DOSE:	repeated	oral	Yerba Mate	(liquid)
		smoked	Yerba Mate	(dried)

BODY WEIGHT:

92 kg

I have been experimenting with Yerba Mate as a mind altering herb in various dosages and methods. This is a synthesis of what I observed. The results might be different from person to person so just keep that into consideration if you try it for yourself.

Drinking Mate tea is so far the best usage method I know of. I don't own a gourd and bombilla so I made use of a coffeemaker for heating the water and keeping it at a sub-boiling temperature. I put 8 table spoons of yerba tea and a table spoon of honey in the pot (not in the filter because I need to reuse the plant over and over again and keep it in contact with the water all the time). I pour a little cold water to wet the mate leaves and homogenize with the honey. The honey leaves a great aroma into the leaves and the end result is better in my opinion than mixing it later, after the tea is made (I don't use sugar because it is not as healthy and in my opinion the taste is not as good). Then I pour 2 cups (about 400-500ml) of water in the other compartment of the coffeemaker and let it do its thing for 10-15 minutes. In this time the hot water extracts an amazingly strong first cup of tea.

I drink the tea by sipping it little by little. It can be drank hot or cold, but the point is to sip it instead of just gulping it down the throat - that way you can absorb sublingually some of the mate goodness and it directly enters the bloodstream and goes right into the brain. When I do that I can feel a sudden rush through my brain, like a pleasant tingling sensation going up from the back of the head towards the top of the head - this is the best part.

After 15-30 minutes the tea makes its way into the bloodstream and I get a second rush, a little different from the first. It is slower and envelops the whole body. I start getting this wonderful tingling sensation all over the body (it seems mate opens the capillaries and enhances the peripheral circulation - which stimulates the skin which is connected to millions of tactile nerves - that is in my opinion the physical explanation of this tactile stimulation). I get the same tactile sensations from cannabis too, but it is much more intense. Mate on the other hand is very manageable yet powerful enough to entice me to do it almost daily, as it is also completely legal, inexpensive and easy to procure.

The sensation lasts anywhere from 1 hour to 4-5 hours. Sometimes after 1 liter of mate tea brewed from 8 tablespoons of dry tea I can have the effects for 3-4 hours before going to bed and another 2-3 hours after waking up! I might be more sensitive than the average person as I have been practicing yoga meditation for years so I guess everyone is probably experiencing somewhat different effects and for a different length of time.

The second method I tried is smoking dry leaf. I used the filter from a normal cigarette. The smoke is acceptable, I could even get myself to like it. The effects are very subtle and more cerebral. The same tingling in the brain and body, the same etheric sensation. I combined with drinking the mate tea and the final effect was one of the best I've had. It might have been just my expectation that drove up the sensation and the smoke have only very little effect. Anyway, I can say it's not mind blowing like salvia or even remotely close as intense as cannabis can be. It's just a subtle sensation that might add up to the sensation you get from drinking the tea. I would say, drinking the tea makes 80% of the sensations and smoking just 20% at most.

Another method of usage I tried was to make a concentrate of yerba mate. For this I made 2 liters of tea out of 100g of leaf. I put 4 times 2 cups of water in the coffeemaker. This guaranteed after the 4th hand that the leaves were almost 'completely washed'. So I had 2 liters of mate goodness. Then I put this in a pot on the fire and boiled it for 1-2 hours until it reduced to the volume of a small espresso coffee (it is usually not recommended to boil mate so I might try to let it evaporate naturally, next time, but that will take even more time).

It looked like a black syrup - that is thicker than normal tea and very dark. Before I drunk it I added some honey to make it more palatable. The effects came on after 10 minutes and lasted for more than 5 hours. I consider 100g of leaves too much to use at once (I got a nauseating sensation in the stomach after 2 hours - yet bearable). Maybe half the quantity should be better, or just to drink only half the concentrate at one time. The whole body was tingling with a superb sensation. I was focused and calm, yet intense. The heart might have been beating stronger than normal. I wasn't 'high' per se, but I had a subtle sensation of floating and my body felt like it was made of something wonderful and different from normal.

For those that know a little about yoga, I will try to describe the sensations in a technical language. The mate tea activates a subtle purification in the etheric body. It gives an intense sattvic resonance, yet it is also resonating with apas and also gives a warm sensation (heat). The tea stimulates Ajna chakra and the whole brain. It can lead to a sensation of purity and a feeling of astral floating. The etheric body can be clearly perceived as a lot of energy is attracted into it by resonance. Mate tea gives a type of resonance with Ananda, the energy of happiness and beatitude. It also removes some psychic blocks and makes introverts and shy people more extrovert and voluble in conversation.

As negative effects: nausea at high dosages - a sensation that passes in a few hours and is bearable for me, especially the second time and later on as I knew what it was and I wasn't scared like the first time. It can overstimulate the mind creating a sensation of mental rush. Might reduce the equilibrium - again, only at high dosages. Also, in high dosages might put a strain on the heart.

Overall I think mate is amazing - a legal high that is manageable, healthy and also reduces appetite and helps with mental and physical effort.

Exp Year: 2006	ExpID: 58137
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Mar 8, 2007	Views: 41,767
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Yerba Mate (282), Yoga / Bodywork (202) : Retrospective / Summary (11), Alone (16)