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From my journal: "What the hell was that sound?!

It wasn't our game of Scrabble, it was my thinking process scrambling itself. The constant verbal voice in my head (which I identify as my ego) fragmented and became mindless sound. There were no real thoughts anymore, just: Blrrb Bbbb Llllell Trrrgy. Flrrgly Plurrgly Blurbly?

Blurby Peei Terpb!!!!

I stared around the room uncomprehendingly. This was terrifying.

Aeeioiuu! EEEEeeblleel!

(Is it ego-death when the voice in your head, the decision-maker (i.e. "I") ceases to even make nonsense or does it only count as ego-death when the voice stops altogether?)"

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"Another action of hypericum [St. John's Wort] constituents that is particularly relevant to antidepressant effects is the ability to inhibit neuronal reuptake of monoamines. The half-maximal inhibition for monoamine uptake is 100 times lower than for the inhibition of MAOa or MAOb. Hyperforin is the major contributor to this action, blocking reuptake of 5-HT, norepinephrine, and dopamine...

"In addition to reuptake effects, subchronic treatment with hyperforin... up-regulates 5-HT2 receptors in the frontal cortex of the rat. Chronic (26-week) daily treatment with 2700 mg/kg of a hypericum extract up-regulates the affinity and density of both 5-HT1A and 5-HT2 receptors by 50%..."

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From the pharmacology section of this site: "It is believed that psilocybin, LSD, and DMT work by mimicking the neurotransmitter serotonin (5-HT), one of the most important and widespread of the brain's synaptic neurochemical messengers. The mimicking occurs because LSD, and particularly psilocybin, possess an almost identical molecular structure to serotonin i.e. their shape is so similar that they are able to 'fool' and infiltrate parts of the brain which process information using serotonergic synapses.

"...One particular serotonin receptor though - the so-called 5-HT2 type - appears to represent a common site of action of both psilocybin and mescaline."

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i dunno about the last part where you said that when the ht2 receptors were more sensitive to their signals. Just because they are more sensitive to it, doesnt mean that the trip was bigger. I do believe that your trip was intensified because the psilocin didnt get reuptaken, therefore, it stayed in the synapse a lil longer.

Now for your "ego" loss, probably didnt lose it, cuz if you did, you would not be so sure that you did, because your memory would be so fucked (hypothalimus) that you would not remember it. However, it probably got distorted, or bypassed. I was reading about ketamine, which i have had in the hospital before, and they say it does dissolve the ego temporarily. And those sounds you said you heard, like non-sensicle, well, i heard similar sounds on ketamine, infact, this is what they sounded like when i and the doctors where talking.
sounds

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Although only minor visuals, open or close eyed. When open All words spun, and the individual letters spun the opposite direction. I asked the people on this board and they dismissed the possibility that st johns wort contributed to the experience. (i also have a high natural tolerence to mushrooms effects)....im interested to see what comes of this.

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From my journal entry about that night: Then in addition to trails, red shadows, minor latticework, etc. letters appeared in the shadows of the room. They were very bright and very "loud" letters.

This is significant because my voice in my head was worriedly asking, blrrgly eeeeioiue? And the letters "screamed" at me by brightening in neon color. I'd suppose that the nearest thing I've seen to it before was when I saw the Matrix years back, the letters conforming to the shape of the environment... It was similar, I suppose {frustrated}, but somehow it really, really hurt my head. They were mocking me.

During the rare lucid moments, I kept trying to relax and accept what was going on but I was just a man in pain. The letters spun and danced (in tight little circles) with my eyes open or closed. And that's how the trip played out for the next three or four hours until I touched down.

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