect. On the one hand, I can imagine daytime urban noise become overwhelming, although daytime effects of harmalas have always been more manageable and seem to be kind of 'protective' and 'charisma-enhancing', at least for me.
All of this adds up to a good reason why Claudio Naranjo chose harmaline over harmine for his psychotherapeutic practise back in the day (although I find the tales of him combining it with MDA in his patients somewhat alarming!)
So what might all this mean for you, ildruido? I'd still recommend getting hold of your own batch of Syrian rue [
Peganum harmala] seeds to work with - you can experiment with working up from a low dose over the course of days, weeks or months, try different roasting and brewing methods, different ROAs and times of administration, and even the extract the alkaloids yourself. The only regret I have with this is that I didn't do it sooner! Once you are familiar with the effects of harmalas and all that they have to offer you'll be in a far better position to appreciate the way they combine with DMT - and/or maybe other substances such as psilocybin mushrooms or cannabis.
And sorry, I don't have much to add about THH (tetrahydroharmine/leptaflorine) yet - that is a work in progress. Suffice to say, a good number of people consider THH to be a vital component in the therapeutic effects of ayahusca.
