I will try hard not to get long winded here. Seriously.

You have me intrigued with the candle/mirror, based on everything you are saying, plus my somewhat fertile imagination. I definitely will adventure with that setup.

I'm real big on using candles. Unless it's a fully bright lit room, I'm lighting up.

Having said that, well, here comes the long-wind part...

I'm noticing candles seem to have less impact than they used to. I'm wondering about two separate influences on that:

1 - Early in my explorations, I was extracting from acacia confusa. And I celebrated even the tiniest bit of success I had - Goo? And it smells like the spice? With no solvent smell after lots of drying? I'm in. No re-X, no clean-up (which I hadn't really discovered anyway) - I'M GOING FOR IT!

2 - Also, it was before I braved up to better methods. I still was using the crack pipe/oil burner. I think I went somewhat deep, but nothing like serious hits on the GVG or the dab rig.

So, for quite some time - (2-3 years?) - I've been extracting from mimosa hostilis, and graduated to appropriate tools, as mentioned.

So, no breakthrough on the crack pipe, but some seriously good visuals, open-eyed and closed-eyed. Just beautiful experiences. And as has been pointed out, the dancing shadows and illuminations are delightful.

With the mhrb, dosages that I choose so as not to break through, it is different. The candles have less impact, the objects they illuminate don't become nearly so alive, the shadows are not as dramatic.

I'm rambling.

In time, I will extract more acrb, do some more subjective testing, see where it takes me.

I'm done. Wake up now, please.

And always, thanks nexus. For everything.

Yeah, I'd read the candle/mirror thing some years back, I could probably try to find it again, was in random passing when I was reading through a thread. Always been big on 'low light' experiences, though never really worked with a candle/s, aside from a few times not in front of a mirror.

I like brightly lit rooms on the rare occasion that the rooms relatively small [not sure why this is hahah I'm not sure

Oh yeah the GVG once you get the method of using it down - it's one of those methods to where there's not much comparison in terms of the brutal effectiveness of it. Can send you incredibly deep, very very quickly..

Been over a year since I've smoked dmt, I think this year I'm going to work with it primarily with candles, or 'a' candle, and try the mirror a few times.

I think allowing the experience to come out from a darkened/mostly darkened room is good practice, sort've like a relief print in art. Allowing the backdrop of the blackness to form a relief and compound the detail, as this realm comes through.. [Im probably preachin to the choir haha so I'll shut up haha, carry on ]

You always have interesting comments.

I generally like the dark room with soft light/candles, particularly for sub-breakhroughs. For deep hyperspace, it doesn't make a whole lot of difference, for me.

But, a couple weeks ago I was outside, in a river canyon in the desert southwest. A very beautiful place, lots of wide-open, and directly across the river from me a red-wall cliff. I don't want to go deep, I'm dosing very carefully. Fire up the GVG, it's a solid hit. Just barely shy of breakthrough, which would have me rolling in the sandy beach and howling at the trees. But, like I say, shy of that, thank goodness.

So the sand turns incredible white, with texture, I can't sit, I have to walk in this marshmallow terrain, and something makes me look up, and across the river to the cliff wall. It explodes into, what - life? animation? cartoonland? This cliff is like 300 feet high, and maybe a half-mile up and down the river. So, really pretty big.
So this cartoon king on a throne starts bulging in and out of the cliff face, sometimes with a crown, sometimes changing into what I remember from cartoons as like the North Wind Blowing or somesuch. Lots more stuff that I couldn't begin to remember, let alone describe.

Just delightful and amazing and making me grin and raise my arms to it and it grins back and oh my goodness. Getting chills just thinking of it even now. Trying not to laugh.

There's a point here somewhere. Oh yeah - scale. Size. For me, inside, I'll put up interesting items to be lit by the candles. Maybe a Ganesha, a Buddha bust, an interesting print, whatever. And mostly, those turn out to be just ok, but something big will really get going. Maybe looking outside, a tree comes to life. Or inside, a large houseplant starts shooting rainbow-laser-beam lightning bolts.
So, anyway, outside where there's some really big stuff, that stuff just exploded. So that was near sunset, beautiful lighting but far from dark.

Anybody ever notice that? That the spice, the teacher, the healer, it might want to manifest in large objects?

Sounds like a really beautiful area and a really beautiful experience , thanks for sharing that

I think I know what you mean, the experience for me when done outdoors especially in a wide open expanse, the experience seems to have more area to work - which in turn makes it easier on me overall, though there's times where it looks like hyperspace was blowm up, gigantic, though much of the everchanging architecture seemed to lose its incredible detail and substance whereas in a small confined space allowed the experience to conform and become much more 'in my face' and highly detailed, it's hard to explain lol. It's just what I've experienced with it. Cheers

Ive done the candles and mirror, but on cactus, not dmt, 50g san pedro powder. Had all the lights off in the house, a fire in the fieplace, with candles either side of a mirror above the mantlepiece. Couldnt resist looking into the mirror during the peak, and I saw my face changing rapidly into many different people from different cultures and eras. Frighteningly vivid and realistic, but too compelling to turn away from. Also started making alien/gutteral/hissing sounds at this point, which had a strong effect on the visuals, felt slightly 'possessed' by ancient spirits/demons. This started to scare me so I forced myself to snap out of it (more easily done on mescaline than dmt) and steer the trip into shallower waters.

Ive also done changa outdoors in nature quite a bit and can definitely resonate with Sunnyside about the grandeur of really huge places/spaces. I found myself once on top of a hill during a walk along the south Dorset coast and read a sign describing it as the site of an iron age hill fort. Seemed a good place for a small pipe. I had 360 deg view so easy to spot people approaching. Sat with my back to a stone, facing out to sea and hit the pipe. As the effects came on, I brought my gaze slowly round from the endless stretch of cliffs and beach to the open sea and sky dotted with fluffy clouds. The carrier wave sound rose steadily and broke into what sounded like a celestial choir, just as the sun sent a beam down through a cloud onto the water, somewhere miles out at sea. I actually cried tears at the majestic beauty of it all.

I think the 'Ancients' knew a thing or two about where to build their settlements and places of worship. Optimal alignments with sun, moon, stars and natural features of the landscape. Ley lines too, maybe...Anyway, after that experience, Id like to try similar low dose trips at other neolithic sites. There are many stone circles, standing stones, burial chambers and holy wells near where I live, so this could be a little project for the future.

For more light hearted fun trips, I like being at home alone in the bedroom with reggae music playing, low lighting, wearing baggy clothes and the bed, duvet and blankets within easy reach.