Planting An Acacia Seed
DMT Part 1-Turn Down The Volume
Foreword-Whatever your understanding about psychedelics and plant medicine, I want you to know this is not a scientific peer-reviewed study. This multi-part tale is a biographic moment of my life that was enlightening and illuminating. My need to re-visit these moments is part of my continual integration of these experiences and how they positively impacted me. Even as I write these stories, I continue to learn. I hope you enjoy them. Any questions? Let me know in the comments or feel free to chat with me in any way you like. Take care in all you do.
Part 1-September 8th 2018
Life at home with my partner was not even close to being normal. You could feel the threads coming undone as if a jumper sleeve was unraveling. Your arm was getting colder. Everything was getting toxic and harder. You tugged at the wool to keep yourself covered.
I could hear the Talking Head lyrics from their song “Once In A Lifetime” bouncing around inside my noggin’.
And you may ask yourself, "How do I work this?"
And you may ask yourself, "Where is that large automobile?"
And you may tell yourself, "This is not my beautiful house"
And you may tell yourself, "This is not my beautiful wife"-Talking Heads
Like humidity, the tension hung around and weighed us down and made us drip with anxious sweat. Things were fucked up, we were not even sleeping in the same bed.
Our friends Jen and Pete were having a housewarming party this Saturday night. It was September 8th, 2018. I asked my wife if she wanted to attend, and she said she would pass. I knew what the answer was going to be, but I was hopeful there were some embers in the fire still. I knew I was fooling myself. A family event was coming up before 2018 ended, and I felt that was the only thing holding my marriage together. That and the numerous children and stories we had accumulated together. The web was losing its ability to stay a web. I was filled with sadness.
Maybe I am just paranoid?
Man, that was a question that hounded me for several months. Or I was hoping I was just paranoid? I did not want this marriage to end but it takes two to tango, jitterbug, or whatever dance step you choose. I knew it was not paranoia. My therapist and I had many conversations about it, so no need to re-visit any detail here.
Meanwhile, I headed over to Beecroft for the soiree. There was a gathering of people, some I knew, many I did not. Was not drinking much as I was driving and buried under my bonhomie was some dark, brooding pain. Shit, I sat in the car for 10 minutes deciding if I should bring this energy into a celebration. I shook the dust and the bad juju off my soul and headed in. It was a cold spring evening, not much above 13C, and I was hoping for some human warmth.
Drinking beer, and smoking a joint, I was feeling a little better. Some folks decided to play poker, so we sat around a table playing for fun and I turned to the Yank next to me and introduced myself. He said his name was Joe and I asked him how he knew Jen and Pete and he said, “She’s my sister”, to which I replied, “Ohhhh, you are that Joe.”
What I mean, is that I knew enough about Jen’s family to know a brother Joe existed. I should have picked up on who he was immediately when I heard his Los Angeles accent, but if I ever was myself I was not close to it that night. Nothing felt right and I was probably as close as I ever get to being depressed. Get that damn dark cloud away from me! It’s Saturday night and I’d like to have a few laughs. Go away! Leave me. It sort of went over to the corner for a wee bit and sulked.
The night was winding down and Joe and I and the new homeowners were smoking a fare thee well number or was it a cigarette. The conversation had turned towards psychedelics and other tales. Joe said to me, “Do you know anything about acacia?”, Joe asked pointing out the tree in the garden.
“Well, it’s our national tree, ya know the golden wattle (Golden Wattle (Acacia pycnantha), and I think it is on some of our currency”, I replied.
“Do you know anything about ayahuasca?” asked Joe.
My ears perked up as I knew a bit about ayahuasca and the spirit molecule, DMT, that can be extracted from that plant. At this stage in my life, it had not crossed my path, nor had I gone looking for it. As many say, DMT finds you when you are ready.
“Some types of acacias have the spirit molecule, the tryptamines, the same DMT that is in ayahuasca”, he told me.
We exchanged details before I drove off into the night back to my home where darkness lurked, even when the sun was shining. I had no idea at that point that this plant would help me maneuver my way through some big changes coming at me. At this point, I did not even know if this guy Joe would follow through, but I found out soon enough.
Back in 2018, a short 6 years ago, people in my neck of suburbia were not talking about microdosing or macrodosing. “How To Change Your Mind” by Michael Pollan had only been published in May 2018. There were people I knew who loved to take a bit of a “bus trip” as we called it, but to some, the idea of letting go to the unknown was scary as all get out. I understood their fears as even a seasoned bus traveler like myself entered into these experiences with a bit of trepidation. You never knew what was beyond that doorway.
Joe stayed in contact, and he began experimenting with the acacia. He was learning how to brew the tea and he imbibed several times during late September and October 2018. He regaled me with tales of amazing psychedelic visions. We had all read about machine elves as per Terrance Mckenna. Joe did not get the elves, but he did get a bandicoot. He also saw jeweled trains and carriages in the trees on his property. I was envious of his trips, but I knew soon enough I would partake.
Meanwhile, we both took to the internet and other social media to see what was happening in the plant medicine world. What is the story with DMT?
There were so many stories and tales online about how ayahuasca could give you many sessions of psychotherapy in a few hours, it was the mirror of your soul or whatever you bring to the table Mother Aya will reflect it back at you through her loving lens. I found this report from Jim Belushi a couple of years ago and it is worth a watch to give you an idea from Mr. Belushi what went on with his travels. (see below)
We also started to discover a vibrant plant medicine community online where we could learn more.
Plus you could find a list of possible benefits all over the web and it sounded like some sort of wonder medicine.
Potential Benefits of Ayahuasca
Improved or resolved depression and/or anxiety symptoms.
Alcohol and/or drug addiction recovery.
Greater self-knowledge.
Improved interpersonal relationships.
New perspectives on life.
Resolution of past trauma and trauma triggers.
N, N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT or N, N-DMT) is a substituted tryptamine that occurs in many plants and animals, including humans and is both a derivative and a structural analog of tryptamine. DMT is used as a psychedelic drug and prepared by various cultures for ritual purposes as an entheogen.
Yes, various cultures and psychonauts and home chemists and budding shaman (ahem) and people interested in delving deep, way deep were all looking at this as some sort of entheogen. My past had seen me roll with funghi and cacti, which will be detailed in other magical tales, but for now, how do you make this medicine?
The acacia brew we made from 40-50 grams of sacred plant matter per dosage. This plant matter was simmered with water and apple cider vinegar for a couple of hours, strained off, and repeated 2 more times. All of this liquid was collected in the pot and we were left with several litres of the brew. It was quite voluminous. We also found out later that the grams of plant we used were on the high side. People we began communicating in this community said, “Whoa! Are you totally disassocaited?”
It certainly made for a interesting initiation.
Just a wee bit of magical science to follow. To metabolise the DMT from the sacred plant, the acacia root or leaves, you first need to drink something else called a harmala alkaloid about 30-45 minutes before you drink the acacia brew.
I can hear you ask, “Oh why, Professor?”
Harmala alkaloids are several alkaloids that act as a monoamine oxidase inhibitors, otherwise known as MAOI’s. Through our online research and questions posed to people with the Australian Psychedelic Society, we learned that peganum harmal (Syrian Rue) was needed for us to activate the DMT that we would orally ingest (https://www.psychedelicsociety.org.au/)
But how do you get the root bark/leaves and the Syrian Rue seeds I can hear you asking? True the trees grow around Australia but you need the ‘right’ tree and so we talked to more folks in the know and found someone who grew them, harvested them in an environmentally safe way, not raping the tree as some are wont to do, and were handed some of the sacred plant matter. Acacia is not illegal in its natural state.
Harmala alkaloids are considered Schedule 9 prohibited substances under the Poisons Standard Act. A Schedule 9 substance is a substance that may be abused or misused, the manufacture, possession, sale, or use of which should be prohibited by law except when required for medical or scientific research, or analytical, teaching, or training purposes with the approval of Commonwealth and/or State or Territory Health Authorities. So where are we going to find these seeds?
As my mate Joe said, “Just check where America shops! eBay!” Sure enough, you could find them there. We also found them in some shops here in Australia. I don’t think the message on legality had reached everyone.
I am getting ahead of myself for at this point I was only learning this from Joe and our conversations. I was getting real-time updates from the garden which amazed me. I was a bit concerned about set and setting for my first experience scheduled for November. This had to wait until the family wedding was successfully celebrated. I also had to think deeply about set and setting. I was standing on the precipice of a separation and quite possibly a divorce. Even though this was occurring, I felt a calling. This was not just curiosity. It was an actual request by the plant. I know that sounds weird, but plants have been around for a long time. They are sentient beings. You can dwell on that for now.
I had no desire to escape, and I did not want to be in a position where my mental health was impacted or rearranged while I was swimming with a bunch of flotsam jetsam. Everything I read seemed to call me to this plant for healing and knowledge. It was a calling I could not, and I did not resist. Even if I did it once and found it intriguing, I could cross it off my list of experiments in my life. Just like the one time I jumped out of a plane. With a parachute.
I was soon to find out how that experience compared to this plant medicine.
“Funny, I’d forgotten that what comes to you when you take a psychedelic is not always a revelation of something new and startling; you’re more liable to find yourself reminded of simple things you know and forgot you knew — seeing them freshly — old, basic truths that long ago became cliches, so you stopped paying attention to them.”
― Alexander Shulgin, Pihkal: A Chemical Love Story
End Of Part 1
To Be Continued-Part 2-The First Experience (s)
I will try to get a bit of this story out each month. There is much to tell and revisit. It is an important part of my 21st Century.
Meanwhile, ethnobotanist, mystic, and veteran bus traveler, Terence Mckenna had me at machine elves. Wha?