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Out of interest - what do you fertilize with Michael?

Ignored evidence. I'm quite sure that one dynamic to people using drugs is the fact that it's forbidden in the first place. Why do you think Bluebeard's wife went into his forbidden room? As far as I'm concerned, drugs and guns have a lot more in common than drugs and corrosive oxidants. If you leave a gun on the table, what will it do? It will sit there. And time will pass, and the gun will turn brown and rust. If you leave some LSD on the table, what will it do? It will sit there. And time will pass, and the LSD will turn brown and decompose. My point is that these two items are not inherently bad, they are fully neutral. It is their misuse which is bad. Their misuse by people. To wield the great power, you need great responsibility. For firearms, most countries have an arguably simple licencing program. I don't think you could quite copy the legislation for firearm licencing and cross out every mention of 'firearm' and replace it with 'drug'. But I think that a solution will involve an ongoing test of responsibility for individuals (learning about what you want to take, and knowing exactly what it will do in detail, the health risks, and most importantly what to do if it gets out of control). The solution will also have greater society's freedoms and safeties and the right of the individual in a delicate balance. And finally, the solution will be honest, and it would be based on actual harms, and the messages will be clear and true. Nutt has made a wonderful start (it's already 20x better than the current system), but the scope needs to be increased. Start with illuminating the truth, and the rest will follow.

In my opinion, I think Gracie and Zarkov focus too much on entities, and seem to think that in the entheogenic state - everything they experience is as true and existential as it appears. Although, they did find some nice scientific-ish conclusions which I was very happy with. As much as D.M. Turner did some absolutely stupid things, his grand mistakes helped me to learn more from him than most writers in that vein. What I see most of us like-minded (as in, open to more) people walking towards, is the idea of emptying your head of all the crap. Dissolve the illusions you've lived with your whole life. Be able to understand and accept everything. Polish out all your dualities, until all you have left is a shiny sphere. This viewpoint is very much Zen, which is the only organized spirituality that I've found that didn't try to force doctrines down my throat (although they do have traditions, which aren't essential - only the meditation techniques are, some more than others). If you have skipped over Zen - please have another look. Read the Tao of Physics (Fritjof Capra) if you want to shatter some fundamental delusions. That book, and The Web of Life (his too) have changed my entire life and the way I'm going to use my the rest of my life, and have given me more happiness and clarity than any 2 books ever have.

From what little I know (oh so little), I think your best bet would be nicotine. You can use tobacco leaves, and put them into the soil as a longer-term semi-preventative measure. I would not recommend concentrated nicotine sprays or powders, or more importantly, a lack of care when dealing with those. If you spill a nicotine concentrate on your skin - you are dead. But you can drench your cacti soil with a tobacco tea (make sure they have had a good drink before to minimize any alkaloid absorption [should be minimal anyway] and wear gloves and goggles at least), and it should kill the bugs. It'll probably kill worms too, so you might want to try and get more worms later. Good luck - but I hope you can instead rely on skill instead. ;)

Very true. But how long have these people been using Heimia? And also, assuming that there is some truth to these: http://www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=60642 and http://www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=72508 and http://www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=60354 Then (after some reading), it looks like a lot of those adverse symptoms (from those and other heimia experiences): -muscle pain and stiffness -paralysis -difficulty breathing -light-headedness (sounds like low blood pressure) -nausea -vomiting -dry mouth -fever -bradycardia (maybe there was tachycardia too, but no-one reported it) correlate somewhat with side-effects of neuromuscular-blocking drugs [NMBA] (possibly along with at least histamine release): http://www.drugs.com/mmx/neuromuscular-blocking-agents.html#footnotef00145817 If http://www.entheology.org/edoto/anmviewer.asp?a=182&z=6 is the necessary preparation, then as has been surmised before: maybe the UV from the sunlight fermentation process decomposes whatever compound(s) causes the adverse effects, into something more benign. The auditory hallucinations seem to be present even if the correct preparation is not performed (although these experimenters all had dried leaves/extracts, reflecting at least some degree of decomposition). So if the sunlight preparation is only to make it more benign, then maybe whatever provides those auditory hallucinations can be extracted instead (assuming that it was not created just by drying the leaves or extraction). Lastly, the molecular structure for many of the Heimia alkaloids look similar to that of many NMBA drugs. So I think that unprepared Heimia may have an NMBA in it, and that fermentation will decompose it. So maybe by using one of those anticholinesterase agents (in a clinical setting), it could be determined if Heimia (improperly prepared) contains a strong non-depolarizing NMBA. Also, I didn't see if there was ever an alkaloid composition study done on fermented material. It would surely become apparent what the fermentation does then. Then the alkaloid(s) which increases in abundance could be studied to see if it causes the relaxing effects. The alkaloid(s) which decrease in abundance could be tested for NMBA effects to see if they are indeed decomposed. Furthermore from http://www.pedneur.com/article/S0887-8994%2806%2900082-8/abstract: Wikipedia (presumably from the referenced studies) notes that many people do not notice a pitch shift, and some people report a pitch increase. I would prefer if the people who reported a higher pitch were simply wrong, because it would be more consistent . If so many people don't even notice the pitch shift, then what does that say about the credibility of a perceived pitch increase? And also, I would not be surprised if the pitch shift itself could be modulated again by more medicines (which, wikipedia says CBZ has a high potential for drug interactions). But anyway - all speculation. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16181754 It seems logical that Heimia would provide its pitch shift somehow similar to this mechanism too. Erowid experiment #60354 (link at top) says Heimia shifts by exactly a whole octave though, unlike the other two drugs which only shift by roughly a semitone. So, somehow a huge shift seems to be occuring (assuming that it is indeed an octave shift). I have probably exhausted my understanding for now. But once I have a better grasp of the auditory system's flow, I'll speculate more.

http://www.shaman-australis.com/~auxin/heimia.html This appears to be your work (Awesome!). Do you think that one of these alkaloids might just be GABAergic, or do you think it's a different mechanism?

I think I might know that plant. If it's the one I'm thinking of - it's very nice genetics, and very true to form.

Yes, I agree. But it's a minor point that they are all linear and become areal and voluminous when cumulated. I fully disagree here. Depending on how deep from within the rabbit hole you're talking, objects flat out don't exist (pun lol), or they exist only in the abstract realm of eternal forms. I'm not really sure on where I stand on the issue. But if you are not debating an objects existence, then you can say that a shadow is a 2D object. Just because it's made from a 3D object doesn't mean it's not 2D. Well, as a simple analogy, that suffices. But you can move relatively, faster forwards, through time. Time dilation (thought not yet practical) seems to be theoretically and physically possible. The experiments to date suggest it's a fully real phenomena. So if I take a rocket trip to Alpha Centauri, and come back - you might be geriatric by then. With your inertial reference frame, I have moved at a different rate through time than you have. As there are no preferred frames of reference, this result is significant. Lastly, I don't think you can say that we're creatures of three dimensions. I think you can probably say that we conceptualize (for the most part) in 3 dimensions though. I'd be more inclinced to say that we're 4th dimensional creatures as a matter of opinion - not that I can justify this opinion at the moment.

I'm sure that it was a hard decision to sell all these. :/ That collection is absolutely enviable. Best of luck - I too hope they find a good home, and eventually find their way back to you at a later date.

Thanks for those KT. I'm quite interested in learning more about the [biologic] purpose of this alkaloid, of which we all have some degree of interest in. And I think that lesser-known plants like these would hopefully have less of the mark of man on their genes. Maybe the answer (if there is one), will be clearer if we 'ask' these plants. Maybe they have a completely different alkaloid?

Thanks mate. I've decided to repot my sally into a slightly bigger pot, with a looser soil mixture, and hopefully a bit better nutrient composition. Then I'll take a cutting, and hopefully the main plant will recover.

Hey bogfrog, where did that scop come from? Is it a special clone?

Hopefully someone who reads this thread will be able to answer my question: Can I root sally cuttings over winter inside? I'm afraid that my sally is looking poor, and I wouldn't be surprised if the whole plant dies (of root rot or something) before spring. :/

Thanks for the plant IDs Michael.

Aside: What are those 5 species of cactus there? From the left: 1) Looks Trichocereus, peruvianoid? 2) ??? What on earth!? 3) Trichocereus pachanoid I think 4) Trichocereus pachanoi, but why is it so dark? 5) ??? Ribs look thinner than trichocereus. I'd say it looks more Cereus than Trichocereus. Edit: I have searched for ages for what they might be. #2 could be a Cleistocactus of some kind. The shape and spines look similar to plants like these: http://cactiguide.com/cactus/?genus=Cleistocactus&species=plagiostoma http://cactiguide.com/cactus/?genus=Cleistocactus&species=fieldianus #5 I thought might be an emaciated peruvianus. But I don't think the new-growth spines are the right colour. Could someone knowledgeable please put me out of my misery and identify them. I agree that the scope of the study was narrow, and essentially they ignored all prior research showing significant variations in alkaloid content. Maybe a solution would be one greenhouse growing all the plants from seed or tiny cuttings (i.e. plan to do the study 5 years before doing it). I also have known plants that have large variation within the plant itself. One such plant was growing next to a deck, and grew limbs under the deck that increased their chlorophyll content markedly, and subjectively the other content as well. I also think that the literature regarding shamanic use is not as reliable as it could be. It seems to me that this study was more of an exercise in analytical chemistry than anything else.

I think the real issue here, is that your kitchen has no scraps of food to feed the cockroaches. So, get to work. Old pizza boxes, expired food. It's all good - leave it everywhere, and I guarantee that your seedlings will get the reprieve they need. But seriously. I use a humidity container, with the slots opened to allow airflow. This gives protection from the bugs (of which, there are many). Also, <unsupported_opinion> I think that the type of fertilizer, or the soil pH has an effect on the palatability. I've only got one plant so far to base this on (soil would've been quite high pH, blood and bone and 4:8:6 potato fertilizer were the main ferts), but the eating was marked. Once I have enough plants to sacrifice - I'll try some more variations. </unsupported_opinion>

Hello everyone. I have quite a lot of seed which I kindly received from bit, and it's too much for me to plant all at once, so why not share some around? It's all cleaned and dried, and I will send 15 seeds to each of the first 5 posters. There should be some nice hybrids in there, as I believe the pollination was not strictly controlled. There will be genes from pachanoi, scopulicola and probably a few rarer Trichos too. And again, these seeds are from bit, so he deserves the thanks. EDIT: All have been sent off.

Hmmm, I'm not quite sure where you got those definitions from. As far as I know, the first dimension is linear, the second is areal and the third is voluminous. There exist 'objects' that are 2D (such as shadows, and reflections), and 'objects' which are 3D (such as matter). As far as I know, because I apply these dimensions onto reality (reality is what is), I can step forwards and backwards, and in my chosen frame of reference (the Earth), I am moving positively and negatively through the spatial dimensions. However, when I apply the concept of a time dimension (as something separating two events that occur in the same space) I find I'm unable to move negatively (based on the concept definition). I'm quite possibly missing something, so please explain.

Some other options would be spraying with nicotine or caffeine solution. These are quite good at killing bugs. I haven't tried personally though, so it'd be an experiment.

I think a few of people here are trusting their perceptions too much. There's very little that can be said about time without speculating. All I know is that time appears to flow in one direction (now why would that be, if it were indeed a dimension akin to the spatial dimensions). And that anti-matter can be interpreted (mathematically) as matter moving backwards through time. I also (through meditation and the like) have noticed that perception of time requires constant sensory input - without those senses, time does not appear to exist. My instinct is that time merely passes and has nothing to do with events and change, certainly because it's not what it appears to be, and possibly because it does not exist at all.

Excuse my ignorance, but have any genetic studies been done comparing Salvia Divinorum with Coleus spp.? I remember the Mazatec legends said that a Coleus blumei was the male and Salvia D. was the female. I wonder if this is anymore more than baseless legend.

I might as well make a post in this thread. ----Sowed Jan/Feb 2011----: -Trichocereus peruvianus (alleged Icaros) [as of 26/03/11 - maybe one germination of 10 seeds, very unhappy] -Trichocereus bridgesii [as of 26/03/11 - one germination of 7~, growing has stalled however ] -Trichocereus pachanoi 'Omar' X peruvianus [as of 26/03/11 - 7/8 germinated, some pink/redness to seedlings, I think it's probably from lack of sun rather than sunburn] -Astrophytum asterias 'Superkabuto' [as of 26/03/11 - 6 germ'd, 5 still alive, seem to be doing quite well] So if anyone has any tips on stalled growth (have been spraying with dilute c&s ferts for a week now when the soil gets dry-ish), and how to tell if a seedling needs more sun or less sun - I'm all ears. Thanks. ----Update for May 2011----: The seedlings from above are doing well, but are growing very slowly (as it's winter I suppose). The stalled bridgesii has not grown at all, and it might not make it []. -Sowed 30-40~ Trichocereus open-pollinated seeds mid last month. Very high germination rate, and very vigorous growth (despite it being winter). Can't wait to see what plants are in this tray. -Sowed 10 Turbinicarpus Lophophoroides seeds 3~ days ago - testing the use of cottage cheese containers with these. I think they will work out great.

Yeah, I agree. The reason I agree is because the spines are all oriented perfectly on the large plant (most bridgesii aren't). The ribs are too numerous (although they can get to be this many [8 ribs on the littley], they rarely do). The spines on new growth are full size (biggest giveaway of cuzco). The rib margins are sinuous (huge cuzco trait). So other than spine colour and length being vaguely bridgesii, there's nothing to suggest it is. However, I now have a very awesome bridgesii from another NZ member. :D At the moment, I don't keep my camera where I keep my cactuses, so I can't take a photo of all the new cactuses until I remember to bring it.