Let me clarify my stance, as I was sort of reiterating an opinion of one of my good friends. "Embellished" is probably the wrong word. But said friend grew up around the time that Castaneda was publishing, and he was very much into the pharmacology of drugs...Back when the likes of Tim Leary and Richard Alpert were attempting to be taken seriously in academia (a futile pursuit). Supposedly, Castaneda's original expedition was part of his PhD work. When he tried to publish it, it wasn't taken seriously, and much of the academic opinion, was that his "research" was fancified. The prevailing opinion since has been that you can't research the drugs and be taking them yourself. That stance has perhaps been more liberalized with time...Alexander Shulgin comes to mind as one of the greatest pharmacologist/organic chemists.
As to mescalito, I can't say...Peyote I have never tried. But I have ingested other mescaline containing cacti on a couple of opinions...The experiences were long ago, but as best I can recall: The onset was subtle and took awhile to fully kick in. The trip proper was preceded by a hefty dose of nauseau. The trip itself was visual, but it "felt" different than acid. I don't know how I can really explain it. But it lasted a LONG time. Much longer than mushrooms or LSD.
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