Hi all, I'm 24 years old coming from South Africa, and I recently became interested in all substances psychedelic.

It started with the Spirit Molecule documentary. There were a number of factors that interested me in this documentary, allow me to share my thoughts and motivations as a way of introducing myself.

Let me start by saying that I was raised in a very strict Christian household, and until about mid 2010 I was still very "religious". I spent a year away from home (and all it's pressures to maintain my brainwashed status) and this was the single best thing that has ever happened to me. I started developing my critical thinking skills and began questioning many things, initially about Christianity but over time about other things too, things like governments and what not. I did my best to steer clear of conspiracy theories (viewing them as the same as Christianity, requiring blind faith to believe them).

Having been so "spiritually" (I think "emotionally" better describes the church I was at) active my whole life, I did feel a bit of a gap but was pleased that I had a gap while true to myself as opposed to filling it with something I didn't believe in. This ignited a thirst for understanding of things spiritual. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was seeking empirical spiritual experiences. I want to experience the grand God/Life force first hand, myself so that I can know for sure what is truth and what isn't - I'm tired of playing broken telephone with "God".

Watching this documentary the first time didn't have too much impact on me, but it planted the curiosity that got me online researching more about this substance. As I read more about it (mostly other people's DMT experiences, also read Psychedelic Shamanism and busy reading the Spirit Molecule book as well) I became very interested - it would appear that this was a substance that may afford me my empirical spiritual experience I had been looking for. A naive view no doubt, but not completely without merit. What further struck me about the documentary (after watching it several times) was how educated and eloquent the speakers were - these were accomplished doctors, mathematicians, psychologists, etc - they were all still holding down jobs, even though they had dabbled with some "drugs".

Where I come from, all "drugs" are bad. there's no distinction between nasties like heroin and cocaine and others like DMT and mescaline. My upbringing taught me that anyone who took any drug would become addicted, lose their job, end up stealing to support their habit and basically end up alone in the streets. Here were these educated, eloquent men who were still contributing to society while they experimented ever so often with these substances.

This led me to research substances and figure out for myself how harmful substances really are. After much reading, I came to the conclusion that psychedelics, when used in moderation, are really not that harmful at all. This is a point I think we all get to at some point, that is the point of asking why LSD and DMT are illegal when evidence exists showing, for example, alcohol to be more harmful to the user, more addictive and more socially harmful than LSD. What is the cause for this hypocrisy? Someone said that society just does not favor any mindset that is not conducive to the buying and selling of goods and services. Alcohol and tobacco/nicotine are allowed to give us brief respite from the sufferings of life but then it's back to working for the economy. The problem with this is that it doesn't care about me. Psychedelics are tools which allow further exploration and understanding of me and my part of the whole.

I have great respect for psychedelics and agree more with the school of thought that considers them entheogenic substances meant to be used in calm settings for introspection rather than socially as party "highs". I am yet to have any meaningful experiences with any of them (my writing may have betrayed the fact that my ego is yet to suffer any harm!) but I continue to research them and when ready look forward to exploring them with the knowledge, maturity and respect gleaned from this site.

welcome to the nexus ,

welcome to nexus , what will be your next step ? are you interested in extracting and smoking spice ?

Hi there!

Welcome to the Nexus. I look forward to reading your posts and any experiences you may have. It's nice to read about people researching drugs with a wholesome intention following an upbringing of 'drugs are bad' etc. I used to be very anti-illegal drugs, pro-alcohol then began researching and realised how wrong I was. I just wish more people would think like this.

What psychedelic are you interested in trying (first)?

Hey man

Welcome, and thanks for a great read.

I'm also from S.A. and had a very similar background to you. I had my "awakening" about 11 years ago, and have never looked back. The last 11 years experimenting and learning from various psychoactive entheogens and their equally valuable man-made counterparts have moulded into a better person than the 18 years of forced religious devotion ever would have.

So glad others down here at the tip of Africa are starting to question the fabric of our society.

Good luck on your journey of discovery, and feel free to hit me up for any advice or just a chat.

Peace love and light

PW

Thank you jin.

smokerx, I personally won't be trying to but I do a cross-eyed snake who lives in my yard that might. He would need to adjust the methods slightly (I am yet to find naphtha available to the public (plenty of commercial use), however apparently benzine is very similar and should do the trick, that's according to a fuel comparison chart I found). Also, lye is available but of uncertain purity. The only two brands of drain cleaner containing caustic soda have no ingredients on the packaging and when Googled for an MSDS it cannot be found! (I figure most MSDS' here in SA are still in hard-copy form as opposed to all being available online ) The snake thought about using some lime instead, I said give it a shot - lime should take the pH to 12.4 where NaOH takes it to 14, worth a shot considering who knows what is in these caustic soda drain cleaners.

Entheojen, I had my first real experience with a mind-altering substance last night with some salvia divinorum. The experience was very short lived and I didn't trip balls like others have, I smoked a few plain leaves in quick succession. I didn't see any salvia spirits or anything like that, I did experience some mild CEV's and heard some muffled voices at times. Time also lost it's consistent linearity briefly. Overall a very pleasant experience! I'll get round to an extraction pretty soon. That dodgy snake I spoke of however has indicated interest in trying some acid and shrooms. He reckons there must be some credit to the model of building up to such an intense experience as spice.

Africa is lovely in some respects, the African Dream Root (silene capensis, silene undulata - not a psychedelic but interesting nonetheless) comes from the province of the Eastern Cape. I ordered some and have taken that for two days. Only slightly discernible differences to dreams so far. Could be because the herb came as root chunks and not powder and I currently lack a good (glass) blender. We have several acacia species growing all over the show and phalaris arundinacea is also available from some nurseries, which is a good start

Rinseonce, your path is the same of many of us, anyone with his singularities but it's one of integration with many aspects of life that our civilization has rejected, for ignorance but mostly for evily psichopats usurping the power of manage resources and problems from the real people, which earlier was able to discern what they want and need, and what do not; they knew because they had not-mediated contact withr nature and great respect .

Plants are the 98 % of this planet biomass, many species are still unknown.
DMT looks like the molecule to inter-act and °inter-think° with this huge nurturing living presence: which could survive without humans, but not the reverse.

Many human beings, across the history, were astonished when contacting the powers of this realm because it brings a pristine knowledge about life and death, sealing all the secrets in between.

I think the safest route to benefit from DMT is the oral and brewed form. Mushrooms open the doors of DMT; harmalas are its best friends to invite at the party, learning from the plants themselves the discipline and the useful formalities to receive the revelation of this awesome power feeding our lives.