Why 5-MeO-DMT?
This is a question I always ask myself. Why do people choose to use 5-MeO-DMT, instead of ayahuasca (or especially the Ultimate Psychedelic), considering that 5-MeO-DMT has no tradition of human use, much less therapeutic value, and is known to be very dangerous compared to ayahuasca?
So far, I have come up with a few answers (comment if you have others!):
Super entrenched ego, due to psychopathy, narcissism, and/or (c)PTSD, which blocks their ability to get powerful transcendental experiences from ayahuasca or meditation. Or, because they wish to avoid the moralizing guiding spirit (teacher) of ayahuasca.
They heard about it from someone and it seemed like it worked for that person, so they tried it and liked it, basically nothing to compare it to.
It’s vastly overhyped by some folks as being the God Molecule.
It’s harder to obtain than ayahuasca ingredients, which makes it seem more interesting.
It doesn’t have MAOi contraindications like ayahuasca, although it has its own set of dangerous interactions.
Some people’s neurochemistry is uniquely suited to 5-methoxy substituted tryptamines. These people find 5-MeO-DMT to be pleasurable, not frightening and toxic. The people who find it helpful for muting their emotional pain are also most at risk of abusing it.
Before using 5-MeO-DMT, I implore you to meditate a lot on your reasons for using this drug in particular.
Beware of Spiritual Bypassing
It is good that there are some drugs like ketamine and 5-MeO-DMT which can help people with super fortified egos to go beyond their ego. Unfortunately, what usually ends up happening with such super dissociating drugs is something called "Spritual Bypassing," in which people avoid doing the inner child reparenting therapy to heal their traumas, and instead they use a drug like this, or even spirituality in general, to completely dissociate and dis-identify with all their traumas. When people spiritually bypass their inner child traumas, they end up using spirituality as an excuse for their harmful behaviors. This is seen in pretty much every guru, with very rare exception. They say things like "We Are All One," or they claim to be God, and this means they can do whatever they want (which is the Free Masonic creed, "Do As Thou Wilt").
The 5-MeO-DMT therapy space is almost entirely corrupt !!! 🤦🏿♂️😭🤢🤢🤮🤮🤮🤮🤬
You may have heard of Dr. Octavio Rettig and Dr. Gerry Sandoval. They are two of the most infamous proponents & ceremonial providers of 5-MeO-DMT. It turns out, they are actually terrible people. Oh and let's not forget Martin Ball, who helped write MAPS’ psychedelic therapy manual, and is supported by every 5-MeO-DMT therapy training group, despite the fact he promotes sexually molesting and vomiting on his clients.
I also personally know a guy named Dan Conner, a 5-MeO-DMT facilitator, and it took me years to figure out he is some kind of sociopath (he hides it better than Ball, and many of my “friends” still trust him).
What we can learn from this is that this substance and the “full release” ego death it can provide is not able to turn an evil person into a good person, and it might even do the opposite in some cases, especially since it seems like something which is healing that actually may not be.
Do not let someone dose you up (nor even watch you while you are unconscious) unless you know & trust them.
For yourself, do not use this drug to avoid the inner-child self love meditations and conversations which are the key to becoming a peaceful, loving, and whole human being. Of course, even just meditation can be used to spiritually bypass, but this drug in particular (along with ketamine) is really a super highway for this outcome.
Beware the Narrow Therapeutic Index
Unlike most other psychedelics, 5-MeO-DMT is extremely dangerous. Even taking 1/3 too much for you might be deadly, or permanently mind-shattering (according to a personal conversation I had with the admin of 5meodmt.org years ago). If combined with drugs that boost dopamine or serotonin (or MAOIs like in ayahuasca/harmalas/caapi/rue), the venom/5-MeO-DMT becomes much more deadly, but that doesn't stop certain people from promoting this risky combination. Make sure you investigate interactions between all the meds and supplements you take before using 5-MeO-DMT.
5-MeO-DMT Overuse Syndrome Case Study
In addition to causing my friend S (and friend P) here’s liver/gallbladder congestion, gut and heart problems, bufo also caused him and my friend P to have something like prolonged unconscious dangerous behavior. S said: “Also, i feel like i’ve been a really shit parent the past few months by being so entangled in the 5meo mess... it has been really disruptive. even with just not sleeping enough but also just the memory not being great etc.... i don’t like it, i don’t like the toll it took. has been a bit sobering.”
P is ready to quit bufo but he got so addicted to it that he can’t function at all without it. S switched to Ayahuasca and his liver got better rapidly and he tells me to never forget how bad bufo is for him physically and emotionally, although he plans to try it again in a year 😅… S:
How to Make 5-MeO-DMT More Wonderful
As explained in my Ultimate Psychedelic post, I recently discovered that although I normally hate how 5-MeO-DMT feels, if I just sniff some raw apple vinegar right before I use 5-MeO-DMT, the experience is really so incredible lovely! It also helps a lot to consume ZHoly3O so that the parasite die-off toxins are mopped up before they damage the experience and your health. I would also recommend smelling Metta NMT humic acid and eating coffee cherry, as explained in my Haoma guide.
Keep in mind that 5-MeO-DMT, especially at higher doses, in some people, seems to cause “low serotonergic tone” even more severely than MDMA. This causes people to fiend more for the bufo to feel good again, but the actual answer which my friend S. discovered is to sublingually dose 100mg of 5-HTP on days leading up to and after the bufo session. He also believes P5P (the active form of vitamin B-6) at a dose of 10-20mg might be helping the the 5-HTP convert to serotonin, but be careful with P5P dosing, since it can boost dopamine too much for slow COMT people, and it can cause 5-HTP to convert to serotonin peripherally, which could lead to nausea, diarrhea, cramping, palpitations, headache, insomnia, agitation, and possibly less clean CNS targeting. Don’t stack 5-HTP with other serotonergic agents, since that can lead to serotonin syndrome (which includes the symptoms just listed from excess peripheral serotonin also).
Aside from that, you can get a lot more therapeutic benefit by injecting 5-MeO-DMT fumarate under the skin (or into muscle but that’s more tricky), rather than vaping it. This way you get a 90-minute session that can go a lot deeper (and gentler) than the 15 minute vaped session. The only issue with this approach is people will be more likely to want to set their dose and go, rather than sip slowly on a pen to get to their desired dose. Just be careful and start at a prudent low dose (5-8mg of the fumarate salt for example). You can always try again. Watch this presentation to learn more:
Vaping Tips
On the other hand, many people wish to avoid needles. So if you do want to vape it,
I strongly recommend using a 5-MeO-DMT vape with a known dosage per inhale. With a 2:1 ratio of DMSO (other solvents are toxic) to 5-MeO-DMT, you can inhale about 5mg on a low voltage full hit. I suggest taking 3-second inhales to make sure you don't inhale too much. If there is any heart pain or arrhythmia noted, one should immediately exhale and try a lower dose the next day. You can also take some things to protect your heart, like 5g of the amino acid taurine, and/or carnitine, and/or hawthorn extract. Drinking some DMSO in juice beforehand can also help.
Keep in mind that when you suck the vape for longer periods, the heat increases, which means increased dosage per second. When you sip slowly, the heat increases as well. Also keep in mind that all the vape solvents are much safer and less toxic at lower power settings/lower heat. Always use the lowest setting on your battery, or just take 1 second puffs with 1 second break inbetween each one to ensure the heat level is low. Or, if it is still hot and burning your lungs, keep the vape in the fridge before using.
Tolerance builds within a minute or so, so try to get all of your dose inhaled within 2 hits. If you want to try again (with this or another substance) you should ideally wait at least a few hours.
Handling Common Side Effects
Before vaping make sure you eat just some fruit and drink some water so that if you need to vomit, doing so will be easy. With strong doses of 5-MeO-DMT, nausea is common, but more scary is the inability to breathe (only scary for someone watching you, because you won't be aware of the body at that point). For this reason, it is traditional to have a sitter who can spray water on your face (not dump water on) if you stop breathing for too long (and try CPR if that doesn't work). Ideally one would have someone medically trained to supervise, but that is not always feasible. Dr. Octavio Rettig used to splash buckets of water on people, but multiple people have died of asphyxiation due to this approach. I am told that he no longer uses this method.
When the nausea gets too extreme, people often vomit. Because they tend to vomit while out-of-body, they can die from aspirating said vomit, which is why a trip sitter is required to put you into the recovery position.
Much of these precautions can also be found at the 5meodmt forum, but take note they are speaking of doses of the pure synthetic 5-MeO-DMT freebase in general.
Toad Venom vs Pure 5-MeO-DMT
The main alkaloid found in Sonoran Desert Toad (a.k.a. Colorado River Toad, Bufo Alvarius) venom is 5-MeO-DMT. To almost everyone the venom feels exactly the same mentally as the pure synthetic 5-MeO-DMT, except that the toad venom is more cardiotoxic and less standardized. Something like 1/3 to 1/5 of the venom by weight consists of this primary alkaloid. An average strong dose of the venom is about 50mg, while for pure 5-meo-dmt, 8-15mg is the high dose range. Never start at that dose!
The venom is also more dangerous than the synthetic 5-MeO-DMT because the venom cannot be used to make vape carts, so your dose will depend on your scale and your vaping/smoking technique. On the other hand, since the venom is less potent by weight, it is safer to vape the venom than to vape the pure crystal in a pipe. One can vaporize the venom easily with a butane torch (on Amazon) and a bong with a burnt match head to clog the cone hole and prevent the venom from falling thru. I highly suggest you purchase the "Salvia Pipe" for maximum safety, using only a small amount of venom in each of the cones so that you get just the right dose.
My Friend RayDay 67 tried the nasal spray and had this to say about it, I think it makes a great poem:
“It’s hard to think with my brain…stop thinking. It’s good (eyes closed). Emotions (laughs)…you’ve ever been stuck in? I never wanted for…when it comes to life, another person, (laughing, then silence for 10 min). After 30 min. “It took me deep inside, know I now what will make me happy, thank you”