I've been a dxm user for a lil over 3 years now, and while most advise here is solid(start low, look at the dosage calculators for your mg/kg ratio, go to lower plateaus before upper, use sparingly, good mindstate/setting, ect), some seem to be based on scare tactics.
The 1/3rds rule really isn't solid, it's just that the experience itself can be quite scary for alot of people who aren't used to being stripped of thier normal perceptions. Unlike other psychedelics it doesn't really enhance your perceptions in more relatable ways(even at low doses), but takes you away from them. In this way, through meditation and the internal trip the upper plateaus afford you, you can actually connect further to new perceptions and experiences beyond description aking to salvia/DMT experiences and/or high dose shrooms/lsd experiences. There are plenty of psychonauts out there(myself included) that rank DXM as a more intense psychedelic experience then the traditional phens/tryps. Especially if you have a few hits of marijuana on top of it.
There have been alot of progress in the art of consuming cough medicines as well. You don't have to go through the hassle of downing 8+ozes of nasty syrup anymore. Robitussin gels have been out for awhile now, as is zicam and delsym. Gels probably aren't much better then syrup in terms of how much crap your ingesting on top of the DXM, I myself get a horrible allergic reaction to it if I take more then 300mg of them, my entire body goes red and burns, my fingers and such swell up and it can be quite uncomfortable to say the least, especially in the midst of a 3rd plateau trip. Zicam on the other hand is probably the closest thing you can get to pure without performing an extraction. It is a spray(zicam cough mist max and nite, containing 400 and 540mg respectivley) of concentrated liquid, less then 1oz. This has provided me with the cleanest feeling trips out of all of the otc methods, but unfortunately they can be hard to find(more and more stores seem to be phasing them out). Delsym is a syrup that contains DXM Polistirex, which is basically dxm hbr in a time released plastic. Again, probably just as hard on your body(if not worse due to the extended trip) as other syrup and gels, but usually you don't have to drink as much(5oz contains 888mg, equivilant to about 280-444mg hbr extended for 12+ hours).
As for the effects, the lower plateaus tend to produce the more recreational high, that is actually quite energizing. It has been described as a mixture of pot and alcohol with a little hint of mdma, at least in regards to music euphoria/dancing. This is on top of the dissasosiation of course, but you get used to that quite quickly depending on how much you use it.
The upper plateaus produce the trip, which is mostly internal. Massive CEV environments, OBEs, astral travel, complete ego loss/death, entering entire new worlds/universes and traversing them by thought, or just having your room appear under ur closed eyelids and morph completely sucking you through a tube of changing images based on musical and/or thought frequencies are all very common. Life changing experiences are commonly reported akin to acid/shroom trips, as are NDE's. This is probably the main reason why so many people dont like it, because the level of dissasosiation you are forced to go through at this level can be extremly uncomfortable for someone who is not prepared, and as the psychedelic experience is 90% mental, even one minor bad thought, even subconciously, can spiral you into hell, literally. It is basically a 4-6 hour k-hole, though in my experience it does seem to be more psychedelic in nature.
Again tolerance does occur, but it is theorized to be mostly mental and not physical. Because most do not see this as a psychedelic drug, on top of the fact that unlike others it is a bit hard on the body, raising doses is not advised. You may get used to upper plateau dissasosiation to the point you can function normally and feel little more then a high when up and connected to the world, but due to its nature as a dissasosiative anestetic, when you are doing that you are essentially fighting the drug. As said it's an internal trip so meditation is key for the experience, especially once you've gotten used to the dissasosiation provided by the drug. This doesn't mean you can't trip though, it just means you can't expect the drug to do all the work for you(same basic idea behind i-doser).
I can tell you from experience(175+ trips in my 3 years of experience and very used to the dissasosiation/able to function on even 4th plateau trips)that you can still trip on these doses, as I haven't raised my dose at all in my time. In fact my usual dose for a solid third is around 650mg, a bit smaller then I had used in my beginning days when I thought I was gaining physical tolerance(I rarely dose more then once a week). If i were to try and raise my dose due to my mental tolerance(which happens with any drug, the mind is adaptive and will learn how to function on any new experience, no drug besides nitrous(another dissasosiative anestetic) with its oddly interesting reverse tolerance is immune. No drug will ever be the same as it was the first time you experienced it. Sad fact, but true.) to say 800-900mg range(4th plateau territory for my weight) it would mess me up more of course(4th plateau is basically nearing complete anestesia), but it also gets me closer to the point where it can be dangerously hard on my body. Negative effects will be more prevalent.
Anyway, I already posted this in another thread, but as hard as the drug is on your body compared to other psychedelics, there is virtually no evidence that it damages any part of the body or brain(onley's legions(NAN) was disputed and later disproven, and any strain on organs(liver/kidneys in particular) is most likley coming from the mass amounts of glucose in the syrup consumed and/or other active/inactive ingrediants unaware people end up taking. CCCs are a prime example of this, I couldn't even post in that skittles thread, ugh... CCCs=bad!!) whatsoever.
Anyway this has gotten ungodly long, it happens when bored. Hope at least someone gets something out of it.
