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Lysergic Bioassay I - Visual and Auditory
LSA, Syrian Rue & Salvia divinorum
Citation:   Justin. "Lysergic Bioassay I - Visual and Auditory: An Experience with LSA, Syrian Rue & Salvia divinorum (exp55483)". Erowid.org. Feb 12, 2007. erowid.org/exp/55483

 
DOSE:
T+ 0:00
1 hit oral LSA (blotter / tab)
  T+ 2:00 1.25 tsp oral Syrian Rue (tea)
  T+ 3:00 0.25 hits sublingual Salvia divinorum (extract)
BODY WEIGHT: 150 lb
INTRODUCTORY SUMMATION

The following report details my personal experimentation with what was purported to be ergot derived LSA by itself and in combination with the seeds of Peganum harmala (Syrian Rue) and the extract of Salvia divinorum. It starts off with my reasoning what this substance may be and what it is likely not. I should note that I am about 150lbs and have a higher tolerance than all of my friends for all of the substances I mention in this report.


SOURCE and ASSESMENT of the SUBSTANCE

A trusted friend had given me what was supposed to be ergot-derived LSA on small (about ¼” x ¼”) plain white squares of paper. Of course I have no way of saying what this stuff actually was. He assured me that his source was reliable and that this substance was an extraction of LSA from ergot and not a synthesis of LSD or anything else. He said that he has had LSD in the past and that this substance was similar but seemed to be much more pure, more gentle, smoother, and with less side-effects and after-effects. I too have had LSD a number of times from a number of different sources many years ago and when I tried this supposed ergot derived LSA and I had to agree with my friend on all points.

I especially enjoyed the fact that this “LSA” extraction did not give me the anxiety that I would get from the “LSD” I encountered in the past. The only “LSD” that I can compare this “LSA” to was some “tie-dyed” blotter that was bought at a Grateful Dead show back in 1991 or 1992 or so that I actually dozed off on for a short while. I could never imagine being able to fall asleep on any of the other “LSD” I have ever had. They always seemed to be too “speedy” to some extent and always had trouble falling asleep until a few hours after the effects had worn off and the after effects always seemed a bit unnerving.

I should mention that a single quarter inch square tab of this stuff was weak but undeniably active and that there are many entheogenic substances that could not be active in such a small amount. Mescaline, for example, must come in a good-sized pill or pile of powder in order to be active. Many of us have thought that we have taken mescaline in the form of “micro-dots” or tiny pills. As it turns out, mescaline is not active in such a small amount. Something that active in such a small amount must be active on the scale of a few hundred micrograms rather than milligrams. This rules out most substances as far as I know and if it were a novel substance (such as a rare tryptamine) it would likely have been marketed as such due to simple tendencies of economics. People are willing to pay for more for the rare than for the common.

Also, I have tried an extraction of LSA containing alkaloids from the seeds of Ipomoea (morning glory) that I performed myself. Although weak, I did get a sense of what a stronger dosage of this LSA extraction would be like. This supposed ergot-derived LSA was certainly much like the LSA extraction I made myself from those seeds. It bared no resemblance to DXM, MDMA, cannabis, Salvia divinorum, stimulants, alcohol, or prescription painkillers and only some resemblance to psilocybian mushrooms.

So, to sum up the assessment of what this stuff may have been, it was at least likely that it was an ergot extraction containing LSA. If it was LSD than what I have had numerous times in the past must not have been LSD or else these LSD tabs must have had considerable impurities and/or additives.


The EXPERIENCE of the LSA and the ADDING of HARMALA

As mentioned, I took a single tab of this stuff and I had only a mildly psychedelic experience with it until I added some Peganum harmala to the mix. After hours of waiting for the tab to “kick in” or build into something more than barely noticeable effects, I brewed a small cup of tea from ground seeds of Peganum harmala (Syrian rue) as a source of the mono amine oxidase inhibiting (MAOI) harmaline and harmine.

Available literature suggests that 1 ¼ teaspoons of he ground seeds is enough to feel the effects but not enough to induce an upset stomach for most people. Of course I was very careful with what I ate and drank and otherwise took into my body for a few days previously and I fasted for a good portion of that day because in combination with many common foods, drinks and pharmaceuticals, an MAOI can be extremely dangerous.

I simply placed 1 ¼ teaspoons of the coarsely ground seeds in a coffee cup and added hot water. The tea smells earthy like rich, healthy soil. As a tea, however, it doesn’t taste exactly how it smells. It was not unlike coffee in its “texture” and taste though it is no nearly as bitter as coffee.

Now, I have read that an MAOI can potentiate tryptamines that are not orally active (like DMT) but I have not read that an MAOI could potentiate LSA. However, proceeding carefully with little sips spread out over an hour there was definitely a potent interaction going on with this combination. I can’t say if this was due to a potentiation between the MAOI harmine/harmaline and LSA or if the normally only weakly active harmine/harmaline was highly noticeable because of a heightened sensitivity and awareness brought about by the LSA. In any case, this combination was great.

As I slowly and carefully sipped this tea I was listening to relaxing psychoactive music. I noticed a slight “clenching” tendency in my body as well as bit of “swirliness” and a little “fuzziness”. But in general it was very relaxing, earthy, grounding yet psychedelic. I was not “weirded out” by it at all.

I am sure that some of it had to do with the music I was listening to, but I had the impression of serpentine coils and undulations. If one has ever closely observed the way a snake breaths and moves its muscular writhing body, or better yet, if one has actually held or had a snake wrapped about them and felt the way it grips and moves, one has a sense of what I was feeling (albeit only subtly and not overtly).

It was still mildly psychedelic but I felt very good. I spent much of this time alternating between gazing at the stars of the summer night and listening to psychedelic music in a room illuminated only by white Christmas lights snaking in a zigzag formation across the ceiling. The combination of the ambient lighting comprised of small light bulbs, the motion of my gaze and the effects of the Peganum harmala on top of the LSA tab along with the music created a very pleasant psychedelic experience with mild tracers like little fuzzy comets, an added vividness to imagined images, a deeper appreciation of the music, and spiritual feelings.

I thought about the “dance of Shiva” as it were and about the tantric dance of the male and female aspects of the universe personified by Shiva and Shakti dancing in heir divine love dance. At this point I wished dearly that my wife, who was fast asleep, were there experiencing what I was experiencing. I wanted to dance with her – literally or figuratively. I wanted to caress her, my Goddess lover, kneel before her and kiss her feet, take her in my arms and dance with her, kiss her, gaze deeply into her lustrous eyes.

The VISUALS

I have always had a mind that can detect and imagine highly detailed sounds. I have never been able to visualize images with anything but the utmost vagueness. Therefore I almost never get any sort of visuals from substances that seem to give visuals to others. But this combination allowed me to experience some visuals. From past comparisons between the level of (or lack of) visuals I experienced on substances and dosages and those of friends, I would imagine that this combination at these dosages would have allowed others to experience more pronounced visuals.

Although faint, my imagination drifted through images with vedic motifs like that of the temple architecture of India, Thailand, Cambodia, and so on. There were serpentine coils, Hindu deities with undulating bodies and multiple arms, the curves and points of stupas and the temples of Shiva, Kali, Tibetan mandalas, Buddhist temples and so on. The contours of these motifs were traced out in softly luminescent lines.


ADDING SALVIA EXTRACT to the MIX and the RESULTING VISUALS

After an hour or so I decided to try a little liquid extract of Salvia divinorum. This was not salvinorin. Salvinorin is extremely active at very small doses. This was an expensive standardized extract from Salvia in high-grade alcohol that I bought from a very respectable vendor. Previous experiments with this extract yielded virtually no results even at high doses.

While in a plateau of the effects of the supposed “LSA” and the harmine harmaline MAOIs of the Peganum harmala tea, I took what would be about ¼ of the recommended small to moderate dose of the liquid Salvia extract. This was immediately effective. Salvia gave a swift but gentle augmentation. A successful description of the effects seems unlikely but I will try.

As with my experiences with smoked Salvia leaf, I felt a subtle presence of a multifaceted entity or a group of entities somewhat like what one might feel like if one were in one of Brian Froud’s faerie paintings in which all sorts of faerie entities are coming our of the wood-work, the surrounding foliage, from under toadstools and so on. I find this presence to be a little intense but not at all hostile. Unlike others, I have not gotten the impression that this entity is a distinctly feminine/Goddess entity. For me it/they seem to be more like strange, mischievous, but not malignant beings.

As I have mentioned I was experiencing some faint pleasant visuals and eastern-mystical motifs with the LAS/harmala combo. With the Salvia extract, these motifs changed. They took on shapes and contours that I can only describe as being like the ivy vines classic and organic fractal shapes, all in a vine-like and somewhat spiraling topology. There were also what seemed like sentient eyes all throughout these fractal-ivy-vine shapes. In some ways these motifs resembled some of the more fractal-like paintings of Alex Grey or the more Mid-eastern mystical motifs of Fuchs’s paintings.

I think that these visuals were somewhat influenced by the snake-like arrangement of the Christmas lights in the room. With the few times I have tried smoking Salvia it always seems to induce spiraling and/or vine-like feelings for me. This time, however, I was experiencing spiraling vine-like and fractal visuals.

The AURAL EFFECTS

I can only roughly estimate that the effects of the Salvia extract on top of the Peganum harmal and “LSA” lasted about 20 minutes or so before fading. Shortly after this I turned off the lights and the stereo and lay down on the couch. There I listened to a few of the more intense songs by Godspeed You Black Emperor and marveled at their epic fury and fragile faltering beauty.

After some time I simply dwelled in the silent darkness where I could hear and feel the alkaloids running through my humming, whining nervous system. I noticed that the internal sounds I listened to had a sort of tide to it. Tones would run through a long flange/phaser type quality and the pitch slowly raised up to a peak as it sped up and then sunk down to a trough as it slowed down. Flowing up and then flowing down. This made me think of waves slowly coming up onto the shore and then slowly being pulled back out again and of the moon’s 28 day cycle from dark moon to full moon to dark moon and so on.

There were also lots of tweaked techno style sounds and sounds like robot birds or the type of sounds that the droid R2D2 would make in the Star Wars films. Oddly these sounds seemed to suddenly increase in volume and intensity just as I was about to fall asleep. This would interest me and I would snap back into wakefulness for a minute. Then I would almost fall asleep again and the sounds would again wake me up. After some time I fell asleep (somewhere around 6am or 7am) and woke up a few hours later (around 9am). Besides a little joint pain I felt good. I was rejuvenated and ready for morning sunshine and a walk in the woods.

A few weeks later I took 3 tabs of the same supposed ergot or LSA. A few hours into this session I again had some harmala tea. This experience was of a different nature. I have written this as a separate experience report entitles “Lysergic Bioassay II – Being a Conduit for Chi” which I have also submitted. A few weeks after that I tried 4 tabs of this stuff with no other substances. This was actually the most intense of these three experiments and I have written this as a separate experience report entitled “Lysergic Bioassay III – Cosmic Transducer” that I have again submitted.

Exp Year: 2006ExpID: 55483
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Feb 12, 2007Views: 48,018
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LSA (65), Syrian Rue (45), Salvia divinorum (44) : General (1), First Times (2), Mystical Experiences (9), Music Discussion (22), Entities / Beings (37), Combinations (3), Alone (16)

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