Rough draft of a trip report:
This is a three-part report: introduction, preparation, experience. Its a long read, but I like long reads and I like including as many details as possible to paint the full picture.
***Introduction***
Background: 28 year old male, 6'1", ca. 230 lbs. I have over 10 years of drug experience. Daily cannabis, caffeine, and alcohol use. Roughly monthly use of psychedelics (LSD, mushrooms), or MDMA ("e" pills or powder). I've also tried many other drugs several times, including salvia, kratom, pharmaceuticals (opiates/benzos), nitrous, etc. I have not tried any of the 2-C phenethylamines, so i cannot compare them with mescaline.
Back in highschool I read Carlos Castaneda's "Teachings of Don Juan" books, and became enamored with Mescalito and the way of knowledge. I always wanted to try Peyote, but could never find any, and I know how endangered it can be. I never read Aldus Huxley's Doors of Perception. I should probably get around to that. I wanted to study spirituality and mysticism when I was in highschool, but my career ended up going into the harder sciences, and I continued that path.
Soooo. I have never successfully tried Mescaline. In college i drank some San Pedro tea but I don't remember it working, and it was a long time ago. I didn't help with the preparations, so I didn't see how much went in or how they did it.
I finally got around to acquiring some cactus I thought was San Pedro for myself in highschool or college (I might have been home from college in the summer, I can't remember which year), and got as far as blending the cactus, then my mother found the cactus mixture and stopped me. She is very laid back about many things including cannabis, but was worried I would be poisoned because I hadn't had it ID'ed. She still has that cactus growing in her house
. I'm pretty sure its San Pedro.
Years later now, I recently acquired some ID'ed San Pedro from a trusted source. I know that other species may be more consistent or stronger in mescaline content, but I figured I would start with the one that seems to be the most common.
***The Preparation***
***This prep is long, for the experience, just skip ahead to the section labeled "the experience"***
I aquired a large section of old San Pedro from a big plant (about 8 lbs, and roughly 30ish inches long). I'ts still "live", although the ends have dried and calloused over. I cut peice off and "planted" it, hoping it will sprout in several weeks and grow.
I thanked the cactus and apologized to it for what I was doing.
I then took a good serrated filet knife and despined the cactus by running the knife coninuously under the spines, thus removing all the spines in one strip. I tried to minimize loss of the green flesh.
Note: a good sharp knife is a must here. Cactus is tough. Be careful not to cut yourself.
I then slid the knife under the waxy skin, and found I could peel it off somewhat easily, leaving all the green flesh. It is a slow and tedious process. I tried tasting some of the fresh cactus and yeah... its BITTER. Have you ever had "bitter melon" (ku gua)? Its like that, but maybe stronger. A very bitter medicine.
I sliced segments off, and cut it into chunks, roughly 1/2 inch per side.
All of these chunks were put in a saucepan with enough water to barely cover them (about 2-3 glasses of water). I then added 1 tsp dried ginger powder and the leaves from two peppermint tea bags. I also put the juice of two lemons in there (compared to cutting the cactus, the knife went through the lemon rind like it was butter!).
The additives were to increase acidity (lemon) and also to help with any nausea (ginger and peppermint)
I turned on the heat to about 3 out of 9 on the dial for the stovetop. I let warm up and boil mildly for about an hour. The cactus chunks changed color, the dark green edges got lighter and the white inner part got greener. They however retained their shape and stiffness. I then poured off the water after it had dropped to about 1/3 of its level. I kept this and set aside. The liquid was yellow green (about one glass).
I added more water, ginger, and peppermint, but this time used pineapple juice (
z) as an acidic additive. I boiled for an hour or so, and set aside the reduced liquid (about one glass, and browner than the first pull).
I did a final "pull", using one 12oz "Reed's Ginger Beer (non-alcoholic, sweeted with pineapple juice)" and water, and didn't add any ginger or peppermint. Again, this was reduced to about one glass and was set aside.
The cactus chunks still had their shape, so I put them into a professional juicing machine (thanks Jack lalane!), and collected the green juice. I ran the pulp through twice. A lot of liquid came out, about two glasses, and I combined it with all the liquids from before and reduced with heat for about two hours (again heat set at 3 out of 9).
Some observations:
-This stuff is still bitter, even with all the additives. Still, its drinkable and doesn't give me an instant gag reflex
-There is sand/silica gel in the cactus! Fine white sand got into all of the liquid pulls and juice, it made that annoying grinding sound when i hit the bottom of the pan with a spoon. It came from inside the cactus flesh, not from the outside. It looks like silica gel from a lab, and there is a lot of it. Its really annoying and hard to separate.
In order to remove the fine sand (i don't want to drink sand!) and other sludgy/solid material, I tried gravity filtering this stuff through coffee filters. I let it got overnight because it was going so slow. I woke up the next day, and it was clogged! Lame! I wish I had an aspirator and a flask to do vacuum filtration.
So, I tried using a french press to filter out the particulates... and that clogged too! I was able to really crank on it and get most of the liquid, but still. It was hard. I ended up tossing a lot of the sludge/goopy material without getting all the liquid out.
I then brought the liquid to a boil one last time, as I had left it out overnight and wanted to make sure it was pasteurized. Ok, now I've got my "tea".
I should note that this makes a mess and smells pretty weird, be ready to spend some time cleaning up the area. This is not something you could do quickly either.
Man, now i see why mescaline is as rare as it is, in addition to the large amount required for a dose, its difficult to work with the cactus material.
I was somewhat doubtful that I would feel anything, as i had boilied it for a long time(although i kept the heat low), and also added several things, and it was an old cactus. Who knows what happens to older cacti in terms of mescaline production.
I put the juice in the freezer to cool.
***The experience***
I was going to to into work on an off day, but couldn't get in, which i felt was a sign to try the juice. I knew it comes on slow and lasts long, so I tried to take it earlier on in the day.
Half of the juice was consumed between 3:05 and 3:25 pm. It took me a while because its so bitter. This is probably the first time I've taken a psychedelic during the day (cannabis not included).
The amount I consumed equates to roughly 4 lbs of the original fresh material or 15 inches (although the core was not used), which I figured should give me a threshold to medium dose if the cactus had a decent concentration of mescaline. Again, cacti mescaline content can vary wildly. I hoped I would feel something.
I had not really eaten much, although I did have vitamins earlier and then coffee because I have a nagging headache (possibly from caffeine addiction, or a hangover from last night).
Did chores over the next half hour or so, cleaning and picking up the house.
At 3:55, roughly half an hour after finishing drinking the juice, I feel tingly. It feels like alerts, but it could be anything.
Slight headchange over the next twenty minutes, but I am beginning to this that there may have been no mescaline in the cactus juice.
I listen to old goa tracks for a bit. I seem to be deeper into the music than I would usually be.
At 4:30, about an hour after drinking the juice, I decide to go to the bathroom and check my pupils, which often get larger on phenethylamine and tryptamine drugs....nope, looks pretty normal to me. Still, I am definitely feeling something. Everything is more in focus and more alive. It almost feels like a nootropic like piracetam.
I feel good, like I am taking something healthy, a medicine. My muscles feel loose and good, kind of how I feel on MDMA, but without feeling messed up. I feel more sober than normal.
I decide I am not poisoned or sick and it should be ok to take more, and proceed to drink the rest of the juice that I had made, which is about the same volume as I originally consumed (1.5 glasses)
From 4:40 to 5 I finish the last of the juice. Again, I have not eaten anything else today besides some coffee earlier and vitamins. Still feel good. Even if I don't get strong psychedelic effects, I feel that doing this is kind of like a cleanse/fast and can't be bad for me. There are calories in the cactus from the juices/ginger beer I added, which is good because otherwise I'd probably get hungry. No nausea noted.
At 5:30, frustrated with the lack of anything, I go smoke a small bowl of cannabis. Watching Archer episodes, pretty damn funny. I'm guessing I didn't get enough mescaline in my system for a trip. So be it.
6:25, i started cooking, I basically just feel good and more perceptive, but close to baseline.
