I have popped in and out of this place several times over the years and I have found it to be consistently entertaining and enlightening, so I would very much like to participate. Possibly I can even add to some of your discussions and I can CERTAINLY learn much, judging from the highly informative content I've seen thus far.

I am getting on in the years: I'll turn 71 in January. However, in many ways I've never felt younger than now. My experience with entheogens began in the late 60's with Orange Sunshine and MJ mostly, but I was simply thrill seeking and looking for a good time... and I definitely had one!

Over the years I became fascinated with psychedelic chemistry in general and I had some formal training in organic chemistry, which I still love to this day. My biggest thrill was when Mr. Shulgin wrote PHIKAL and TIHKAL. I was working in the SF Bay area at the time in two research labs - one in Oakland and one in Emeryville - so I was in a position to work with some of the compounds he was researching.

It was all fun and games until my mind was introduced to DMT - then it all got REAL! What was a rollercoaster ride suddenly became a truly spiritual awakening that changed me in ways I never imagined possible. I suddenly perceived my "drug use" for what it was: drug abuse. My interest in 'getting high' evaporated; not overnight, but over the next few months. DMT won my heart over and it has never ceased to show me new things about myself and my place within the universe that I value as much as life itself.

I still consider myself to be a competent chemist, even though my education is rather dated, because I never stopped educating myself. The magic of the internet has allowed me to feed my mind for the past half century even though I've been retired for well over a decade.

That said, I feel a strong kinship with this place and it's inhabitants. If my knowledge can aid anyone here I will gladly share what I know and have learned over the years. I'm here to learn and partake in some fellowship with other travelers and like minded folk. I promise to be civil and respectful to anyone does me the favor of communication.

I am especially interested in DMT extraction from plant material using the safest and most effective solvents and techniques. I may make mistakes resulting from my lack of experience in posting on internet forums in general and I ask that members understand that my 'newbie' status may take a minute to develop into (hopefully) better content from me as time goes by.

In closing, my hat is off to the fine people here who have helped to create this monumental trove of esoteric knowledge and technical genius centered around a field of study that has fascinated me all my adult life. Much Love to you all!

Wayno,

Welcome to the Nexus, .

A bit more than 6 months ago I returned after a 7 year break at age 55. My husband no longer trips but he may have met you back in the day as he is 73 and spent parts of his youth in the Bay Area. We still live in this area after all that time.

Since my return I have noticed that more and more senior folks are joining up. I do not know if this has to do with entheogens in the news, accelerating existential concerns, a search for healing when other things have not helped or a catalyst and doorway into direct numinous experience.

I suppose the answer could be all or none. For me it was the close to all of the above. Looks like it was spirituality for you. I completely resonate with that and often refer to my DMT trips as church attendance and the DMT itself as the sacrament.

So when was your first DMT experience? Have you had a lot of them? Were they smoked, oral or both?

Regarding extracting from plants. Brother, it is so easy and with your knowledge of chemistry you should have a deeper understanding of the process, rather than be like me where I'm just following a recipe basically.

I often recommmend starting with a small extraction using an easy TEK. The STB (straight to base) ones are certainly a good start. Personally for a first time extractror I would recommend Noman's DMT for the Masses. Regardless here's a link to the TEK's:

DMT and other Entheos Extraction TEKs

I look forward to seeing you around and reading your posts.

Drop into the chat sometime if you like.

Again, a very warm welcome to you, .

Thanks for the reply! It might be possible that we came into contact in and around the Temple of the Wings crowd around 40 years ago, if he was among those beings at the time. My first experience with DMT was around the time Sasha Shulgin was publishing PIHKAL, IIRC. Been in love ever since...

Before that, I was mainly interested in Lucy, MDA and several other phenethylamine based psychedelics. Those other (synthetic) substances don't have the same appeal to me at present, as DMT seems to eclipse them. Also, I have been battling stage 4 throat cancer for over a year now and DMT seems more compatible with my physical health for some reason. Less body load possibly?

That said - for similar reasons, I am studying extraction methodology that largely avoids certain aggressive and carcinogenic reagents. I avoid naphtha in favor of a single component solvent like heptane or d-limonene for extractions, isolation and purification of the product.

I think the main reason I decided to become a member here, besides the fellowship of like minded souls, was a forum discussion of using carbon dioxide to separate monomethylated Tryptamine from DMT. That seems truly novel and possibly a truly elegant technique for getting an otherwise daunting task done under simple and easy to achieve conditions. I've got a notion to explore using a simple carbon dioxide seltzer bottle set-up to accomplish this separation. At this stage, however, it's only a dream...

Anyhow, thanks again for your reply, Pandora. I hope to see you around as I become more familiar with this forum. I'll try the chat function as soon as I am a little more comfortable.

First, I was sorry to read you are battling throat cancer. I want you to know there are other Nexians who are upfront about their current battles with cancer. It is a horrible blight that has ripped through many families, including my own. I think folks should be willing to face it and talk about it. You are very brave to do so.

Regarding your interest in chemistry procedures . . . although I don't know anything about that I do know how you could pursue this.

The first thing you need to do is get promoted. Once you are promoted to regular membership you can post in any area of the Forum rather than just the Welcome area. To get promoted, just participate, post, reply to posts, etc. in a way that shows you understand the Attitude. Completing the Questionnaire (it's very thorough) really helps too.

Once promotion happens you can post in this section:

Advanced/Enhanced Chemistry


A secondary option would involve a brand new post in the Welcome Area, probably in the Welcome Discussion subforum.

I think either pathway would garner some interesting responses and discussions.

Welcome Wayno,

it's good to have experienced veterans here.
As Pandora says, if you write a few posts, on any topic, you shouldn't have much difficulty getting promoted

I'm interested why you're interested in 1°/2° - 3° amine separation..?

Look forward to your contributions to the community.

Welcome to the nexus new friend

you seem to be a really interesting person. We can surely learn a lot together.

If you are interested in mushrooms. Reishi (Ganoderma sichuanenese), Turkey tail (Trametes versicolor) and Maitake (Grifola frondosa) have shown anticancer activity in human clinical trials.
Worth mentioning as well is Chaga (Inonotus obliiqus), which is a Russian cultural treasure and valueed traditional cancer medicine, no human clinical trials here tho just in vitro.
medicinal mushrooms are indeed very expensive, but T. versicolor one can gather oneself and the (for cancer) relevant contents are water soluble, so really easy to prep.

Id be happy to chat with you.

much love

Greetings and welcome aboard Wayno.

Hello nen888 -
As for my interest in separating amines... I would like to be able to separate DMT from ACRB extracts that also contain methyl tryptamine without having to resort to sophisticated and watched reagents. According to posts here at the nexus, this can be done with carbon dioxide and also with aspirin. I find that fascinating and worthy of investigation - especially if one could employ a seltzer bottle to accomplish the separation. I wonder if anyone has attempted that...

In any event, thank you for responding!