Dont flame me for this, I know everyone wants mescaline to be a warm and cuddly critter that just feels like a hug from the inside, but its rough on some people. Sometimes real rough.
For instance, due to significant damage to my spine every time I've ever taken an active dose of any sort of cactus I get stabbing chest pain starting half way through the peak and lasting 5 or 6 hours. The pain often goes all the way through to my back and it puts a rather high price tag on any mescaline experience. It doesnt help that I'm a hardhead and require a abnormally large dose to get good visuals and headspace going.
I cant just be a freak anomaly in this because I've repeatedly heard old native americans regretfully say that they had to stop using peyote because of how much it aggravates their arthritis. I also had arthritis so I know they arent joking, but I cured myself of that many years ago. For a long time I just surrendered to the notion that its inherently damn rough on some people. Its not tripping in general, this incitement of joint and bone pain seems specific to mescaline.
Recently here I noticed some people observing that harmalas not only increase mescaline potency but also, in their estimation, effectively counter the stimulant effect. This got me to thinking, this mescaline pain thing could be a result of its stimulant properties or could be some other modifiable factor, like inflammation. Has anyone who gets mescaline pain ever experimented with admixtures to prevent or ameliorate the effect?

Mescaline is a vasoconstrictor, and I can see it playing a part in your chest pain. Exactly what part and how I can't be certain, but in my body, mesc-induced vasoconstriction manifests as pale rubbery skin and a funny feeling in my legs, along with cold extremities. Ayahuasca seems to directly counteract this and ameliorates the stimulant effect of mescaline to a large degree. I have a friend who says he won't ever do cacti alone again, and will only do it in conjunction with aya or harmalas for the same reason. Whether vasoconstriction is directly relatable to pain is a question beyond my knowledge, but it certainly bears looking into.

I'd love to hear Corpus callosum's take on this, but perhaps this will stimulate some conversation.

cacti helps me with inflammation symptoms, in my gut due to colitis as well as back pain.

I have never really experienced pain from mescaline.

The body also stores emotional trauma and pain, in my experience. Releasing that might be painful. Much physical pain and inflammation seems to correspond to some type of emotional imprints.

I experienced deep pain on my first MDMA experience, first physical and then psychological. The pain was of psychological origin but had rooted itself in my physical body. This was clean MDMA and once I let go of the stored trauma I never had to deal with that pain again with MDMA.

I have limited experience with it so far, but one of my trips did feature some annoying chest discomfort. It was painful from what I remember but not a harsh stabbing pain. To be fair it was after smoking marijuana which sparked some anxiety, so it might have been mostly psychological.

Yeah for me, i've never had any sort of pain, even with the higher dosages. The only sharp pains i've had with mescaline were initially when id make a tea. Id usually get pretty intense cramps from that, sometimes bordering on sharp intermittent pains. They'd usually go away after about 3-4 hours.

Mescaline is usually warm and cuddly, but not always - not at all. Some people seem to have harder experiences with it for sure. Most people get the warmer side.

You mention being a hard head and needing lots to have visuals.... San Pedro is usually less visual - I dont think what you describe makes you a hard head, but maybe you have very high expectations. Often it is not visual at all but more emotional and also many body feelings like what you describe with your chest pain. Cactus often teaches you through pain in your body.

Usually with pain in your body I suggest that people ask San Pedro why their body hurts there and how they can heal it... Maybe you already tried this. Often this is how San Pedro heals though - it brings up bodily pain and once you get curious and investigate that pain it opens up the healing process. My wife healed her chronic back pain this way. I have also seen it help people with arthritis before....

I would say maybe there is something physical going on and maybe this isnt the best plant for you... Or maybe it is just trying to push you into healing something by getting your attention through bodily pain. Could be either....

Most people dont mix many admixtures into San Pedro, but the most common/traditional admixture is datura/brugmansia. They go good together though datura is not for everyone and you want to use tiny amounts to stay safe (a little goes a long way). You could combine with caapi as well but use tiny doses of both - usually you drink a tiny cup of cactus and then a few hours later drink the Ayahuasca (since Ayahuasca is shorter in duration).

Yeah, there is certainly something physical going on in regards to the chest pain. See, my sternum (breast bone) was physically cut out and then remounted in a new location and the injury to my back is at its most severe on the ribs that connect to the sternum over my heart, so the ribs try to (and some times do) snap loose from the sternum. Its an old, very familiar type of pain. Thats why I'm wondering if it may be something modifiable. The condition might be triggered by vasoconstriction as suggested or could easily be caused my muscle tension, or even muscle relaxation. And yeah, the cactus could be pointing towards something that needs healing- physical or psychological. Many years ago when I first encountered cactus I had arthritis and while it made it worse during the trips it did play a role in orienting me to eventually 100% cure the arthritis.
And, fuck sake, I'm glad that bitch is gone

I'm aware that its not the most visual hallucinogen, but half a kilo of average potency bridge barely gets headspace/emotion substantially altered and only produces colored CEV's at the peak, with no enhancement of color with eyes open. If I'm not a hard head then most users are content with much milder effects than I've always assumed and I finally understand why mew eats 3 feet at a go

So I did a comparative test. I'll put it here instead of trip reports since it directly relates to my earlier question.
A nice bridgesii center cut was obtained and partitioned into a 500 gram portion and a 300 gram portion.
The 500 gram stem was consumed alone. It followed the expected time frame and provided a mild visual experience with CEVs throughout the peak but no OEVs. Half way through the peak back pain manifested in the spot second most likely to cause chest pain and it then triggered the familiar chest pain. Some recent eye strain was also made a bit more annoying and my brain felt a bit foggy. Emotional effects were cathartic but worthwhile. The experience had its positive aspects for sure, it went as I had come to expect from cactus- a spiritual trial.
Two days later, before I had fully recovered, I predosed with 200 mg harmine hydrochloride dihydrate (dissolved in water) 3 minutes prior to consuming the 300 gram portion. It was feeling much the same at the beginning but when the peak approached it took a marked turn becoming much more positive. From the 4 hour mark to the end of the 6th hour all I could do was squirm in delight. The same spot in my back began aching again, probably from writhing in pleasure, but the (much more troublesome) chest pain was not triggered. The eye strain I had was actually resolved.
In addition to perhaps tripling the potency, the character of the experience was substantially altered. It provided a floating body high reminiscent of LSD and OEVs in which surfaces seemed composed of two overlapping layers that were gyrating relative to one another (again, an LSD characteristic) the CEV's were clearer and more angular resembling geometric DMT visions but with the mescaline color palate and there was a fair bit of laughing. This trip required no prolonged recovery, I was just a bit drowsy the next day from only sleeping 4 hours.

So I'm counting harmine predosing as a tentative success in coping with pain phenomena and a resounding success in its alteration of the character of the trip.

Very interesting. I've had intermittent lower back problems for years and almost every time I've mesced I get tension in my lower back. Transient tension and pain. Worth it.

I suffer from fibromyalgia/rheumatism and when I have a flare-up in symptoms, I dare not touch any psychedelic. It always tells me where there are problems in my body by amplifying the pain.

With the notable exception being super harmala heavy changa. It's what I imagine morphine must be like.

Thats interesting. I have a demyelinating autoimmune disorder and psychedelics totally kill the pain in many cases. Most of my experience however is with tryptamines, ergolines, and very potent phenethylamines like DOC. It's worth noting that metabolism of phenethylamines produces quite a bit of oxidation and may be one reason mescaline with it's very high dosage triggers inflammation in susceptible individuals. Otherwise, the neuromodulatory effects of psychedelics are known to be potently anti-inflammatory. Just a guess though. Hope mescaline does me just as much justice as other psychedelics

Pure or near pure [mescaline crystals] dont give a bad body load...
Iliminating the many alcaloids in cacti that can make you feel uncomfortable can make the trip cleaner more relaxed and still very visual...

Not everyone has the know how or patience to get pure mescaline crystals but its worth the extra work to obtain a cleaner product..

Mescaline and other cacti contain many alcaloids to protect themselves from being eaten out in the wild...

It is a well known fact that it takes more mescaline to obtain a more visual experiasnce but the more whole cacti one eats the more body load one will get...

I think if you can find a way to purify your product your experiance will be cleaner and you will feel better durring the trip...

This ..simple three step mescaline extraction..

explaines Easy Three Step Mescaline Citrate - The Psychedelic Experience ...

https://www.shroomery.or...rums/showflat.../7875294
The Shroomery
Dec 30, 2015 - Easy Three-Step Mescaline Citrate Materials needed: 1) Peruvian torch or San Pedro ... (Optionally, you can add 1 Tbsp lye to the jug after the third extraction.)iferent the mescaline experiance is using crystal intead of total alcaliod...