MAO INHIBITORS: BETA-CARBOLINE POTENTIATION OF LSD AND PSILOCYBIN From Lunatic Labs BBS - 213-655-0691 1200/2400 At the risk of sounding insufferably condescending, let me start this file w/ a warning and a word of caution: the combination of substances discussed here is DEFINITELY NOT RECOMMENDED for the inexperienced or reluctant user of psychedelics. These mixtures are NOT even meant for RECREATIONAL use. LSD and psilocybin (the active substance in 'magic mushrooms') by themselves are powerfully mind altering psychedelics. Unless you have experienced and are able to ENJOY AND UNDERSTAND hi-dose LSD (over 5 hits/500mics) and psilocybin (4-5 grs of magic mushrooms or more) the use of MAO inhibitors to potentiate these indole psychedelics IS NOT FOR YOU. The purpose of this text file is two-fold: to add to the very sparse body of knowledge that exists on the use of MAO inhibitors and to stress that use of MAO inhibitors w/ potent psychedelics will, in short, invariably result in a very, very serious mind-fuck. unless youre crazy enough (like I am) to *enjoy* having your reality, thought and perceptual processes seriously altered for 10+ hrs w/o relief, you should use the content of this file for informational purposes only. If, after perusing this information, you feel tempted to attempt the experience for yourself, feel free to send me email w/ any questions, comments, concerns you have. MAO inhibitors are nothing to trifle w/. you cannot use them 'just recreationally'. the careless and uninformed use of MAO inhibitors can result in serious physical complications, like death. I had gotten interested in taking indole psychedelics in a state of MAO inhibition, after obtaining an unpublished, underground manuscript from Gracie&Zarkov, two renegade bay area psychedelic explorers, who have regular guest appearances in High Frontiers/Reality Hackers and a 20+ year history of psychedelic investigation. (they are also two SF investment bankers in real life). specifically, one of their papers describes their work w/ b-carboline, harmala alkaloid containing plants (passion flower, syrian rue and caapi) when extracts of each are smoked in conjunction w/ DMT, LSD and psilocybin. note that it is not possible to obtain b-carboline potentiation effects by just smoking the dried plant material; if you cant get the extracts of the plants (all of which are legal), you need to perform the extraction process yourself. otherwise youd need to smoke about 750 grs (about 1.5 lbs !!) of passion flower to get an effect. for our fist experiment into MAO inhibitors, three volunteers participated (two prominent users on this bbs and myself). all of us are experienced users of various psychedelics across most possible doses; between the three of us, we would probably log a couple hundred psychedelic trips, incl. combinations of various substances. the b-carboline containing plant we used was passion flower (see my recent posts on this sub on using passion flower in conjunction w/ marijuana and sassafras root bark). I was able to obtain passion flower in two forms at a local herb store: dried chopped plant material packaged in gel caps and 60 ml of the plant extract - which is more than enough to achieve MAO inhibition (getting the extract was a stroke of luck, for sure, it saved me the very tedious and time consuming extraction process). to obtain a smokable substance of passion flower, I mixed about 1500mg of the plant material (the content of five gelcaps) w/ 50 drops of the extract, forming a smooth emulsion. the mixture was then dried in the microwave for 3min on low power, which left us, w/ a soft, crumbly substance, hash-like in color and texture. we rapidly took 10-15 hits, resulting in a very mild, pot-like high, which by itself surely wouldnt be worth scorching your throat and lungs w/ the harsh smoke. two of us (incl myself) then took 400-500 mics (4-5 hits) of LSD, while the other volunteer took 2.8 grs of potent stropharia (magic mushrooms). at this point Ive only obtained a few details of the content of their repective trips from the other two participants, and I havent quite integrated the scope of my own experiences yet. Ill post some of the more relevant details to the board as they come to me; on the more general side, all of us agree on the following: - the dose felt subjectively three to four times more potent than it actually was, incl. a much longer lasting trip (about 10 hrs for me) than is normal for the doses we took. - closed and open eye imagery were greatly enhanced with circular, highly detailed, bright and (for me) incredibly colorful and vivid images. - the mental state we achieved for all of us was the most 'altered' that any of us had experienced under the influence of psychedelics. to quote one of our participants: "fuck, I sure have *never* tripped on shrooms like *this* before!!" Some details from my own trip experience: being somewhat sensitive to white lite (even a 50 watt bulb) on LSD, I retreated to the bedroom just about when I felt the peak coming on. I was lying back on the bed looking at the ceiling lite, which contained a single red bulb. the lamp shade (made of milky glass) was such that the red lite was spread in a circle almost across the entire ceiling, w/ the deepest, darkest shade of red centered around the bulb itself. I kept looking at the lite and the ceiling, excluding everything else from the field of my vision. the ceiling was moving, waving, undulating (the wall-breathing experience is quite common on LSD and didnt surprise me). the incredible thing was the way the colors centered around the bulb kept changing vividly and fluently across the entire red-orange-yellow spectrum and back again, with all of those colors being present on different parts of the ceiling at any one time. this color-motion (which Ive never experienced on LSD alone) added quite a factor of intensity to the wall-breathing experience. at one point I was watching a volcano erupt; later, I felt like I was looking right into the vortex of a whirlpool of red-orange colored fast-moving water, w/ a black hole at its center (the 'hole' being actually a black knob on the lampshade). I was quite impressed w/ that show inside my mind, believe me.... who needs hollywood for special effects.... :-) this volcano/whirlpool vision also strikes me as being a good example of the power of MAO inhibitors: if you are 'normally' disturbed by the "wall-breathing" experience on LSD/psilocybin alone, the reddish color movement across the spectrum may very well send you over the edge - remember that I was lying perfectly still and that the ceiling and lite, of course, objectively did not move either. the motion picture of red colors was playing solely in my mind.... once again, stay away from MAO inhibitors/LSD combinations, unless youre absolutely positive that you can lie back and enjoy *major* hallucinatory states. also remeber that a red lite bulb is a relatively innocent and stationary(!) visual stimulus. Im sure you can imagine much less benign visual stimuli to hallucinate upon... I do have some more details in this department (all of us watched the movie 'Tron' just as we'd reached the down side of the peak), but Ill save those for some interesting posts to the board after having consulted some more w/ my fellow trippers.... A final word of warning extracted from the booklet "Legal Highs", p.31: ====>>> DANGEROUS COMBINATIONS <<<==== MAO (monoamine oxidase) is an enzyme produced in the body which breaks down certain amines and renders them harmless and ineffective. An MAO inhibitor interferes w/ the protective enzyme and leaves the body vulnerable to these amines. A common substance such as tyramine, which is usually metabolized w/ little or no pharmacological effect, may become dangerous in the presence of MAO inhibitors and cause headache, stiff neck, cardiovascular difficulties and even death. In the presence of MAO inhibitors, many substances which are ordinarily non-active because of their swift metabolism, may become potent psychoactive drugs. the harmala alkaloids in passion flower are especially potent inhibitors, but short lasting in action (30 min to several hours). some commercial MAO inhibitors, however, are effective for periods of days to weeks. Among the materials which may be dangerous in combination w/ MAO inhibitors are sedatives, tranquilizers, antihistamines, narcotics, and alcohol - any of which can cause hypotensive crises (severe blood pressure drop); and amphetamines (even diet pills), mescaline, asarone, nutmeg (active doses), macromerine, ephedrine, oils of dill, parsley or wild fennel, beer, wine, cocoa, aged cheeses and other tyrosine-containing foods - any of which can cause hypertensive crises (severe blood pressure rise). STAY HIGH AND STAY FREE -Castalia