Thoughts on Dextromethorphan?

[julienw]

Anyone ever experimented with DXM (Robitussin, robotripping, etc.) for consciousness work? I used to take psychedelics regularly but it's been a few years. Not particularly keen on sourcing and all that at this moment in my life, but I could swing by my local drugstore and pick up Robitussin quickly and legally. I'm just not sure it's what I'm looking for, so would appreciate any feedback on its value as a chemical for inner work.

[bmcnicho]

I’m also curious about this substance.  What makes this compound interesting is that it’s difficult to categorize, it can have properties of a dissociative, a deliriant, and a psychedelic.  
 

Taking the wrong kind can be fatal though, dxm needs to be the only active ingredient.  I haven’t researched if it’s physically safe to consume in large quantities, but it seems clear that classical psychedelics would be preferable.  The dosing is also different than other substances.  It has plateaus of different levels of intensity (5 if I’m remembering correctly) rather than the dosing being linear or exponential.  So one would want to dose at the lower end of the desired level.
 

There’s probably also a greater chance for negative experiences compared to other substances, however it sounds like it could have unique effects. I’d be interested to hear if anyone has successfully used dxm for spiritual purposes

[King Merk]

I’m very experienced with DXM. Done over 50 trips with it.

Beautiful substance but not ideal for consciousness work imo.

I stick to the big three of psychedelics now days (DMT/Shrooms/LSD).

They’re safer and easier on my body.

Its hard for me to explain but doing that much DXM took a toll on my body. And I did the acid-based extractions for about 25 of those trips so it was relatively pure DXM.

(One time I did fuck up the extraction and ended up drinking lighter fluid and puked blood while tripping balls lol what a night that was)

My eyes don’t work the same as they used to. Hard to explain but when I wake up in the morning I can only use one eye at a time for a couple minutes because my vision gets really weird. Very similar to how they act when you’re tripping on DXM. They’ve done this for years now.

 I could feel internally that damage was being done from my repeated use of this substance. I don’t feel that from traditional psychedelics.

Trip wise DXM is extremely similar to ketamine. It’s hard to differentiate the two but K feels a bit cleaner to me. DXM at high doses is extremely dissociating (even more so than K) in a way that makes any kind of focused contemplation quite difficult.

That said it has similar benefits of empty the mind and achieving no self like Leo mentions in his ketamine video. It’s a complete different “ego death” than what you get on normal psychedelics. 

There’s different plateaus with different types of trips depending on dosage. Most of my trips were in the 3rd and 4th plateau range which is where the pedal hits the medal. I really pushed my dosing because I fucking love exploring consciousness so maybe that’s why I had harsher sides from it.

In summary, DXM is an amazing substance that absolutely has psychoactive properties to it (and a therapeutic potential) 

That said I would stick too tradition psychedelics when possible.

But if you’re having a hard time finding psychedelics or want to explore legal alternative forms of consciousness exploration then DXM is your friend

Like always with drug use… be careful and do your research. 

[King Merk]

One trip I was meditating on DXM and completely left this reality. I was sitting facing a gigantic golden Buddha statue with a white glowing oura in all other directions. Closed eye visuals as clear as day. It felt like nirvana. Definitely psychedelic properties.

[funkychunkymonkey]

I have experienced enlightenment from doing kriya yoga on a high dose. Once the energy gets pulled up into the brain your perceptions and feelings of having a body vanish, at that point you just are, not as anything just are. The field unifys and if u can sit with half decent concentration you'll get some insights 

[G_A_L_E_X_Y]

In my teenage years I experimented probably 100 times. I used a few different forms. We did extractions after feeling pretty much poisoned by OTC methods. Different otc methods always started out ok (first couple of times) but then the body would get wise to the game very quick and would violently reject the new poison. Then we got ahold of some “pure” powder form. I am almost certain it was fairly impure, but then again, dxm is not a clean feeling drug. 
Anyway, I took it as seriously as a teen can take an otc psychedelic experience. One funny thing- I never had a bad trip on dxm, though some trips were FAR more visionary than others and some were filled with multiple vomiting sessions and extremely strange imagery. It was wholly different from what I absolutely recognize as a bad trip on the usual stuff. 
DXM was great at letting me see through the eyes of other beings, but the normal experience was that I would just spiral endlessly into an amazing visualization based on the music I was listening to. 
I once experienced a prolonged 2D flattening of the visual field. That was really odd. 
I experienced timelessness quite a few times. 
One time my brother and I had both dosed and were peaking, laying on recliners on opposite sides of a huge living room. Somehow we joined each other in the same fantasy. A giant white space with a narrow bridge over infinite depth. There was a significant gap in the middle and he and I were on either side looking at a whirlwind of gray dust and light growing stronger and louder by the second. All the sudden the intensity reached a peak and we both shot out of our respective chairs gasping loudly exclaiming and asking if we saw each other in the vision. Truly amazing. 
The experiences were mostly darker and more brooding and strange, rarely beautiful. Sometimes kind of twisted. The more pure the dxm the more I got crossed eyes. 
I could literally talk for hours and hours about it but truly to me it is not ideal for consciousness work. It’s great because you can remember the experience very well and because I felt like I had to completely accept the possibility of death quite a few times, but not so great in some ways. It’s all mystery and no revelation. Literally. Not always a bad thing but not very useful. I got to the point where I could no longer take dxm even for therapeutic cough purposes hahahaha for clarity sake I had all sorts of other experiences throughout these same years but none as frequently as dxm and I didn’t go very profoundly into any other territory. It was probably something to do with the dissociative aspect of the effects and my shit growing up  

From age 21 to 28 I had zero psychedelic experiences and I was totally absorbed in a culty Christian church despite all my cool visions/experiences, thus I feel like the dxm impact was not so stupendous. After those years I began asking questions and reconsidering the nature of those odd experiences. Once I had departed those sillier paths I embarked on a more traditional psychedelic path (along with other consciousness work) and now it feels like almost everything is a chamber of holy light compared to dxm. Again. It wasn’t bad but I guess sometimes you don’t realize how dark things are until you see the exquisite light. 
Though I had my strongest, most prophesy-like visions on dxm, there are moments, split seconds even on other substances that were able to untie knots in my mind that I figure were just part of existence. I don’t recommend dxm. It is weird and you can learn more and a lot more quickly from other substances, but there is something to be said about traversing a strange land, looking through the eyes of strange beings and then not even beginning to understand said experiences until something else comes along and unlocks your consciousness years down the line. ??‍♂️ 

Edited August 20, 2022 by G_A_L_E_X_Y