Ok, so a few nights ago swim and his friend made Sinicuichi tea. Swim gave me a diary of the night's events, which are below in slightly edited form, though the content after ingestion time is left relatively unchanged so you can see his state of mind more clearly.
Please note that this is swim's collection of notes from the experience, not mine, and I didn't feel like transcribing all of his use of personal pronouns into 'swim', so ignore the use of the first person below.
Sinicuichi (Heimia Salicifolia) Tea Experiment
Preparation
- Bought tea pot with built-in infuser, plus a water steeper.
- Packed approximately 16 grams Sinicuichi into infuser, then added 3/4 liters of water.
- Tea was left for 15 minutes to be infused, resulted in fairly putrid smelling mixture.
- Resulting mixture poured into pot and mixed with copious amounts of sugar and honey.
- Second 16 gram tea mix made with same process.
- After sitting for 20 minutes the second tea batch is mixed into the pot with the previous one, and more sugar and honey are added.
- Poured two equal servings from pot.
Ingestion
T~ -0:20
Smoked a medium sized joint shortly before drinking tea. Ended up helping with drinking tea, but was a detriment to developing right mindset before ingestion.
T~ 0:00 (8:35pm)
Began drinking tea. Tastes like sweet honey tea with a more leafy or grassy aftertaste that is moderately bitter. Temperature is slightly warm, so it flows down fairly nicely. Could have used less honey, as the intense sweetness was nastier than the plant bitterness by far. On the whole the tea is quite easy to drink. By end of drinking honey becomes more of a factor, definitely remember to use less next time.
- Started making dinner while drinking tea. Feeling quite hungry now.
T~ +0:25
Feel relaxed and upbeat right now. Listening to Hallucinogen. Closed eyes and saw a visualizer, and went flying down a wormhole as the screen warped to the music. Food almost ready now, oven smoke set off smoke detector which scared the shit out of me.
T~ +0:30
Began eating food. Got cool closed eye visual of walking through animated rooms and then seeing a little shadow guy raving. There is somewhat of a lucidity to the visuals, as with a little mental effort and concentration I can control some of what I am seeing. Hallucinogen - Shamanix is freaking nuts right now!
- Drank last bit of tea from fridge. Is cold now, and bitterness is mostly gone. Tastes much better cold!
T~ +0:50
Started to watch Dead Man starring Johnny Depp. Am slightly disoriented, but relaxed and euphoric. Food had calming effect on body, helping to get rid of the hungry that was irritating me before. Stomach is only slightly queasy.
T~ +1:35
Feeling quite lulled, after smoking some pot. In a dreamy-like state but able to concentrate on the movie. Still get twisted insane visuals when I close my eyes.
- Never liked the Neil Young soundtrack to this movie before, but it sounds much more pleasing and creates a warm feeling in my ears, especially the twang of the electric guitar.
T~ +2:45
In a dazed stupor... Nothing visual with eyes open really. Listening to an Acid House set by Psy-T. When I lay back and close my eyes I drift away into a fantasy world, but when I try to move around and be sociable I get sore a bit, though my friend is feeling more sore, comparing it to the feeling you get right after working out. He didn't describe any discomfort from it, just an annoying feeling of soreness. This substance definitely seems more geared towards isolated introspective exploration rather than just "trippin out" or using it recreationally in a social atmosphere. Think dose maybe could be higher, or we should have reused the Sinicuichi leaves for a second tea infusion to get the most out of the plant. In any case, effects are overall pleasant at this stage.
- Definite sensory enhancement, though auditory is most noticeable. Haven't experienced auditory hallucinations at this point, though sound is enhanced and feels different travelling through my ears into my brain.
- Soundwaves manifested in visualizer form - like itunes or winamp - when I close my eyes. Lots of different, random, and just plain weird closed eye hallucinations when I focus my imagination a bit, though don't have much control over them other than with effort I can cause the image to change to something else random.
- Closed eyes and played with my cigarette (which I've been smoking too many of) waving it around in front of my face. With my eyes closed the cigarette is still visible to me but as fire or an intense glowstick, so I wave the cigarette around and create a glowstick show in my head, changing the colours at random.
T~ +3:00
Turned all lights off in the apartment, lit scented candles, and put on some trippy trance. Also drank two cups of bailey's with milk. Feel excellent, though still smoking too much.
- Smoke from candles, incense, joints, and cigarettes wafts through the room, giving it an ephemerally ethereal atmosphere.
- Smoke from incense on table seems to dance with the music.
- Laurent Garnier's Acid Eiffel is AMAZING right now!
T~ +3:15
Smoke is fucking awesome! Through breathing and toying with it with your fingers you can create insane shapes and formations. It truly looks mindblowing right now, especially when wafting the smoke into spiral shapes.
*Note: At this point handwriting is quite hard to read as swim was writing in the dark and was inebriated. Noticeable difference in writing from this point on from before.*
T~ +3:30
Smoking joint comprised of weed, Buddha Blend (which is a bunch of stuff including kava kava, prickly poppy, some other poppies, cardamon, cinammon, other natural thingys), and a shitload of 25x sinicuichi extract. Feeling more intense inebriation right now. Joint helped numb throat a little (kava?). Too much extract in joint, made it sloppy ---> shit keeps falling out.
"lets get up, and lets get ill"
T~ +3:45
Joint fucked me up. Really chilled out and euphoric, but energetic 'E' like feeling. Feel like dancing, or running around. Sensory perceptions sure as hell still altered, and cognitive functions could be better at the moment, holy shit that beat is tight, no soreness is a huge plus at the moment. Body completely relaxed.
giddddd-aaaayyy (reminds me of opium)
A few more bowls on the chillum... practically retarded right now. Rush of euphoria and energy through me, sensory still moderately altered, though not as much as right after special joint.
T~ +4:10
Drank some more bailey's drinks. Smoked more. Listened to Tribal House and Jungle. Incredibly happy. Time to go out.
T~ +5:35
Too lethargic to go out. Still feel great, but effects have leveled significantly. Fixed me a double of vodka and pepsi. just wait and see what happens I guess...
T~ +?:??
Swim stopped taking notes after the last entry. It was too much effort. He ended up going to some friends' place and getting his 151 and Amaretto and started drinking with a few beers and a flaming dr. pepper. He went home and people were drinking there so swim drank there a bit as well until he was almost blackout (he had more Bailey's mixes than was noted in the journal) and then passed out at close to 7 AM. He had some pretty ridiculous dreams that night, but can't remember them too well, or barely at all actually. The next day swim felt decently rested and had no soreness or other residual effects. He felt slightly tired. The next night he slept well, had one very long incredibly bizarre dream that has some personal meanings that hit hard on swim (he didn't care to share them), and woke up early for class the next day.
Commentary & Evaluation
Overall swim had a good experience with Sinicuichi. It wasn't anything especially amazing, but it was a very different type of trip, which caught swim off guard a bit. Swim experienced some interesting effects, but feels that this experiment is more useful in determining appropriate preparation techniques as well as how to create the set and setting.
As to preparation, swim has few complaints. Everything was quite easy to do, and the taste was nowhere near as horrible as he had read. By simply mixing a moderate amount of honey and sugar the bitterness can be reduced oto easily manageable levels. The main problem with the tea swim made was that it was TOO sweet. Swim would want to reuse the sinicuichi leaves for a second infusion the next time he makes Sinicuichi tea however, as he feels he didn't extract enough from the leaves. Next time swim will most likely try the traditional method of preparation to see if it is any better. I think he will steep the water a bit and then mix the leaves in and let them sit for a time. Hopefully that would make for a more powerful concoction without having to add to dose, though that is also a possibility.
Set and setting are very important with this substance. Swim feels his experience would have been much better even with the same dose if he had a better idea of what it would be like. A dark environment is good, and the atmosphere created by the incense and candles was really enjoyable. Music is extremely clutch, and pretty much anything works. Really active music with lots of tracks and different sounds is good, though swim listened to some dub at one point and it was great as well. Music is pretty much nice all-around with Heimia Salicifolia, so just have something you like. Swim would also recommend doing it alone, as it seems to be much more of an introspective substance. He would like to try laying back with music and putting himself in a meditative state next time he makes tea, as this seems like a much more useful and enjoyable use of the substance than attempting any socialization or trying to watch a movie or interpret art. Still, swim doesn't have enough experience with Sinicuichi to truly say what the most enjoyable way is to do it in his opinion, so more to come on this aspect another time.
Thats about it for this experience. Poly-substance use probably hindered diagnosis of Sinicuichi effects, but also probably made some effects stronger. In any case this was a learning experience for swim, and at least taught him a number of things about how to use Sinicuichi while also providing him with an enjoyable time.