They're psychedelic on their own. Just read the harmaline chapter in Claudio Naranjo's The Healing Journey. The only way he used it... (400 mg, IV); only makes brief mention of MAO inhibition and DMT. Actually, Stanislav Grof, who gave the foreword to The Healing Journey, made a point of distinguishing the "psychedelic" effect from the effects of the drugs focused on in the book (which also include MDA, MMDA, and ibogaine).
Naranjo also used harmaline in combination with
MDA and TMA, although he said in the book he was going to omit that data and focus on the isolated harmaline data only. This is significant because people always say that MD
x needs to be avoided in combination with MAOIs, and yet Naranjo gave the combination to volunteers; and look at this report in which someone took three MD
xs in combination with ayahuasca:
Jezebel. Fun, Plus 'Ghost People': An Experience with Ayahuasca, Mushrooms, MDMA, MDE, MDA, LSD, LSA, Blue Lotus, Cannabis, Alcohol, & Opium (ID 24742). Erowid.org. Jun 24, 2003.
erowid.org/exp/24742
Dosage:
For experiment 12, I increased the quantity of harmine hydrochloride to 141 mg (=120 mg base; 1.5 mg/kg), and ingested this along with 35 mg DMT free-base (0.44 mg/kg). By 45 minutes after ingestion, it was obvious the dose was psychoptic, and I experienced a distinct DMT effect building to a peak at 1:05 after ingestion and maintaining a plateau until 1:50, with the effects largely dissipated by 3 hours after ingestion. This experience was of comparable intensity to experiment 6 involving ingestion of a similar amount of DMT (30 mg; 0.38 mg/kg) with extract of 4 g of harmel seeds, and we may conclude that 120 mg of harmine (1.5 mg/kg) will effect sufficient in vivo MAO-inhibition to render DMT active orally with a longer duration and about half the potency of inhaled DMT vapor. To confirm these results, I decided to make another experiment with the harmine/DMT combinations, slightly increasing the amounts of both compounds. Accordingly, I prepared a capsule containing 188 mg harmine hydrochloride (=160 mg harmine base; 2.0 mg/kg) and 40 mg DMT base (0.5 mg/kg).
This capsule was ingested in experiment 13 and indeed provoked a proportionally stronger dmt effect with the first effects felt in 20 minutes, building to a peak by 1:30 after ingestion with a plateau until 2:40, and clearly diminishing effects at 3:00 after ingestion. By 4:00 after ingestion there were no effects, nor after-effects. All in all, the experience was quite pleasant and similar to experiment 3 in Ecuador with about 50 leaves of DMT-containing Psychotria viridis per dose, ’though somewhat less potent.
Pharmacotheon: Entheogenic Drugs, Their Plant Sources and History. Chapter 4: Beta-carbolines and Ayahuasca Potions. Jonathan Ott. Natural Products Company. 1993. p. 250
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ANSWERS TO MAOI QUESTIONS
Spring 1993
100 mg harmaline HCl (dissolved/suspended) in water takes 15–30 minutes to inhibit gut MAO, before 100 mg oral DMT free-base (similarly suspended) is psychoactive, although not fully “psychedelic.” That is, there is some closed-eye imagery, but effects are primarily somatic (increased energy) and affective (euphoria). These effects are based on pure synthetic compounds.
Note: 100 mg of DMT is a pretty stiff dose, and certainly should be quite active at this level! Jonathan Ott states that this is 3 times the minimal visionary dose for him, and he claims to be more resistant than most to tryptamines. As well, Ott places the dose of free-base harmaline that allows oral-activation of DMT in most individuals at 60 mg, and has found for himself that as little as 40 mg will work for him (Ott 1999). (Although one should keep in mind that free-base harmaline is slightly more potent than the harmaline HCL used above.) Clearly different individuals have different responses to different doses, and prudence suggests starting low and working one's way up slowly.
— DAVID AARDVARK
Ott, J. 1999. “Book Review: Enzyklopädie der psychoaktiven Pflanzen: Botanik, Ethnopharmakologie und Anwendung by C. Rätsch ,” The Entheogen Review, 8(2): 81–83.
Ayahuasca Analogues and Plant-based Tryptamines. The Best of The Entheogen Review 1992–1999, Second Edition. Jim DeKorne, David Aardvark, K. Trout (Editors). This book can be downloaded with a Shroomery account:
https://www.shroomery.org/forums/download.php?Number=21028411