A Sacred Mushroom and Syrian Rue Experience



Following the discovery of McKenna et al., the shrooms + rue combination has
become a popular technique in the arsenal of the modern entheogenic
explorer/guerrilla. Accordingly, I resolved to try this combination for the
first time -- my first experience with any harmine preparation.

Boiling water (~2 cups) was poured over 1 tsp Syrian Rue (P. harmala). A
splash (~1 Tsp) white vinegar was added and the mixture was stirred and
allowed to steep for ~10 minutes, acquiring a pale red-brown color. The
mixture was blended, brought to a boil again, and removed from the heat. The
solids were allowed to settle and the liquids poured off. To this mixture
was added a pinch of rue extract,* which gave the solution a much darker
red-brown color. This preparation was split two ways (my companion combined
his with 2C-B) and consumed on a fairly full stomach. The taste was bitter
and alkaloid-y but not too bad (hold my nose definitely helped) and did not
linger (unlike a certain revolting slimy cactus brew I can still feel
sliding down my throat).

About 30 minutes later, ~1.75 g (dry) of USDA Prime S. cubensis were
ingested straight and chewed and held in the mouth as long as possible. I
wanted to start with a low dose to establish a baseline for the shrooms +
rue combination.

As the effects were coming on, we went for a nice, rambling walk around the
neighborhood, paying close attention to the trees and flowers and the
beautiful summer sky. The intricate stained glass windows in a small church
in a nearby park were particularly captivating. The anticipatory, pre-level
1 effects provided a wonderful enhancement to the little expedition that was
as much due to my sense of expectation as to the sensory alterations
themselves. I seemed to spend much more time "experiencing" rather than
"thinking" as my subject-object barrier began to break down.

Harmine is often reputed to be a telepathic agent, and this aspect was very
much in my mind as we were returning home. There did seem to be some
enhancement in my ability to anticipate what people were about to say and to
resolve unexpected conversational and conceptual leaps (for which one of my
companions is well-known) without having to ask for an explanation.

Once we arrived back at the house, my trip rapidly settled into a mellow,
level 2 experience -- about what might be expected for that dosage of
mushrooms *without* the addition of rue. In fact, my experience did not seem
substantially different from a straight shroom trip. My tendency towards
introspection and self-contemplation was familiar enough. There did seem to
be a slight sensory signature of *something* superimposed upon the mushroom
effects, but nothing that made me sit up and take notice. Predominant colors
tended toward pinks, purples, and blues, which are typically said to be
characteristic of harmine combinations but could just as well be attributed
to environment, which consisted of watching a gorgeous sunset and hanging
out in a fairly dimly lit room.

But when I had settled comfortably into an enjoyable level 2 experience and
had just reached what I assumed was the end of the peak, my trip rapidly
accelerated to level 3 in a manner that left me unprepared and unable to
cope with consensus reality -- which is not a bad thing necessarily, but I
was unable to properly appreciate it and make use of it as it has advanced
upon me so suddenly. I thus settled (somewhat involuntarily) into an
attitude of "lets get it over with" rather than exploring the possibilities
of the mental state I was in. I developed a very upleasant sensation in my
mouth, like nausea without the visceral sensations, the residual effects of
which later made a snack I ate tasteless and unnatural-feeling. This
triggered what seems to have been a synesthetic effect and resulted in what
were probably the most disgusting visuals I have ever experienced. I saw an
endless progression of figures in a perpetual state of decay -- vomiting,
decomposing, bleeding, generally falling to pieces. This was unsettling, but
I was strangely more bemused than frightened or repulsed.

After some time spent like this (I've no idea how much precisely), I dropped
fairly rapidly to the afterglow stage, which seemed uncharacteristically
"dull." I was not filled with the usual sense of clumsy contentment, and
residual relaxing visual effects were nonexistent, even with the addition of
a few tokes of kind bud.

What seems to have happened is that my half-full stomach slowed the
metabolism of the harmine much more than it did the shrooms, with the result
that the much appreciated synergism manifested suddenly quite late in the
trip, with the result that I *didn't* appreciate it, making the trip as a
whole unfortunately rather unproductive. I'm not sure how enthusiastic I am
about this combination. I'd like to try it again in hopes of obtaining a
more characteristic (and enjoyable) effect, but I am in no hurry to do so --
plain ol' shrooms are *just*fine*. I would probably be more interested in
trying to *smoke* rue on top of mushrooms, as McKenna does with B. caapi in
_True_Hallucinations_. His description of the delicate ayahuasca visuals
dancing over the mushroom baseline is quite enticing.

*The extract was prepared by a friend who will remain anonymous. I remain
ignorant of his method, but the extract was a beautiful deep red-brown color
and consisted of sticky, flat crystals. Dosage used was specified for one
person.