DMT (dimethyltryptamine), the most powerful hallucinogen known to science, is a rocket-ship to the other side of reality — and that other side is incredibly interesting! I’ve had the privilege of undertaking multiple DMT journeys and can confirm the reports of the volunteers cited in an important new study (linked here — http://bit.ly/29GV24f), namely that with DMT there is an overwhelming sense of entering into a seamlessly-convincing ‘alternate universe’ that feels ‘more real than real’, often densely populated with a variety of strange objects and other highly complex visual content, including what appear to be sentient ‘beings’, coupled with the equally overwhelming sense of receiving a download of structured and significant ‘information’ most of which, however, proves difficult to retrieve once back in the ‘normal’ alert problem-solving state of consciousness.
Part of the problem is that the rocket ship to the other side of reality returns us to this ‘normal’ state of consciousness VERY quickly – usually within less than 10 minutes because the effects of injected or smoked DMT, although extraordinarily powerful, are of extremely short duration.
The duration can be extended with monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors, as in the Amazonian visionary brew Ayahuasca. However the nausea and physical discomfort that accompanies Ayahuasca can detract from focus on the visionary elements of the experience, and besides the MAO inhibitors in the vine themselves possesses psychoactive properties and may potentiate the effects of other psychoactive alkaloids in the plant mixture, with the result that the subjective effects of Ayahuasca differ from those of pure DMT. Furthermore it is not possible to precisely regulate and maintain the optimum concentration of DMT in the brain with an oral preparation.
But what if we could stay continuously in the pure DMT state, at the peak of the experience, for HOURS? Or even DAYS? Might we not then become the first true astronauts of inner-space? The new system of continuous administration revealed in the linked study (http://bit.ly/29GV24f), by neurobiologist Andrew Gallimore and DMT research pioneer Rick Strassman, is based on the technology developed to maintain a stable concentration of anaesthetic drugs during surgery – only in this case what will be continuously administered is not an anaesthetic but pure DMT.
We don’t know yet what the mysterious DMT realms are. Perhaps they’re just ‘our brains on drugs’ as many hard-line materialists believe, but we cannot exclude the possibility that they are indeed, as experienced, freestanding alternate REALITIES inhabited by intelligent entities that wish to communicate with us and that may indeed be ‘the ancient teachers of mankind’ (as I described them in my 2005 book ‘Supernatural’ —http://grahamhancock.com/supernatural/). I suggest, if we are to ever properly to understand the human condition – and the nature of ‘reality’ — it is a matter of vital priority that we thoroughly investigate and explore these realms of inner space. In my opinion this should be at least as high a priority, and at least as well funded, as NASA’s current exploration of outer space, and is likely to produce much more exciting and world-changing results.
It would call for great psychic fortitude to undertake a peak DMT experience lasting many hours, but who knows what information might be brought back from such sustained and in-depth exposure? I can just about handle 10 minutes but I find the prospect of a much longer journey rather terrifying! Any courageous and intrepid volunteers to to be amongst the world’s first true DMT astronauts?
Painting by Alex Grey. It is the cover of Rick Strassman’s important book ‘DMT: The Spirit Molecule’
It would ba a brave person to try an extended dmt trip. Having experienced very high doses of psilocybin which lasts for hours with similar effects as dmt I would imaging an extended dmt trip would get quite difficult to cope with.
One must reflect on the pineal gland when talking DMT. When a being of a human nature dies, the pineal gland releases massive amounts of DMT. When human beings of a spiritual nature expire this physical body the release of DMT is a wonderful Segway to our next destination. Nothing but blue sky. Shine forth brave and loving souls. 87
This would be great, I as a respectable responsible adult would love to be able to explore the dmt realm.
The idea is terrifying, sure, however, in my experiences the scary part has been the initial “blast off”. Once “hyperspace” is reached, one could relax into the experience.
Even with that said, “hours” is a scary thought because if the experience is left with any amount of ego, and you’re inside trying to get out, there would be no way to wave your white flag! I would volunteer for 30 minutes to one hour to start. Considering how fast time goes while in “hyperspace”, one hour seems like a reasonable finish line.
Where do I sign?
(My DMT experiences were in a legal country.)
This is terrifically exciting. My own experience of DMT is limited, but once it expands I’d certainly consider taking part in a study like this.
25 years ago I had an extremely powerful transcendental experience during a meditation. It stayed with me for many years until I saw the DMT The Spirit Molecule film when I felt like a dam burst, I cried with recognition, as many Ayahuasca ceremony participants described exactly what I had experienced. Do you know of anyone else who has had a DMT experience through meditation & also who I may be able talk to about it? Many thanks.
I managed this with breath work by accident to begin with as I was in a lot of pain with an ovarian cyst. I used my diaphragm to take in air counted to an on of 7 seconds then held my breath for count of 4 then released slowly for 11 seconds I did this for about 5 minutes and all of a sudden I felt no pain at all I was actually in an orgasmic state, floaty and tingly with an inner feeling of bliss This lasted for 16 hours where I entered a very deep and meditative state I was fully aware and not scared I could see I was in space of sorts with planets around me I was weightless and felt like I was out of my body fully but able to be in total control I’ve managed to recreate this many times since and describe it as an inner state of Pure love if you’d like to discuss further email me [email protected]
WHERE DO DREAMS HAPPEN? HOW COULD OUR BRAIN IN SLEEP PRODUCE THESE DREAMS WHERE OUR SENSE OF SELF IS PRESERVED IN BOTH FUTURE AND PAST SETTINGS. FOR YEARS IN MY SLEEP I TRAVELED AROUND WORLD AND COUNSELED STRANGERS AND MORE…STRING THEORY POSITS HIGHER DIMENSIONS!
Dreams are the result of our spirit leaving the body and entering another world as real as this one. This world you see in dreams is a parallel universe. It’s imperative you set an alarm each night to wake you every 5 hours after sleep. This is why when you awake after 7,8,9 hours of sleep, you always feel more tired as if you didn’t rest. The true reason for this is because your spirit a.k.a. consciousness has been out of the body for too long and the body became weaker.
I doubt whether anything more can be ‘brought back’, for the simple reason that normal consciousness is so very exclusive. You could look at this in terms of memory being conditional on the same chemical state to allow recall. I wonder whether our perception of time is key to all our memories and experiences and maybe we ‘exist’ on many levels – sleep and various others – all different depths of spacetime.
It’s great that alternative realms are becoming within easy reach to people. However I wonder whether learning to have such experiences independent of a complete spiritual study is safe. My comment comes from having personal experience through dreams, Astral Projection and lucid dreaming. These experiences are 100% natural (no drugs) and come as a result of concentration practices and waking up in dreams.
I find that out-of-body experiences can have a strong psychological impact, usually beneficial (i.e I can see that there is more to life than materialism). However, I think it is very important to be grounded in daily life (i.e. awareness and self-study) so as not to be unbalanced by such experiences. And this is where I wonder whether using drugs or other ways to induce such experiences is actually safe – because the whole reason for using drugs is because the person cannot focus their psyche enough to achieve the experiences using natural ways (see concentration and visualization for astral projection).
I would like to take a trip of DMT
This is still a hard drug and could change your brain permanently and damage it, good luck with that.
Are you a drug warrior Daniel? Truth is, alcohol is the “hard drug” causing damage like you say. Psychedelic drugs are only a problem when people are not able to integrate the experience into their life in a positive way. Also, the whole idea of acid casualties is really overblown. Nobody I know, who wasn’t already psycho, became so by using it. I personally lived through the 60’s as a teenager and could have used some guidance, but virtually everybody was a novice at that time. I survived to get an engineering degree after having done these brain damaging drugs. Imagine that.
I am just a philosopher, i do not need drugs to be out there or better understand nature, my mind flies through the cosmos regardless, i only want to warn people to not fall for fantastic drug stories, experiencing reality is part of our lives, this looks like some sort of escape that Graham Hancock is pushing, lulling people to become sheeple, i do not think your faculties will open up and suddenly you becomes wiser or better understand this universe, you could be lucky with no negative side effects. So just a warning.
You make a good point, reality as experienced without adulteration is essential for stable existence but to discredit the psychedelic experience without having experienced it is a mute argument. I do not feal graham is pushing anything as you put it rather he is explaining a very profound lesson can be learned from visiting on occasion and in the right circumstances the psychedelic state. Comments base on an opinion of non experience is exactly the result of a long term doctrine enforced by the various authorities through our history where by the experience it’s self is falsely invalidated as wrong or an escape. I can tell you from multiple first hand experiences psychedelics are in no way an escape. It takes great mental discipline and self understanding to cope with the experience and it in not repeated quickly. While I do understand you point of view that we are all minds flying through the cosmos as is, while it is a good point we are not all the same and as difficult it may be to understand an opinion of a different mind in the cosmos as it is always on a different projection through this thing we call reality you just have to accept their opinion is no less valid than yours. That is the one of the many great things I have taken from these experience, acceptance of the strange. Even the most abstract or different an opinion is I understand that I do not understand which opens opportunity to learn whether I agree or not.
Graham calls out for astronauts of the inner space, this means unexplored territory, unexplored dangers, i am wary of this pushing for hard drug use to the general populace. Any person should decide for themselves if they want to take this risk, my point is that it is a risk and should be treated accordingly.
Regards,
Daniel
This is indeed a positive step forward in the exploration of the final frontier – our own inner space. I experienced a life changing journey after taking 6g of Psilocybin, (dubbed the “heroic dose” by Terrence McKenna). I breached the ceiling of consciousness and was given a “gift” that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.
I was told by the gift givers that I could no longer use such means to communicate with that realm as my mind and body would not be able to survive the journey but that there were other “technologies” with which I could use for communication.
I hope that these new innovations and experiments with DMT could be one such way. I for one would certainly be keen to take part in such a study and greatly look forward to seeing news of the results.
The article by Andrew Gallimore and Rick Strassman is certainly a ground-breaking contribution to psychedelic research, and the method described for “Prolonged Immersive DMT Psychedelic Experience” certainly seems feasible. All that’s needed is volunteer psychonauts willing to enter and remain in a totally bizarre alternate reality for an extended period. I doubt there’ll be a rush to volunteer, but some will, and the knowledge potentially to be gained is immense, once we learn that the natural world (that we know by our outer senses) is not the only reality — and not the only reality inhabited by intelligent beings (with whom hopefully we shall be able to communicate). A barely imaginable revolution in our collective awareness awaits us if this direction of research can be followed.
What would be the criteria for volunteering? I would certainly like to explore further.
The 4-hydroxy-DMT found in the psilocybin mushrooms is an orally active form of DMT without the purgative side-effects of the ayahuasca brews and provides sufficient duration of the effects for complete exploration. Having worked with the mushrooms now for over 40 years, moving past the beginner and intermediate phases and well into the advanced practice phase, I can offer assurance that it is very much worth persisting in the practice. Additionally, the species traditionally employed by the Mazatecan culture, Ps. caerulescens, Ps. mexicana and Ps. zapotecorum, do not result in the alien archetype theme frequently elicited by the Ps. cubensis species. For more information, please visit http://www.santosninos.org
Psilocybin mushrooms contain both psilocin (4-hydroxy-DMT) and psilocybin (4-phosphoryloxy-DMT). Psilocybin is dephosphorylated in the body and thereby converted to psilocin.
It’s certainly true that the consumption of these orally-active subtances via ingestion of psilocybin mushrooms (> 5 grams dried, potency depending on species) will produce a profound psychedelic experience, which, however, differs significantly from that resulting from the use of ayahuasca and DMT. Ayahuasca sometimes produces a very unpleasant experience (see this Ayahuasca Report), perhaps depending on what goes into the brew. Smoking 30 mg or so of DMT is not only safer but will usually result in an experience which is qualitatively different from that produced either by mushrooms or ayahuasca, since within a few minutes one is plunged into an alien reality which is totally bizarre. This is attested to by these 340 DMT Trip Reports, which should be read by anyone considering a “Prolonged Immersive DMT Psychedelic Experience” as described in the article by Andrew and Rick (which in any case should not be done without a lot of prior DMT experience).
I would seriously sign up for this. I go on “journeys” about once a week and would be willing to go hours if done in a controlled environment with proper monitoring equipment (Heart rate, blood pressure, electrophysiological etc)I usually meet with the same entities when I break through and would love to be able to stay to learn from them. I always get the feeling that they are disappointed when I begin to leave
I never tried DMT but I doubt that these “realms”, “alternate dimensions”, “foreign entities” are real. I believe that these are the product of the brain, just like dreams during sleep. The brain has an extraordinary capacity to create fantasies, there are cases of lucid dreaming where you can experience dream and be fully consious. There are feelings of derealization, depersonalisation, various halucinations and delusions during psychiatric ilnesses etc.
What would constitute a proof that these entities are real? If they provide some kind of information that was not known to the test subject before and that can be tested in this world. Unfortunately, such evidence is anecdotical at best, that is it is not going to convince any real scientist.
I did a lot of LSD trips in the past. Now, I found out that I can achieve the same results, if not better, with fasting. A 10-day water fast clears my consciousness and breaks the ego just like LSD, only it is clearer and much longer lasting (the clear state can last for several weeks after the fast).
It’s very easy to glibly dismiss the reality of these realms and their inhabitants if you’ve never taken DMT yourself. The only real convincer is a small glass pipe and 10 minutes of your time. To those who have taken DMT, their reality cannot be denied. It’s unconvincing to relate the DMT experience to lucid dreaming – the phenomenology is extremely different and, in my opinion as a neuroscientist, the DMT state is difficult to explain within the paradigm of conventional neuroscience. It’s not satisfactory to simply appeal to brain’s ability to fantasise or “make things up”. To suggest this betrays a lack of understanding of how the brain works – I deal with this issue in my earlier paper “Building Alien Worlds”, which you can download from my website – http://www.buildingalienworlds.com/uploads/5/7/9/9/57999785/gallimore_building_alien_worlds_jse2013.pdf Of course, the DMT state requires rigorous scientific study, which is why Rick and myself wrote the paper. But you seem to have made up your mind about the DMT state prior to any such study, which is hardly a scientific approach. Also, I’m not sure what you mean by a “real scientist”; most scientists that dismiss the DMT experience as mere hallucination are unwilling to tackle the experience head on (i.e. by taking DMT themselves). As the Zen saying goes: If you want a tiger’s cub, you must go into the tiger’s cave…
Hi Andrew,
What I mean by “real scientist”? Lets forget about scientists and talk about science. How does science differ from pseudoscience? It is explained by Feynman in his famous talk
http://www.californiachaparral.com/images/CargoCult.pdf
Basicaly, science is backed by hard evidence. Hard evidence means repeatable, quantifiable, verifiable objective results. There are countless of experiments proving the finite speed of light or the Coulomb law. In neuroscience, there are countless of experiments that hint that consciousness is the product of the brain – damages to various brain areas causes alterations in consciousness etc. At least that is the main neuroscientific paradigm.
If you claim that there are some “realms”, “entities” etc, it is an absolutely extraordinary claim that would be contrary to countless other established scientific facts that we have gathered about the universe. And such an extraordinary claim would require an extraordinary evidence. Taking a drug and claiming “I have some visions of these realities” is hardly such evidence.
I am open-minded, but I am sceptical at the same time. I believe in enlightenment or liberation in the Buddhist tradition because I have experienced these states of the death of the ego on LSD and I have been able to accomodate this with my scientific worldview. But these other realities are a different thing. How could a purely material molecule acting on a purely material brain transport your consciousness (itself material, being product of a material brain) to some other realities which are immaterial or out of this universe? The most logical explanation seems to be that these realities are the product of the brain and are not real in the same sense as the material universe. To admit that these realms have the same kind of objective reality as our physical universe would require a drastic revision of many sciences such as physics, psychology etc. And the evidence is simply not strong enought to make this tremendous leap. But maybe when I try DMT, I will change my mind.
BTW: your paper is interesting. But it is strangely material, dealing with serotonin, thalamo-cortical loops, connectivity reconfigurations. In fact, if I understand it correctly, it tries to explain these altered states of conciousness in terms of brain changes. How does it prove that those “entities” are real? And sorry to say it, but it is not a scientific paper. It is a review paper, a theoretical paper presenting a theory, but it doesn’t contain any hard experiments, any statistics, any verifiable facts.
“How could a purely material molecule acting on a purely material brain transport your consciousness (itself material, being product of a material brain) to some other realities which are immaterial or out of this universe?”
This is exactly the question I ask in the paper, and I don’t have an answer as yet. My hunch is that our cherished idea of a purely physical/material universe might need to be uprooted. I propose solutions to this problem other papers, such as “DMT and the Simluated Universe”, which you can also find on my site.
“The most logical explanation seems to be that these realities are the product of the brain…”
This is the assumption I try to challenge in the paper, and it is indeed just an assumption. The brain evolved to model consensus reality, not to model astonishingly complex worlds that bear no relationship to consensus reality. This is why DMT is so confounding.
“maybe when I try DMT, I will change my mind.”
I can’t argue with that – you probably will…
“your paper is interesting. But it is strangely material, dealing with serotonin, thalamo-cortical loops, connectivity reconfigurations.”
It is not “strangely” material at all – I’m trying to examine the effects of DMT from a neurobiological basis, so it makes sense that I will use this paradigm. The ultimate conclusion I reach is that the effects of DMT are difficult to explain using conventional models of how the brain constructs the world.
“And sorry to say it, but it is not a scientific paper.”
I’m sorry to say that science isn’t all about doing experiments. It’s also about theorising using prior experiments and synthesising current knowledge. My paper certainly isn’t a review (what?)!! Since when was theorising not a part of science?! It’s one of science’s fundamental components! Without theories, there is no science!
Hi Andrew,
I am a neuroscientist myself (MD + BSc in physics). Since you are not anonymous, I can reveal myself too. I am the first author of this paper.
http://tinyurl.com/gnvj4g6
(I do not want to write my name directly, because of google…)
Of course not every paper has to be experiment. There are a lot of theoretical papers too. There is a crisis in contemporary physics exactly because the experiment is lacking behind theorizing. String theory won’t be canonical physics, until proven by experiment. Nevertheless, hundreds of string theory papers are written and published each year. Science can be roughly devided into proven canonical science (such as classical electromagnetism) and more or less speculative science (such as string theory, quantum gravity etc) that is still lacking confirmation.
I looked at some of the “machine elves” art and looked into some descriptions of these entities over the internet. I reminds me of the “fractal” or “mandala” art that you can see on LSD also – extremely complex and beautiful dynamic geometric patterns. I hypothesize that DMT goes a little further and composes some entities out of these patterns (hence the crazy machine elves), and these entities “talk” to you, or “communicate” with you. I am a psychiatrist, I do schizophrenia research. Schizophrenics can have various auditory or visual hallucinations, i.e. hear voices, feel energies in their bodies. When you combine these crazy geometric patterns with some schizophrenia-like hallucinations, you can get telepathic machine elves.
Also, most of the descriptions I read over the internet are very vague and differ in their description of the elves – sometimes they are friendly, sometimes they are evil, sometimes curious, sometimes they jump into your body (body hallucinations?). Schizophrenics describe the same, some voices are friendly, some are frightening etc.
These really impressive and crazy geometric patterns (fractal-like) could be ascribed to the architecture of the visual cortex
https://www.math.uh.edu/~dynamics/reprints/papers/nc.pdf
Incidentally, I am just writing a paper about visual motion perception in schizophrenia.
Best,
Jan
Age 66 and never did any other psychedelics. I would love to be a guinea pig in a controlled experiment of this sort. I am a meditator and believe it would hellion my spiritual quest.
No number of LSD trips or days of fasting can prepare one for a full-on DMT experience. Nyarlathotep says “I never tried DMT.” If he had then he would know what he was talking about, but since he hasn’t …
Yes, a more advanced civilisation would have us all be experienced psychonauts (“astronauts of inner-space”). And our pharmacopia would be carefully geared towards helping us explore the endless states of awareness, in a well controlled manner.
Alex Grey’s painting, used to illustrate this post, is titled, ‘Dying’. I haven’t died or used DMT (not in this life, anyway!), but from what I’ve heard and read about each, they seem like different realms of experience. Interesting choice of art to go with the DMT theme.
I will admit I’ve never tried a psychotropic drug before. However, I do have experiences similar to what is described by people who have. I learned to do this with focus and training. The advantage is that I can do this when I need to and I am not dependent on anything but my own mind to visit the other side. I’ve been able to verify much of the info from these excusions. I do not have natural psychic abilities and learned the journey as a skill at almost 50 years of age. It is not my place to criticize anyone who is interested in the experience and exploration. Surely consciousness is a very big playground and we cannot explore everything at a time. HOwever, I would like to encourage anyone who does not want to take the drugs that this there is another way to do this.
It is not possible to have a rational discussion with materialists such as Nyarlathotep except by accepting as true the assumptions they cling to. Any statement which is inconsistent with their dogmatic assumptions is dogmatically dismissed as ‘illogical’, ‘fantastic’, ‘unscientific’ or simply ‘crazy’.
Science is the attempt to report, classify, understand and perhaps explain what can be reliably observed. ‘Reliably observed’ means that, under stated conditions, many observers report the same (or very similar) thing, showing that there is something ‘there’, independent of the observer. In the case of the (alleged) DMT entities, there are 226 reports (among 340 DMT trip reports) of apparently intelligent, independently-existing, entities observable following the smoking of DMT. (See 340 DMT Trip Reports, and there are many others.) Anyone who refuses to take these reports seriously, and who dogmatically denies that these (alleged) entities can be reliably observed, cannot call himself a scientist.
Rather he is a subscriber to scientism, which is the quasi-religious doctrine that what is true is only what is reported in orthodox scientific journals and textbooks, where ‘orthodox’ means: asserting the materialist/physicalist dogma that (1) reality consists only of physical reality, where ‘physical reality’ means: what can be observed by the outer senses of sight, hearing, touch, etc., or what can be asserted to exist on the basis of theories supported by observations by the outer senses and (2) consciousness is either a product of brain activity or is identical with certain (unspecified) processes occurring within the brain.
Physicalism is destructive of what humans value, since it implies that human values are basically illusory. For more on this see Physicalism: A False View of the World, and for a devastating critique of physicalism see Consciousness: Why Materialism Fails.
Nyarlathotep said: ‘I never tried DMT but I doubt that these “realms”, “alternate dimensions”, “foreign entities” are real. I believe that these are the product of the brain, just like dreams during sleep.’
With all due respect to Nyarlathotep’s neuroscientific research and publications, his denial of the possibility of an alternate reality containing independently-existing intelligent entities is based on (1) the assumption of the false dogma of materialism/physicalism, (2) a refusal to look at reports of reliably repeatable observations, and (3) a refusal personally to make the relevant observations even though that is not hard to do (all that’s needed is DMT, a pipe and some courage). It is thus pointless to address Nyarlathotep’s skepticism in detail because he will just reply with the same, tired, old physicalist dogma. When he has smoked DMT a few times (and has accessed the DMT realm and observed the DMT entities), and thus knows at first hand what he is talking about, only then will he have informed himself sufficiently to be able to post anything on this subject which is worth reading.
This is at least reasonable. That is, to consider funding similar to NASA. I say this as even they struggle with funding. Notice how little expansion we have seen cosmically through
NASA and many mainstream scientific venues in recent years. Space exploration and travel has begun entering into the private sector. Perhaps that’s where our further efforts need to be developed for exploration of these realms.