DOSE: T+ 0:00	12 oz	oral	Ayahuasca	(liquid)
T+ 3:00	12 oz	oral	Ayahuasca	(liquid)

BODY WEIGHT:

195 lb

December 1-2, 2007

Reasons for Interest:
1) First experience with Ayahuasca.
2) Use with medications (Spironolactone and Cenestin).
3) Healthy transsexual male to female (female hormone levels since 2004), age 26.

Substance Use Background:
Very mild alcohol intoxication once (October 2005), absinthe party in March 2006 (24 oz over 6 hours), minor marijuana use in 2006, ecstasy in 2006 (May 2 pills, June 1 pill, August 1/2 pill), 1 minimal dosage of mushrooms in November 2006, 1 dose of LSD in December 2006, 2 doses of LSD in May 2007. Based on my experience history, I consider myself more susceptible than most to any ingested substance.

Preparation:
I spent the week coming up to the ceremony contemplating my intention, but never really settled on it until I was there. 28 hours before the ceremony was my last meal. I had a glass of orange juice with my daily medications (one 100 mg Spironolactone pill and four 1.25mg Cenestin pills) about 8 hours before. Besides that, I only drank water.

Setting:
3rd (and top) floor, two-bedroom apartment in relatively quiet area of the city of Chicago. Main living room of the apartment, with a fireplace that we used during the ceremony. Snow/sleet night, peaceful icestorm (low winds). Ice hanging from everything (shiny and beautiful) with a grayish dark sky.

People:
5 female, 6 male.

Experience Description:

A well planned intentional ceremony began at 11pm. We called to the four directions, the Earth, and the Great Spirit with traditional text translated partially to English. We then introduced ourselves and announced our intentions around the circle with sage smudge and/or tobacco passing around. My intention was to learn the questions that need to be asked of 'Grandmother,' to know my intention for next time, and to get to know this experience and substance better.

The first dose was roughly 12 oz of the room temperature liquid Ayahuasca tea. It was dark brown with small particulates and had a rooty flavor. A more creative description of the flavor is like a combination of dirt, horehound, and Ouzo (without the alcohol). After ingesting, there was no noted change until 15-20 minutes* in. During this time, I laid down under my sleeping bag, warm and relaxed.

At 15-20 minutes* in, I began to feel slightly nauseous. This was difficult to distinguish from the hunger pangs of fasting. I meditated and layed my hands on my stomach. I believe as a result of this energy work, I did not purge this first dose. The height of the nausea was around 30 minutes* in, after which it dissipated.

Psychological effects were first to set in around 1 hour* in. Giddiness and a feeling similar to ecstasy experience were in full force at first. All things seemed unusually funny, even though no words were spoken in the first couple hours. This feeling would occasionally return throughout the night in more lucid moments and social interactions.

Some pressure in the head (temples and left side of head) was experienced about 1.5 hours* in, but still little else was taking place.

About 3 hours* in, a second dose (again roughly 12 oz) was offered. Within minutes, my stomach rejected it, and I purged (vomited) the majority of the dose before it took effect.

Shortly after purging, I went to the washroom right as visual hallucinations (simple wavy trails) and impaired coordination (walking) set in. After laying back down in my sleeping bag, the medicine hit hard physically and psychologically. This was between 3-4 hours* in.

Hallucinations were generally limited to open eye experiences only, whereas closing my eyes resulted in my head swimming out of physical sensory perception (the five senses) into an alternative (sixth sense) perception. However, I did not have any visions or journeys to other places beyond the room in reality, despite that I do so often in sober visions. Instead, I remained present to my surroundings, but engulfed in the personal experience. The subtle body felt a major twisting and scattering as sensation of the physical body diminished to nearly nothing. Little physical sensation was present throughout the body. Even breathing felt distant.

Psychologically, I began to run in circles philosophically while trying to evaluate the experience and how my state of being would impact the group around me. Fear, paranoia, laughter, giddiness, happiness, peace, mischief, feelings of insanity, apathy, determination, and more could be randomly and sequentially experienced in a matter of minutes.

When contemplating the theory of other experienced users that Aya is a feminine singular conscious, I came to the realization that my interaction was more of a multi-gendered collective. In essence it was the energy of our group (or possibly global collective consciousness) that embodied what was taking me for a ride, rather than a singular external feminine entity or 'Grandmother.'

From hours 4-6*, the random sequential progression of all possible emotions in their extremes took hold fiercely. There was no conscious control of my psychological state as I slipped in and out of what seemed like insanity. Small returns to reality could be achieved when gazing upon real objects rather than inside the darkness of my sleeping bag as well as when I did heavy breathing techniques. For much of this, I felt the need to breath hard and consciously to make sure I was still breathing at all. At one point, underneath the cover of my sleeping bag, I put my hand in front of my face. While I saw my sleeping bag and light coming through it very clearly, I could not see my hand that should have blocked that view.

At 7 hours* in, there was a circle of the people to close the space and energy of the night before some people went to bed. While most joined in, I was still deep in my psychological inner chaos/cosmos. I listened as I had throughout the night, but did not participate. Often times, I felt like I was there in the circle 6 feet away from me like I was present there in the circle energetically. At a couple points, I looked up to see people sitting in the circle, but often I could not distinguish visually who it was. Energetically it was fully apparent who the person was, especially people I knew well, but their race, gender, and body form would change and mutate.

At 8 hours* in, around sunrise, the experience started to clear up. I could be more social with the few people who had not gone to sleep, and I even ventured small bits of food (a few candied almonds, a carrot, and a dolma).

By full sunrise, there were only minor after effects remaining (like a medium pot level buzz). I conversed and laid down for a while, but I could not sleep. Conversation picked up between 10am* and Noon. Eventually around noon we all left the apartment to go our own ways.

While beforehand tests by our leaders had proved that it was a strong batch, it was decided by the group afterwards that this batch had a wide variety of mixed effects for various users. Many believed it to be a weak batch (a few having nearly no effects at all), while others like myself had very significant experiences.


Footnote:
* This time is estimated. I did not keep time, except beginning and end time.

Exp Year: 2007	ExpID: 67459
Gender: Female
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: May 4, 2008	Views: 13,084
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