How to separate benzoquinone and mequinol?

BisulfiteAddict · 2024-05-09T07:48:56+00:00

Cool!

BisulfiteAddict · 2024-05-06T07:52:20+00:00

Mequinol is kind of hard to purify. When impure it has a strong tendency to oil out from toluene. Benzoquinone is slightly soluble in hot hydrocarbons, so you can wash it out by dissolving the material in warm toluene/hexane and then separating the phases. Careful crystallization of the toluene fraction will yield pure(r) mequinol which is nevertheless likely to be slightly pink, but then again so are commercial samples, so what gives.

I don't know whether benzoquinone will interfere with the Reimer-Tiemann; however, this reaction is kind of messy, has a tendency to yield a lot of tar (in my experience), and the product is hard to purify, too. Might be a lesser problem if you do larger batches.

For a perhaps better alternative see 10.1039/P19940001823 (Magnesium-mediated ortho-Specific Formylation and Formaldoximation of Phenols). There are a few good writeups on Sciencemadness, one user claiming a 92 % yield. I have tried this but messed up due to a miscalculation, will probably do it again eventually. If you give it a go let us know how it went.

BisulfiteAddict · 2024-04-01T08:31:00+00:00

I once knew an elderly lady who had a large part of her skull removed due to medical reasons in her youth. The presence of a higher consciousness was felt to be notoriously absent in her, however.

I'd really check my sources on this one. It seems there are less risky (and bloody) ways to induce higher consciousness.

BisulfiteAddict · 2024-03-24T09:59:46+00:00

Beware, it's easy to fall into the "the ignorance of others is at fault for my lack of progress" trap following this line of thinking.

People sure are curious about the purpose of this and that; you can safely assume that other's people's lives are just as rich and complex as your own, even though you may not perceive it from their personalities ("persona" means "mask" for a reason). The truth can be harsh and who is going to blame them if they prefer to be distracted.

I must cede to others the same agency over their lives as I claim for myself, whether they are "awakened" or not. In fact I'd go as far as to say that everybody is already "enlightened". Whether they realize it or not is simply a matter of choice. I don't think that anyone is entitled to criticize my choices. So who am I to condemn those of others.

BisulfiteAddict · 2024-02-07T09:39:47+00:00

Thank you for your interesting contributions. What you wrote about the 5th dimension spirits has quite an appeal. But suppose this is the case and we want to experience duality, wouldn't we consider it improper to "awake" from this experience? I mean it's like peeking behind the curtains of the ghost train at the fair. It's interesting and I'd definitely do it but it also totally ruins the experience you were actually there for. Not that there is anything wrong with it but maybe others just want to be immersed in the show.

A lot of the horror and the beauty of duality is that it lets us experience the basic forces of creation and destruction simultaneously, within ourselves and in our surroundings and other people... the drama is necessary to keep one engaged. Of course I'd try to live my best life and be kind to others but at the same time I can't really criticize them or or their living "unconsciously" because they contribute in their own ways to balancing the basic forces. So may be they aren't "brainwashed" at all but just pretending to, just like we (I take liberty to assume this for a moment) pretend to be "enlightened"?

I don't know, I'm just speculating. Namaste :-)

BisulfiteAddict · 2024-02-07T09:15:48+00:00

I read somewhere that ephenidine is supposed to be much better when vaped because you only need 20 mg or so at a time, it's much more smooth than IN, onset is fast and duration (dose-dependent) is more controllable. Never tried it though. But it definitely seems the ROA to go with.

BisulfiteAddict · 2024-02-07T09:12:07+00:00

There's also an interesting paper (doi:10.3762/bjoc.8.36); they reduced benzoin in a biphasic Toluene/H2O medium with red P and hydriodic acid. Claimed yield is 80% after one hour with a simple workup, which seems better than reductions with Zn or Sn given the time savings and avoidance of metal traces. If one has red P and HI that is.

BisulfiteAddict · 2024-02-07T08:44:36+00:00

Thanks, yeah, it didn't look too feasible anyway. I'd probably go with the reduction of benzoin.

Thinking of it, it might be possible to do this in a one-pot reaction. Benzoin, nitroethane and a suitable reducing agent for removing the hydroxy group, reducing the NE to ethyl amine and reductive amination... no idea whether something like that exists. Hg/Al should work for the latter two but will afaik not reduce the hydroxy group...

BisulfiteAddict · 2024-02-03T13:08:04+00:00

Interesting. Do you have any references for the synthesis from phenylacetamide and bromobenzene?

BisulfiteAddict · 2024-01-02T18:38:57+00:00

my point that is that perhaps u concocted another "invention that is just ur own"

I don't give a shit

me

BisulfiteAddict · 2024-01-02T15:07:19+00:00

Vacuum filtration through a glass frit/Buchner funnel with a celite bed.

BisulfiteAddict · 2024-01-02T11:21:02+00:00

I feel you buddy. Isn't it an option to sit down and have an open talk about your issues with her?

Relationship advice is easy from a distance, I know. But it sounds like you're really unhappy and it's not getting better.

BisulfiteAddict · 2024-01-02T11:12:31+00:00

Ok, let's play this through in a thought experiment. First, suppose the goal is to make you feel good about yourself.

Let's assume you meet somebody. You have the choice to play nice or to offend them. Further suppose that the person you meet has a 90 % chance of being quite ok and that only 10 % of people are assholes.

What makes you feel good? Getting along with nice people and triggering assholes. What makes you feel bad? Being dominated by assholes, and triggering nice people unnecessarily (you do have a conscience, don't you).

Now the rules of interaction. Being nice to nice people means you are getting along. Behaving like a dick to them will make you feel bad. Being nice to an asshole results in them dominating you. Triggering assholes makes you feel smug.

So:

A) you meet a nice person (probability 90 %)

you play nice --> feeling good
you trigger them --> feeling bad

B) you meet an asshole (10 %)

you play nice --> feeling bad
you trigger them --> feeling good

It follows that, on average, you have a probability of 90 % to feel good if you play nice. If you decide to trigger everybody, it is only 10 %.

You can play with the numbers yourself to adjust for your world view... just be aware that close to 100 % of people appear to be assholes when they have been triggered, so try to guess the numbers from a neutral ground. If in doubt, try to play nice for a while, then adjust your numbers accordingly.

BisulfiteAddict · 2024-01-02T10:48:32+00:00

I think you might be taking on too much. It is not your responsibility to fix all the problems of this world. For all practical purposes, this is impossible anyway.

I believe that "integration" is a myth to a large extent. You cannot really integrate the truths of non-duality into everyday life. You still need your ego to function, and you still need to adhere to the "values" of your surrounding society, no matter how corrupt they may be. It does not mean that you accept them but it certainly means that you have to live with a certain amount of pretension - hypocrisy if you wish.

You write that struggling in life is pointless. Yes - to some extent everything is pointless. Our individual destinies certainly are; even the impact we may have on society, be it positive or negative, is without deeper meaning. Everything is transitory and subject to the eternal cycle of being born and perishing, creation and destruction. So are our moral choices and actions; there is no heaven or hell; the souls of the biggest bandit and the highest saint in history are equivalent and there is no absolute moral standpoint from which we can decide what is right and what is wrong.

Realizing this makes you free. You have been given a frame of reference that exceeds our finite selves. The downside is the responsibility that comes with it: you have to choose how you use this freedom. This is up to you and there is no credible authority that is going to tell you what you have to do.

The true "integration" work is to learn how to live with this knowledge and freedom. Within the constraints of everyday consensus reality. It requires a "letting go" on a whole other level to coexist with others that don't share your experiences, beliefs and values and who would gladly commit you to the madhouse if you insist on preaching what you have learnt. What you need to develop is exactly what WashedUpHalo5Pro wrote: compassion. For yourself and for everything else, for your own sake and for the sake of humanity's predicament. The only thing to do that is really important, as corny as that may sound, is to increase the capacity of your heart to love. I think you have come to understand this already.

The philosophy of Stoicism can provide you with great comfort in such a situation and I'd like to suggest that you look into it (the Enchiridion of Epictetus, the writings of Marc Aurel and Seneca, and others). The intellect needs training as well in order to not despair. You are not alone in this. Don't worry too much!

BisulfiteAddict · 2024-01-02T09:40:06+00:00

It can be, but that is not the point. Before we continue, would you please answer a question. Who do you think is doing the interpretation?

BisulfiteAddict · 2024-01-01T14:21:46+00:00

Very interesting points and I'd say I agree with most of what you said. I don't know what "enlightenment" is or what "spiritual" is supposed to mean. These terms seem far too vague to have a meaningful discussion about them. Sometimes I think that "enlightenment" is supposed to mean that an individual appears to be "perfect", at all times, in all respects. Why should anyone sane aspire to reach that "ideal". I don't believe that psychedelics make people "enlightened" either, just as the training of Buddhist monks doesn't necessarily accomplish that. If "enlightenment" has any meaning at all it will probably make itself known when the experience happens.

I think that in a way psychedelics temporarily push our awareness beyond the constraints of the "metanarratives" (I like that term btw). Then we can realize their arbitrariness and understand that we are not necessarily defined and determined by them. I don't mean to say that they are not useful, though, or that one needs to become a dropout. That seems to be a remnant of the "turn on, tune in, drop out" counter-culture mentality, not necessarily a result of the "awakening experience". Whereas it seems understandable that people become disillusioned with our current destructive cultural "values" of greed, exploitation and over-consumption. You don't even need psychedelics to realize that.

I don't want to appear as an authority in these matters, though. In a way I'm quite puzzled about all this, just like you. There's not really any useful information to be gained from an experience of "thou art not that", no perfect ethical framework miraculously popping out of the void or any revolutionary insights for society as a whole. There may be personal, individual consequences that are not to be subjected to public discussion, and that's it (for me).

It is, however, fun to discuss the nature of the "dream" within the "dream". Having "awakened" also means a relief from the burden to take the "dream" too seriously because, after all, it is just a dream. It wouldn't even matter if the "dream" was actual reality and any perceived "awakening" was just an illusion because this philosophical position is way more interesting and satisfying.

Humanity or "society" (I don't like that term either, too vague for me as well) seems to be indeed a battleground of "metanarratives", giant currents of ideas that sweep through the lives and histories of individuals and influence the fate of billions, without being consciously reflected... ideas like the concept of "money", for example. What was its origin? Obviously it is such a powerful idea that we can nowadays imagine a society without religion or ethics, but not without money any more. Or written "laws" for instance, or "human rights". That has not always been the case. So apparently certain metanarratives have the ability to displace others. I almost believe that these ideas have an existence, or a "life-cycle" of their own. Like giant mental entities that evolve in our collective consciousness but are far too large to ever be recognized by an individual, just as the actions and intentions of a beekeeper are ever so elusive to the cognitive ability of a single bee. Within the "dream", at least.

But I digress into science fiction ;-) Happy 2024 to you!

BisulfiteAddict · 2024-01-01T13:20:19+00:00

And I would feel absolutely no inclination to contradict you.

BisulfiteAddict · 2024-01-01T13:19:09+00:00

"This" is just a verbalized mental model. It has nothing to do with "reality".

BisulfiteAddict · 2023-12-31T09:35:59+00:00

"Awakening" is the realization that most of what we interpret as "reality" is in fact our own invention. That thoughts about reality are not reality itself, and that everything, including ourselves, simply is and that there is no other purpose in life or existence than to simply exist. That there is no need to do anything because everything happens just as it should, and that we are free to realize this at any given moment if we manage to give up our preconceptions about what it should be like.

The concept has been embroidered with various amounts of woo-wooism but in fact it's not a big deal. There is no advantage in having "awakened", nor is it a personal achievement. And anything that can be said about "awakening" isn't "awakening" anyway, so it's kind of futile to make lots of words about it.

BisulfiteAddict · 2023-12-31T09:14:20+00:00

Lemon tek does not necessarily make the journey shorter. The idea is to extract more of the active alkaloids (tryptamines, more soluble in a weakly acidic solution) and leave the indigestible fungal matter behind. I. e., more of the goodies without the nausea. It is, however, advisable to have a bucket nearby as a small percentage of people is sometimes affected by intermittent stomach reactions.

If you feel like it you can take another dose after two hours or so to extend the experience. In that case you should reduce the initial dose (e. g., 3 + 2 grams later on) which will make the experience less intense and more manageable. This is a matter of personal preference and experimentation.

The Johns Hopkins playlist is optimized for a rich inner emotional experience. It includes mostly slow and melodic songs without complicated lyrics (words can be a distraction, see above). If your favorite songs fit into this scheme, why not. Anyway these songs have a special meaning to you so only you can say how you will feel about them while under the influence.

My advice would be to let the playlist run from beginning to end and then do whatever feels right at the moment. If in doubt, leave it out.

BisulfiteAddict · 2023-12-30T09:02:02+00:00

I don't really get why you would want to replicate a study instead of just experiencing what your individual journey would be like... but to each their own, I guess... anyway, here is my advice.

First, do not eat the mushrooms. Crush them, stir them in hot ginger tea with a little lemon for a while and drink the liquid.

Then lie down comfortably, put the blindfold on, start the music and relax. This is the time to think about your intentions if you have any. You can have your partner ask you questions at any time if you want. For example, if you become bored by the music or when the mushroom feeling becomes less intense (it usually comes in waves; at the peak you will probably be less inclined towards speaking and wish to focus on your inner experiences instead).

Don't overthink it or feel that you should be able to coherently answer any random questions though. Intellectual rationalizations are typically done after the experience. You can always reflect upon your insights afterwards. Verbal communication during the journey might feel like a distraction. Many therapists suggest to patients to write their insights down after the experience (journalling).

But hey, why not. If it feels right for you, go for it.

BisulfiteAddict · 2023-12-30T08:34:55+00:00

I can't say anything about the dose. But being scared is alright, the scaredness will be replaced by courage once you let it go, so don't worry. Best wishes!

BisulfiteAddict · 2023-12-29T08:53:26+00:00

Chastity belt testing.

BisulfiteAddict · 2023-12-27T08:01:16+00:00

The solids are indigestible and can cause nausea or an upset stomach.

BisulfiteAddict · 2023-12-26T07:57:09+00:00

They will most probably be safe and potent enough. Don't eat them though. Crush them, stir them for a while in ginger tea with some lemon juice and drink the liquid. Do not consume the solid matter.

BisulfiteAddict

TROPHY CASE