Experiences - San Pedro experiences

[cyalume]

my experience


a 7.65lbs peruvian torch cactus produced 3 gallons of extracted cactus juice. Each gallon would be weaker then the one before it. Gallon #2 was cooked down to ~ 10-12 ounces and ~ 8 ozwas consumed. The amount was sufficient to produce an easily controllable, pleasant trip. Took around 2 hours to come up and hit peak at maybe 3 hours (i took it with food already in my stomach). Lasted for 6 or 7 total. I do feel i somewhat shorted the dose and would consider it a lower then ideal dose, but the amount consumed was all i could take without vomitting.Edited by: Alfa

[digitalraver]

yo i am tripping pedro rightnow and i must say it is quit nice....the best way to make it is cutting the spines off then blendin the whole thin (after you cut it up) and then squize the juice from 3 limons....wow its hard to type...very very plesent and awsome trip...lol

[Cretination]

Well I've done San Pedro and it is much different than mushrooms.
Mushrooms tend to make me stupid, like I get random ideas that go
nowhere except to more random ideas. It can take me ages to
figure something out, like if someone makes a pizza or something, I can
stare at it for god knows how long wondering wtf it is, why it's there
and what to do with it. Then I don't care and want to drink a
beer or something. Cactus is like a much more focused trip,
there's this GREAT body buzz and energy, the visuals are smooth and
very non-threatening, with flowing colors, shadows and textures.
With cactus I've been able to sit around a group of 10-15 drunk people
and still enjoy myself while on mushrooms that would've sent me running
like a little girl into an empty, dark bedroom. Sure, I'm
probably real biased towards cactus, but shrooms have made me VERY
uncomortable on more than one occaision, something cactus has never
done.

[Alfa]

Please post your San Pedro experience here. Please describe setting, dose, onset, peak and duration if possible.

[Zandorf]

a friend of mine recently imbibed some san pedro brew, here's his report

I had been interested in mescaline for quite awhile, so when I learned that San Pedro contained the substance I ordered myself two six-inch cuttings. When it arrived I opened it right away, but forgot that cacti have spines, so that kind of hurt. We put it in the freezer and thawed it a few times to try and break up it's cell walls.

we used this method of preparation http://www.erowid.org/plants/cacti/c...aration5.shtml.

In the end we had a thin green liquid that looked like Mountain Dew, but in no way smelled of it. I put it in a container and placed it in the refrigerator.

To prevent it from going bad, I needed to consume it the following day. Unfortunately I had a meeting for work around 9 p.m. There was no way in hell I was just going to let it go bad, so I drank the entire thing while driving on the way to Sterling
Heights. Steve tagged along because driving wouldn't be a good idea on the way home. We arrived and I went to the meeting, I didn't feel nauseas or anything at all. An hour into the meeting, the lights were flickering and I was laughing. I thought it would be a good idea if I left the meeting early. On the way out, a co-worker tapped me on the shoulder and said "drive safely". That was odd, and I wondered if he knew something was up.

I got outside and there was Steve in my car, waiting for me. I told him that I probably shouldn't drive so I climbed in the passenger seat and guided him home. Once we got back to New Baltimore, my gas light turned on so we went inside to get some gas and take a piss. In the bathroom mirror, my eyes looked slightly dilated. Steve said we should go to Meijers because when your on psychedelic drugs why not go to a public place? On the way to Meijer, I noticed that the screen on my cell phone was leaving trails that kept getting longer. We arrived at Meijer and went inside. We walked around the store for a few minutes when I noticed Steve began to leave trails.

Like foot-long trails. To make shit even better, we stumbled upon a man with a huge pony tail. His pony tail was leaving pony trails, it was fucking hilarious, so we ducked down an aisle before I started laughing to loud. After a few more minutes of fun in the store, we went back to my house to get some things. Now this is where shit started to get weird.

On the way back to my house, I discovered that I could make the road swing back and forth with my hands, and the closer things got to the center of my vision, the bigger they appeared. When we got back to my house, I talked to my dad. While talking to my dad, everything was swinging and moving around him but I still held an intelligent conversation with him. After grabbing my things we headed to Steve's house. Once again, Steve drove. He was driving down St. Clair when he threw a glass bottle from the car, shattering it into a thousand pieces. It was loud and it literally sounded like it was in my
head.

Well, we made it to Steve's house and he sent me straight into his basement so I wouldn't wake up his parents. We were just
sitting around in his basement when everything started moving, it looked like the walls were breathing and the text on the computer monitor was floating in a pool. I then saw a cat run under the couch and asked Steve if his cat was downstairs and he just told me he didn't know. I thought I saw a sheep in the corner of his basement, but it was really just some kind of exercise bench. Something come down the stairs, that thing was his cat. I wondered what the hell I saw run under the couch, but then reminded myself I was on a psychedelic drug. Things started to get really fucked up, I kept thinking I was seeing cats.

Plastic bags were cats, blankets were cats, cardboard boxes were cats, and I witnessed another cat run under Steve's chair. It totally ruled.

A few google searches for "kitten" left me with a picture of a kitten with a lime hat. I would spend a great deal of time staring at the kitten. The cat's whiskers moved around, it's eyes too. Eventually it felt like I could control the kittens facial expressions with "strings" attached to my fingertips. Fucking sweet.

After the kitten with the lime hat went to sleep, I found myself staring at the textured wall. The wall started to move like mud and slide toward an exit sign on Steve's wall. It then turned to a thin liquid and looked like it was evaporating. I looked away for a second and concentrated on my legs for some reason. My leg hair grew long and thick and looked alive, but then
disappeared, only to regrow again. I couldn't believe cactus could produce such gnar visuals.

[sloppo]

SWIM has consumed some form of san pedro numerous times. His favorite way to take it is a crude alkaloid extraction of cactus syrup. As for the experience, boy it's a hard one to describe. Very smooth and subtle. Many times SWIM has forgotten he took mescaline during the trip. SWIM is a hardhead when it comes to mescaline though and hasn't had many +++ experiences on cactus alone, he usually tops out at a ++. When in combination with other psychedelics though, the mescaline character shines through.


For setting SWIM finds nature to be hands down the best for mescaline. Dosage can vary a lot and still give SWIM about the same experience, very smooth and mild. Coming up takes usually over 2 hours, plateau lasts about 6 hours. Trippy aftereffects last until SWIM goes to sleep, sometimes he still feels it the next day. This is all just SWIM's experience with san pedro, YMMV.





Sloppo

[pabloescobar99]

listen... i am all for self sustaning sources of mescaline but fresh cacti is simply fouland to difficult too deal with... what you wanna do is google dried peruvianis. some sources give it to you for as little a 28USD for 400 grams... that 10-20 trips! then do your self a favor and go to your local compounder or compounding pharmacy and get some capsuals.... bigger the better because too much gel from the caps will keep the mescaline tied up in your gut. eat 30-50 caps with a LARGE (one glass per 20 caps or more)amount of water and find a nice place to chill... i highly sudjest nature as well... when you are coming down go to a bar.. you be in such a good mood


Thanks for listening.. love you all!

[pabloescobar99]

ps.... i love this place... i love you guys and guys so much... i have been solo for so long... it's nice to have other psychonauts!

[mescalifornia]

I disagree that powdered green in gelatin capsules reduces nausea over pedro juice. In my opinion, it doubles the nausea. it just turns into cactus juice in your stomache anyway, but its worse because of all the gelatin(eeewww) and all the tough cactus solids. just sip cactus juice slow over the course of 1 hour or so and chase with a sip of water, not too much cause you don't need to be bloated.


when i trip on cactus, i always use anounce or more of passion flower to help the effects and reduce nausea. I also can't get truly comfortable until i smoke a tiny bowl of cannabis . also fasting for 12-24 hours helps greatly, but having a snack before hand(like 1 hour before consumption) helps from feeling faint from previous fasting.


cactus is very interesting because you don't feel any impairment in the mind and the high must be earned. I feel like when i think of some profound connection that i never realized before,it sends waves of euphoria through out my body, shivers of pleasure. however, its up to you to discover things. You wont hardly get insight watching tv on cactus, thus you wont get the waves of euphoria. The thing i like about cactus is, its honest, where mushrooms makes everything seem profound cactus relies on you to figure things out, make connections and so forth.Cactus feels like a cleansing of the mind and a way to make sure your thoughts operate on a sound basis. I was creating metaphors with ease uniting several aspects of my life into one, which felt like amy mind was being unified by sepereate areas because of the metaphors. I made metaphors that are still with me that greatly help motivate me in my career.


note; i used to use drammamine to aid the nausea, but with experimentation, i relized itwas a source ofheadaches . and it hardly even helps. I would say use only cactus, but if you can't get into your thoughts because of the body load, nothing compares to quality cannabis. too much and the trip is less efficient because of short term memory impairment making a linear experiece a bit less organized and more random. It will feel good, but its should really be about the healing. just a little is good though


Also save your cactus and have deeper insights with MAOIs. be extremely careful and avoid all other drugs.

Reputation Comments on this post:

i know this is an old post, but very good info. thank you for sharing your insights!!

[jaguarangel]

Using limeaid recipe swim prepared 8 inches of Trich. bridgesii. Onset was
1-2hrs. Vision sparkly and positive (beauty is everywhere), euphoric feeling
comes on and lasts 4-5 hours. Slowly coming down at the 6 hour mark.
Some of swims friends have a longer time with it- 8-12 hours.

[OneOfMany]

SWIM ate some pre-dried peruvian torch (guessing ~18g). Tasted terrible! Thinking caps may be the way to go in the future, as they'd prefer not to do the 4 hour boiling session. They haven't been very active in the chem world lately, and maybe they're just a super lightweight (not physically...male 6ft 240lbs). But with thisapproximately 2/3 dose they had a very noticable trip.


Took about an hour to start to feel (ingesting the whole time, slowly). Initially nausea that led them to stop eating. Was hard to get this stuff down (tried to just chew and swallow water). It tasted very bitter and the plant material started to congeal in their mouth. Stuck in their teeth and generally was just a pain. Eventually tried to mask the after taste with some barbecue potatoe chips. Had only eaten a Subway cheesesteak sandwiche in the last18 hours (probably 6 hours before the start).


At 2 hours started peaking pretty hard. Eventually shut off the computer and just tried to relax in the dark and pay attention to the experience. Lots of closed eye visuals of mostly geometric patterns and fractal looking stuff. Sort of a 3D movement of lots of color changing grids and parallel lines that were bent up towards them and each spinning in different directions.


Over the next 3 hours of intense physical pleasure and the odd bad moment they saw changes in the visuals. They moved more to a glowing set of lights on a black background that moved and morphed into and out of their vision. Was difficult to focus on thoughts such as their life in general and the direction it was going in. There were just too many pretty lights! Was difficult to see physical reality behind all the lights too.


Nausea never completely went away, but didn't notice it during a lot of the peak (euphoria was intense). Never threw up, but did let fly some very loose stool a few times near the end.


Eventually the visions moved to more of a morphing of reality. Distorted distances, growing body hair, and slight balance impairment. Also noticed blemishes much more accutely and with more mental anguish about them.


Eventually could sleep after probably 7-8 hours from first ingestion. Only slept 4 hours and then was up for good. Light really seemed to botherthem more than usual (both going to sleep and whenthey woke up). Since, have attempted to act on some of the more benevolent changes that occured on the trip. Also rethought a major life change as possibly not needed. In all a positive but not without difficulty experience. Plan to do again in the future, but not for a while.

Reputation Comments on this post:

thorough report

[pabel_giboon]

SWIM was living in Bolivia in a small town at the Titicaca Lake Shore and was toying with the idea of taking his firsts San Pedro at "la isla del sol" -sun´s island-. This island is many kilometerts inside the lake, and from it´s noth shore (where we camped) wou see a full horizon of water and a white sand beach with bluish water tinting it as if you were in the Polinesia, but 3800 mts hight in the core of south Andes.


Hippie friends of SWIM brought San Pedro cuttings from close to La Paz, and we took it to the island, peeled, smashed and slow cooked for 16 hous. We did not eat anything at all during the cooking, just water and some "mates".


We calculated for each of us about 70 cms of a 15 cms diamater arm of a 3 meters hight cati.


It became the morning (11 am) and the cooking was finished. We had an almost black syrup that was reduced to the 2% ot the original water+pulp mix. So each of us had to take about 3 soup spoons of that dense drink.


I had been told the taste was terrible and was prepared for it. First spoon didn´t feel that bad at all utill it reached half way to the stomach, at this point i had to stop a gag reflex. Second and third spoons felt like hell.


After that I felt no nausea at all. We went to te water and played arround waiting for something to happen. At some point about 2 hours I sarted worriyng we picked the wrong cacti or something, but sudenly notices some of my fellowswere satrting to act strangelly, with a blessing smile on thir faces. The very fact of looking at them so happy, pure and blissed rushed in my heart and made me start playing with the water. Soon I noticed there were no barriers between me and the lake. So if I puted my head inside the water I was actually part of the lake, no thought, no ego, no rememberings of my previous life. When I was with my head out of the water I remembered the feeling -also wondered if it was safe to be swimming that stoned, but everithing felt so righr, so done at the right moment, I felt no fear at all. I was going inside the water, loosing myself in the lake, but finally teh lake pulled me out of it when I needed to breath.


After 4 hours of ingestion I was at the peak -which lasted at least 8 hours-. We hicked the island, came back to the shore and went back on another hicke at night. We have had chosen a full moon night, so the island was full of ligh.


In the middle of the night, while we were sitting at the peak of the mountain that is actually the island, we started noticing fires arround. It looked like many people were doing fires (none of them closer than 300 mts).


In one of the fires, the bigger y sarted noticing people shapes coming out of the fire itself and walking out of it. When they walked out a few flames remained with them (they were invisible, the fire only showed their shape) and then vanished.


Other remarkable moments were:


hugging a tree that allowed to be one with him
finding a cow with the sight of the most wise man on earth
comunicating with all the folks with no need of speech at all
looking at the sunrise with the lastechoings of the tripp


------


I did it 4 other times while in Bolivia, and I cannot imagine how could it be to do it in teh big city. Probably you start the tripp with another subconcious aproach, so it could be copletely different. I cannot imagine myself hugging a car and feeling one with a coca cola machine.

Reputation Comments on this post:

	this sounds so beautiful.. swim thinks experience reports are so personal and so insightful and she loves reading them- ...
	great report, beautiful, clear, good info on prep
	that is the best trip report I've read! beautiful!

[Cyano]

Today it is my turn to report a Pedro Trip. I recently extracted a
Peruvian Torch cactus (I did describe the extraction method in the
thread ´´How many trips from cacti´´) The fresh cactus weight was about
1,6 kilo. I removed the skin and wooden core and used only the green
tissue. Dry weight of the green tissue was only 40g. I wrapped the
extract (it was not completely dry) into 2 kingsize cigarettepapers,
made from rice, and swallowed them with as little liquid as possible.
First effects could be felt within 30 minutes. The extract works quick.
After 1,5-2 hours I reached the full effect. For 40g dry it was a
fairly strong trip. I think for the full effect one needs 100g of the
green tissue. But it was ok, strong enough for some enlightment.
Strange enough I did not feel any nausea. Not even a trace of it. A
pleasant surprise.

What was the trip about? It is difficult to put into words. I look at
things from a mushroom background (I took mushrooms at least 300 times
while my experience with Pedros is quite limited. I try not to make
definitive conclusions before I am more familiar with mescaline). The
trip was about what makes people happy, happy like a snorring cat. (I
hope snorring is the right word) It was about free female
sexuality/intellect or not. I heard voices with a french accent
advocating free females and lingerie. Something they need to express
what they are, to express there nature. Women always produce sex
related ideas in men. (except old women, but even they have male
admirers. See the porn websites) Like colours sex never comes alone. It
comes only in relation with something that has the colour/sex. Extreem,
talibanlike, moslims see women and their sexual ideas inducing
appearance as dangerous and force them to cover their entire bodys. The
voices with the french accent defendet the opposite. They claimed that
free sexuality, giving in to everything one desires (don´t worry,
everything is ok) produces real happiness/satisfied individuals. I saw
people enjoying live to the full.

I wondered if this can be true, if this is the cactus spirit. Those
Peruvians don´t live that way. Do those healers heal people by advicing
them to live that way? They don´t cover their women like moslims, but
as far as I know they don´t worship sex. Or was I under attack by some
kind of black magic? Was the absence of nausea a bad sign. I read that
shamans want people to vomit from cacti. Unfortunately I did not get an
answer to my questions. As a matter of fact after I asked myself these
questions, I had no new visions anymore. May be I have to build some
kind of mesa to focus my thoughts on something desireable before I get
into my next cactus trip.

[Cyano]

Was it some kind of whitchcraft stimulating women to produce more
sexual desires in men with the help of lingerie, make-up and so on. Are
these things meant to enslave the male and put women into charge?

[curiosityNcat]

Has anyone had any bad trips on pedro? some of swims friends say that because of the varying mescaline amount in pedro that a 12" cutting from an online vendor might not produce any significant experience. Everyone always says to err on the side of too little rather than too much, has anyone here just taken to much one time and what happened?

[dextrorotatory]

I’ve consumed extracted san-pedro juice three times. The first time I subjected the cutting (14 inches) to about 4 freeze thaw cycles and then liquefied the entire mess with a blender. Strained it with a pillow case and consumed the ice cold drink. Yeah, it was terrible and after reading established extraction methods (and applying a bit of logic) I feel like an idiot but I experienced a trip with mild visual distortions all the same.
The third time (the second being less ignorantly performed but relatively uneventful) I procured a 10 inch cutting. After reading in the erowid experience vaults, clearly the accepted source of drug consumption mantra , and noting that the average consumed length was significantly larger than mine I conceded to merely experience a mild trip and enjoy what I could (all I had and, for the moment, could get was that cutting). I performed the usual blending w/ citric acid (lemon juice) and boiling. Once I had the substance reduced to about 5 ounces of “juice” I threw it in the freezer for the next day’s fun.
The next day, at about 1 am, I forced myself to drink all 5 ounces reasoning that if the ten inches was indeed psychoactive at all I may as well get as much out of it as I could. I believe I neglected to mention that I added far too much lemon juice so the drink tasted something like all of the negative qualities of urine (no I’ve never actually drank urine but given the sour smell it emits when left for too long I think we all get the idea) and vomit magnified and shoved down my throat.
I assumed that ten inches (approximately 1.5 pounds whole) could (if a quite competent extraction was performed) do the trick but given my history (and other people’s reports) competency has never been part of my existence. After choking down the putrid drink (on an empty stomach mind you) I sat back with a Tool album and a friend (a hallucinogen and pretentious metal band, what coherent matrimony eh?). Although I had, from the online literature, gotten the idea that onset wasn’t until at least an hour and a half after consumption, however no more than 40 minutes had passed before I was feeling intense communication emanating from my surrounding dorm room. As my consciousness began to seep out of my legs (T+ 90 min) and into the living carpet (it wasn’t necessarily visual, merely conceptual at this point) I decided a better place for environmental copulation would be at the local park. After finally translating the complex message into words (something like “I think car to park might go with speed get.”) my faithful friend herded me into his car and we went to the park. Although I have somewhat fragmented memory of the park experience (but completely composed memory all at once) I do recall telling him to go back to the dorm (the park was only .5 miles from campus) and that I could find my way back on my own. A couple of issues arose with this command, first off, it didn’t come out that fluidly but after some time he got the message (maybe the hand waving, maybe the projectiles I heaved at him, maybe something else but he did indeed leave), and secondly it was a total lie. I didn’t even know what campus was, let alone how to maneuver the neighborhoods in between me and my campus. After, quite luckily, staying within the boundaries of the park for over 4 more hours (T+ 6h 30min) I finally found enough pieces of my ego, memory, and conception of direction in the neighboring trees to compose enough coherence to begin the long trek back (of course many events transpired in the park but words have trouble describing them and I think I signed a contract with the Mephistopheles, in blood of course, to keep the events of that afternoon strictly confidential). As I arrived back at the dorm at eight o’ clock I found my room. Unfortunately, to my chagrin, I found the door locked and my key missing. After finding the front desk (when I say “finding”, indicative of a search, I mean it) I convinced, in somewhat grounded language, the desk manager to unlock my room. I then preformed a few more uneventful activities that seemed cool at the time (showering for a long time, exploring my hard-drive ect.) and went to bed (quite naked, since it felt the only proper way to be during sleep) at 12 with a vague Louis Vuitton print hovering over every object I looked at.
I guess the moral of this unnecessarily long story is that before you trust other people (c’mon who hasn’t heard of genetic variance), subjective (and quite variant) sources, and your gut prepare for a ride and be optimistic. If you over-calculate you’ll just be a little disappointed but if you under-calculate you could be having a staring contest with an ethereal spacetime and, for a quantized amount of time, loose your ego in a poker match with god all while hanging out with some fundamentalist Christians. Wouldn’t that be fun?

Reputation Comments on this post:

	thank you for posting, always wonderful to read others' experiences and insights
	Incredibly well-written and entertaining!!!

[Fantasian]

I have some pre dried san pedro, it looks like dry leafs but thicker, how do i consume it? Do i just swallow or chew and swallow or do i have to boil it? Any info would be appriciated...

[Barebonejoe]

Skim through the other threads or do a search. I've found that most of the info I'm looking for to be already adressed here. It's just a matter of finding it.

[Barebonejoe]

I wrote this near the end of my first San Pedro experience...


"Close to 3 hours after i consumed 9" of Sand Pedro boiled down to fill half of a coffee cup, I started to feel a little sick and uneasy.(3am) This lead to me saying "fuck it" to the mescaline trip and getting some hearty vegetable soup in me because I had fasted for over 12 hours at that point. After that I laid down on my couch, waiting for the nutrients to replenish me and suddenly I found myself in a very deep meditative state. Realizing that the San Pedro obviously had something to do with it, I tried going with it, and meditating further. Before I knew it, I felt myself jerking back through some sort of time/space warp, dissassciating from my self. The jerk back into myself felt like how it does in a dream when you feel yourself falling, and wake up in a falling-reflex. When I felt myself slipping, that quiet fuzz in my brain that's always there if you pay close enough attention, went from a not hardly ever noticeable sound, quickly and progressively louder to an ear damaging decibel, ripping me back to my conscious state through who knows what. It was impressive.

Then I decided to test my luck by venturing outside after a few more meditations. I gingerly went outside very conscious of the amount of sound I was making for fear of disturbing the night. I walked towards the back of my home where I have a chair sitting, and sat down for a while

The first thing I noticed was how complex of a pattern the pine needles covering the ground made. My view's perception played tricks on me if I stared too long. It would go from extremes such as vertigo to almost a 2D pattern that seemed to be placed right behind my eyeballs. Then, to my left I hear a subtle grunt... then running, along with very heavy and intense breathing, that, by the time turned to look, sounded as if it was right at my neck. The fear paralyzed me like a rabbit. It was the neighbor's dog who ran up to the fence a good 30 feet away. I must of spooked it from just sitting their, looking around at 4am.

After 10 minutes of me being paralyzed with fear(it was quite comfortable to react that way, I might ad) and only moving my eyes around, I heard a rustle in some bushes somewhere around the back of my yard. Suddenly a Raccoon pops out and scampers right by me, with a look of intense focus that only comes from a hungry animal, looking for food. I was in awe of how amazing the creature and begain thinking deeply about it. I gained much respect for how adaptive it has become to be able to live in such a dense neighborhood. I began to think about how they coexist with such destructive creatures as ourselves and how they have found ways to benifite from it. i.e., finding food in our trash, etc... I felt a lot of compassion for the Raccoon.

Moments later I realized I was freezing in the 35 degree(F) wheather and gingerly went back inside.

The rest of the night contained a lot of short meditations, one in perticular consisting of what seemed to be all and every form of art ever made and will be made, displayed infront of my brain. I appriciated it all the same. Even the early Catholic stuff, which I have a tendency to look down on at times.

I think I might of slept during a few of the meditations but I'm not sure. I went to bed, but only because it looked comfortable, not for sleep. I got up around 6am. Right now I'm not even completely sure if my trip is decreasing or not right now. I'm just sitting here watching the early sun reflect it's blue light inside my home while I'm writting this. I'm very happy(10am)

It's a very subtle feeling always lyeing beneath me, the San Pedro just let me see it."

[fluid_lightning]

My friend had a dream that he took 10.0 g of dried, powdered San Pedro cactus late one night. This was consumed as a heaping table spoon of powder chased with about 8 ounces of orange juice.

After an hour, he felt a minor buzz and a little drowsyness. Since the dose was so low, he decided little more would happen, and he should lay down and sleep. My friend experienced very vivid dreams all night and awoke with a minor buzz after 8 hours of sleep. The dreams were pleasant and insightful. While this experience was far from a mind melting mescaline dose, it was a good for personal growth and reflection.

[Nature Boy]

SWIM tried San Pedro for the first time this past weekend. 30g (SWIM was originally only going to do 15g) was prepared in an extracted liquid and brought to an isolated island where SWIM tripped with a few friends of his. The weather was flawless: blue skies, bright sunshine, no cloud cover. SWIM woke up early on the Saturday morning at 6am and spent the first few hours of the day drinking beers and smoking spliffs before tackling the Pedro juice. He started drinking the special brew at around 10am.

It tasted absolutely vile. Every gulp was a struggle and had to be washed down with plenty of water. SWIM almost vomited on one occasion. A friend described the taste as "warm vomit". It took about half an hour to get the brew down. There was some stomach nausea for about an hour afterwards but nothing too serious. As SWIM waited for the effects to kick in, he and two of his buddies decided to walk along the cliffs to catch the sun. The three of them sat around, smoked more spliffs and gradually felt the effects sinking in.

The come up (if it can even be called that) was very subtle and for quite some time SWIM didn't know he was actually tripping. He was in a very eased mood, slightly stoned, a little bit drunk, generally happy with himself and the world. As SWIM sat under the baking hot sun, he soon realised that he needed food and shade. Two hours after consumption SWIM decided to get some food from a restaurant which was a ten minute walk away. This was unusual for SWIM because normally on psychedelics, such as shrooms and acid, he has absolutely no desire to interact with members of the public due to the confusion and paranoia tripping can cause. San Pedro is clearly different in this respect. There was absolutely no anxiety whatsoever, it didn't even cross his mind for a second.

SWIM ate and returned to his campsite. The day was now at its hottest and he decided to get into a tent to avoid sunburn. He felt very drowsy, similar to being extremely stoned only his mind felt more stimulated and active. SWIM feels as though he could sit an exam on a dose of San Pedro. It really does not effect the mind's mundane functions at all in his opinion.

About three and a half hours after ingestion the trip hit its peak but the trip as a whole was consistent so it's difficult to pinpoint the peak. By about 4pm (five hours or so after ingestion) the trip was over more-or-less but SWIM definitely felt an afterglow of some sort.

All in all a very pleasant and liberating experience. Apart from the actual drinking of the disgusting brew itself, San Pedro really is fantastic. If you can get it down, it's worth it. SWIM was a little surprised that he didn't experience any visualisations off it however. The trip entirely consisted of an extended mood lift. SWIM will probably use Pedro again a few times this summer.

[Alfa]

The absence of visuals was probably die to the dose, which is pretty low IMO.

[Nature Boy]

SWIM should have mentioned that it was 30g of dried T. peruvianus - Peruvian Torch skins simmered for five hours or so and that the smartshop sold it for a relatively high price and guaranteed that it was a full dose. Considering how much it cost, SWIM is pretty annoyed now that he didn't get the full experience from his trip.

The product was sold as "San Pedro - Peruvian Torch" which by definition is wrong. SWIM ingested Peruvian Torch only wandered into the habit of calling it San Pedro all weekend because he only found out it was PT when he got back home to his computer. He didn't buy the product or prepare it himself at all.

[leithwalk]

This is my fourth cactus expedition:

- First was about 6in of fresh cactus and too mild to say much about.
- Second was 500g (about 12in) of fresh and blew my mind, nothing could be more beautiful.
- Third was just 15g of dried, gently mellow.

This time I thought I'd try making cactus and raspberry jelly. Ground 50g of dried San Pedro into powder in coffee grinder. Mixed into jelly with 1/2 usual amount of water. In freezer to kick off the cooling, then into fridge after 10-15 mins.

Yuk. The jelly hides the taste, but makes the texture so much more vile. And soon I need to swill it around my mouth anyway to break it up enough to swallow.

After 2 hours of toking my best hash to help me eat more, I give up with only about 1/3 eaten.

Not to be beaten, I pop it on the stove and add some more water, gently turning it back to liquid. Let cool. Get out baster. (Look, this is dedication to the cause, OK?) Into bath, clothes off. Yes, I did. Look away now if squeamish. Raspberry and cactus jelly, the hard way.

But ooooohh, it takes you up high. You can feel it being absorbed over the next 1-2 hours. Not as big a 'thud' of a high as eating lots at once.

Now for the good bit. Some nitrous oxide. Keerrrrrr..... WOW! Pure, unimagineable bliss. Utterly indescribable to anyone who hasn't been there. I can feel that only the cactus is keeping my conscious against the anaesthetic gas. My entire consciousness is generated by mescaline, not overlaid on top of any 'normal' reality. Praise be to the phenethylamine gods!

Some generally inspiring self-introspection; how our minds evolve from before we're born, how we cut off our memory of our earlier development and childhood, how our personality forms, our sense of good and bad, our sexuality, our sense of humour.

Took a long time to come down, what with a constant internal supply of fresh mescaline. Pushed out the remainder, very gassy stomach, got about 2-3 hours of sleep. A bit wiped today, but mellow and happy.

Ready to do it again! Want company next time, though. And skip the jelly...

[Jatelka]

leithwalk: Thankyou for sharing SWIY's (Someone Who Isn't You) experience. SWIJ always loves a good experience report!

Now before proceeding further: PLease READ THE RULES. They can be found here...

http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/ann...t.php?f=43&a=1

The one regarding self-incrimination is particularly pertinent. Do NOT incriminiate yourself. USE SWIM (Someone Who Isn't Me) or something similar when talking about extra-curricular activities.

Be aware that not abiding by the rules can and WILL get you banned.