First of all, I am relatively inexperienced with DMT in general and even more so with this combination, I have only done this combo twice so far so take this all with a grain of salt but I can at least share what my limited experience has been like.
I have used roasted, powdered, encapsulated syrian rue in the range of 3-4.5g I also consume limonene with the rue capsules to mitigate the risk of nausea. And for some background I can say that I am fairly experienced with combining syrian rue with mushrooms.
People talk about adding harmalas to smooth out the trip and make it a bit more comfortable. I don't know if everyone assumes that it is completely obvious that you greatly reduce the DMT dose when doing this but it seems like most of the time I only hear about adding harmalas, reducing the dmt dose doesn't seem to always come up. You will absolutely want to start from the ground up again figuring out dosages. However, I can tell you what its like if you don't significantly reduce the DMT and just add harmalas, it gives a whole new meaning to the word intense. This has allowed me to experience what I feel like would be blackout level of trips but remaining very much aware and perhaps being even more present than normal.
I wrote a trip report on one of my two experiences (
https://www.dmt-nexus.me...aspx?g=posts&t=96466 ) What I can add to that report was that a few seconds into the come-up I thought "this is really intense!" and then a split second later it was even more powerful and I thought "this is way too intense!" and then it became much stronger again, and then even stronger yet again, and my thinking shut off from being completely overwhelmed - then the rest of the trip which I described occurred. Note that while using the terminology 'overwhelming' might normally have some kind of negative connotations I am using it in a kind of neutral way, like 'this is too much but that's just the way it is' I definitely wouldn't call it bad or unpleasant. In fact as soon as the peak of my overwhelming experience passed I felt incredible euphoria that felt like the afterglow of a thousand amazing orgasms, while it was happening I couldn't make a judgement about what it was like, but once it was over I realized that I had gone through something heavenly.
My other trip I can't remember as well since I didn't document it at all but the thing that I can recall it having in common with the trip above is that of increased physical sensations associated with the trip. When I consume just DMT I either am not aware of my body at all, or my physical being feels very separated from the trip, like the trip is happening in my brain but not so much my body. With harmalas added its like my body gets dragged into the trip in a very visceral way, the trip that I am having in my mind and in my vision is copied and felt throughout the body. So even if a trip was of the same intensity visually and mentally if you add on the fact that you 'feel' the trip physically makes the experience so much more powerful. Its not all just about the literal physical aspect, but in one way or another I certainly feel much more connected to the experience. I can certainly see how this increased connectedness and presence in the trip might make one able to navigate the experience more but it also opens up other possibilities relating to intensity. Again this intensity for me hasn't yet been bad, it simply is.
Overall, I definitely feel that I went too far too fast, just kind of jumping in at the dosages I did may have been a bit foolhardy. Luckily they turned out alright(or incredibly) but it definitely could have gone another way. I have been reticent to try the combination again and have gone back to getting a bit more experience with solely DMT, however I feel that there is something special the harmalas impart on myself and the trip and I feel the need to begin revisiting the combination, but this time slowly, with lower dosages until I at least get some semblance of a handle on the kinds of experiences that can be had. Please don't let my limited experiences dissuade you from pursuing this avenue, let them simply be a warning of what could possibly happen if you get a bit overzealous.
Things have turned a deeper shade of blue
Why you should NOT take DMT