Word of Warning
Huasca Brew (B. caapi & M. tenuiflora) & Cannabis
Citation:   Garuda. "Word of Warning: An Experience with Huasca Brew (B. caapi & M. tenuiflora) & Cannabis (exp68907)". Erowid.org. Apr 3, 2008. erowid.org/exp/68907

 
DOSE:
T+ 0:00
2 shots oral Ayahuasca (tea)
  T+ 0:15 1 hit oral Cannabis (plant material)
BODY WEIGHT: 200 lb
The preparations were quite simple, I threw the 50 grams of powdered caapi and mimosa into a crock pot with about 5 bottles of spring water and the juice of 2 lemons. I set it to ‘high’ and let it cook for about 24 hours. I then strained it and put it in a jar in the fridge. The next day, most of the leftover matter had settled to the bottom of the jar, and the brew resembled a strong tea – transparent reddish brown. I took this and boiled it down to about a shot glass full.

I had originally planned to split it into 2 doses, but reconsidered and figured I would itake it all instead, fearing it might not be enough to split. This proved to be unfounded, but only after the harrowing consequences of my blunder were made extant. I drank it around 6pm, chased with a bit of water, and after about 10 minutes, I had to puke. It was a regular, normal size puke – at first I thought I may have just blown it and purged the brew before it could affect me. I started to feel a bit of lingering nausea so I figured that perhaps I had retained enough to start the journey. I took a hit of some strong weed to help get rid of it, and it did – the nausea changed into a sensation of light pressure in my stomach. I waited for half an hour and nothing happened. I was starting to think I had purged too much too soon. After about the hour mark, still feeling nothing but a light buzz which I assumed was from the weed – I decided to go out and get some food to eat. I figured nothing was going to happen, that I had not kept it down long enough.

I drove about a mile out to the main road and over to a local fast food place. I was sitting in the car ordering the food and right after I finished paying I noticed how I wasn’t very hungry anymore. Then I started to feel the rushing sensation of an oncoming psychedelic overload. I was beginning to freak out a bit, wondering if I would have enough time to get back to my house before it fully came on. This quickly became a moot point as I instinctually realized I needed to leave immediately and get to safe ground ASAP. I left without getting my food, and started driving out of the parking lot. Instantly I noticed the perspective of things was askew. The 3d aspect of everything was pronounced, as were lights. Did I mention this was at night in the ran? Oh yeah, it was excellent.

[Erowid Note: Driving while intoxicated, tripping, or extremely sleep deprived is dangerous and irresponsible because it endangers other people. Don't do it!]
As I was waiting at the stoplight, I looked at my car dashboard – which now seemed like the oblique interface of some alien spaceship. I noticed a massive increase in contrast, what was dark was pitch black, and what was light was glowing neon. Things quickly took on a distinctly cartoonish look, like some kind of weird Tron-like virtual reality. I was trying to keep my head from realizing how fucked up I was driving like this. It didn’t work for long. As I drove through a few stoplights to get back to the road to my house, I had to focus with all my might on the dual yellow lines running down the middle of the road – because everything around that was a kaleidoscope of madness. Lights from cars reflecting off rain in road and on the windshield etc. was causing a tornado of whirling multicolored luminescence. I was about to truly hit the freak out point, and starting to get “the fear”.

However my survival instinct proved stronger and forced me onwards. As I got to my road, I was again reminded how utterly fucked up I was. At this point, nothing looked remotely normal. The glowing, pulsing, Tron-like virtual reality was only very slightly approximate to the appearance of objects that I am accustomed to. The perspective and 3d aspects were beyond that of normal reality. It was only because I had driven this way a thousand times before that I was able to allow this resident memory to somehow take over and help control my movements in operation of the vast metal chassis which I inhabited in that moment. I was then greeted with a new problem, since that road has very few traffic lights. I could just barely make out the yellow lines.

I started driving a lot slower, and I noticed I was weaving a bit here and there. I saw headlights in my rearview and almost shit my pants. I needed to pull over and get my head straight, and was hoping dude behind me wasn’t a cop. I turned into a side street with some very recently developed and uninhabited town houses. I parked the car and jumped out, just barely keeping my shit together. Then I lost it and started flipping out, because my hallucinations were so overpowering and disorienting that I feared I wouldn’t be able to leave the damn street, much less make it back to my house. I was pacing around in the rain like a madman, then realized all the cars driving along the road could easily see me where I was.

Around this point a car started to turn onto this street as well, a place where I knew nobody lived. I saw it wasn’t a cop but also figured the guy might not be friendly to me either, so I jumped in my car and prepared to flee for my life. I drove out of the street into nothingness basically, I couldn’t see a damn thing much less the road – but somehow managed to get into my lane and keep driving home. I was giving it a bit of speed at this point, as I was distinctly in “flight” mode. Again I furiously focused my eyes on the yellow lines – because everything in a tunnel around them was cornucopias of sprouting castles, gnomes, dragons, demons, angels, etc. etc.

For a bit, I was confident I could get home from this point, since I was only about a quarter mile away. However as I got closer I began to think I wasn’t even on the right road at all. Houses were glowing with light and had giant crazy structures jutting out. There was only the barest, perhaps 5% of normal shapes for me to orient myself with. I saw my driveway appear out of nowhere and I turned in, completely overwhelmed by the fact I had made it home.

I ran inside and lied down, sinking into the floor and trying to relax from my insanely intense (and potentially fatal or otherwise) ride home. I felt like I still wasn’t safe yet. I looked around and realized just how affected I was. I was seeing the most intense hallucinations of my entire life. They were so distinct as to erase the sense of a “normal” world in almost every way, except for the fact that I knew where I was and what it was supposed to look like. Everything was covered in ornate writings and multi-lingual text, and was shining like neon, but it was the sense of shape, form and perspective that seemed the most altered. However, I did not have much time to concentrate on them or check them out because the ‘crisis’ sensation was still there and growing. I started to fear that this was a bit too much for my heart – as it was racing like crazy and hadn’t stopped racing since I left the fast food joint.

I was wondering if I would have a medical emergency and that snapped me up a bit and made me go into a recovery type of mode. I immediately began focusing on breathing slowly and deeply and trying to remain calm in every possible way. I lied down and tried to will myself to calm down. It wasn’t working very well and I was wondering what would happen. I was worried about the fact that I had already purged, thinking that all of this was what had already entered my bloodstream – and if that was the case, riding it out would be incredibly tricky at best.

Instantaneously I realized I had to purge again, and I ran/stumbled to the sink and projectile vomited with such a force it felt like the stuff was coming from my feet. Also the volume of liquid I expelled seemed crazy compared to what I had ingested, water included. It seemed like I was puking gallons of stuff out. After this was done I stumbled outside to rest, and got the sense that I was going to be ok and that I had just expelled the majority of that which was still affecting me. I was quite relieved to realize that purge had achieved this. Shortly later I realized that the extent to which I had expelled it was complete – as I was pretty much back to baseline again within 10 minutes. In fact there was practically no afterglow.

Of course with all of this going on, I didn’t have time to really enjoy the experience, as I was much more concerned with basic survival and legal safety. And the full-on purge which resulted from this was so complete as to eradicate the remainder of the brew’s effects. So while it was a learning experience, the lessons mostly took place outside of the psychedelic world.

Hopefully some people can benefit from my completely boneheaded and idiotic maneuvers in this case. Driving while under the influence of any substance is reprehensible and idiotic, then again so is wandering around in public tripping balls on DMT. I had conveniently left my cellphone at home, or I would have called someone to come get me. As it was I had to make the best of a horrible situation, and if I wasn’t a seasoned professional in these matters things probably would have ended extremely badly. I have had hundreds of psychedelic experiences, and this was by far the most disorienting in terms of hallucinations. I'm still not sure these amounts of material at once is even safe, and especially so if you are unprepared or inexperienced with the ups and downs, ins and outs of a psychedelic threat crisis.

I do plan to make this brew again, and split it into 2 doses as I had originally planned. I will report on it once I have done this.

Exp Year: 2008ExpID: 68907
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Apr 3, 2008Views: 60,235
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Banisteriopsis caapi (169), Mimosa tenuiflora (74), Huasca Brew (268) : Alone (16), Difficult Experiences (5), General (1)

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