My understanding is that Psilocybin is converted by your body to Psilocin.

Yes that I gathered, but I was wondering how much 30mg would be in dried grams?
And if some people have noticed differences between the two? I assume there will be some because as far as I know there are some other molecules besides psilocybin and psilocin in mushrooms.

LSD: 5ht1a = 3.73, DMT: = 0.00, psilocin = 2.88, mescaline = 3.61, 5-meo-DMT: = 4.00 (make up >80% of brain 5-ht)
LSD: 5ht1b = 4.00, DMT: = 0.00, psilocin = 2.19, mescaline = 0.00, 5-meo-DMT: = 2.41
LSD: 5ht1d = 3.70, DMT: = 3.91, psilocin = 3.40, mescaline = 0.00, 5-meo-DMT: = 3.48
LSD: 5ht1e = 2.62, DMT: = 3.28, psilocin = 3.03, mescaline = 3.16, 5-meo-DMT: = 1.72
LSD: 5ht2a = 3.54, DMT: = 2.58, psilocin = 2.14, mescaline = 0.00, 5-meo-DMT: = 0.98
LSD: 5ht2b = 3.11, DMT: = 3.91, psilocin = 4.00, mescaline = 3.97, 5-meo-DMT: = 0.69
LSD: 5ht2c = 3.11, DMT: = 3.42, psilocin = 2.52, mescaline = 0.00, 5-meo-DMT: = 1.55
LSD: 5ht5a = 3.64, DMT: = 3.16, psilocin = 2.83, mescaline = 0.00, 5-meo-DMT: = 1.84
LSD: -5ht6 = 3.75, DMT: = 3.35, psilocin = 2.82, mescaline = 0.00, 5-meo-DMT: = 2.73
LSD: -5ht7 = 3.77, DMT: = 4.00, psilocin = 2.82, mescaline = 0.00, 5-meo-DMT: = 3.69
LSD: ---D1 = 2.34, DMT: = 3.51, psilocin = 3.37, mescaline = 0.00, 5-meo-DMT: = 2.38
LSD: -A-2A = 2.93, DMT: = 2.75, psilocin = 1.36, mescaline = 2.92, 5-meo-DMT: = 0.00 (alpha-2A adrenergic receptor)
LSD: -A-2B = 0.00, DMT: = 3.53, psilocin = 1.57, mescaline = 0.00, 5-meo-DMT: = 0.86 (alpha-2B adrenergic receptor)
LSD: -A-2C = 0.00, DMT: = 3.53, psilocin = 1.03, mescaline = 4.00, 5-meo-DMT: = 1.57 (alpha-2C adrenergic receptor)

As an experiment (and in a foreign land) I smoked the last of the Bufo alvarius venom (the story of whose collection is described within the pages of Tryptamine Palace) with some ‘regular’ DMT (extracted from Jurema Preta.). In the vast majority of my early nigerine (DMT) experiences, I encountered visual fields of ‘dots’ that would come together to form images, much like the pointillism style of painting developed by Georges Seurat or the Australian Aboriginal song-line paintings.

** With the addition of the 5-MeO-DMT containing toad-venom to the DMT however, the visual characteristic was completely different and totally unique to my experiences so far. On this occasion there was a complete lack of ‘dots’ or ‘points’ of any kind, the fine lines of the constantly changing imagery were like those painted with a single-hair brush on Tibetan thangkas and due to the overwhelming artistry of what I was seeing, I could only think of the vaulted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in comparison.

Sistene Chapel: This was without a doubt the most ‘visionary’ experience I have ever been fortunate enough to encounter and I lay there with my eyes shut watching the most fantastic parade of the Collective Unconsciousness imaginable, wishing that it would never end, and as I sit here now I can not even describe one tiny corner of it, since every image in the multitude of imagery was in such constant motion that they defied all but a glimpse. And then moments later, like a tent collapsing when its ropes are cut, the vision is gone. Leaving only a struggle of words to explain it, since nothing before or after has come close to this experiences visual majesty.

This experience leads to the interesting question of selectively combining DMT and 5-MeO-DMT for a more visionary and somewhat less overwhelmingly transcendental experience. (Or for the other way around). This combining of the two endogenous entheogens is being tested in changa blends (reportedly at a 90% DMT to 10% 5-MeO-DMT ratio), while many Pharmahuasca urban-shamans are also adding 5-MeO-DMT to their ayahuasca-analogues to transform and deepen that experience. It seems likely to me that the combining of DMT and 5-MeO-DMT in various ratios and manners will only become more popular as the exponentially increasing number of psychonauts search for new psychological terrain to explore.

My experience with smoked DMT was qualitatively different from the realms and beings ayahuasca introduced me to. For whereas the ayahuasca worlds seemed rich, luxurious, and abundant in the transformations of organic and supernatural life, DMT brought me to a world--or to some aspect of a world--that appeared from the outset to be highly artificial, constructed, inorganic, and in essence technological.

Sorry to dig up this old topic again, but a friend of mine told me about an experience with 4-ho-dmt (psilocin) and he was really ecstatic about it and of what he told his experience was very deep.

I couldn't help but wonder if this would be the same as taking a high dose of mushrooms. He took 30mg, so I was wondering how much that would be converted to dried grams of cubensis?
And any of you guys feel there is a huge difference between the two experiences (mushrooms vs pure psilocin?)

Earlier today I sampled 30mg of pure synthetic lab made psilocin fumarate. This was a powerful dose more than enough to produce powerful psychedelic effects, and it was a beautiful experience. While it obviously induced a state very similar to the bemushroomed one, I definitely felt it to be slightly different to mushrooms...the psychedelic visuals were in some way slightly muted I found...the experience with mushrooms I find to be in some way richer, fuller, more lively and voluptuous and to have more energy and sparkle. It's hard to describe in words. It felt like there was a hint of sterility to the experience, compared with mushrooms. I'm trying to be as objective as I can when I describe this, but bear in mind this is highly subjective terrain, and just my individual take, and so should be taken with a pinch of salt. With that said, I prefer the state mushrooms induce, and I definitely feel that secondary metabolites in mushrooms have an effect on the experience they produce, and this is what gives rise to the perceived experiential qualitative differences people commonly report in association with different species. All my experiences with Panaeolus cyanescens were far more colourful and light filled than this pure chemical, which is interesting, and is suggestive to me at least that other compounds in the mushroom modulate the psilocin experience they produce to some degree. I had a prior experience with 15mg psilocin, but wanted to have a deeper high dose experience before giving my verdict on it. Would be good to see more research on the biochemical make up of the various psilocybin mushroom species.

As to how the THH altered the experience -> I find rue extract+DMT to be very similar to mushrooms I found the THH added to the rue+DMT to shift the experience to a state much closer to that provided by LSD. It was more clear, more energetic, more focused, more euphoric, and when confusion struck it was definitely more "acid-like".

After the geometrics I have a very intense visionary phase which lasts about 30-60 mins. then the trip rapidly subsides to a low level for a few hours and I go to bed.

Ayahuasca is not as bad as you think it is. I would consider it to be "sort" of like a "bemushroomed" trip, but far more lucid and mature. The visuals are somewhat like those encountered with the mushroom, but far more complex. I have seen the usually "jungle" type visions, complex geometric vision, visions of "cities", and visions not unlike those painted by Alex Grey. The major difference I have noted is that the experience is much more strait forward and serious.

I'm glad you agree with the purple and blues and have seen cities and jungle stuff too. Have you seen lots of silver and gold? That is the key thing that Aya has above shrooms.

I agree with the geometrics being far more complex,colourful and vivid. Shrooms can be very spiritual but often they can fall flat. Ayahuasca seems to always be profound and spiritual, and the visions have a feeling of depth and reality that shrooms could never give.

I can't help thinking back at some amazing silver chrome corkscrew visuals I had, embedded in kaleidescope colours. So damn vivid it was almost as if I had my eyes open looking at some computer screen playing these visuals.

They are so solid and in-your-face, so clear. You can look around and examine them. If you try that with shroom visuals they disappear.

Have you ever heard music, something like slow carribean barrel drums or soft tonal gongs? I'm sure I heard some other musical stuff but I can't remember the detail.

Have you ever felt like you were changing into someone else or looking through someone else's eyes?

Do you usually get a geometric phase of tripping first which then develops into the proper visionary trip?

Many of the beautifully detailed descriptions of particular visions from Ayahuasca are worth the price of the book alone [Benny Shanon's 500 page 7 year experiences w/Ayahuasca "Antipodes of the Mind", Oxford University Press]

@Tregar: So what effect would combining harmalas with psilocybin have on the 5h receptors? Would this allow the psilocybin to 'cover more ground' while keeping that power on the 1a receptor?

Would love to see the data for that

Grella, Brian, et al. "Binding of β-carbolines at 5-HT 2 serotonin receptors." Bioorganic & medicinal chemistry letters 13.24 (2003): 4421-4425.*Attached

In the western world, Ayahuasca acquired a new definition: It was now, by definition, the combination of Banisteriopsis caapi and a DMT-containing plant. Ayahuasca became, by definition, “orally active DMT.” The first anthropologist to adopt the new definition seems to have been Luis Eduardo Luna in 1984. Luna spent time with Terence McKenna, absorbing his perspective, before beginning his fieldwork. Since then, anthropologists have increasingly adopted this definition and filtered their observations through it. The preeminence of the Ayahuasca vine in the indigenous Amazonian world became the elephant in the living room of Ayahuasca studies, with a tacit agreement to pretend it doesn’t exist.

The leaves were Ayahuasca’s “helpers,” I was told, and their purpose was to “brighten and clarify” the visions. The vine is like a cave, and the leaf is like a torch you use to see what is inside the cave. The vine is like a book, and the leaf is like the candle you use to read the book. The vine is like a snowy television set, and the leaf helps to tune in the picture. There was a subtle attitude that the need for strong leaf was the sign of a beginner: An experienced ayahuasquero could see the visions even in low light

Ayahuasca vine is not visionary in the same way as DMT. The leaf helps illuminate the content, but the teachings are credited to the vine. Vine visions are “frequently associated with writing, to a code that is present in visions…or in the ‘books’ where the spirits keep the secrets of the forest.” The vine is The Teacher, The Healer, The Guide. The purpose of drinking Ayahuasca is to receive the message the vine imparts. This is why it is the vine, not the leaf, that is classified by the type of vision it gives. “For them the vine is, in truth, a living guide, a friend, a paternal authority”.

Listening to the Vine

While I was living in the village, someone began the process of shamanic apprenticeship. There was a series of ceremonies with brews of special strength for that purpose; brews with enormous quantities of vine. About two to three pounds of fresh vine per person was used (about 25 to 35 times the amount needed for MAOI inhibition). Those were powerful experiences indeed.

He would learn to navigate the strongest of brews with clear focus, and be undistracted by any amount of DMT fireworks.

Buildings

Buildings appear very frequently in the visions; most of them are magnificent. Most notable are, on the one hand, palaces and other palatial complexes and, on the other hand, temples and religious sites; castles, mansions, and archeological ruins are also common. Often the palaces and temples seen are made out of gold, crystal, and precious stones. Here, for instance, are two descriptions taken from Polari (1984: 197-8, 264):

'I found myself in the salon of a castle illuminated by torches. The salon was oval, slightly oblong, with semicircular doors, placed at regular intervals. At the same time, I saw an atrium situated in front of the principal wall, and the hall of the throne.

Thousands of tunnels, galleries, corridors, secret doors, staircases, inclined planes crisscrossed in a composition akin to one of Escher's These led to sumptuous palaces, lofty halls, sarcophagi, caverns or temples. In some of these there were sentinels appearing as medieval figures.'

I myself have seen palaces and temples many times. As described in the previous chapter, the only time I consumed Ayahuasca in the midst of the virgin Amazonian forest, I saw a whole sequence of palatial and regal scenes. I hoped to get a glimpse of the mysteries of the Amazonian jungle, but instead I saw palaces and royalty from different cultures on both sides of the Atlantic. The most impressive of these were two visits to the throne hall of an Egyptian pharaoh. In real life, I have been to many of the famous archeological sites in Egypt, and I have also visited the Egyptian galleries of many museums, but what I saw in this and other visions surpassed them all. The Egyptian palaces revealed to me in my Ayahuasca visions appeared to be totally new and full of life, as if they had just been constructed.

Like Polari, on many occasions I saw corridors, one hall opening into another, marvellous wall-paintings, sculptures, and reliefs. Architectural details that especially impressed me included sculpted marble colonnades in the form of white elephants, staircases adorned with golden lions, and finely carved gilded wooden ceilings. Several times, I saw most beautiful painted tiles. In the reports of my informants mosaics appear frequently; an example was described in Ch. 6 when serial images were discussed.

The temples I have seen were both ones of ancient civilizations and ones of the more recent Christian world. One of the more impressive architectural visions I have had was of a grand cathedral. The edifice extended up to the heavens and its dominant colour was emerald. I have heard of very similar visions from my informants. Several informants told me that looking, with open eyes, at the hall or the maloca (Amazonian hut) in which the Daime or Ayahuasca session was,taking place, the whole place transformed into a holy edifice. In more than one instance, the actual roof seemed to disappear and the visioned construction reached up to the sky. Also reported by many informants are pyramids of all sorts, most either Egyptian or pre-Columbian.

As exemplified in the above citations from Polari, basements, hidden passages, gates, and doors are all very common. These often have a secret, enchanting allure.

Cities

Entire cities may be seen as well. Here I focus on cities qua architectural complexes; cities as a type of place are considered later in this survey. The cities seen in visions are usually exotic and most fabulous. Discussing the Amaringo paintings Luna comments that: 'About one third of the visions presented contain... cities. Their architecture is either diffusely Eastern Chinese, Arabian, Indian or futuristic, or both. They may be located in the underwater world or on another planet' (Luna and Amaringo, 1993: 41; see also Harner, 1973c).

My own experiences corroborate this general statement: Most of the cities I have seen seemed to belong to ancient civilizations whereas others were futuristic or magical, whose identity I could not determine. The reports of my informants reveal the same pattern. The most impressive city I have seen was that described in the Prologue whose buildings were made of gold and precious stones.