Dimethyltryptamine
Dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, is a short acting psychedelic tryptamine that is naturally found in the human body. It is extremely common in nature, and can be found throughout the plant, fungi, and animal kingdoms, adding a 4-hydroxy or a 5-methoxy here and there.
It has quite an interesting psychedelic effect when used by human beings. It has been used by humans to alter consciousness for 10,000 years or more. It is found in many species of mushroom (usually in the genera psilocybe), in the seeds of species of leguminous trees in the genera anadenanthera, and in the resin of virola trees. The latter two are traditionally dried, ground, and made into a snuff which is packed into a bone tube and blown into the recipients nasal cavity with immense force.
In the Amazon, a plant concoction has been used since the earliest records of civilization. It is known as ayahuasca - named for the vine from which it is made, the vine of souls. B. caapi is a woody liana which contains no DMT, but rather other tryptamines (harmine and tetrahydroharmine) which act as weak monamine oxidase inhibitors, activating the otherwise orally inactive DMT obtained from a local shrub (psychotria viridis, chacruna). Pretty complex science for pre-columbian natives, eh?
Everywhere DMT is used traditionally, in the context of shamanism, it is as a catalyst for the process of healing or obtaining knowledge. Traditional shamans speak of another realm beyond the physical, the spirit world. They claim to contact spirits, and talk with the dead.
In modern times, DMT appeared on the drug scene in the 1960s alongside LSD. It was a much rarer commodity, and often commanded much more of a price. People overcame the problem of its oral inactivity in another novel way - by smoking the freebase.
When smoked, DMT provides an intense, immediate rush, followed by psychedelic visuals, and is over within ten minutes.
Smokers of DMT often report experiences that seem, and feel exactly like a real experience, but there is no misunderstanding that the experience is caused by a drug. Users say they are transported to another dimension, one that is merely adjacent to ours, but cannot normally be perceived. Many also return with the belief that they have seen and contacted nonphysical, intelligent entities within the experience.
These entities come in many shapes and sizes to the DMT smoker. They can be small, tykish and playful. They can be large, powerful and overbearing. They can be funny, scary, and quite interactive with the user.
Users of DMT do not confuse their hallucinations with real objects, and things in the physical world. Rather, they accept these hallucinations as freestanding and real within their own boundaries and limitations, which are different than the ones we encounter in the physical world. The contents of the experience have a 'multidimensional' quality, and are impossible to describe in english.
Users report a breakdown of usable language to place names or even simple descriptions of what they see, so much is usually forgotten.
At the University of New Mexico's School of Medicine in Albuquerque, Dr. Rick Strassman gave 400 doses of IV DMT to 60 volunteers.
In his book, DMT - The Spirit Molecule, Dr. Strassman reports that over half of his subjects reported encounters with discarnate entities within their DMT experiences. These subjects were utterly convinced that they had encountered extra-dimensional entities, not products of their own psychology.
Perhaps DMT is the physical link to the supernatural. When people take DMT, they experience transportation to another world, said to be more real than the world they are in, and are often in contact with intelligent entities within this world.
This is not simply whistling past the graveyard, guys. This is the real deal because it comes down to an experience. It's not a book, a temple or a magic trick. There's no place to send any money, and no one is trying to scam you or get you on board any kind of philosophy or ideology.
If one chooses to open this doorway, this experience is available.
Dimethyltryptamine.