In the early 1970s, a young Terrence McKenna set off on what would become a legendary journey into the depths of the Amazon rainforest. Alongside his brother Dennis and a small group of fellow psychonauts, McKenna was driven by a passionate curiosity about altered states of consciousness and the ancient indigenous knowledge surrounding plant-based entheogens. Their destination: La Chorrera, a remote Colombian mission town nestled deep within the jungle, far removed from the modern world.
The Search for the “Transcendental Object at the End of Time”
McKenna and his companions were inspired by both personal psychedelic experiences and readings of anthropological texts describing shamanic practices in the Amazon. They hoped to find ayahuasca and other visionary plants used by native tribes to induce spiritual experiences and, possibly, to trigger what McKenna famously referred to as “the transcendental object at the end of time”—a kind of ultimate metaphysical revelation.
It was during this fateful expedition that they encountered a number of psychoactive plants, but one in particular stood out: Mimosa hostilis, more specifically Mimosa tenuiflora, known by locals and later psychonauts as MHRB—short for Mimosa Hostilis Root Bark.
Discovery of MHRB and the DMT Connection
MHRB was not widely known or understood at the time outside of indigenous use. While McKenna didn’t extract DMT from MHRB himself during that trip, his documentation and later talks helped bring attention to the plant’s psychoactive potential. It would be other underground chemists and ethnobotanical enthusiasts, likely in the late 1980s and 1990s, who began refining simple extraction methods to isolate N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) from MHRB using relatively accessible household chemicals.
DMT is one of the most potent psychedelics known to humanity, producing short but intensely immersive experiences often described as entering alternate realities or contacting non-human entities. While DMT naturally occurs in many plant species, MHRB has become one of the most popular sources due to its high alkaloid content, particularly in its root bark, which can contain up to 1% DMT by dry weight.
MHRB and the Modern Psychedelic Renaissance
Today, Mimosa hostilis is a staple in the global underground psychedelic community. Its bark is often used in DMT extractions by hobbyists, seekers, and psychonauts around the world, thanks to the accessibility of online information and the relative simplicity of extraction processes.
What started as a fringe discovery during an eccentric expedition has now blossomed into a global phenomenon. Terrence McKenna’s early fascination with MHRB and his role in popularizing DMT through lectures, books, and interviews helped bring the substance into the cultural spotlight. Though he may not have been the first to extract DMT from MHRB, he was certainly among the first to frame it as a doorway to a deeper understanding of consciousness and the universe.
As the modern psychedelic renaissance continues to unfold, MHRB powder – Mimosa Hostilis Inner Root Bark remains at the heart of one of the most profound and mysterious journeys a human being can take—the rocket ride into the realm of DMT.
