Hi all.
I'm just posting this because I learned a bit from my first extraction and smoking experience. First of all, I was plagued with the whole burning of the mouth and lips sensation. I had some trouble finding a good answer regarding what caused this problem.
Even just putting a crystal on my tongue resulted in such burning, so I could rule out the possibility that it was caused by burning DMT. I checked to make sure that it wasn't the Coleman fuel, though it did turn blue at some point in the extraction process. Also, this was before I did an ammonia wash. I read somewhere that the ammonia wash isn't necessary since the NaOH wont evaporate, but I quickly decided that this must not be true after trying to smoke it for the first time. I ended up redissolving my batch in naptha and adding ammonia (after reading on the forum that you can't just put ammonia directly on the crystals to rid them of NaOH). Then I let the DMT recrystallize in the fridge and dry out after filtering. This product didn't burn when I did the crystal-to-tongue test, so I figured that I had fixed the previous problem.
Up until then, I had been using a light-bulb vaporizer, which made it difficult to vaporize the DMT. I found all-around disdain for the light bulb method online while finding all-around praise for the Machine, so I decided that it would probably be my best route to a good first experience. I used the coarsest steel wool I could find and a clear beer bottle. I used a glass drill bit to drill a hole in the bottom of the bottle about a quarter of an inch wide.
I didn't know how well it was going to work, but the device worked magically. I wasn't sure how far away to hold the lighter, so I held it pretty far away at first. Plumes of vapor came out of the steel wool immediately, and I quickly put my mouth to the device and breathed in for about 5 seconds, then another 5 seconds without the lighter to clear the device, then held my breath for 20 seconds...
The experience was amazing, though I don't think it was what people refer to as "a breakthrough experience". At first, it seemed as though the room were melting, then my mind started to hone in on shapes and objects and patterns that weren't really there. I didn't know whether to close my eyes or keep them open, so I closed them after watching the room shift out of existential focus for a minute or so. The flavor of the DMT experience seemed completely foreign to me, and I kinda panicked my way through it, not really knowing what the best orientation of my senses would be. My first thought, at the trip was coming on, was "Oops: I don't think I'm ready for a life-changing experience right now", but it never became that intense anyway, probably because I had taken a relatively mild dose. The effects seemed to taper off after 5 minutes.
After about 15 minutes from the first hit, I decided I wanted to go for another round. I probably could've taken a bigger hit, or a second one at that, but I didn't really go for more than I had gotten the first time around. I still felt like I was getting introduced to this drug with which I plan on developing a long and fruitful relationship, so I didn't really feel the need to rush things. The second experience was more enjoyable: No panic. I just watched my room transform. There was a beam of sunlight cast on my bathroom door. That's what I focussed on at first. It was amazing to watch it become... something else. When I closed my eyes, I saw brilliant patterns lining my eyelids. My bathroom door was suddenly an opening into a large white hall. That's all I really remember from this particular experience. No self-transforming machine elves, unfortunately.
All in all, the experience seemed very very similar to the salvia divinorum experience, and yet it was better in many ways. It was more clear, more memorable, more structured, more consistent, and just all around more pleasant. At the same time, I expected the experience to be more spiritual. It was perceptually weird but, other than, unremarkable in that it did not provide the same sense of enlightenment that I'm so used to attaining from other psychedelics. Like I said, I have a long way to go in my exploration of this drug, so I have no doubt that I only experienced the tip of the iceberg today.
Thanks for reading.
Every day I am thankful that I was introduced to psychedelic drugs.