=============================================================================
Safety Notice:
This article will recommend that you use blinkers as a method to measure your dosage and to make sure you get a full hit. xxStormWolfxx has raised the concern that this may cause potentially hazardous deterioration of the coils in the cart, which may release heavy metals into the lungs. A Harvard article suggests that this deterioration occurs from repeated refilling and reuse of the refillable carts. EVALI: New information on vaping-induced lung injury - Harvard Health For this reason I will recommend disposing of the refillable carts and purchasing replacements after they have been emptied. I do not have the capacity to test the vapor from the carts for heavy metals and was unable to find sources confirming xxStormWolfxx's claim at the time of writing. My first thought was that the low power and high airflow over the coils outlined in this technique should keep the temp significantly lower than what would be expected with normal usage with more common substances and may reduce deterioration, but this is a hypothesis, not a claim based on robust evidence. If you are concerned about this, inhale to the count of five or so, rather than waiting for the battery to blink. I will continue to update this as I learn more. It seems obvious now that I should have added a section like this, but I am not an expert on cart safety measures and risks so please sound off with tips and sources that I ought to include. It is very late where I am so I apologize for any mistakes made in this section.
You may want to watch these videos which xxStormWolfxx shared in relation to the blinkers:
The videos are focused on THC carts, and describe the vapor as being hot by the end of the hit when taking blinkers. Your vapor should not be hot when utilizing this method, which leads me to believe that the coil is kept at a lower temperature with this method than what you would expect with THC vaping. He also describes hitting them back to back, which you should not be doing. The cart should cool for about 25 seconds as you hold your hit. The only evidence presented was that another youtuber's lung had collapsed due to his heavy usage. It sounded like he was using counterfeit carts so it seems more likely in my opinion that the injury was due to the sketchy juice that is used to make them than heavy metals, but I have not watched the other youtuber's video to see if he sheds more light on it.
If you make it through your entire cart and plan to continue consuming DMT regularly, you should consider investing in another device. These carts are probably one of the more hazardous ways to consume DMT, even if the hazards are still small. You will have more consistency with options such as an emesh or convection vaporizer as you can measure your dosage precisely, and use temp control to always get a proper hit.
tl;dr Refilling and reusing the cartridges is confirmed to release heavy metals. It is recommended you dispose of them after they are emptied. Long hits(blinkers) may also release heavy metals but I cannot yet confirm this. To account for this potential risk, shorter draws may reduce the potential harm.
================================================================================
When I began my DMT usage, I had nothing more than a second-hand $12 510 pen battery, a gift from a friend. Hundreds of trips later, it still serves me well. I plan to transition to a convection vaporizer soon, but I thought it would be beneficial to share the tips I've learned with this tool. As a solo tripper with minimal guidance, I hope to pass on my knowledge to those embarking on their journey. It's crucial to remember that it's your responsibility to ensure your safety along every axis of your existence before you start this journey. No advice from strangers on the internet, or anyone else, can guarantee a good experience. It's up to you to be prepared to handle what DMT may throw at you. As a solo tripper, I'll write with the assumption that you'll be tripping alone. I believe there are advantages to tripping alone concerning the quality of the experience, but that's a personal preference and not the focus here.
The first section will loosely guide you on preparing for your trip, both in terms of mindset and setting. The next section will briefly share setup and maintenance tips for the devices. In the final section, I'll explain the breathing technique that accounted for most of my learning and experimentation. Please note that the integration process is critical for creating meaningful experiences, but it's a deeply personal process. I don't feel qualified to speak on it, so I urge you to seek guidance from those wiser than me who can aid you in untangling and applying what you experience to your everyday life. Along the way I'll share some of my missteps and shortcomings that shaped this guide, so you can better spot potential mistakes.
Set and Setting:
The priority when curating your mindset and environment is to achieve a state of mindful ease. Your mind shouldn't be racing with thoughts of the fantastic sights you might see or the battles with space aliens that lay before you. Instead, you should be calm, certain, and cognizant of your intentions. It's okay to feel a flutter in your chest when considering what lies ahead, but bring yourself back to the reasons that brought you here. Practice gratitude, be mindful of the people around you and your achievements. Carry this mentality with you as you move through the next steps. A significant part of creating a positive mindset is our sense of accomplishment and self-appreciation. It doesn't have to be anything major, but I highly recommend cleaning your room, going for a walk, visiting the gym, or completing a chore you've been putting off. That "It feels good to get that done" feeling will pay dividends as you move forward. I believe this practice helps build the association that DMT is a tool for intentional personal growth, rather than an escape, coping mechanism or pocket-sized roller coaster.
Now, let's move into preparing the setting. I'll again suggest cleaning up your room. I believe the optimal place to experience DMT is in one's bed. The sense of comfort and security that your bed provides is found in few other places in one's life. There are other advantages to the bed too, but those will be covered in the next sections. Make your bed and fold the sheets back a third of the way down so that the top third of your mattress is visible. Stack two pillows or any soft and comfortable items you can find at the head of the bed. When you blast off, you'll have your knees raised, and your butt (not the small of your back) planted on the bed. Maintain good posture as you lean back into the pile of pillows. You shouldn't feel as though you are being folded over, or that you have to hold yourself up in an uncomfortable position. Your spine should feel supported and aligned. You should be mostly upright, but the angle should be low enough that you could relax without hitting your head on the headboard. We'll revisit this later.
Now that your bed is prepared, let's move to music selection. If you successfully blast off, there's a good chance you won't hear whatever you put on, but hearing your favorite band can help with pre-flight anxiety, as well as serving as a welcoming theme as you reenter this world. The playlist doesn't need to be long; I suggest just picking a handful of songs you truly love and playing them on repeat. I am a death metal fan, but for DMT, I love coming back to something more refreshing and light. Here's my playlist for those who are interested:
1. "Bangkok / One Night In Bangkok" - Murray Head
2. "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" - The Beatles
3. "Strawberry Fields Forever" - The Beatles
4. "Sh-Boom (Digitally Remastered)" - The Chords
5. "Made In Japan" - Buck Owens
6. "White Rabbit" - Jefferson Airplane
7. "Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds" - The Beatles
Another option that was recently recommended to me is Native American singing/prayer. You can probably find it wherever you get your music. When I had it playing, it inspired a very beautiful trip, and while I've only tested it once, I feel comfortable recommending it to others. Whatever music puts you in a positive, relaxed headspace is best for you; these are merely suggestions. I sometimes choose to trip without music, as the lack of stimuli can help break the ties that prevent you from breaking through. I prefer to wear over-ear noise-canceling headphones; I find that background noises when I am coming up can cause me pangs of anxiety and lead to negative experiences. I wear them so often that I barely notice them. Again, do whatever you think will work best for you.
There are plenty of other things you can do; some people burn incense, I like to put on one of those star light projectors, change into more comfortable clothes. Many people like to meditate before their DMT experiences. It goes without saying, but as you approach the time to take the DMT, make sure that you are free of upcoming commitments or potential disturbances. You don't want your roommate bursting through the door while you are dancing with the machine elves. In the final minute or so before your trip, it's common to set your intentions. Focus on the changes you seek the strength to make in your life, or prepare to surrender yourself entirely to the experience. Please remember that while this section is fairly long, it's not just a recipe that you can follow and brush away the factors personal to your life that I did not mention. If there's a stressor in your life and you're trying to escape it, DMT may only amplify it. Think of DMT as a conduit to meaningful solutions rather than an escape hatch from an uncomfortable reality.
As for the mistakes I made in this section as I was finding my way, they are just about everywhere. I've tripped standing in a cluttered room, while I was depressed and just wanting a way out, I've tried doing it sitting at my desk because I thought it would be more fun than YouTube. Needless to say, as I taught myself a more effective breathing technique, my respect for the drug grew, and I quickly wised up. None of those trips I mentioned were fun or enjoyable; they all led to feelings of discomfort and anxiety with no visuals. A particularly bad one was when I forgot we had a guest staying with us and they knocked on the door as I was taking my second hit. I felt a burst of anxiety, my mind racing, and I somehow came to believe that the cartel had broken into my house. I stumbled around my room, dismayed to find that my hands had turned to soft blocks of purple clay. I collapsed back onto my bed and calmed down after a few moments. Commit yourself to following a proper set of guidelines so you don't end up stumbling around your room preparing to fight the cartel with purple clay fists.
Device Setup and Care:
I'll keep this section brief as most of it is covered elsewhere. Ensure that you charge your device before first use. There's nothing worse than taking two hits and the device dying on you. If your cartridges are filled with crystals, you'll have to dissolve them. I recommend pointing a hairdryer at them for a bit, and it should liquefy everything. I know what you're thinking, but don't try to heat up the liquid with the battery; you'll just burn your DMT. Look closely at the cartridge; the crystals can sometimes be hard to spot as it heats up, but they may still be present. To clean the device, use rubbing alcohol and wipe the screw on both the cartridge and the battery. This can improve the device's performance if there is significant buildup. Ensure you are on the lowest power mode, generally associated with a green color. You could slightly unscrew the cartridge to increase airflow, but I prefer not to do this.
Breathing Technique:
If you're here, there's a good chance you've already tried using your DMT vape and ended up coughing up hot clouds of DMT that stuck to your throat like burnt plastic, probably tasting worse. That's how I would describe the first dozen or so times I tried taking DMT. I had seen people describe the taste similarly, so I assumed the worse it tasted, the better it would work. This is incorrect. Despite their small form, the 510 battery/cartridge combo often produces temperatures high enough to burn your DMT, resulting in an unpleasant experience. However, there is a solution. By inhaling forcefully - and I do mean forcefully - you can keep the temperature of the cartridge low enough to prevent burning the DMT. This means the hits are not hot and there is very little taste.
Let's first walk through a high-level overview of what this will look like, then I will dive into the more intricate details of the breathing technique. The breathing cycle consists of inhaling the vapor, pulling it deeper, holding, releasing the breath, taking a short or no breaths in between, and then beginning again. It sounds simple enough, but when you combine that with the adrenaline and DMT running through your system, you can quickly get lost.
Now that you have an overview of what it looks like to vape DMT with a cartridge, let's set some objectives and break down how they can be reached.
1. Reach a full dose quickly - high sub-breakthrough doses can often be uncomfortable and alarming. To avoid this, we need to get a full dose in while it is still possible.
2. Avoid burning DMT - burning DMT means you will be coughing and uncomfortable, and for all your trouble, you won't be any closer to breaking through. You must pull as hard as you can to keep the temperatures down.
3. Use each dose efficiently - We want to try to make use of as much of the dose as possible. This means pulling the DMT all the way into the lungs and holding it there for about 20 seconds.
Keep these goals in mind as we move forward. At this point, you are going to enter your bed. Your set and setting should be prepared as outlined. Make your way to your bed and place your feet under the edge of your blankets that you folded over. Prepare your posture and pull the sheets up over you. Your back should be straight as previously mentioned, and the sheets should be on your back. There should be no light visible under the covers. The visual sensory deprivation will help keep you calm while you blast off, and will allow you to open your eyes without being jolted out of hyperspace. It will also allow you to break through more easily in my experience. You may choose not to follow this step, but I would highly recommend it.
Now for the nitty-gritty details. Take a few deep breaths, making sure you can fully expand your lungs. I recommend holding your nose shut with your off hand. Pinch it between your pointer finger and thumb such that your palm covers your mouth. It sounds silly, but when you are approaching hyperspace, there is a good chance you will get distracted and blow a bunch of DMT out. A blinker is a term referring to a pull off a vape device that engages the element for long enough that the device turns off to prevent overheating. They serve as an effective measure to gauge your DMT intake, and hitting full blinkers means that you can maximize the amount of DMT you are receiving in the shortest period possible. It generally takes ten seconds before this limit is reached.
As we begin, let's do a practice draw. Your hand should be holding your nose at thispoint; everything forward from here is mouth breathing. Take a few normal breaths, then one that is slightly longer and more forceful. Don't hold it, immediately exhale fully, bring the device up to your lips and inhale HARD. This is where you would hit the button, just after your inhale begins. You may need a couple of tries to get the hang of it, and some devices allow for more airflow than others so you may not need to pull as hard, but I find that low airflow and high force work best.
Now let's do the real deal. A few regular breaths, quick forceful inhale, immediate exhale, pull HARD, press button and hold it. At this point, you are pulling with everything you have. Eyes bulging, red in the face intensity. That might be slight hyperbole but you get the idea. You must pull hard. Do not stop pulling until a split second after you see the light or button flashing on the pen. Pull the pen forwards and close your mouth. Now you must pull the DMT deeper. Open a small circle in your lips and inhale, pulling the DMT deeper and reseal your lips. Repeat this one or two more times such that you cannot inhale any more. Now, you will begin to count up to 20. If everything is going well, this may be difficult and you may lose track. I normally just resume from 5 if this happens. After this, you will exhale through your mouth. You should taste nothing or very close to it when you do. Anything you do taste is wasted DMT, hold the next one for 5 seconds longer. From here you repeat, but spend less than three seconds breathing normally in between. Some people swear by doing no breaths in between, and if you can manage this, it may well yield better results. Repeat anywhere from 3-6 times. 4 Is generally the number given to beginners. You may find the last hits difficult, this is normal.
Final notes:
I very much appreciate you taking the time to read this, and the commitment you likely have to bettering yourself. I hope that each of your journeys leads you somewhere better than you could have ever imagined. Please feel free to ask for help below, or point out any constructive criticisms in the technique or in the writing and I will gladly fix it. If you have any tips or suggestions of your own, feel free to leave them and I will potentially try working them in here. If this guide does help you, it would mean the world to me if you replied and let me know.
peace. happy tripping.
