#dmt experience explained

[cosmicdream222]

Welcome ✨

Call me Cosmic. she/her. Millennial.

I blog about manifesting, loa, reality shifting, the void, etc. If that isn’t your cup of tea, peace out 👽 Asks & DMs are open as long as you are kind & respectful but please read through the FAQ before asking anything!

★ About me ★

I started making aff tapes & subliminals for myself & sharing them here on tumblr in the fall of 2023, and began posting on yt in April 2024.

YouTube channel 📌Previous pinned

Void, shifting & loa stuff compiled from others

The void explained in an old reiki book

An interview with a shifter who has been time-leaping since 2001

The void explained by a lucid dreaming instructor

Near-death experience & manifesting

Misc inspiration from loa twitter

More motivation from loa twitter

Just desire, intend & know it's possible

The universe is a giant hologram

You already have it all

Master Shifter Love Remix Series

How shifting works (the whole package)

Shifting is a law - so treat it like one

Shifting is the least special thing in the world

Shifting/manifesting is not your job

You deserve everything you want

Vanilla explains: Past Lives, Death & Afterlives

Resources, Challenges & Methods

DMT breathwork to enter the void

Wake up with your dream life: affirm & relax challenge

EFT tapping script

Manifesting is not a process challenge

What is Psych-k?

The Phase Basics

SSILD for lucid dreaming

Tips for lucid dreaming

Dream life script Google doc template

My OG void concept aff tape

My Void state subs on Google drive

Full desired appearance & beauty sub

Saturating session with my cats

FAQ: Read these before sending a question!

"Can I manifest...?"

YES. It doesn't matter what it is: the answer is always yes. You can manifest anything you want. Anything!

I will no longer be answering any questions about deadlines/time

About me & my personal experiences & successes

The time I entered the void before I knew what the void was

How do you personally manifest?

Have you entered the void?

Backstory about me and this blog

A quick example on affirming to combat negative thoughts

Success: reconnected with sp after 8+ yrs NC

My mom got super fast subliminal results?!

Manifesting/shifting/void 101

What is the state of the wish fulfilled?

A reminder not to create stories around unwanted circumstances

What is the void?

How do we manifest?

States are not a method

Persisting does not mean repetition

How do I persist properly?

Does robotic affirming work?

What is a saturating session?

Is birds before land a thing?

How do I improve my visualization skills?

How can I manifest in a scientifically proven way?

Doubts/fears/troubleshooting

The void is hard for me, any tips?

How can shifting be simple when it’s so hard for me?

Is shifting real?

What happens to my current self after shifting?

When we manifest are we shifting to a new reality?

When I manifest something, will other people see it too?

How long does it take to see results?

How can I stop obsessing about results?

I’m scared I’m abandoning/betraying people in this reality when I shift/enter the void

Why do some people fail?

What am I doing wrong?

I have doubts, what if this doesn’t work?

How do I convince the logical part of myself?

How can I ignore my toxic/negative circumstances?

What should I do if I’m overthinking?

Funnies :)

The affirming carrot

Me not reacting to 3D circumstances like

[tincansamurai]

oc monday!!!!!

i need this i'm feeling struck by madness

original post

1. What is [x]'s favourite colour?

mat: he likes bright CMY colors and jewel tones. magenta is his favorite favorite though

kaz: big fan of blues, even if he doesn't own or wear a lot of blue stuff. top blues: cobalt, aqua/cyan. then black

2. What is one bad memory [x] has of their parents?

mat: HAHA uhhh ok which one do i pick... let's go with a more standard bad one instead of the worst. it's the first month that he's started having for real panic attacks, he's around 14, freaking the fuck out and crying while his dad is taking the door to his room off its hinges so they can keep an eye on him and figure out why he's being like this. his mom is talking loudly to herself and asking why she can't have a normal good kid, why does she has to deal with all these extra dramatics, why can't he just listen to them?

kaz: let's pick one i haven't shared before; when he was 21 he got alcohol poisoning bad enough to land him in the hospital. he had to explain that bill to his mom, and she got incredibly upset because it kind of became clear in that moment that kaz had only gotten better about hiding his alcohol abuse from her, not actually better about drinking. she did get self pitying and apologize for failing him and being a terrible mother, which just dredged up his feelings of being a burden and mistake who fucked up her life. the whole experience was shameful enough that he stayed sober for like a month. but, well, y'know. (he also started smoking cigs WAY more during that month, like a pack a day - he didn't get any better about that for a few years)

3. Where does your character consider home? Is it actually where they live?

mat: thom

kaz: his apartment is home, but he has never really totally felt at home anywhere. everything feels kind of temporary. 

4. What would [x] be as a D&D character?

i took this quiz for each of them as a jumping off point

mat: mat got NG human paladin/wizard - nix the paladin, that means nothing to him. totally a wizard though. i think he'd also be a half elf. i think if he was playing d&d he'd pick a human or halfling rogue

kaz: kaz got CG human paladin/bard - paladin could actually work for him as like a political kinda thing. god he really is the horny bard everyone hates to play with though lmao. 100% a human. i think if he was playing he would pick a half-orc barbarian or a gnome tinkering type class

5. How does [x] feel about recreational drugs? Do they have opinions about any specific ones?

mat: drugs are cool. he smokes weed almost every day. he did some other drugs in college. list: LSD (cool but only once, trip is too long), DMT (didn't do it right the first time, hated the second time), shrooms (coupla times, would do shrooms again if offered to him but not actively seeking them out), MDMA (too good, only once), adderall (eugh). he buys test kits to make sure he's gotten what he paid for without any fuckin bath salts or fent mixed in. he was 100% using tor to buy shit off onion sites before that became way more risky and inadvisable

kaz: mostly ambivalent. alcohol gets the job done. weed makes him weird and morbid and anxious. he did coke once and it tasted too bad and he got scared. have fun though, he doesn't judge

6. Where did [x] go to school as a teenager or young adult? Or if fixed schools are not the norm for that age, in their culture, what sort of apprenticeship or secondary education did they receive?

i swear we had this one before. oh yeah we did. here number 5

7. What kind of villain would [x] make?

mat: just normal mat, he would be such a shitty villain lol. watch out it's the guy who is scared. if i put him in some kinda au situation hmm i think he'd be a real sarcastic/catty rich vampire who just oozes homosexuality and could be conviced to be less villainous if you appealed to his ego the right way. get him a black and red silk robe, gilded crystal wine glasses, and a transatlantic accent NOW. long cigarette holder. hold on i need to draw soemthing i might hauve covid

kaz: he is easily every marvel CIA propoganda movie's insurrectionist commie villain lmao. killmonger type shit where you're like "uh he's right though" and they have to make him do stupid shit to make him seem like the bad guy. alternatively: some kind of incredibly horny mad max post-apoc bdsm slut who doesn't make it to the end and dies kind of happy about it

[izlosingtheirmind]

I smoked DMT in May of this year and this is my experience and how it changed my life

Important context for this is I’ve been suicidal most of my life. The prior months leading up to this experience, I had been severely suicidal, every day. I had a note ready and was certain I wasn’t making it to 30.

I didn’t breakthrough all the way and I didn’t really have to. I got very close.

At first I was just ..“dancing with the universe” is the only way I can explain it. The most magnificent patterns I’ve ever seen, colors I can’t explain. I cried of joy. I could still see my apartment. My vision was like a shutter. For ex. One moment an object would be a rectangle, then it would switch (not morph), totally switch in a shutter type fashion into a circle. And then some more shapes I’ve never seen and can’t explain.

Then I took my last hit, held it in. My reality got very weird and a bit scary. I saw someone or thing watching me from my bathroom door and my jacket hanging up began to melt.

Then right when I said “I think I want this to stop”, I was shot through a tunnel of spinning mandalas made of eyes. Quite literally that popular piece by Alex Grey. But not looking at it, in it. Fully in it. Reality was no more. When I was in that tunnel, I didn’t know nor think about my human existence. None of it existed for that time. But I was quickly shot back into reality.

I saw my apartment again, but it was crazy. My walls and objects were morphing from shape to shape, color to color extremely fast. I looked at my cat and she was morphing and changing color too. Neon pink, neon green and checker pattern stuck out to me the most for some reason.

Then reality crumbled right before my eyes. Literally. Everything turned black/white/grey and crumbled like a building being demolished. And I was back in a world I can’t explain.. it was dark. Again, my human existence didn’t exist, i was just energy experiencing.. something.

Finally I came back to reality, saw my friend and grasped him for dear life so I didn’t get taken back to that world. I was so scared I wouldn’t come back from it, and that I was going to be sent back for eternity. I thought I was either going to die or go insane. Everything was morphing as it was before. All that was going through my head was that I’m going to lose the girl I really like, I’m gonna lose my job, my cats won’t have a mom anymore, I’m never gonna see my family and friends again. I held onto my friend for dear life until it finally fully ended.

All I could mutter was “what the fuck”. No amount of psychedelics could have prepared me for DMT. It’s a whole other animal.

Interestingly, when I came out of it and realized I was okay and it did in fact end, I wasn’t scared of it. I thought I’d be traumatized from an experience like that and never want to touch it again. It was easily the scariest experience of my entire life. Yet, directly after, I felt grateful and intrigued.

It took me about an hour or 2 to just somewhat process what had just happened. But I quickly came to the realization that I am not ready to die. That I have potential, that my loved ones need me and that is why I was scared. Not only did I gain this knowledge, I also came back with a knowing that this is the case for every human soul on this planet. I didn’t get an answer as to why, but I now know we all have a reason for being here. Every one of us. No matter how hopeless it seems. Everyone is meant to be here and experience this life.

The second realization I came to rather quickly was that running from fear of the unknown will only make things worse. Every time. That I must SURRENDER to life and know that it is out of my control (besides my actions). This, I believe as an intuitive knowing from the experience, was a lesson that was taught so that I can integrate it into my life, and until I do, I am not to return to the DMT world. And I have taken this lesson very seriously and have been taking action to push past my fears that I would normally let dictate my life. I have a lot of work to do still, because it is a huge barrier I’ve got to tackle. And I’ll be honest I’ve been slacking.

I tried to return last week and was not granted access no matter how much of it I smoked. I got the visuals, but was stuck in the waiting room with an intuitive feeling that it’s not time yet and I still have work to do.

So yeah, DMT zapped away my suicidal ideation, made me realize how my life does have potential and sent me on a mission to conquer my fears and live the life I WANT. And I’m grateful as hell.

With psychedelics, you really have to be able to take what you can get from the experience, good or bad. But if DMT ever crosses your path and you feel ready to accept what it has to offer, I highly recommend you do. (Don’t seek it. It will come to you.)

[engrampixels]

Platform Design and Development of Digital Memory Traces

Platform Design and Development of Digital Memory Traces - Applying our use case driven approach, we designed and built the Digital Memory Traces platform. It offers functionalities to support the definition and development of service ideas by addressing media collection and use as well as social interactions. The definition of different media types and functionalities to participate and engage is key to targeting a wide user community. The media types used during intake and developed throughout the project emanate from our model. Applying this model, we identified the following formats: Story, Memory Fragment, Reflection, Statement, and Photo. To capture the experiences of sharing memories, we introduced an additional format: Experience. Our platform applies storytelling and encourages a close look and social interaction, which is solely created in a co-creation manner.

The discussion in the preceding pages has confirmed the need for web-based applications that facilitate participation, creation, sharing, and co-creation of personal content-based information services. We refer to these web-based applications as media-sharing platforms. The literature focused on the micro level – the individual creating, capturing, storing, and sharing personal content intelligence. Business services need stories, with people in them, to engage, interact, and motivate clients. Therefore, at a macro level, we need to rethink how to facilitate mass creation, sharing, and embedding of stories, photo collections, reflections, goals, and 'memories'.

User Interface Design

The focus is on students and teachers-developers, thus promoting change in teaching and learning, contributing to improving the learning process. The user can access DMT, using the functionalities that allow exploring the traces, visualizing results obtained from parameters defined in a trace, starting the configuration of a trace, and obtaining snippets using the parameter estimation process. Snippets are pieces of multimedia that the machine learning algorithm selects for human annotation in order to help it learn how to spot a specific category. They include segments of videos and are painful interactive processes of data collection where human annotation is required. At the moment, the application does not have the used data stored in an adequate way, constituting future work. User access to the application, except for adding new algorithms and/or editing estimates, is conditioned on authorization.

Based on the study of similar applications and user experience design principles, it explains how the visual design should be, underlining the importance of brevity, or the user's ability to interact with less content, making extensive use of the horizontal scroll and load more. This is very useful for educational settings, where it is difficult for a person to interact with a great amount of simultaneous information. It suggests research on the design of data quality measures with an ergonomic approach and using them in the user interface, between machine learning researchers and the audience they seek to serve, in the context of machine learning for video data. Machine learning research has been primarily concerned with accuracy, or minimizing the difference between algorithm and human labeling assignments. They suggest a positive approach, assuming that they can design sampling schemes, factors that affect performance, and conditions that will improve sample annotation compliance.

Technical Architecture

The platform can be seen as two different layers. The lowest one is the storage, and the upper one joins storage and preservation. Under the preservation layer, creation and some specific retrieval actions are added. This approach finishes the basic concept framework of the proposed platform. Fine-tuning of the technical architecture incorporates a number of specific requirements for the platform. The first basic requirement is the digital preservation of creative, intellectual human activities that include the representation of these activities in a large number of different ways. There are basically two approaches to cope with this problem: the use of any additional metadata, which helps to describe every memory and its meaning in a highly accurate way, and the development of memory infrastructures that benefit from information redundancy and a high degree of tolerance even when part of this metadata is missing, noisy, or just wrong. These may be added to the platform as they become stable and compatible, provided they satisfy platform flexibility requirements.

In addition, another requirement must be added to allow for easy and highly intuitive access to the platform's contents. However, the search engines at this level are limited to exploring contents, not meaning and interpretation. For the same heavy computer costs, analyzing abstract contents is expected to be supported by professional expert systems available in a third-party environment as plugins. This will bring additional difficulties to the integration task, since some memory contents may be linked to specific professional analyses providing specific meaning. Moreover, the application of these professional expert systems is just complementary with respect to the memory contents distribution and availability. For these basic needs, an easy-to-access service layer is provided. It is aimed at replacing standard repository accesses with plug-in explorative services. These professional services access the data storage level using both stored memory contents and an extended semantic metadata tool and data infrastructure.

User Experience Considerations

Consideration of the user experience during the design of DMT was an ongoing and underlying theme. Trustworthiness develops as a more understated and latent aspect of educational technology. We understand our technology is a means that students can use for learning and that this raises the issue of how to design technology so that our users can trust it. Trustworthiness is related to our comprehension of the integrity of the information, and it is important because students rely on the technology to deliver accurate representations. A trustworthy system does not make itself known; it is something that is achieved through human-computer interaction. Trustworthiness is related to prolonged, active, and intense mental activities, motivational inertia, and satisfaction. The contributions to trustworthiness of these shortcuts are as follows: if a user has a good experience when they use an information system, then the user will be confident in the capabilities of the system. This is true whatever the design philosophy, and if certain user expectations are not met, the level to which a user trusts the system decreases.

Researchers must draw on standard methods and guidelines for keeping the users' interest; otherwise, it can lead to the loss of the users' trust in using the system or having faith in the choices the system has made for them. Factors to be taken into account involve component arrangement and format, timing of programs, upload time, protocol consistency, high quality, maintaining the aesthetics of design, minimizing cognitive overload, and minimizing human effort. Overall, taking these factors into consideration enhances the attractiveness and comprehension of trustworthiness for the user, which can then result in the user being confident when they use a decision support system, and it can also provide satisfaction to their needs. There will be trust in the system and consequently satisfaction. However, an undersupported, low-readiness system is just the opposite. The user's levels of trust, confidence, and satisfaction will drop, and both goals and the potential that technology can afford decrease. The alliances that have been built with the repositories and their responses to the study are perceived as ongoing and not just for the students.

Within this context, the trust issue is actually about the confidence students have. It is not about the repository or systems per se; ontologies, in fact, play a key role in this. Cognitive research suggests that finding confidence in information actually matches up to people trusting their own; in the end, it is our own minds that we need to trust, and it is our minds that, in part, are being enhanced by the technology as related to the intended learning outcomes. It is not just a question of aiding memory, but a question of the user having control and accountability, knowing what happened, and being allowed to verify as much as is possible to ensure that a trace of memory was achieved. Indeed, a human agent can be created to establish knowledge by interpreting and/or generating information from the user; therefore, the role of the repository enters into a cognitive partnership. Such an approach grants the student a sense of security and recognition for the real effort placed into creative memory work. Such an infusion of trust factors is a strong link to the achievement of high cognitive performance awareness. These findings, when explored during the design of eiron, not only shape the design themselves but also foster a sense of trust to a degree as issues are anticipated and dealt with.

[kazooie]

My sleep paralysis is getting smarter... It's tricking me into thinking I'm awake more often than not.

It started with dreams where I struggled myself out of bed but then come back to my body knowing I'm not just asleep, but asleep and VERY much suffocating because my nose is completely blocked and my body forgets how to mouth breathe efficiently(might be sleep apnea idk yet), so again I try desperately to move but can't, and again slip into another dream.

Then it evolved into me dreaming I was not only was I successfully in getting out of bed, but I manage to get myself into the living room to desperately ask my mum for help because I can't breathe, but no words come out, I can't speak because I can't open my mouth, this repeats several times, and every time I coke to again, still paralyzed I just try desperately to yell out for help since every time I get up has been another dream.

BUT... I think I'm slowly finding ways to beat it. I don't know how this part started, it must be subconscious at first, but if it happens one too many times to cope with, I will once again dream I've got out of bed, but my neck will be bent, and then I realise "I can feel my pillow on my head.. oh I'm fucking dreaming again," this one only ever lasts maybe 2 dreams before I come out of the paralysis just enough to yell for help or finally desperately squirm and wriggle my way out of it.

So like, everyone talks about sleep paralysis demons, I only ever experienced that twice I think? But after these last handful of experiences I'm realising I do have a sleep paralysis demon, it's just invisible, and getting smarter... Lil shit...

If anyone's curious, the only demon I actually saw, and I'm not kidding, was the hat man. In 2004. I had no previous knowledge of the hat man and did not learn about him till many years later. And no I wasn't on any medication.

(Not saying he's a real demon, I don't believe in that, but it's super fascinating that humans have a lot of shared dream entities.)

A lil context about me for anyone who actually enjoys hearing about people's sleep paralysis stories:

I know mentioning I keep dreaming makes it sound like it's not sleep paralysis, but it's really just a mix of the two, because almost every time I get sleep paralysis it's when I've actually woken up briefly, sat up for some water, then it hits me when I lay down again, and I try to fight it but slip in and out of the dreams.

I mentioned I might have sleep apnea. When I first researched sleep paralysis it seemed the common conclusion was that even if you feel like you can't breathe, you actually can, it's just that your body is doing automatic breathing while you're starting to panic so it only feels like you can't breathe. But if I sleep on my side, and my nose blocks up(which it almost always does) I think my body still tries to resort to automatic nose breathing, so I end up just.. not breathing. I basically stop breathing for however long before suddenly gasping, this goes on for way way wayyy too long, it's genuinely terrifying. Sometimes the mouth gasps are stuttered, like not only is my nose blocked but my windpipe too? Idk, I'm gonna get tested for sleep apnea eventually, but till then I just sleep propped up on my back.

I've been getting sleep paralysis since I was maybe 12 or 13. As mentioned above the only entity I ever saw was the hat man. I actually dabbled in astral projection back then and I had a few very, very intense experiences that I struggle to rationalise, like, I can't even explain how real they felt, I genuinely think there's something to it, but I'm sceptical on it being actual astral projection, I'm more wondering if it's akin to a psychedelic trip, like maybe activating the DMT in our brains somehow. Maybe I'll write more about my experiences with it sometime but I don't really want any new age magic people thinking they know what I experienced, you can't know it was real, you can't know anything aboht how it felt to me, maybe when the human instrumentality project is complete I can communicate it properly lol

Jeez idk why I wrote all this, I've been on the toilet the whole time lmao, guess I'll tag it as a long post.

[silence-the-barking-monk]

5:55

Joe Dispenza pineal gland activation breath technique — looking to see if anyone knows of any scientific studies on it and to hear of people's experiences doing this breathwork

Recently finished listening to this 14-hour soliloquy of profound and insightful information, "Becoming Supernatural", in a mere two days time. I was captivated the entire duration of the book, making many annotations of my favorite quotes and things to circle back to to research and look into further at a later time.

One thing I found very interesting was when he went into this idea of accelerating the circulation of your cerebrospinal fluid with the breath and moving stored energy up to the brain by contracting the muscles of you perineum, pelvic floor and your abdominal muscles in succession, in line with the breath, and that as you accelerate the circulation of this spinal fluid, you create an inductance field that magnifies the size of your personal electromagnetic field. He explained that the goal of this breath is to move enough energy / cerebrospinal fluid to the brain in order to enact mechanical stress on the calcite crystals of the pineal gland, which supposedly activates its piezoelectric properties.

I was wondering if anyone had any successful experience with this breath, and also if anyone knew of any clinical studies that have been done that would authenticate the validity of his claims about the pineal gland's "activation" and it's subsequent transmutation of melatonin into more powerful derivatives such as DMT. I already spent a few hours looking for such studies but couldn't find anything. I am aware that there may not be a publicly acknowledged study for something like this given how unprofitable a radiant, healthy, self-realized person is in today's modern world but I still figured it was worth asking to see if anyone knew of any reputable sources with such information.

The proof is not for me but for people who may be thrown off by the title of the book, or who need scientific proof before buying into something that will likely help them either way.. I plan to spread this knowledge once I have a better, more experiential understanding of how this process works.

[psychedelicfunlove]

What are DMT vape pens?

Order DMT Pen online now using bitcoin, Paypal, Zelle, Apple Pay and Cash App. Top Brands include; Purecybin DMT Pen for sale and Puff Boys NN-DMT vape for sale.

Benefits of Vaping DMT

Buy DMT vape pens special devices that administer DMT (N,N-Dimethyltryptamine) through inhalation. They have become an increasingly popular form of taking the substance as they offer greater control of the dose taken. But are there still risks to vaping DMT?

What are DMT vape pens?

DMT, or N,N-Dimethyltryptamine, is a powerful psychedelic compound that can produce intense and rapid changes in perception, thought, and mood.

DMT vape pens for sale are specialized vaporizers that allow inhaling the substance quickly and efficiently. The vapes used for DMT contain a small heating element and a cartridge with DMT powder. The DMT vapor is inhaled through a mouthpiece when the cartridge is heated.

What is in DMT vapes?

DMT vapes contain DMT, a naturally occurring psychedelic compound found in certain species of plants and animals in the Amazon rainforest. We usually refer to DMT as the psychoactive compound in ayahuasca, but there are other variations.

5-MeO-DMT toad venom, or 5-Methoxy-N, N-dimethyltryptamine, is a variation of DMT. The compound can be extracted from the yopo tree and Colorado River toad’s venom – hence the name.

As opposed to the standard experience, which is more visual, 5-MeO-DMT can produce more shattering and transcendent hallucinations.

It’s also worth noting that DMT is a serotonergic drug, which affects the production of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Serotonin is essential for regulating mood and appetite, which explains the the feelings of euphoria and relaxation felt when using DMT.

How do DMT vape pens make you feel?

DMT vape pens can deliver an experience often described as life-changing. The short-lived effects of DMT can cause a sense of altered consciousness, including vivid visual and auditory hallucinations.

Common effects include:

Altered perception of time and space

Sensations of weightlessness or floating

Feelings of bliss

Physical sensations such as tingling or vibrations throughout the body

Ego death

When taken at a high enough dose, some users feel they have transcended into an entirely new realm. However, it’s important to note that the effects of DMT can vary greatly from person to person, and many users describe a range of different experiences.

How long do the effects last?

The effects of using DMT vape pens disappear within a maximum of 60 minutes. However, most people will experience hallucinogenic effects for five to 30 minutes.

The onset is also quick; most users feel the effects in 10 to 15 seconds.

This is a point of difference between smoking and vaping and other administration types.

Ingestion: Effects last up to four hours, but it can take one hour to feel them.

Intravenous injection: DMT effects last 30 minutes but peak five minutes after the injection. Also, your experience will begin immediately.

Intramuscular injection: The effects can last up to 60 minutes and begin two to five minutes after administration. They’re also milder compared to inhalation or intravenous use.

There is also a difference in how long DMT stays in your system. Although the effects pass within the hour, the N, N-Dimethyltryptamine substance will stay longer in your body. Compared to other drugs, DMT is metabolized faster, so it only shows for a few hours in most drug tests:

2 hours: Blood

12 hours: Saliva

24 hours: Urine

The only test where DMT shows for up to 90 days is hair follicle testing, especially if you are taking DMT regularly.

Why do people choose vapes over other methods of taking DMT?

People choose DMT vape pens over other DMT administration methods because:

Vaping allows a more precise and controlled way of consuming DMT: Users can easily regulate the dose and the intensity of their psychedelic experience because they choose how much and how often they inhale.

Vapes are more convenient and easier to use than other methods: They can be carried and utilized discreetly and do not require the preparation or ingestion of a physical substance.

There is a faster onset of the psychedelic effects than other methods: This can make the experience more intense and immersive, allowing users to explore the substance’s effects more fully.

Are DMT vape pens dangerous?

Like all psychoactive substances, DMT vapes carry significant risks and can be dangerous if not used properly. DMT is a powerful psychedelic that can produce intense and rapid changes in perception, thought, and mood and can be overwhelming or even traumatic for some individuals.

Risks include:

Potential for adverse reactions, such as anxiety, paranoia, and panic: These reactions can be particularly severe or prolonged in people unfamiliar with the substance, use it in a high dose, or have a family predisposition towards anxiety.

Difficulty to use safely: Vaping may cause intense and unpredictable effects that can be difficult to control outside a clinical setting. Besides, the quality and purity of DMT products can vary widely, and some products may contain harmful contaminants.

Respiratory symptoms: The vapor can be harsh and irritating to the lungs, triggering respiratory symptoms such as coughing and wheezing.

DMT vape pens and psychedelic therapy

Psychedelic therapy is a type of treatment that uses psychedelic substances, such as DMT, in a controlled and supportive environment. Psychedelic therapy is currently only in the research phase and is not a legal form of treatment in the United States. However, worldwide studies are proving that psychedelics, in small doses, may be revolutionary for mental health treatment.

The goals of psychedelic therapy are to help individuals:

Explore and process their experiences, thoughts, and emotions.

Gain new insights and perspectives on their experiences.

Facilitate personal growth and healing.

This therapy can be used to treat a variety of mental health conditions, including:

Depression

Anxiety

PTSD

Addiction

Studies have also claimed that 5‐MeO‐DMT can improve:

Neuroendocrine function

Immunoregulation

And anti‐inflammatory processes

All these affect overall health and improve mental outlook.

DMT therapy has also been shown to help people escape engrained thought patterns, gaining new perspectives. In psychedelic therapy, DMT is typically administered in a controlled and monitored setting, such as a clinic or hospital. The experience is guided by a therapist or guide who can help the individual navigate and make sense of their experiences.

Controversy around DMT vape pen patents

Patents for DMT vape pens are surrounded by controversy.

Some argue that the patents for DMT vaporizers violate the principle of non-profit knowledge sharing. The patents may give the inventors exclusive control not just over DMT vape pens but over the concept of establishing a tranquil environment for psychedelic therapy. Other claims against patents for DMT, 5-MeO-DMT, and 2C-B vape pens include:

Questions about the patenting process: It is illegal to give patents when similar objects already exist on the market. This concept is called “prior art” and refers to existing knowledge or technology that is already publicly available and is not protected by a patent.

Unjust future costs for patients: Patenting the vape pen can increase the cost of research because mental health providers must pay for acquiring patented intellectual property. This raises the overall price of mental healthcare for regular people.

Issues about patenting currently illegal products: DMT’s legal status varies widely worldwide. In some countries, it is considered a controlled substance with significant legal and health risks. Patenting it creates a dangerous precedent because companies can find numerous combinations of currently illegal substances they can patent.

[jeffreyrobertpalinjr]

What causes the calcification of the pineal gland?

The pineal gland is a unique organ that synthesizes melatonin as the signaling molecule of natural photoperiodic environment and as a potent neuronal protective antioxidant. An intact and functional pineal gland is necessary for preserving optimal human health. Unfortunately, this gland has the highest calcification rate among all organs and tissues of the human body. Pineal calcification jeopardizes melatonin’s synthetic capacity and is associated with a variety of neuronal diseases.

The human pineal gland has been recognized for more than 2000 years. The father of anatomy, the Greek anatomist, Herophilus (325–280 BC), described the pineal gland as a valve of animal memory. René Descartes (1596–1650), a French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist, regarded the pineal gland as the principal seat of the soul and the place in which all thoughts are formed. A real biological function of pineal gland was not uncovered until 1958 [12], that is, this gland is a secretory organ which mainly produces and releases a chemical, called melatonin, into the blood circulation and into the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). In addition, it also produces some peptides [13,14] and other methylated molecules, for example, N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT or N,N-DMT) [15,16], a potent psychedelic. This chemical was suggested to be exclusively generated by the pineal gland at birth, during dreaming, and/or near death to produce “out of body” experiences [17].

Pineal gland and choroid plexus share a similar vasculature structure with the abundance of the vasculature spaces and fenestrated capillaries. A direct morphological connection between pineal gland and choroid plexus has been reported in birds [64]. The functional and vascular structural similarities may explain the high calcification rates of both structures [65,66].

Pineal calcification (synonyms include corpora arenacea, acervuli, brain sand, psammoma bodies and pineal concretions) was observed as early as in 1653 in humans [155]. Its presence was identified in a wide range of species including human, ox, sheep, horse, donkey, monkey, cow, gerbil, rat, guinea pig, chicken and turkey [156]. Even through the concretions were not found in the pineal organs of fish, amphibians, reptiles the high calcium content was detected in their pineal by ultrastructural calcium histochemistry [157]. Thus, pineal calcium metabolism and pineal calcification are wide spread phenomenon across species. Its rate increases with aging and in some species the pineal calcification rates are as high as 100% with age [158,159]. Ironically, calcification also occurs in neonatal humans [160,161].

With such a high incidence of PGC in humans and considering the functions of pineal gland, the PGC should not be considered a normal physiological process.

"To date, little is known about its exact formation processes and mechanisms. Here, we summarize several opinions and speculations on the potential mechanisms of PGC formation and also discuss our hypothesis regarding these enigmatic structures":

[nackseo2]

We Move, Therefore We Are

Humour me just a little longer, will you? Now think of a happy memory. Is it a still image? Or can you visualize it happening all over again, complete with actions, perhaps even sounds? Notice how your body responds to this recollection. Is that a smile forming on your lips?

Descartes was nearly there when he said, I think, therefore I am. It is true that our ability to think is indeed what brings meaning to our individual existence. However, believing that the thinking occurs only in the mind is far from the truth. It is as if the mind and the body are two separate entities going about their days, merrily doing their own thing, never having to consider the other. Whereas the mind and the body are just two sides of the same coin. They have to coexist. The mind cannot decide on its own how hot it is going to be outside until the body directly feels and experiences the intensity of the sun. And the body cannot seek shelter under a tree or in an air-conditioned room until the mind tells it the best possible course of action. Similarly, the mind cannot decide whether we love something or better yet, someone without the embodied experience of the warm and fuzzy feelings when we are around them. And the body cannot reach for an embrace without the mind’s insistence that it may be safe to do so. We aren’t just thinking beings. We are thinking, feeling, living, breathing, and experiencing beings. What the body experiences, the mind makes sense of. What the mind decides, the body executes. Long story short, there exists a mind-body connection that we no longer can and should turn a blind eye to. I, for one, think that most of us have lived long enough denying the existence of this connection and forcing ourselves to pick one over the other. Choose the mind over the body and you will have a successful day at the gym and if you happen to choose the opposite you are deemed a potato. But allowing the body to rest when needed, as you must have read several times, especially in the last couple of years, is just as productive. Then why not listen to the wisdom of the mind AND the body in tandem?

Cue Movement Therapy!

Movement Therapy?! What is that? Do I need to dance? No way can I do that! I don’t intend to sign up for a dance class. I don’t need therapy let alone movement therapy. Pfft!

Hold your horses. Breathe in, breathe out, remember? Allow me to explain and take you on another journey to the wondrous and vastly untapped world of Dance/Movement Therapy (DMT).

Movement is a language. Even before we start talking and stringing words together, we as babies communicate through nonverbal cues and movements such as yawning, cooing, crawling, reaching for things, flapping our tiny arms and legs, giggling and of course, crying. A Dance/Movement Therapy practitioner considers nonverbal just as important as verbal communication if not more. Movement can be developmental, communicative, functional and expressive and a DMT practitioner will observe these and facilitate a process towards addressing the emotional, social, cognitive, and physical integration of an individual to achieve the larger goal of improving one’s health and wellbeing.

Speaking of nonverbal and movement cues, it is also important to look at the ways in which we perceive the world around us. Most of us perceive it through visual cues, some through auditory cues, and others through kinesthetic or sensory cues. In fact, all of us use all these faculties to varying degrees.

It is then safe to assume that dancers and athletes are more attuned with their kinesthetic senses and are more aware of their bodies. For this reason, most mental health professionals engaging in the field of Dance/Movement Therapy have had some prior experience or relationship with dance. I spoke to a few of them and when asked about how they found their way to Dance/Movement Therapy especially since it did not gain much popularity in India until a few years ago, most of them had similar yet uniquely insightful experiences to share. “6 years of professional dancing and I had never felt my emotions, my body and myself the way I did in one DMT session,” said Pallavi Shimpi who is now a psychologist focused in trauma and body-based work.

Damini Sahay who is a belly dance artist and a DMT practitioner was already working as a child psychologist and a clinical psychologist while also working as a belly dance instructor when she started to understand the value of movement in therapy. She said, “I witnessed so much therapy and healing work happen in the bodies of the women and even men who came to these dance classes more than I ever saw in my work as a psychologist which is when I decided to pursue and study it in depth.” I found this especially meaningful because while dancers or athletes have quicker access to the body’s knowledge, anyone who engages in their natural and authentic movement consciously will be able to tap into the same knowledge residing in their bodies without even realizing that they are engaging in healing or therapy. A trained facilitator can then just hold space for the movement to occur and help you make sense of what you uncover. And let’s face it, our words do have the potential to lie. We have all done it at one time or another. But our bodies are incapable of concealing our truth. Try to sit up straight at the end of a long, tiring day and you will have your answer. This is the beauty of body-based work.

To know more: https://nack.life/blogs/news/we-move-therefore-we-are

[keifyseadragon]

About those DMT trips...

I was gifted around a gram of DMT a few years ago that wound up being one of the weirdest experiences in my life. I had a few trips on it that I find myself looking for answers about. As previously mentioned, that one trip turned out to all be true things that actually happened. So I have to ask myself what from the other trips wound up being true.

In one, a one night stand (a fireman) appeared and the trip explained why he left. It went into how I was half in the closet at the time, didn't pass, and was still insecure. The painful part was him saying I was a man, when I'm a trans woman, and him going off with someone else flaunting how much prettier and better she was. But, in pain there is wisdom. There was so much more to that trip, time travel, the mafia, a drug cult (manufacturing in the 1990s for modern distribution to evade the DEA), aliens, I met deities (Tawa, Spider Grandmother) which was wild because I was previously unfamiliar with Hopi mythology, and more. Part of the trip was old friends from my addict days telling me the fireman was a cop who was using me to spy on the "homies" and they wanted to sabotage him. So, they took me on an adventure which I hated and involved a bunch of gangsters. At one point I was offered a badge by the FBI entity and I declined given my past as there isn't much worse than a dirty cop. Some of the old drug people wanted me to sabotage the police from within but I refused to help because it felt dirty and didnt align with my personal belief system. There was a lot to that trip, really.

Then in another trip I was shown sacred and secret Native American villages hidden in time away from the US military, and the US military was trying to find a way to get to the villages but aliens were protecting the Native Americans which corresponded to ancient legend of Star People helping the Natives. In that trip things got really Christian too, as I was a rock in the cave where the grail was hidden and I watched Crusaders either trying to find or hide the grail. The US military was searching for the relic but the deities didn't want them to have it for countless reasons. The wild part of that trip was the part where I was chillin' with the aliens and we had a connection between the spacecraft and my room then *boom* a military jet buzzed the house. I sobered up and went downstairs to smoke a cigarette and my sober roommate commented on how it was odd a military jet buzzed the house how it did. Like, in the trip the aliens knew the military was coming and had to break the data stream to evade detection. Turns out the extraterrestrials aren't very fond of the US military because apparently they've tortured or harmed some from that species. There was clear animosity from the aliens in the trip towards the US Government, which came between us though the aliens understood why I took my position with sympathies as I am a US citizen.

It ties back to an old trip from a while back where a group of us were here on earth for thousands of years living life after life monitoring the human species.

Which then ties into my next point. One night I did a solo meditation DMT trip and in the trip I was shown a nuclear war. Tawa, the Hopi sun God decided not to stop the war because it was infuriated that the US hadn't paid or attempted to pay reparations to the indigenous people. I cried for the animals, for the plants that would die, but Tawa was indifferent explaining that humanity was killing the planet with pollution, war, genocide, greed, and ignorance. It was tired of the rape, murder, and atrocities it witnessed. In the trip part of it was a war with Russia. Months later around August of 2021 I saw stuff online warning of a war between Ukraine and Russia. Come February of 2022 it happened. I often worry that my trip will come true, or rather is the true in that regard. Tawa explained that it was more ethical to have a mass extinction event than to slowly let all life die off from climate change and pollution. What makes humans special? There have been 5 mass extinctions before... it happens. I stay worried, but find myself wondering if there is a way to avoid it. Sadly as I watch the war in Ukraine closely and follow the heartbreaking news out of Gaza I find myself wondering if I was shown what was to come. Frightening, but, I try to have hope. It's not like I'm cheering it on, plus my heart bleeds for the Belarusians fighting against Lukashenko, and for the Ukrainians who want to see democracy flourish. I have my sympathies for many in the US, on both the left and right sides of the political aisle.

In that trip Tawa was protecting my soul from others who sought to cause harm because Tawa didn't think I deserved the pain people had put me through because I'd always been sympathetic to the Native Americans.

Life is a trip, I think. This is just one of many, the Samsara as it is written about in Hindu mythos.

Who knows, I'm just rambling. I need to go read the international versions of news outlets to do my daily compiling to stay in the know as lapses cause mistakes like earlier when I learned the US actually does permit the first use of nuclear weapons in the nuclear doctrine.

Sometimes it feels like people who are power hungry that want to control the world are why we will all die. Just chill the fuck out and vibe. It ain't hard. Really.

[psychedelicsdispensary]

Brewing Wellness: The Healing Potential of Magic Mushroom Tea

Magic mushrooms, scientifically known as psilocybin mushrooms, have been used for centuries in various cultures for their potential therapeutic and spiritual benefits. In recent years, the spotlight has turned to a unique and ancient way of consuming these mystical fungi: magic mushroom tea. This infusion, brewed from dried magic mushrooms, offers a gentler and often more palatable way to experience their effects. Beyond the traditional psychedelic experience, magic mushroom tea is gaining attention for its potential in treating mental health disorders and promoting overall well-being. In this article, we delve into the world of magic mushroom tea, exploring its history, preparation, effects, and the growing interest in its medicinal properties.

Historical Roots and Traditional Use

Magic mushrooms have a rich history, with indigenous cultures incorporating them into their spiritual and healing practices. Traditional societies often brewed magic mushrooms into teas, recognizing the therapeutic and transformative qualities of the brew. Shamans and healers used these teas in ceremonies to induce altered states of consciousness, leading to profound insights, spiritual experiences, and emotional healing.

Preparation and Consumption

Magic mushroom tea is typically made by steeping dried magic mushrooms in hot water, often with added herbs or flavors to mask the bitter taste. Lemon juice is commonly added not just for flavor, but also because its acidity can enhance the effects of the active compound, psilocybin. The tea is strained, leaving behind the solid particles, resulting in a liquid infusion that is easier to consume than consuming the mushrooms directly. This method of consumption is favored by many due to its milder taste and quicker onset of effects compared to eating the raw or dried mushrooms.

The Psychedelic Experience

Consuming magic mushroom tea can lead to altered states of consciousness, vivid hallucinations, and an altered sense of time and reality. While the experience can vary greatly depending on the individual and the dosage, many users report a profound sense of interconnectedness, introspection, and emotional release. The psychedelic effects are often accompanied by a sense of euphoria and spiritual insight, leading some users to describe the experience as profoundly mystical or even life-changing.

Therapeutic Potential

Beyond the recreational and spiritual use, research into the therapeutic potential of magic mushrooms, including their consumption in the form of tea, is gaining momentum. Studies have shown promising results in the treatment of mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Psilocybin, the active compound in magic mushrooms, has been found to promote neural plasticity and create new neural connections in the brain, which may explain its potential in treating various mental health disorders. Therapeutic sessions guided by trained professionals, often involving the consumption of magic mushroom tea, have shown positive outcomes in clinical trials, paving the way for further research and potential legalization for therapeutic use.

Safety and Responsible Use

While the therapeutic potential of magic mushroom tea is promising, it is essential to emphasize responsible and safe use. Magic mushrooms are still illegal in many parts of the world, and their use can have legal consequences. Additionally, consuming magic mushrooms, including in tea form, should be approached with caution and in a controlled environment. Having a trusted, sober guide or sitter present during the experience can provide emotional support and ensure a safe environment.

For More Info:-

Buy DMT Online

Buy Mushroom Capsules Online

DMT

Magic Mushroom Edibles

Buy Magic Mushroom Online

[libraford]

I'm kind of on the same page- like... I'm very practical about my practice- it involves conservation, community building, record-keeping for my family, and feeling at home in my body.

I feel like you might be right- that if you're taking drugs to travel and you've already set your course, there might not be a message to give. And I realize that the uhhh.. unreasonably powerful THC gummy I had without proper dosage is nowhere near DMT, but I think if I reacted that poorly to like... a normal drug, I don't think I'll ever be in a good headspace for anything harder.

Which makes me nervous about safety in some places, because mostly people have been okay with me being sober, but I'm always afraid of being in a position where I'm breaking a social rule to refuse.

I need a patch on my jacket that says 'do not offer drugs, I am working.'

The elves have got me curious, though.

Because if it's not woo, and it's your brain processing a thing, I wonder if it's processing something specific. I think some people were theorizing that Grey aliens were an early memory of hospital births. I wonder if it's the same thing.

And if it IS woo, what is the woo? Like are they imparting deep knowledge of THE universe or are they imparting deep knowledge of YOUR universe- because what you explained is different from what the woman last night said. And if so, is this applicable towards paradigm shifts, can this be used practically, etc. And are they elves or is 'elf' just the closest word we've got? Because someone said that only people of Irish descent experience the elves... and I'm like, is that true or are we hitting a linguistic barrier- where someone else might refer to them as angels or frogmen.

Its interesting, it's fascinating, I'm curious about it, but I also don't want to experience it personally.

I have nothing against drug users in occult spaces, but I am somewhat annoyed by how much of occult community is centered around drug use- to the point that so many experiences seem to hinge on it.

Like... cool? I'm pleased that you met elves while on a substance. They seem nice.

But I also know myself well enough that I know i shouldn't be tripping balls during ritual.

[gorgeouslypink]

pink i have some exciting news, i just entered the void state. i used the dmt frequency but i didn't realize it was the void but that was just during a nap so ik im going to enter tonight but i was thinking abt everything that happen3d and i came to realize something

ok so all the people who take the loa method are always like the void is u affirm that you can enter the void easily or whatever right? but honestly that's pretty hard because you have experience failing with the void and yk that other people are failing so even though you're affirming that the void is easy a little part of you is like "no it isn't" and it's like the logical part of your brain and then when you spiral the RAS obviously focuses on your failures and it ruins any consistency you built up (can u tell I read @junkyutueme post 😝) and set you back. does that mean it's all hopeless? no. what i think worked for me is believing in a method rather than myself. i don't know if im explaining clearly but basically most loa bloggers tell u to affirm you always enter the void easily and stuff like that. Making YOU the primary focus but you are you and you have experience being you so you know that you struggle with the void and then even when you're affirming or trying to enter a state that the void is easy, your past and stuff becomes limiting beliefs holding u back. I know loa bloggers always say that the past isn't real and to revise but that's easier said than done and if people could do that, they'd prob have entered the void already. But if you put your manifesting into a method. Like the dmt track. I saw that anon success story. I read the comments and these people have been using it years ago and it's so good. Then when I decide to manifest that I will enter the void from using it, I have no past experiences with it holding me back so I have no limiting beliefs making my manifestation come true. So what im basically trying to say is instead of affirming I enter the void easily and stuff, just choose a method that you really believe will work that u have tried before and just know that it's going to work for you, entering a state of knowing you're going to enter the void is so much easier this way and obv you'll enter then because you're in a state of knowing you're going to enter yk? This just clicked in my brain because I've been trying to manifest entering the void forever and I finally entered and I wanted a reason why and this is what I think. I hope this helps everyone else.

whoa congratulations and ik you'll enter tonight!! also thanks for sharing beautiful 💗

[blubushie]

MASTERLIST FOR TANGENTS

G'day, this is just for future reference!

GUIDE TO SAFE TRIPPING

BUSHMAN SHIT

So You Want To Be a Bushie

How I became a bushie

How I got my name

Why I piss in jars

Greatest achievement as a hunter

Favourite constellations

Bush tucker pt 1

Bush tucker pt 2

Eating honeypot ants

Flavour of bugs

Kangaroo meat flavour

Stockman life

How roughstock scoring works

How to use scentcover

BLU LORE

Bludaism

Why I hate reckless drivers

Buying my dream car (check reblogs)

List of work done to Mattie (check reblogs)

Explaining semi-verbal

Explaining my intersex condition

(NSFW) How my implant works

Explaining bushstraight

Most profound experience

How Blu met Jacko

Naming objects

Why I'm open about my sex life

Sea shanties aboard the Akuna

Listing my scars

DNI tenets

Blu and ASPD/sociopathy

More on ASPD

ASPD and violent thoughts

Admitting ASPD

How my ASPD aliases work

Low empathy and naming objects

The emotional toll of taking a life

BUSH STORIES

Stories from the bush

A Tale of Dingos

A Tale of LSD

A Tale of Stockwhips

A Tale of Tooheys

A Tale of Bulldogs

A Tale of Pigs

A Tale of High-Rollers

The worst thing I've ever done [WARNING FOR ANIMAL DEATH]

TF2

Shit I hate about fandom Sniper

Shit I hate about fandom TF2

How I got into TF2

WEAPONS

Winnie infodump

Bullet mistakes in media

Firearm mistakes in media pt 1

Firearm mistakes in media pt 2

Difference between guns vs firearms

My opinion on automatic weapons

Favourite firearms

Favourite knives

Favourite swords

Blu's firearms

Discussing licences

Best self-defence sidearms

MEDICINE

Medical inaccuracies in media

Bush medicines I've used

OTHER

Smoking mistakes in media

Misconceptions about horses

I hate carp

18-in-1 soap

Thoughts on cryptids

Favourite video games

Favourite Pokemon

Car infodump

Favourite cars

Blu hates speeders

General life advice

AUSTRALIA

What is Vegemite?

Colour composition during ceremony

Aboriginal mythology

Favourite Dreaming stories

Australian slang pt 1

Australian slang pt 2

AFL/NRL choice teams

Grief with M*lbourne

Australian stereotypes

Dumbest argument

Preferred term for Aboriginal Aussie

Aboriginal art at Ubirr

FLORA & FAUNA

Dandarabilla

Discussing the wildlife

Plants and animals infodump pt 1

Plants and animals infodump pt 2

Water buffalo

Hunting crocodiles

Favourite crabs

DRUGS & ALCOHOL

PSILOCYBIN DOSAGE GUIDE

Beating my addictions

Illicit substances I've done

My experiences with DMT

I thought I was a fish

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

Top 10 Formative Childhood Experiences:

Hmm. If I had to go with just one -- I mean that's a pretty limited perspective here -- it's something like:

1) I saw my Dad cry. (He had a terrible period of grief in high school. It was a really bad, ugly, sad time, and I felt awful for him, and also kind of guilty for causing it.)

2) There was a brief period in childhood when I wanted to read books by Isaac Asimov, the best-selling SF author. I only read a handful of Asimov books, but it felt like the best thing in the world (I guess this was a reaction to a lot of pop sci/popular SF being awful; I probably would have just accepted it if it came from someone I liked)

3) My Dad is an amazing musician and has performed professionally. I took a piano lesson from him as a kid and liked it a lot, and I have no idea why he stopped

4) There was a brief period when I was in kindergarten or grade school when I could get a paper bag and roll it down a hill and watch it float down the hill and land in a bush in my neighbor's yard. This made me happy, and I wondered if other people's eyes did this (or at least, this was a very vivid thing for me).

5) At some point, I started collecting little glass marbles, and I did not understand why other kids were not interested in them. I was always kind of sad when they came to school without marbles. (I still have them.)

6) It was sometime in middle school that I read a book that was a huge influence on me. It was called The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and it was about an English girl who was transported back in time to 15th century England, and she found that she had a very special, "magical" ability -- she could turn lead into gold. The story was all about her trying to use this power to help and "fix" the world -- and also it was all told in the style of a children's story, as if it were a fairy tale. (Her father used to collect old books with magic in them -- he would also make fake gold for other people!) I was really into magic then, and especially magical girls and superheroes, and this book was like a gateway drug to a whole world of magic.

7) I was obsessed with fantasy in a very specific way that is difficult to explain, but I think it had something to do with the feeling that fantasy worlds were an "out there," an other that you could enter into. This would come up in my life again and again as a teenager, a fascination with "being out there" and with fantasy as a metaphor for that (and also, eventually, as a fascination with "being out there" in an even more literal sense -- I was really into DMT and stuff).

8) After The Secret Garden, I read lots of fantasy books on my own. The one I loved the most was the "Voyage of the Dawn Treader," which had a cool mix of magic/magic and realism/fantasy. I still remember vividly how, when I finished the book, I sat at my desk and cried for a couple of minutes. I was really disappointed that the author seemed to think he could do what he wanted, when you were reading a children's book, and did all these things the kids would never be able to experience. I remember being very upset at the author for thinking he could write about a world where all your friends could speak every language, etc.

9) It was a kind of a similar disappointment that I felt at the end of A Wrinkle In Time, when I learned about the special powers of the other main characters. It was like... yeah, I get all of that, but at the same time, we're all stuck in this story and can't experience the outside world, etc.

10) I remember loving a lot of the early Disney animation. I remember thinking "this is a world I could totally imagine existing," etc.

[themedicalstate]

Do Psychedelics Hold the Key to Explaining Near-Death Experiences?

Seeing a tunnel of light, feelings of inner peace, and out-of-body experiences. When people seemingly cross the threshold into another world and survive, they often come back with tales like these. The elusive near-death experience has puzzled scientists for decades now. Why do these experiences occur, and why are they so remarkably similar across cultures?

As modern science continues to embrace the study of the ineffable, researchers are discovering that psychedelic substances may be key in understanding exactly what is going on during the near death experience.

What are Near-Death Experiences?

Much like the mystical and the spiritual, near-death experiences (NDEs) have frequently escaped scientific study within the lab; NDEs arise out of the extreme, like surviving a coma or experiencing a severe head injury. Yet what’s striking about NDEs is that they are recalled with superb clarity. Moreover, their details remain stable over time — research has found that the characteristics of these experiences remain unchanged two decades after the incident.

As these memories are often crystal clear, they provide an opportunity for scientists to probe these first-hand accounts and highlight the foundational characteristics of the NDE. A recent study found that NDEs are punctuated by feelings of inner peace, out-of-body experiences, and encountering the infamous tunnel of light. After a long battle with cancer, Anita Moorjani fell into a coma in February of 2006, yet lived to tell the tale, highlighting these feelings of inner-peace:

“It was just incredible, because, for the first time, all the pain had gone. All the discomfort had gone. All the fear was gone…I felt as though I was enveloped in this feeling of just love. Unconditional love.”

Extraordinarily, after her brush with death, Moorjani made headway with a miraculous recovery; four days after the NDE her tumors had shrunk by 70 percent.

DMT: The Spirit Molecule

How do you explain these experiences? Well, if you hail from a religious background, NDEs may be viewed as a glimpse into the afterlife, ultimately confirming the existence of heaven, nirvana, or whatever you want to call it. Rick Strassman, neuroscientist and seminal psychedelic researcher, begs to differ.

Strassman conducted pioneering work in the 1990’s with N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a potent psychedelic substance used by shamans in the Amazonian basin. Over a period of five years, Strassman administered DMT to sixty participants in his lab and witnessed each one undergo a radical transformation.

His participants saw visions, broke through to another world, and found themselves meeting ineffable entities. These accounts (potentially coupled with Strassman’s Buddhist background) led to DMT being dubbed ‘The Spirit Molecule’ — the similarities between the spiritual and the psychedelic were hard to ignore.

What’s most relevant, however, is Strassman’s thoughts regarding NDEs. Rather than boiling it down to the metaphysical, Strassman theorized that the brain generates these mystical states through a huge release of DMT in response to death. This is possible as DMT is an endogenous compound — it’s found within the human body, and also occurs in an abundance of species in the animal and plant kingdoms.

While the theory may sound far-fetched, the psychedelic state and NDEs share many similar consequences. Much like high dose psychedelic experiences, research has found that NDEs can cause long-term increases in psychological well-being, can reduce death-related anxiety, and can increase an individual’s appreciation of nature.

DMT and (Near) Death

Despite these similarities, for many years Strassman’s theory remained just that — a theory. But, in 2018, researchers attempted to validate this hypothetical link between DMT and NDEs. The study involved injecting a total of thirteen healthy participants with a placebo in one session, and DMT in another. DMT hits hard and fast — participants are catapulted into another world within two to three minutes, and touch back down to earth well within the hour.

After the effects subsided, the researchers asked them to retrospectively rate their trip using the NDE scale, a questionnaire originally used to assess the experiences people have when coming close to death. The scale featured key components of the NDE, with questions like, “Did you feel separated from your physical body?” and, “Did you seem to encounter a mystical being or presence?”. A score of 7 is considered the ‘threshold’ of what constitutes a NDE.

After experiencing a high dose of DMT, the participants all passed this threshold. And, the researchers found that the experiences induced by DMT were remarkably similar to the ones reported after a near-death encounter. Christopher Timmerman, lead author of the study, highlights that these findings support the idea that there is similar neurochemical activity in the DMT state and during a NDE.

So, is Strassman’s hypothesis confirmed — do we release DMT in response to death?

Life After Near-Death

As it is with science, there’s not always a simple answer. Finding that the DMT state and the NDE state have large experiential overlaps is certainly compelling. However, it’s only one study. And it’s notoriously difficult to capture the complexities of these experiences with a single questionnaire.

To rectify this, a 2019 study further investigated the relationship between psychedelics and NDEs. However, this time, the researchers employed deep lexical analysis; they fed a computer with 15,000 trip reports, written accounts of drug experiences, and 625 written reports of a NDE.

The trip reports included experiences on a variety of different drugs, including DMT, psilocybin, and ketamine (a drug not considered a ‘classic’ psychedelic). The contents of these reports were analyzed, and the semantic similarities between the NDEs and the drug experiences were identified.

Much like the other study, the researchers found a remarkable similarity between the contents of the drug experiences and the NDEs. However, unlike the former study, NDEs had the most similarity between experiences induced by ketamine, with ‘classic’ psychedelics like DMT following afterwards.

With these findings, it’s still unclear exactly whether it is a ketamine-like substance, endogenous DMT, or something else entirely that induces NDEs. But this groundbreaking work supports the idea that neurochemistry may be at least partly responsible for these rich experiences, closing the door on the theory of afterlife.

By Evan Lewis-Healey (Medium). Image by Karin Henseler on PixaBay.