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Tripping on Xenon Gas (2023)

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Re: Tripping on Xenon Gas (2023)

#81
post #69

There is another post that is sounding an alarm on inert gas asphyxiation which I think is quite important but it's flagged, presumably because of a sidebar admonishment about drug addiction. Breathing inert gasses is extremely dangerous. It is not like holding your breath: because the gas you inhale is free of oxygen, it actively pulls oxygen out of your blood. Instead of thinking about breath holding, think more li…

Most people who are going to experiment with this are going to do so out of a balloon, not a regulator.

Re: Tripping on Xenon Gas (2023)

#82

These days we have some theory about this. See Stuart Hameroff MD, a Professor of Anesthesiology and Psychology, and Director of the Center for Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona. To sum it up from my limited understanding: This disturbs the quantum coherance in the microtubelies in all cells (But mostly nurons) which is needed for consciousness to "limit" itself to a identity.

Ummmm what?

Hameroff is one of those common pseudo-psy frauds. Dawkins hit the nail on the head when he said consciousness is hard to grasp and understand so everytime something in science comes along that is also hard to grasp, people latch on to it as an explanation. 70s it was chaos theory, then everyone switch to quantum entanglement, and already seeing it leak into AGI.

Re: Tripping on Xenon Gas (2023)

#83

> Argon [...] cost about $2 per liter each. Uh, what?? No it doesn't. I'm a hobbyist welder. When TIG welding you typically use 100% argon gas. I have a 60 cu ft cylinder hooked up to my welder right now; it costs $89 to refill at my local Airgas store. That's approximately 5.2 cents per liter. Here's a 40 cu ft tank of argon for sale on Amazon for $205: https://www.amazon.com/100-Argon-Welding-Tank-CGA/dp/B00I4Z6...…

As with anything medical, the price of the item isn't just the item itself, it's purity plus that someone has verified and stamped off on it. I don't know much about argon, but for nitrous oxide, food grade is generally between 99% and 99.9% pure. If you want medical grade, the threshold is 99.99% pure or better depending on what you're doing. Those additional nines are what drive the price up, plus the fact that someone put their skin in the game and signed off on it with their name.

Re: Tripping on Xenon Gas (2023)

#84

In college I used a lot of nitrous. I got small cartridges and a “cracker” with a balloon. It was pretty euphoric. I stopped after recording myself taking it. I was unconscious a lot longer than I remembered being, and even though I was probably never at risk of suffocating there were long periods where I didn’t see myself breathing. That was enough. I regret the effects it may have had on my brain. It’s impossible t…

Unconscious from the hypoxia? Why don’t recreational nitrous users mix in some oxygen like medical users do?

> Why don’t recreational nitrous users mix in some oxygen like medical users do?

Because they don't know better. It's not like we teach "safe consumption" in schools, and so most (particularly young) consumers of all possible kinds of drugs end up with cargo-culted consumption methods. Yes, Erowid etc. exist, but you need to know about that as well.

The correct thing to do would be to have "drug ed" similar to sex ed, but we see with the latter already how fierce political opposition to fact-based education can be, and with drugs it's going to be even worse.

Re: Tripping on Xenon Gas (2023)

#85

> Argon [...] cost about $2 per liter each. Uh, what?? No it doesn't. I'm a hobbyist welder. When TIG welding you typically use 100% argon gas. I have a 60 cu ft cylinder hooked up to my welder right now; it costs $89 to refill at my local Airgas store. That's approximately 5.2 cents per liter. Here's a 40 cu ft tank of argon for sale on Amazon for $205: https://www.amazon.com/100-Argon-Welding-Tank-CGA/dp/B00I4Z6...…

"Uh, what?? No it doesn't."

He works for Airgas, clearly :)

I'm with you on pricing - i pay about the same.

Actually, Airgas has research grade xenon at $132/standard liter. So much more than they are claiming in the article.

Re: Tripping on Xenon Gas (2023)

#86

> Argon [...] cost about $2 per liter each. Uh, what?? No it doesn't. I'm a hobbyist welder. When TIG welding you typically use 100% argon gas. I have a 60 cu ft cylinder hooked up to my welder right now; it costs $89 to refill at my local Airgas store. That's approximately 5.2 cents per liter. Here's a 40 cu ft tank of argon for sale on Amazon for $205: https://www.amazon.com/100-Argon-Welding-Tank-CGA/dp/B00I4Z6...…

As with anything medical, the price of the item isn't just the item itself, it's purity plus that someone has verified and stamped off on it. I don't know much about argon, but for nitrous oxide, food grade is generally between 99% and 99.9% pure. If you want medical grade, the threshold is 99.99% pure or better depending on what you're doing. Those additional nines are what drive the price up, plus the fact that som…

So Ultra high purity stamped argon (99.9999) is twice the price of industrial argon used for welding.

Food grade Argon is actually half the price of industrial argon.

See https://www.airgas.com/product/Gases/Argon/p/AR%20FG300 vs https://www.airgas.com/product/Gases/Argon/p/AR%20300 vs https://www.airgas.com/product/Gases/Argon/p/AR%20UHP300

Re: Tripping on Xenon Gas (2023)

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unconscious from the hypoxia? Why don’t recreational nitrous users mix in some oxygen like medical users do?

> Why don’t recreational nitrous users mix in some oxygen like medical users do? Because they don't know better. It's not like we teach "safe consumption" in schools, and so most (particularly young) consumers of all possible kinds of drugs end up with cargo-culted consumption methods. Yes, Erowid etc. exist, but you need to know about that as well. The correct thing to do would be to have "drug ed" similar to sex ed…

I get that, but for these pop-up shops selling to partygoers out of large tanks it seems like very little extra effort and expense for a dramatically improved user experience. Market forces alone should be enough to incentivize adding oxygen.

Re: Tripping on Xenon Gas (2023)

#88
I've done Xenon a fair number of times, it is definitely the Rolls Royce of inhalants. I'd recommend it to anyone as long as you can divert a little and aren't paying for it yourself. If you don't have unlimited amounts of money, it simply is not worth it.

If you're looking for a great NMDA inhalant experience I'd recommend another classic 19th century anesthetic, diethyl ether. It is extremely simple to produce -- heat everclear and sulfuric acid together and distill. Adjust the PH afterwards. Anyone can make diethyl ether. The actual meat of the ether experience is actually on par with Xenon. I'd say the only element that makes it worse is the aftertaste.

It's still a tradition among Lemkos in the Carpathians (Slava Ukraini!) to drink ether. Drinking is a little trickier, as the boiling point of ether is lower than your body temperature. You should chew and swallow some crushed ice beforehand, and also serve a bit in a shotglass with some crushed ice and lemon shaved ice to offset the taste. I've also found pina colada mix to be a great accompaniment. If you're just starting out with ether I recommend just inhaling the vapor.

Re: Tripping on Xenon Gas (2023)

#89
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly the symptoms aren't the same as just holding your breath, which makes me think that it is not, in fact, completely nonreactive. (But I'm a total noob to biochemistry.) Similar to Nitrous Oxide, which definitely has a powerful psychedelic effect and is not at all simply hypoxia.

I wouldn’t call nitrous oxide “psychedelic” although it is certainly psychoactive.

it sure does make other psychedelics a lot lot lot more intense though

Re: Tripping on Xenon Gas (2023)

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ummmm what?

Hameroff is one of those common pseudo-psy frauds. Dawkins hit the nail on the head when he said consciousness is hard to grasp and understand so everytime something in science comes along that is also hard to grasp, people latch on to it as an explanation. 70s it was chaos theory, then everyone switch to quantum entanglement, and already seeing it leak into AGI.

I recall coming across him before due to his extensive collaboration with Penrose. Typifies the thin line between genius and bonkers.
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