Great article. It reinforces my experiences. Also triggered some questions:
MAOIs The caution on MAOIs is vague as far as what they can and cannot be mixed with. I suppose it's out of scope for the article - psychonauts need to do specific research. I recall that MAOIs are necessary for oral ingestion of DMT, and are naturally occurring in the ayahuasca drink. Without them, your natural enzymes will just destroy the DMT before any effects can emerge. If true, then someone taking ayahuasca might be on a MAOI without knowing it. I've heard bizarre things like cheese and chocolate become poison when on a MAOI, because the MAOI supposedly inhibits the enzymes that break down those foods (which is necessary because it's the same enzyme that would destroy the DMT). Maybe I'm wrong; been out of that loop a while now.
DMT I was surprised to hear you say DMT is "up there with ketamine". I've not used either, but my reading of DMT is that its intensity is 10 times that of LSD, and the experience stories I've heard seem to confirm it (e.g. out-of-body experiences, and users thinking that they've entered the mental state of wild animals). K is/(was?) an animal tranquilizer, so I struggle to imagine these two substances being similar in intensity.
the article title "Psychedelics are Tools—Not Toys" - not sure I can agree. "Tool" implies an expectation to accomplish something practical. But (sadly) we're still so early in the research that it's premature to call them tools. They will be tools when research makes sufficient progress to prescribe them. For me it's always an experiment with no precise expectation of what to get out of them. At best, I can hope for insightful entertainment from them (for lack of a better expression), so IMO they are a toy. I suspect you're trying to stress that these are dangerous toys, and I would agree. Psychedelics are for thrill-seekers only, and only the cautious variety of thrill-seeker.
BTW, you suggest not using them when depressed. I fully agree. But note that Beckley Foundation (~~~ embed:765475576794808320) is researching using psilocybin to treat depression. So perhaps we're approaching the point that they can be called tools. twitter metadata:QmVja2xleVJlc2VhcmNofHxodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL0JlY2tsZXlSZXNlYXJjaC9zdGF0dXMvNzY1NDc1NTc2Nzk0ODA4MzIwKSAgaXMgcmVzZWFyY2hpbmcgdXNpbmcgcHNpbG9jeWJpbiB0byB0cmVhdCBkZXByZXNzaW9uLiAgU28gcGVyaGFwcyB3ZSdyZSBhcHByb2FjaGluZyB0aGUgcG9pbnQgdGhhdCB0aGV5IGNhbiBiZSBjYWxsZWQgdG9vbHMufA== ~~~
Yep, you're right about exercising dietary caution with MAOIs and that each person should do research about which compounds are and aren't safe to combine. It seemed a bit outside the scope of this article so I suggest checking out erowid.org if anyone needs more exact information.
Incomplete lists here, but a good start:
From what I've read, the harmala alakloids found in ayahuasca admixture plants (Banisteriopsis caapi and the less traditional Peganum harmala) are reversible MAOIs and don't pose as much of a danger compared to non-reversible, pharmaceutical MAOIs. So, you probably can still eat small amounts of aged cheese and fermented foods prior to a ceremony, but the small risk of a hypertensive crisis is still relevant enough that it's prudent to exercise caution.
As for DMT vs. ketamine, they are very, very different. DMT blasts you to another dimension, seemingly, and ketamine takes you inward to the single point of your own consciousness. "Holing" on ketamine can be just as deep and visual (especially when dosing the S isomer) as DMT. Here's one of my favorite trip reports if you're interested: https://www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=11455
Great point about the Beckley Foundation! That ties in really well to the point about psychedelics (potentially) being tools rather than toys. For the sake of harm reduction I don't want to condone using mind-altering drugs when depressed, but in my own case doing so was instrumental in helping me find my way out of the dark, oppressive room that was my own mood disorder. Anecdotally, there are many examples of psychedelics enabling people to understand and work through personal problems, but you're right that we still need much, much more research confirming this empirically.
Thanks for such a thoughtful comment, I really appreciate it!