changa

Changa is a smokeable mixture containing the psychoactive substance dimethyltryptamine (DMT). The mixture most often comprises a blend of psychotria viridis (aka chacruna), which contains DMT, and Baniseriopsis Caapi, which contains a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAO-I).

This smokeable blend was spearheaded by Australian psychonaut Julian Palmer in the early noughties, and was used as an alternative to crystallised DMT. The issue with smoking the freebase version of DMT was that the effects came on hard and fast—smoking DMT in its crystallised form can be a tumultuous ride.

Changa was developed as a remedy to this; the addition of an MAO-I prevents the breakdown of DMT. If users want to experience the mind-altering effects of DMT without the intense onset, or want to ‘break through’ on a lower dose, then Changa may be a more suitable alternative option.

changa dmt

There’s a lot to ensuring a safe psychedelic trip. Take the wrong dose, be in the wrong setting, or not have the right person beside you as you go through the experience—whether it’s your first time or your hundredth—can be risky.

But with psychedelics only just beginning to emerge from the stigma they’ve been under, it’s hard to find reliable resources to ensure your safe travels. That is, until now.

Psychedelic Passage is a new program designed to provide professionally guided psychedelic experiences and ceremonies to individuals in their homes within the United States. And it’s 100 percent legal.

The organization was founded by Nick Levich and Jimmy Nguyen, both of whom are passionate about working in the psychedelic space. “It’s honestly been a lifetime journey for me. Neither one of us expected to end up here,” Levich says. “Basically, we were individually and at times together using psychedelics over like 12-14 years, primarily recreationally. Those included a number of different trial-by-fire learning experience because there simply wasn’t a lot of information out there at the time.”

But when Michael Pollan’s book, “How to Change Your Mind” was released in 2018, Levich says he realized that psychedelics were finally moving into the mainstream. That’s when he recognized the need for good, reliable sitters.

What are the Effects of Changa?

The effects of Changa come from the DMT contained within chacruna. Rick Strassman popularised DMT as “The Spirit Molecule”, as it featured many similar aspects of religious and spiritual experiences. This included strong hallucinations, like hearing voices, and entering an internally generated world that did not depend on sensory experience.

Within this world, users often have encounters with ‘entities’ from other realms after they have ‘broken through’. The form that these entities take on, however, is intertwined with an individual’s culture, set, and setting.

While these breakthrough experiences are certainly possible with Changa, it is dependent on a large amount being smoked in a short period of time. For a lighter experience, users may smoke changa in a pipe or a joint. This lighter experience is characterised by smaller changes in perception and cognition; the pioneer of Changa, Julian Palmer said that it should “brighten colour, amplify perception and clarify the activity of the mind, and bring alignment to the thoughts.