Short Ayahuasca guide

Dryahuasca
The No-Brew Ayahuasca for lazy giraffes who dislike brewing, purging & OD'ing!

Why this guide?
The purpose of this guide is twofold:

Harm reduction: there is so much false information on the net (especially from Chris Geo), resulting in folks putting themselves in serious danger. We cannot do much about recklessness or stupidity, but we can try and address ignorance. One reason that some people like Mr. Geo might be using dangerously high doses is because cannabis blocks the effects of DMT in 70% of people studied at one aya retreat center.
It works, despite its simplicity. Here's a recent user review. And here's another one.

This is by no means intended to cover the entire topic of Ayahuasca therapy, please see other references such as iceers.org for more info and support. For a history of ayahuasca, see the EntheoNation guide.

Introduction

Ayahuasca (aka "yagé") a is a word loaded with mystery, images of shamans, young people in blankets sipping brews, and vomit too. Historically if you wanted to experience ayahuasca, you had to travel to South America or more recently some places in Europe, and participate in a ceremony. You can definitely still do that (I recommend with Cat Rambo & Maestra Anita), but there are other alternatives. You can also get some extremely deep emotional healing from my good friend, Shaman J, who works with a number of medicines, depending on the client.

This is a guide for people who prefer doing this on their own. You are encouraged to not take any advice here at face value: seek, learn, question everything until you feel as assured as you need to be. Traditional ayahuasca with B. caapi vine (a.k.a. ayahuasca vine, confusingly!) had to be brewed, but with modern options, extracts and knowledge this is no longer the case. This method requires no brewing, is as safe as you make it, and effective as any ceremony.

For some people, a ceremony involving an authoritative figure (the shaman) or being surrounded by other people is extremely important. This guide is targeted at people who prefer going into the journey on their own terms and having better control of the pace, environment, and the dose they will ingest, or simply cannot afford to travel for a traditional ceremony.

Two Ingredients
Ayahuasca is essentially composed of two components:

MAOi source (traditionally the plant B. Caapi, “The teacher”). Note that pharmaceutical MAOis will not produce the correct experience, though they can activate DMT.
DMT source (AKA “the light”, which illuminates the teaching. Traditionally psychotria viridis aka chacruna is often used as a plant source in the jungle, but Acacia confusa bark is preferred here.)

The third component that cannot be underestimated is mindset and setting, which is discussed later on, but you can read a lot at the front page at u-dont-exist.com

Most of the complexity arises for these 3 reasons:

These sources can come in many forms and be combined in different ways. Each source has its unique character.
When and how to consume each of the ingredients (timing).
Finding your own range of correct doses for each ingredient.

Dryahuasca eliminates the additional complexity of simmering, concocting, extracting, reducing, boiling, freezing, adding egg whites, sitting in circles, holding twigs and many other traditions and gospels that you are welcome to do if it brings you joy, but don’t have to.

Before we proceed, these warnings and words of advice should be understood:

Ask yourself why you are doing this (each time you do). Always have a clear understanding what it is you are seeking. If you are looking for some fun or to escape boredom, please do yourself a big favor and go elsewhere, but do come back when you have exhausted fun-seeking. If you are looking for Ultimate Truth, Liberation, or Ultimate Reality, then don't do Ayahuasca or other drugs, because they are more likely to just show you some delusional state of Oneness or alien communication. What ayahuasca is mainly useful for is boosting the power of your meditation, and it can do that without producing side effects if you take a low dose (of Acacia confusa or Mimosa hostilis/tenuiflora, the DMT or DMT+NMT bark source).
Understand the potential dangers of ingesting MAOi when combined with various drugs, herbs, and even some foods for some people. Drug interactions can be fatal. Many sources exist, please review e.g. this pdf or Foods and Medications to Avoid with MAOIs.
Do not mix drugs with other drugs, or alcohol/weed unless you are super savvy and not reading this guide.
Always test all ingredients for allergic reaction (extremely rare) by ingesting a tiny amount of each ingredient alone, long before you actually intend to start.
Don’t rush it. Be cautious when you are using a new drug, or even a new batch or source. Start with a fraction of the lowest recommended dose and see how you feel.
Give yourself sufficient time to integrate, reflect and clear up between trips.
Understand the importance of set and settings, consider a trip sitter and don’t do it without guidance if you’re in shaky mental state and certainly not if you have a mental condition. Turn off your phone & computer & get someone to watch the kids & pets. Zero obligations today and ideally, none tomorrow. The average length of the aya meditation is 6-8 hours when done correctly. More set prep info later on.

OK let’s get to it
Option I: Simple and fixed ingredients (or read option II: playing around with MAOi options for more traditional, but less reliable, full spectrum effects--some people really need the extra harmala alkaloids in B. caapi vine.)

The simple approach is to follow this guide, if you just want to get a first taste with minimal time spent learning about the options and experimenting with ingredients, you'll need the following two items:

Your MAOI source is going to be a mix of 3 harmalas, two parts tetrahydroharmine, one part harmine, and one part harmaline, which we call 2:1:1. (Alternatively you could just go with harmine, but some people prefer the mix effects, and especially THH in the mix as it gives extra clarity. Don't use only THH though because it does not provide the necessary hypnotism and can lead to freak-outs.) Syrian rue seeds are easier to find, however, and cheaper, and chewing & swallowing about 3 grams of seeds works fine.
Your DMT (+whatever other alkaloids may be inside) source is powdered Acacia Confusa Root Bark (ACRB), or MHRB.

You will consume your mixed HCL harmalas (170mg is an average dose that works well for around half the population, but you can try less the first time. Remember, patience pays. If just using harmine with THH HCl the dose is 200mg, while harmaline alone would be 100mg) dissolved in warm water (or sweetened vinegar water to hide the taste), wait 5 minutes and consume your dose of ACRB or MHRB in the same manner. If the taste bothers you too much, you can use vegetarian (tapioca) capsules, althogh capsules can alter timing and make it less reliable, so add some DMSO to the capsules so that they dissolve quickly.

ACRB or MHRB dose: around 1g (half teaspoon) is a dose you can definitely feel, sometimes with closed eye visuals (which means you took a bit too much), and 2-3g is a pushy/forced ego death dose for the average person if you have good quality bark at 2% potency. Higher doses lead to more delusions & psychedelia.

If you want to make it more likely to work:

Split your doses up. Take the first set, then wait 5 minutes and take the second set, all as explained above but using half doses.
Take your dose(s) on an empty stomach, but then eat some regular potato chips with your doses in order to get your digestion going.
I also find that consuming about 5mL of DMSO helps not only the digestion but also improves the potency and vibe of the trip (though it does make you stink like garlic).
Try not to be walking around or working on stuff. The body digests when it is at rest. ("Rest and digest") Sit upright and meditate, however, I also recommend doing intervals of strength training, especially focusing on your core muscles, which will help push digestion along as well.
Another trick you can do which will not only push digestion along but also enhance the experience is to vape rue seeds (high temp). Whole rue seeds are for heart chakra, crushed rue seeds are for all chakras together. Syrian rue extracts do not contain the full entourage effect that the actual seeds contain.

I also suggest taking some Lion's Mane to help your brain integrate all the new insights.If you take too much Lion's Mane it will cause your nerves to grow too quickly which will feel like an itching sensation.

-----

Note that there's another, more heart-chakra-focused kind of ayahuasca effect, provided by alkaloids similar to NMT.

NMT-ish alkaloids are found as flakes on the side of bark extraction jars, and also as a red goo when doing a full-spectrum extraction after the initial nonpolar extraction. The flakes are about 2x the potency of the goo. 15mg of these NMT-ish flakes, or 30mg of goo, 5 minutes after your harmala dose can produce a very beautiful happy day. Probably the best antidepressant on Earth. And if you get your harmala dose right, you shouldn't notice any nausea. The NMT-ish goo is nice because you can put it in the same capsule as the harmala powder, since goo dissolves slower than powder, thus it all times itself nicely.

But since extraction is not something most people have time for, you can simply boil the acacia bark powder in 5x the amount of water for a few hours, then filter out the liquid and put it in the fridge for a day. The NMT-ish alkaloids will coalesce in the top cloudy layer above the darker DMT layer on bottom. 1g of the acacia powder should end up as 5mL of liquid, so you can probably get a nice light trip from taking 1-2tsp of that cloudy liquid 5 minutes after your harmala dose. For a deeper trip you can double or. triple the dose of the cloudy acacia liquid.

----

And finally, there's an advanced option to dose "pharmahuasca" if you are looking for rapid and reliable effect with less nausea and better absorption. It requires buying HPBCD and having pure DMT or NMT alkaloids from a bark extraction on hand. Basically you add 8g HPBCD to 1g of DMT/NMT alks, then dissolve in hot water and boil down until sticky, then let sit to dry. Now just use that (9x more of it than your normal DMT/NMT dose of course) after your harmala dose. You can read more about this approach at the dmt-nexus.

---------------
NAUSEA

First of all, you should not have nausea unless using a high dose, which again, I don't recommend. But if you do get nausea, one way to avoid that (and vomiting up the dose), is to eat some potato chips soon after your aya dose and consume a 3-5 drops of lemon (or lemon balm or lemongrass) essential oil, or peppermint & coriander, mixed into some raw honey. A few datura stramonium seeds can also help. Even more potent anti-nausea effects can be gotten from my anti-nausea oil blend, or PEAce (PalmitoylEthanolAmide-cures-everything).

If for some reason all you can get a hold of is a pharma drug, there is also a very potent anti-nausea drug called Zofran which can be used if you are not pregnant, but the danger with a potent anti-nausea drug is you could potentially die from NOT vomiting if your dose was way too strong (like mine was when I first tried it, due to misinformation on Erowid). Zofran should be taken 2-4 hours before anything else for max effect, but note that harmalas block the metabolism of Zofran in the liver, so you may need considerably less Zofran than you think (I would probably try 2mg at first).

Remember also that nausea is a key indicator in whether you took too much harmalas or not enough. Aim for very mild nausea to know you got the right harmala dose.

If you need some relief while nauseous, try lying on the floor and stretching your spine out flat on the ground.
-----

SET AND SETTING ARE KEY:

For deepest experience, be alone, in a quiet dark room with vomit bucket handy and some covers in case you get cold. Sitting upright on a bed until you feel forced to lie down, but don't go to sleep if you want it to work.

The following is my meditation advice for anyone who is open to receiving it:
Contemplate how everything, including awareness, happens due to conditions. It is thus not yours. Nothing is yours, nor do you exist. The illusion of yourself (whether as a person, a soul, or as the cosmos) is what binds everything up into one ball of suffering that is born, dies, and is born again. I have a pamphlet on this.

Contemplate the "Bahiya sutta" in order to dissolve into nibbana -- the witnessless reality that exists prior to the illusion of it being unified as one experience. Also check the various stages that will likely occur before getting to the one Buddha was pointing at with everything disjoint/no witness.

I also have a few videos on enlightenment and its relationship to the psychedelic (ayahuasca) experience.

WHAT IF I GO CRAZY???

The experience at high doses does make you feel crazy and then like you are dying. You just have to give in to that and let go of identity/existence. High doses lead to more delusions, so best to stick to low doses as meditation boosters.

But if you still feel like you are manic on a low dose or after your trip is over, you can take 10 large tapioca capsules full of DMSO(or just 10mL DMSO), and/or PEAce, and/or Lithium orotate, an over the counter mineral that is quite safe at standard dosages for limited time periods. Exercise, peaceful music, magnesium, these relaxing herbs I sell, CBD, and cold showers (or just dunk your face in cold water for a second) can also help with the excess manic energy.

-----------

Here I will post some screenshots of any tips I get from folks who have made their own improvements/adjustments to the guide.

Waha-ishwa's tips for posture, breath, meditation during & after trip.