Yopo

(Anadenanthera Peregrina, Cohoba)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

What is Yopo?

Yopo is a tree native to the Caribbean and South America. Its seeds contain a high amount of bufotenine (7.5% on average), as well as a tiny amount of DMT and 5-MeO DMT. They have been used for thousands of years by ancient tribes and produce psychoactive effects that are distinct from any other plant or drug.

Why choose Yopo over other psychedelics?

Yopo…

  • Doesn’t cause much if any damage to your organs and there is no known lethal dose
  • Has been used for at least 6000 years
  • Allows you to have cleaner thoughts than if you were to take magic mushrooms, for example
  • Is not addictive at all
  • Has a relatively short duration
  • Is less intense than other psychedelics
  • Is legal in nearly every country of the world

Long-term benefits & side effects

Many of the benefits will only occur if you follow the tips below.
Most (if not all) of the side effects are preventable and they will not happen if you follow the Safety checklist.

Yopo…

  • May be an effective way to treat depression and PTSD
  • Can lower your levels of stress and anxiety, including social anxiety
  • Might help you form positive habits, such as meditation and exercise
  • Likely increases neuroplasticity
  • Is being used to cure addictions
  • Makes you more creative and open-minded
  • Helps you look at your life from a different perspective
  • Allows you to heal your childhood trauma and forgive people who’ve hurt you
  • Makes you more conscious and loving
  • Can help you transcend the fear of death
  • Gives you insights into the nature of reality
  • Makes you appreciate nature more
  • …
  • Can lead to heart problems if you are predisposed to them
  • Has led to self-harm by people who took it in an unsafe environment
  • Might speed up the onset of schizophrenia if you’re genetically predisposed to it
  • Can cause HPPD and physical damage if you combine it with other substances (such as alcohol or stimulants)
  • Could cause you trauma due to bad set and setting
  • Might lead to drug-induced psychosis if you’re predisposed to it
  • Can cause seizures in rare cases
  • Is illegal in many places and you might get arrested for getting involved with the substance
  • …

How to take Yopo

Administration

Yopo seeds (beans) can either be smoked or snorted.

To make the effects last longer, you could also plug the substance but this method may not be safe.

The best route of administration is creating a Yopo snuff.

The snuff is either snorted or blown into the user’s nostrils by another person. In ceremonies, they use a bamboo tube for this purpose.

The inhalation is painful but the pain will go away within minutes.

Blowing the snuff is less painful and the substance will absorb slightly better.

Technically, you could also smoke the beans/seeds but they would not absorb nearly as well and the experience would be a lot weaker.

Some tribes take the beans orally but this can be dangerous, especially when you eat high amounts. In moderate doses, you would feel very nauseous and unpleasant.

Banisteriopsis caapi can, as a source of MAOIs, double the potency of Bufotenine. The tribes sometimes use these two plants together.

How to make a Yopo snuff or powder

  • Heat seeds on low heat until they pop
  • Separate the outer seed from the inner seed
  • Discard the outer seed shell, only the inner part of the seed is used
  • Heat the remaining inner seed on low
  • Sop heating when it is hard and crunchy
  • Grind the seeds (crush them)
  • Mix the following: 2 parts seed, 1 part lime or shell, and 1 part baking soda
  • Add a few drops of water to form a paste (You can use this as a Yopo snuff already)
  • If you wish to store Yopo seeds as a powder, mix the paste well and heat on low until the material dries
  • Crush dry material into a fine powder

Dosage

  • 27 mg = Threshold
    You will likely notice little to no effects at this dose
  • 70-270 mg = Light dose
    The best dose to start with
  • 270-540 mg = Regular dose
    The insights you’ll learn are easier to retain and incorporate than if you were to take higher doses
  • 540-800 mg = Strong dose
    This dose is likely to be unpleasant
  • 800+ mg = High dose
    The benefits of a heroic dose are similar to a strong dose while the risks are higher so do not take this dose unless you have a great reason for it, Bufotenine may not be safe at high amounts


1 gram of seeds contains approximately 74 mg (7.4%) of bufotenine, 0.4 mg of 5-MeO DMT, and 1.6 mg of DMT.

This means that nearly all of the effects are caused by bufotenine.

If you use the seeds and don’t know how to weigh them, start with 1 seed and gradually build your way up. Don’t go over 5 seeds, the experience would be unpleasant and taking so much is unnecessary.

Do not start with a strong dose if you don’t have a trip sitter nearby.

Even if you do, starting with low doses is still recommended because you cannot know how sensitive you are to the substance.

There is no known lethal dose but even though high doses are likely safe physically, they are often mentally challenging.

Keep in mind that the higher the dose you take, the more important it is to be in a safe environment.

Some people are more sensitive than others. There are people who can take a high dose and feel nothing. This mainly happens to people with autism. Otherwise, it is rare.

Safety checklist

Maximize the benefits

Keep in mind that integration is even more important than the trip itself. Taking the psychedelic would be almost useless if you didn’t retain any lessons in your day-to-day life.

What will help you the most is contemplating about the experience – be it by journaling, thinking about the trip, or sharing your memories with a trusted friend.

Distracting thoughts can get in the way, which is why you want to spend the day after your trip without TV, social media, and other distractions.

If you can, spend time in silence and solitude. Meditate, go for a walk, contemplate the experience.

Duration

Onset = 15-90 seconds
Come up = 15-60 seconds
Peak = 1-5 minutes
Come down = 5-10 minutes
After effects = 10-60 minutes

  • You should notice the first effects within 40 seconds after you take the psychedelic
  • You will reach the maximum effect around the 2-minute mark
  • The whole trip usually lasts for 10-20 minutes, followed by around 30 minutes of after effects
  • At heroic doses, your trip may last for even longer
  • If you eat before your trip, the substance will take longer to kick in
  • If you take the substance orally, the trip will last for 2-3 hours

What does Yopo feel like?

Yopo seeds only contain a negligible amount of 5-MeO DMT and DMT, so the majority of the effects come from bufotenine.

The most notable effect of Yopo is the increase in the intensity of a person’s sense of touch and their awareness of the physical sensations across their body.

Bufotenine can give you the most intense and overwhelming physical sensations out of any psychedelic.

You will likely notice tingling and numbness throughout the body and an increased heart rate.

Other than that, the effects of Yopo are somewhat mild.

Colors become enhanced and shapes appear to morph, although not as much as with most other psychedelics.

Nausea and general bodily discomfort are common, especially towards the end of the trip.

A Yopo trip is usually less pleasant than other psychedelics.

Other common short-term effects include:

Euphoria
Increased creativity and open-mindedness
Mindfulness, being present
Higher capability for love and compassion
Pain relief
Feeling one with all that is
Seeing life from a different perspective
Appreciating small things
Higher energy
Increased awareness
Stamina enhancement
Feeling your emotions more intensely
Memory suppression
Time distortion
Inability to sleep
Visual effects (enhanced colors, seeing patterns in everything, distortions, …)
Getting stuck in a thought loop
Confusion
Nausea
Headache
Inability to focus
Increased body temperature
Increased heart rate
Worse thermoregulation
Difficulty urinating
Anxiety, paranoia
Vulnerability

The higher dose you take, the more intense these effects will be.

With that said, it is impossible to accurately describe the experience through human language.

The psychedelic affects each individual differently and no two trips are the same. Therefore, there is virtually no way to know what your trip will feel like.

The only way to truly know what Yopo feels like is to take it.

Unlike many other psychedelics, Yopo is not going to give you a pleasant experience in most cases. The trips often feel like getting poisoned and it is common to experience a bad trip on the substance. With that said, there are some ways you can prevent them from happening.

Bad trips

Bad trips often happen because people take the substance irresponsibly. If you take this psychedelic the right way, there is a much lower chance the experience will be unpleasant.

In case it still is, that’s good! A “bad” trip isn’t always bad, it can actually be the most healing and insightful moment of your life!

During a “bad” trip, negative emotions are coming up from your subconscious mind. They have always been there whether you are aware of it or not. They have been damaging your life and a difficult trip is an opportunity to process these traumas and unpleasant feelings and let go of them.

The more painful the experience, the more you can heal.

So instead of calling bad trips bad, call them challenging.

If you understand that bad trips are awesome in the long run, not only will you feel more comfortable diving into these challenging states, it will actually excite you!

Why they happen

The most common reasons for getting a bad trip are:

  • Tripping in an unsafe environment (in public, at a party, even nature doesn’t feel safe if you take higher doses)
  • Facing difficult times in your day-to-day life (a break-up, death of a loved one, …)
  • Rejecting to let go and trying to hold on to your ego and control the state
  • Being afraid of the trip (either because of the stigma around psychedelics or because you are not sure how pure your substance is)
  • Mixing the psychedelic with alcohol, weed, or other drugs
  • Expecting a bad trip (it can easily become a self-fulfilling prophecy)

How to cope with a bad trip

  • Do not perceive this experience as something bad, remember that facing these difficult emotions is extremely healing
  • Fully surrender to the experience, do not try to feel good
  • If you’re alone, call a trusted friend to come over and keep you safe

Interactions

  • Qualia Mind
    This nootropic is comprised of 28 ingredients designed to support and maximize your brain function. These ingredients act synergistically and many of them will protect you from the potential neurotoxic effects of the psychedelic. Qualia will also make your trips more pleasant and help you retain more benefits from them.
  • Green tea
    Tea makes you both more alert and calm at the same time. It also contains neuroprotective antioxidants, such as EGCG.
  • Herbs
    Herbs can help calm you down. Herbal teas (chamomile, lemon balm, valerian root, …) are especially helpful.
  • CBD
    CBD has a calming effect.
  • Weed
    Marijuana will greatly intensify the trip.
  • Nitrous oxide
    Nitrous oxide will multiply the intensity of your trip.
  • Dissociatives
    Combining dissociatives with psychedelics won’t necessarily cause you harm but it can be confusing and lead to bad trips.
  • Benzodiazepines (Valium, Xanax, …)
    Benzos will end your psychedelic experience within 40 minutes but using this method may cause you side effects in the long run.
  • Alcohol
    Alcohol minimizes all the potential benefits of a psychedelic experience. It also greatly increases your chance of having a bad trip.
  • SSRIs or MAOIs
    Not only will these antidepressants greatly decrease the intensity of your trip, but they can also lead to long-lasting side effects.
  • Lithium
    Combining psychedelics with lithium significantly increases the risk of seizures and psychosis.
  • Stimulants
    The combination can easily lead to heart problems, even if you’re a healthy individual.
  • Tramadol
    Combining the two can cause seizures.
  • St. John’s Wort
    This combination may lead to serotonin syndrome.

Legality

As of 2021, Yopo is legal in every country of the world, except for Australia and New Zealand.

However, Bufotenine, DMT, and 5-MeO DMT are all illegal in the US, UK, and many other countries.

FAQ

Since we don’t know about the safety of long-term bufotenine use, it may not be a good idea to take the substance more often than 3-4 times a year. As your trips get more and more intense, you will not want to trip nearly as often anyway. Becoming addicted to bufotenine is virtually impossible.

Yopo’s psychoactive effects are caused primarily by Bufotenin, which is a partial antagonist of the 5-HT2A and 5-HT1A receptors.

With that said, the only way to truly know what this psychedelic does to your brain is to try it yourself.

Most importantly, you need to trip in a safe place where there are no strangers around.

Whether you should take Yopo at home or in nature will depend on your priorities.

Tripping at home is safer and likely better for personal growth while taking psychedelics outside will help you develop a strong connection with nature.

Try both and see which one you like more.

If you are a mentally stable individual who does not suffer from psychosis or have a predisposition to schizophrenia, there is virtually no way you would develop any mental illnesses because of taking the psychedelic.

Keep the Yopo seeds in a cold dark place, preferably with no air.

When you store them well, they will last for years or even decades.

It is not recommended to eat before the experience.

Eating before your trip can cause nausea and even make you vomit.

So stop eating at least 3-4 hours before taking the substance.

  • Pregnant women
  • Immature people who are not willing to follow the safety guidelines
  • People who suffer from psychosis
  • People who have a familial history of schizophrenia
  • Those who suffer from HPPD
  • People who are going through a manic phase of bipolar disorder
  • If you’re going through extremely challenging times, you can take psychedelics but the trips might be unpleasant, beware of that

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Thank you for taking psychedelics responsibly, immature psychonauts are the last thing the psychedelic movement needs.

And thank you for being a part of this renaissance. Together, we can change the world!

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