Trip Stories - Home
Last weekend I ingested about 3 gms of syrian rue and what I think was about 1.5-2 gms potent cubenses. (no scale available) What was interesting is, due to time constraints, I took the rue at the same time as the shrooms rather than waiting an hour for the rue to kick in. I've only used this combination three times before and always with excellent results (no physical discomfort). When I have done it before, I have always taken the rue about an hour before the shrooms, so when the trip would begin it would always be "harmalized" from the beginning. This time, however, I started tripping _before_ the rue had fully kicked in, and I think it allowed me to discern some of the qualitative differences between a "harmalized" shroom trip and a regular shroom trip. These differences have eluded me in the past.
After taking both substances, the trip began rather quickly and with much strength. "Uh-oh", I thought, "When the rue kicks in I'm gonna be plowed over!". There was a lot of visual activity and I took a nervous walk outside with some friends. After returning to home base, we put on some music and I started to feel tons more comfortable. It was about this time when it occured to me that the quality of the trip had changed subtly. I estimate that this was about 1.5 hours after the initial ingestion. It didn't seem to rapidly increase in strength as I was expecting - instead, the change was gradual but definite. What I noticed most was a lessening of what Shulgin calls the "energy tremor". I felt more sedated and relaxed. The "calming" aspect which people speak of comes to mind. Often I would sit/lie down in a strange position and stay that way for (what seemed like) a long time. Also, the visual content seemed changed somewhat, but I feel hard-pressed to describe exactly how. Things looked "weirder", but the visual motion didn't seem to increase that dramatically. My thoughts seemed more erratic/spaced-out and I quickly switched from one topic to the next in conversation. This might have just been a function of direct potentiation, however, rather than a true qualitative difference. I had a fantastic time altogether. The trip lasted considerably longer than a regular shroom trip, as my non-harmalized tripping companions came down before the harmalized group. I heartily recommend this combination to shroomers.
I have also considered the possibility that the qualitative differences I noticed came more from my expectations than from the harmala itself. I have read before about the "calming" aspect that harmala adds, and so it seems reasonable that I might have felt more calm simply because I expected it. I am quite positive, however, that the harmala _does_ increase the quantitative strength of the trip.
