Cubism

Holy shit that's awesome work mate!!!

Hi mate, So I must admit I know nothing about 1,8-cineole, in fact I have never heard of it before (like most things ;) ) But....if it is an NMDAR antagonist then it acts similar to PCP and Ketamine which are both used as models of schizophrenia. Do you know if it is a competitive or non-competitive antagonist??? And you wrote it also inhibits AChE? So it does what sarin nerve gas does too? Obviously it probably isn't as strong as sarin though but still.... Just be careful with what you ingest man....that's really all I'm getting at. Take care buddy!

All the best with the doco mate. I'm sure you'll smash it! If you don't mind, please let me know when the finished product is available to watch.

Horus....dude, this entire post of yours (not just the quoted bit) is probably the most eloquent and intelligent explanation of Aya use I've ever read. So wanted to say thanks heaps for posting your thoughts man!!!!!!!

Cereus is just the genus. Plant names are "Genus + species" e.g. Trichocereus + bridgesii. And monstrose is a description of the form or variety if you know what I mean. So saying that, it looks to me like Cereus peruvianus monstrose ( or maybe Cereus hildemanianus monstrose, but for all I know they might even be the same plant as Cereus peruvianus monstrose, I'm no expert on taxonomy thats for sure) It looks just like my one I call Cereus peruvianus monstrose, but it just depends how anally retentive you get about names I think. Technically Cereus monstrose is still right if you don't give a shit about being super accurate with naming it. Hope that helps for now......I'm sure someone else can jump in with a bit more of a decisive opinion

Interesting article but this quoted sentence above from the limitations section pretty much invalidates all or most of there statistical analysis. You need to multiply all P values by the total number of analyses run which is likely in the dozens at least. Saying that, P values are over rated and there is a big push to just report effect sizes now. In any case it certainly isn't saying psychedelics cause MH problems which is a nice counter to popular belief. Thanks for posting the article dude!!!

This would be pretty impressive considering in humans neurogenesis has only been proven to occur in the hippocampus (for memory encoding but not storage) and in the olfactory bulb (involved in your sense of smell). And of these new neurons, the vast majority of them do not survive anyway, let alone have anything to do with the auditory or visual systems (although as a caveat, everything in the brain is massively interlinked). Additionally, all our senses have multiple maps throughout our central nervous system(from receptor/sensation to cortex/perception), especially audition and vision which each have in excess of 3 to 6 hierarchical maps respectively on their way to higher cortical functions such as conscious perception of stimuli. If you start adding in new neurons into established maps at certain points along that hierarchy (e.g. at lower/earlier stages) then that would entirely mess with the processing of any information at later/higher stages. This is one of the major theories as to why humans have extremely limited ability for neurogenesis, compared to say certain fish species which can do so at hugely more impressive levels and rates. Lower vertebrates like fish lack the neural complexity (e.g. your cortex) such that renewing neural tissue is unlikely to disrupt any processing downstream at higher functional levels. For example, goldfish vision has only one map, from the retina to the optic tectum. Cut the optic nerve and it only has to grow neurons and map them to the correct place once. Humans (as well as the tectum) has a visual system with maps at every stage along the path from retina > thalamus > V1 cortex > V2 cortex > V3/4 cortex > V5 and/or parietal and/or inferotemporal cortex etc etc. So lets say you can induce neurogenesis at the level of the V1 cortex, what happens to everything downstream of that when the map has been changed at V1??? Hopefully some of that makes sense, but as for anything that mentions neurogenesis, I have one suggestion, question everything and doubt everything until proven otherwise as it is a media buzzword which we still really have no idea about. On a lighter note, I totally agree that there is some awesome research coming out in regard to Psilocybin which is well worth looking at. It certainly seems to be very promising for a number of uses, and psychedelics in general are finally starting to gain speed in research ethics approvals which is awesome (especially as the psychopharmacology of psychedelics is what I'm aiming towards in my studies) so the future does look positive.

For anyone interested in the endocannabinoid system and medical marijuana research then any talk by Raphael Mechoulam is a must.....the man is a god in cannabis research, and one of very few people worth paying attention to. Here's one to start with -

Hopefully I might make an appearance too... Also have the numbers of a couple more local cactophiles I can let know, I think ones on here but not sure about the other one. Should have my shit together for once by April and be ready to drag myself out of my antisocial hermitude Happy to give some grafting advice where needed and may have some crests, monsters and buttons to part with too, assuming I haven't flogged em all on ebay before hand. All things going well, will also be looking for some guinea pigs to volunteer for my neuroscience/psychopharmacology honours research project (which involves taking nabilone - aka medicinal synthetic THC, so yeah you would be volunteering to get stoned) Anyway, see how it all goes and if I actually make it out of the lab or my cave

Thanks mate. Yeah studying ain't for everyone and a piece of paper saying you have a degree certainly isn't a requirement to possessing useful knowledge. I'm just glad that I'm now done with all the exams, nothing but endocannabinoid research from here on in (was closest I could get to psychedelics at conservative old UWA). By the way, if you do choose to take a formal route, it's never too late, I was 37 yo on my first day ever on a uni campus. And I can honestly say I've learnt more about life from the younger folk than any other mature age students, and 99% of life science academics are amazing folk, albeit scarily intelligent, best decision I ever made. Anyway sorry for derailing your thread, carry on the awesomeness buddy!

Yessss Horsey glad ya hanging around !!!

Hey mate, Don't think I've ever posted in one of your threads yet but... Just wanted to say I agree with micromegas. I'm just about to start my honours year in psychopharmacology, and your posts are awesome in the way you blend that sort of stuff with the ethno point of view, and then add your personal side to it. Really offers a nice alternative to just reading the hard scientific literature. Fair enough if a blog ain't your thing right now, but a collation of your notes would be super cool to look through one day... Sorry to hear about Milly, my dogs my life too, but either way, keep up what ya keeping up mate. I'm sure there's heaps more here who also appreciate what your doing. All the best!!!

Came across an interesting new review article by David E. Nichols about N,N-DMT, the Pineal Gland and so on. Definitely worth a read if your into psychopharmacology and that sort of thing, so I thought I'd share it in case anyone is interested... Access full article at scihub - https://sci-hub.tw/10.1177/0269881117736919 N,N-dimethyltryptamine and the pineal gland: Separating fact from myth David E Nichols Abstract The pineal gland has a romantic history, from pharaonic Egypt, where it was equated with the eye of Horus, through various religious traditions, where it was considered the seat of the soul, the third eye, etc. Recent incarnations of these notions have suggested that N,N-dimethyltryptamine is secreted by the pineal gland at birth, during dreaming, and at near death to produce out of body experiences. Scientific evidence, however, is not consistent with these ideas. The adult pineal gland weighs less than 0.2 g, and its principal function is to produce about 30 μg per day of melatonin, a hormone that regulates circadian rhythm through very high affinity interactions with melatonin receptors. It is clear that very minute concentrations of N,Ndimethyltryptamine have been detected in the brain, but they are not sufficient to produce psychoactive effects. Alternative explanations are presented to explain how stress and near death can produce altered states of consciousness without invoking the intermediacy of N,N-dimethyltryptamine.

Whoa... amazing giveaway man!!! Very generous of you... Legend!!! Put me down for number 27. Thanks mate!

Hi all I have this button which is just beginning to form its first couple of flower buds ever. Can anyone ID this for me please? And also, is it self-sterile, or self-fertile? Thanks and much appreciation for anyone that can help.

Thanks thegreatartist and thanks again Horsey for the input. Couldn't see any little spines but some of the offsets feel to the touch that there may be something under the fur on a few of them, I really don't know though. I would try get a close up but I only have my crappy phone camera which makes all close ups come out blurry as. I mixed some pollen back and forth between the three flowers, so will be interesting to see if anything comes of that. Either way, ID request was mostly out of curiosity and it would be nice to put a name to it, but this is one of my first cactus grown from seed (Koehres mixed LW), so I have a bit of a soft spot for it, and whatever it is I reckon its sexy as.... Thanks again......Cheers!!!

Thanks Horsey, Just flowered today..

Yeah, hospital either way. Thought it was pretty obvious

Hey skellum, I don't quite get what your getting at???? No one is claiming it was GHB of any form.

Really really lucky group of people. Never heard of scoop before so had to google it. Seems it's a nickname for GHB. So yeah there are incredibly stupid for snorting it, assuming they didn't order it or whatever (if they were asked when they were recovered and not still off their chops I, wouldn't expect them to admit to ordering it online, just more problems if you did). But even if they knew it was coming and assumed it was GHB not hyoscyamine they would've ended up in hospital anyway. Very very stupid but even more lucky.

Cheers Smithy

Awesome! Thanks Gimli

Nice one Gimli. Was just contemplating buying some seeds, so count me in for sure.

Thanks for joining in Anodyne and for the link, if your interested here is the peer reviewed version https://peerj.com/articles/2727/ There's a lot more than anecdotal evidence to support the therapeutic use of Ayahuasca, that I am not disputing, neither am I disputing it for many psychadelics, in fact I am very much for the idea that we need more research now things are starting to open up and attitudes change towards them, but the emphasis is on need more research. I don't need to "slap down" the idea because I am not disputing it. Kind of ironic though that you refer to anecdotal evidence, don't provide a reference, then demand I do. Not to mention supplying a non-peer reviewed citation. But I'm not trying to start a shitfight here...so no worries, just an observation. What I am saying is always be skeptical. Cells in vitro do not represent cells in vivo. Yes, they are an excellent experimental tool, and provide excellent insights into future research possibilities. But.....cells in culture are in a closed system, cells in an unmanipulated organism are never in a closed system. Again, as for ayahuasca, it is not just harmine either is it. So....maybe adding harmine alone to cultured cells does equate exactly to human consumption of ayahuasca, but an objective look at it raises far too many questions compared to answers. So I will remain skeptical until shown otherwise. For an example of what I would consider normal neurogenesis, see the following (should be open access)- http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867413005333 Alzheimers, addiction, depression etc are obviously the more extreme end of dysfuntion, you surely don't need me to direct you to tonnes of epidemiological data, and I haven't the time or interest to sift through it myself Normal means neurotypical, admittedly me using normal was not the best choice of words, Too many if's.....I mean how long is a piece of string??? I'm not saying I am an expert on anything to do with the brain, in fact I'm a long long way from it. What I am saying is always be skeptical, and with neuroscience, be twice as skeptical. How many neuro related breakthrough studies ever make it past their 15 minutes of fame? Tissue culture has been around for decades, and in that time, how many "amazing results" have translated into anything of clinical or therapeutical value??? As for stimulating neurogenesis...... try exercise, it's suggested to be just efficacious as anything else, and the worst thing that can happen is you pull a muscle. As for Aya, do I think it is promising as a future therapeutic agent for many mental health issues, well yes I do, and the research is certainly picking up momentum, but there is a huge way to go before it is anything more than promising.

Whooa dude. Your previous post was wrong in so many respects I was actually attempting to explain it in a nice way. I have no interest in making anyone feel bad. Go back and look at what you wrote.... you completely confused neurogenesis and neuroplasticity and mashed them up into something to suit your wrong understanding. In reality I could have been much harsher, especially as you were trying to convince me maybe the OP has a point (which it doesn't, it's tripe and any biologist will tell you so, I mean I'm a student and I can see its that fundamentally wrong, but I digress), anyway, in trying to sound like you know what your talking about you even confused two of the most fundamental brain structures, the hippocampus and hypothalamus. Not to mention relating adaptation (what you mentioned is called plasticity) to cell counts????? Now when I respectfully explained how you were wrong and confusing things, rather than be humble and learn something, you have a tantrum, blame alcohol (rather than yourself, very convenient) and threaten to leave the forum for good. On the leaving the forum, I don't think you should, some of your posts are really interesting. But.....if everytime someone points out your wrong you threaten to leave (I've been here long enough to see you do this at least once or twice before), maybe you need to look inside for the cause, not the "holier than thou" people on here who god forbid may just know what they're talking about better than you do. If theres a problem, look at your own behaviour first, blaming alcohol and other people is a pretty sad way to live your life.