Gnosis Potency: DMT Breakthroughs and Paragnosis (2018)

Frontiers in Psychology , 2023

Introduction N , N -Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is an endogenous serotonergic psychedelic capable of producing radical shifts in an experience that have significant implications for consciousness and its neural correlates, especially given the “disconnected consciousness” suggested by the “breakthrough” DMT state. Its increasing usage and clinical trial indicate the growing importance of a thorough elucidation of the experience's qualitative content, over and above the phenomenological structure. This is particularly in light of the intensely pervasive effects of DMT occasions in all dimensions of the self, which are often ontologically challenging yet potentially transformative. Methods This is the second report on the first naturalistic field study of DMT use exploring its qualitative analysis. Screened, healthy, anonymized, and experienced DMT users were observed during their non-clinical use of the drug at home (40–75-mg inhaled). In-depth semi-structured interviews, inspired by the micro-phenomenological technique, were employed immediately after their experience. This study reports on the thematic and content analysis of one major domain of the breakthrough experiences elicited, the “self”; where analyses of the “other” were previously reported. A total of 36 post-DMT experience interviews with mostly Caucasian (83%) men (eight women) of a mean of 37 years were predominantly inductively coded. Results Invariably, profound and highly intense experiences occurred. The first overarching category comprised the onset of effects, encompassing super-ordinate themes including sensory, emotion and body, and space-time shifts; the second category comprised bodily effects, encompassing themes including pleasurable, neutral/both, and uncomfortable; the third category comprised the sensorial effects, encompassing open-eye, visual, and cross-modal and other; the fourth comprised the psychological effects, encompassing memory and language, awareness and sense of self, and time distortions; and the fifth comprised the emotional effects, encompassing positive, neither/both, and challenging experiences. Many further subthemes also illuminate the rich content of the DMT experience. Discussion The present study provides a systematic and nuanced analysis of the content of the breakthrough DMT state pertaining to one's personal and self-referential experiences of the body, senses, psychology, and emotions. The resonances both with previous DMT studies and other types of extraordinary experiences, such as the alien abduction, shamanic and near-death experiences, are also elaborated upon. Putative neural mechanisms and their promise as a psychotherapeutic agent, especially owing to deep emotional impact, are discussed

2017

N,N-Dimethyltryptamine, also known as DMT, is a naturally occurring, psychoactive chemical compound which is found in a variety of living organisms throughout the natural world. When ingested, DMT reliably produces a specific type of religious experience which makes this entheogen an especially interesting candidate for academic study within the field of religion. The states experienced while under the influence of DMT share the same definitive characteristics as those associated with traditional mystical experience within an established religious tradition. Analyzing these experiences through a phenomenological lens leads to a more universal understanding of the nature of the mystical experience, as the experiences DMT induces are not specific to any religious tradition and the method of phenomenology allows them to be taken as they are. Through engaging the writings of the perennial philosophers of the 20th century, the experiences can be understood in a broader metaphysical framework which shows that the mystical experience is fundamentally an expression of metaphysical reality. Further research has the potential to give new life to the topic of metaphysics (which is often considered purely speculative) through acknowledging that experience has the potential to make metaphysical truths known in a concrete way.

With clinical psychiatrist Rick Strassman's DMT: The Spirit Molecule as a vehicle, the pineal gland has become a popularly enigmatic organ that quite literally excretes mystery. Strassman's top selling book documented groundbreaking clinical trials with the powerful mind altering compound DMT (N,N-dimethyltryptamine) conducted at the University of New Mexico in the early 1990s. Inflected with Buddhist metaphysics, the book proposed that DMT secreted from the pineal gland enables transit of the life-force into this life, and from this life to the next. Since that study, the hunt has been on to verify the organ's status as the " lightening rod of the soul " and that DMT is the " brain's own psychedelic. " While the burden of proof hangs over speculations that humans produce endogenous DMT in psychedelic quantities, knowledge claims have left the clinic to forge a career of their own. Exploring this development, the article addresses how speculation on the DMT-producing " spirit gland " —the " intermediary between the physical and the spiritual " —are animate in film, literature, music and other popular cultural artifacts. Navigating the legacy of the DMT gland (and DMT) itself in diverse esoteric currents, it illustrates how Strassman's " spirit molecule " propositions have been adopted by populists of polar positions on the human condition: i.e. the cosmic re-evolutionism consistent with Modern Theosophy and the gothic hopelessness of H. P. Lovecraft. This exploration of the extraordinary career of the " spirit molecule " enhances awareness of the influence of drugs, and specifically " entheogens, " in diverse " popular occultural " narratives, a development that remains under-researched in a field that otherwise recognizes that oc/cult fandom—science fiction, fantasy and horror—is a vehicle for religious ideas and mystical practices.

The DMT symposium - Breaking Convention: 6th International Conference on Psychedelic Consciousness - University of Exeter, 20th- 22nd April, 2023 The DMT symposium - Friday 21st April, Hofmann Hall Chair: David Luke 10:00 - The Neuroscience of DMT: Past, Present, and Beyond Chris Timmerman 10:30 - Formosahuasca, Acacia Confusa ayahuasca analog from Asia: Notes toward Re-enchantment, ancestral healing and creative expression Marina Li Chun 11:00 - Shamanic Snuff Tryptamines Jonathan Ott 12:00 - Journeying with 5-MeO-DMT and Space Holding: Navigating Profound Experiences for the Benefit of Community – Natasja Pelgrom 12: 30 - Artificial Entities: How DMT can help us make sense of AI and The Internet – Alexander Beiner 13:00 - PANEL

There are experiences in life that can totally overthrow one's view of the world and completely undermine all the certain assumptions one had about the nature of realityindeed, that can radically put into question one's ontological commitments, to use philosophical terminology right away. Such a 'flip' experience, to speak with the American philosopher and professor of religious studies Jeffrey Kripal 1 , happened to me when I first drank ayahuasca, now more than twelve years ago, in December 2006, partly encouraged by my reading of Govert Derix's fascinating book Ayahuasca. Critique of Psychedelic Reason. Philosophical Adventure in the Amazon 2. I really did not have a clue as to what happened to me, so overwhelming and shattering as that experience was for my familiar, say materialistic view of reality. Although I had regularly taken hallucinogenic mushrooms during my student years and afterwards, and was therefore reasonably familiar with certainty and calculability and an all-encompassing will to control nature, including our own nature. It is only in the thought of Martin Heidegger that the wonderthaumazein in ancient Greekand the awareness of a fundamental notknowing returns in its full radicality in philosophy, as the American religious philosopher Mary-Jane Rubenstein shows in her beautiful book Strange Wonder. The Closure of Metaphysics and the Opening of Awe (Columbia University Press, New York, 2011). 7 Cf. 'When entering hyperspace for the first time, or entering deeper levels of Hyperspace for the first time, there can be a 'psychedelic shock'. The paradigms and worldview of the individual is shattered, as they obviously no longer 'work' in these realms, and the individual traveler is left with empty hands staring at the fragments of what he formerly knew as "truth"' (DMT Nexus website: https://wiki.dmt-nexus.me/Hyperspace_lexicon#Ontoseismic). 8 This term is also used by Rachel Harris in her beautiful but strongly therapeutically oriented book Listening to Ayahuasca. New Hope for Depression, Addiction, PTSD, and Anxiety (New World Library, Novano, 2017). It was first introduced, though, by the American psychiatrist John Mack in the context of his research into so-called alien abduction experiences (cf. John E. Mack, Abduction. Human Encounters with Aliens, Charles Scribner, New York, 1994). 9 The most comprehensive inventory of the enormous variety of experiences that drinkers report under the influence of ayahuasca, gained partly phenomenologically and partly empirically based on interviews, can still be found in the book Antipodes of the Mind. Charting the Phenomenology of the Ayahuasca Experience by the Israelian cognitive psychologist Benny Shanon, who at the end of this book also ventures into some philosophical speculations (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2002) 10 Important contributions to the research into the phytochemistry and neuropharmacology of ayahuasca have been

A talk by Peter Meyer delivered in September 2015 at Tyringham Hall, England, as part of a Symposium on Entheogenic Tryptamines. It discusses, from a philosophical point of view, contact induced by the use of DMT (N,N-dimethyltryptamine) with apparently intelligent entities in an apparently alternate reality and speculates on their nature. This paper attempts to understand what the DMT entities are by situating them in a metaphysical framework derived from the teachings of Origen and Plotinus, and showing how the consciousness of individual humans might originate in the consciousness of individual DMT entities.

Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 2011

The highly psychoactive molecule N,N -dimethyltryptamine (or simply DMT), is found naturally occurring in the brains of humans, mammals, and some other animals, as well as in a broad range of species of the plant kingdom. Although speculative, neurochemical research suggests that DMT may be made in the pineal gland, and it is hypothesised that, as much as melatonin helps activate sleep cycles, DMT activates dreaming, and may also be implicated in other natural visionary states such as mystical experience, near-death experience (NDE), spontaneous psi and psychosis. Amazonian shamans have made use of this chemical for its visionary properties for thousands of years, most likely, and take it as part of a decoction frequently called ayahuasca, which translates from Quechua as “vine of the spirits” or “vine of the dead”. The psychedelic brew is taken because it gives rise to extraordinary mental phenomena that have shamanic and supposed healing qualities, such as synaesthesia, ostensible extra-dimensional percepts, out-of-body experiences, psi experiences and perhaps most commonly, encounters with discarnate entities. When described by independent and seemingly naïve DMT participants the entities encountered tend to vary in detail but often belong to one of a very few similar types, with similar behavioural characteristics. For instance, mischievous shapeshifting elves, preying mantis alien brain surgeons and jewel-encrusted reptilian beings, who all seem to appear with baffling predictability. This opens up a wealth of questions as to the reality (i.e., the ontology) of these entities. The discussion of the phenomenology and ontology of these entities mixes research from parapsychology, ethnobotany and psychopharmacology – the fruits of science – with the foamy custard of folklore, anthropology, mythology, cultural studies and related disciplines. Hopefully however, given the varied readership of this journal, it won’t prove to be a trifle too interdisciplinary.

DMT, and entity encounters. Symposium of submitted papers at Breaking Convention: 5th International Conference on Psychedelic Consciousness, 16th-18th August, 2019, University of Greenwich, London. Saturday 17th August 14:30 Is DMT an Endogenous Meta-Neurotransmitter? Tom Ray 15:00 Psychedelics, Occulture and the Mediation of Entity Encounters Cavan McLaughlin 15:30 Music, Psychedelics and The Limitations of The Scientific Approach to Studying DMT – Mark Agacan 16:00 Preliminary Results of The DMT Field Study: Acute Phenomenology and Qualitative Analysis – Pascal Michael 17:00 Hyperspatial Journeys With Your Goods’elf: Experimental DMT Field Research – David Luke 17:30 Towards a DMaTrix Machine – Developing DMT as a Technology for Communication with Interdimensional Alien Intelligences Andrew Gallimore

Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy, vol. 11, no. 2, 2015 QEEG STUDIES OF THE ACUTE EFFECTS OF THE VISIONARY TRYPTAMINE DMT Juan Acosta-Urquidi, PhD ABSTRACT: Recent brain imaging studies in Psychedelic Brain Science are breaking new ground in our understanding of neurological substrate of biological consciousness in humans. The emerging field of inner experience and neuroscience is particularly well suited to the reexamination of the actions of psychedelics on subjective conscious experience. This approach is best understood as neurophenomenology. My work over the last few years has focused on the EEG correlates of the visionary tryptamine DMT action. I believe the researcher must also have the drug experience as part of the experimental protocol, in order to fully understand the richness of the phenomenon. The objective of this exploratory research was to examine the QEEG correlates of the psychoactive smoked inhalation of exogenous DMT action. Known as a potent visionary tryptamine, DMT is ubiquitous in nature and has also been localized in the brain and peripheral tissues of mammals, including humans. The exact function of this endogenous DMT is the subject of ongoing neuropharmacological research. Three sources of DMT were tested: high purity synthetic 5-MeO- DMT, Bufo 5-MeO-DMT (an extract from the Sonoran desert toad venom, Bufo alvarius), and N,N- DMT from a natural extract of the Acacia tree Mimosa hostilis root bark. The DMT was delivered by smoked inhalation (vaporization). The rapid onset (10-20 sec), short acting (5-15 min.), and reversible nature of the effects made such a QEEG study feasible. DMT dosage was adjusted to elicit an effective psychedelic experience (ca. 20-30 mg for N,NDMT; 2-5 mg for synthetic 5-MeO-DMT, and 30-40 mg for the Bufo 5-MeO-DMT material). Healthy volunteers (age 25-60; N=15 men, N=8 women) were tested. The protocol consisted of: 5-10 min. baseline control (resting eyes closed) was first acquired, followed by the DMT test condition, usually lasting 5-15 min. When subjects recovered from the DMT induced altered state, a report of their subjective experience was recorded on video and a post recovery EEG reading was made typically at 1530 min. A statistical comparison (paired t-tests, correlated samples) of absolute power values for all EEG bands between baseline vs. DMT tests and post recovery conditions was carried out for all subjects. The DMT- induced profound alterations in consciousness were tracked with the shifts in the QEEG metrics analysed. The time course and intensity of the subjective experience correlated with the magnitude of the observed EEG effects. The most consistent effect was a robust suppression of Alpha, obtained for both N,N-DMT and 5-MeO-DMT (Alpha decreased ave. 72%, N=6). During recovery, some subjects showed Alpha rebound increased power at 15-25 min. post DMT (ave. 43% incr., P<.0107, N=9) . A DMT induced reversible shift in FFT spectra from Alpha to Theta was recorded in some subjects. Also, very signifcant hypercoherence in all bands (especially Beta) was measured in most subjects. Gamma power (35-40 Hz) was also increased in some subjects. During post DMT Alpha rebound, subjects reported “being in peace, a calmed state of wellbeing and clarity”. The significance of these findings is discussed with reference to DMT receptor pharmacology mechanisms and recent psychedelic brain imaging studies. KEYWORDS: DMT; EEG; Psychedelic

Michael, P., Luke, D., & Robinson, O. (2025). An encounter with death: A comparative thematic and content analysis of the naturalistic DMT experiences and the near-death experience. Frontiers in Psychology 16: 1532937. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1532937 Introduction: Classical near-death experiences (NDEs) refer to states of disconnected consciousness characterised by a range of features occurring in the context of being close to death. Various psychedelic substances, such as N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), consistently replicate NDE features and may be considered ‘near-death-like experiences.’ However, a systematic qualitative analysis comparing the specifics of content with the broader themes of both psychedelic and NDEs has yet to be conducted. Methods: We report the third thematic and content analysis of the DMT experience from a naturalistic field study, focusing on themes related to death and dying. Based on 36 semi-structured interviews, this analysis is then directly compared, qualitatively and in terms of content frequency, with a novel extension of a previous thematic analysis of 34 written NDE narratives. Results: The ‘canonical NDE themes’ identified across the DMT experiences included Translocation, Bright Light(s), Sense of Dying, The Void, Disembodiment, Tunnel-like Structures, Light Being-esque Entities, Deceased Family, Life Review-like, and Hyper-empathic Experiences. A total of 95% of participants reported at least one of these. Twelve ‘less typical NDE motifs’ were also noted. Five classical NDE features were entirely absent from DMT, while DMT exhibited an even broader array of experience features that were absent from NDEs. DMT clearly shares a more basic phenomenological structure with NDEs but shows differences in the prevalence of certain features. Furthermore, DMT did not present any immediately recognisable linear sequencing of themes. Overall, DMT is distinctly unique in its qualitative content, characterised by its more prodigious and stereotypical nature, which includes kaleidoscopic, extraterrestrial, transcultural, fluctuating, and overwhelming elements. Discussion: When examining the comparability between DMT and NDEs at a fundamentally more nuanced level of qualitative content (as opposed to broad themes or questionnaire items), the two experiences clearly diverge. However, a minority of NDEs, which are themselves unique, do share significant content with DMT. Taken together, DMT could be considered an ‘NDE-mimetic.’ The weaker comparability is likely due not only to differences in context but also to the complex neural processes occurring near death, in which endogenous DMT may only play a small role. In light of this level of parallelism with NDEs, some potential clinical applications of DMT are also discussed.

Reviews the book, Sacred knowledge: Psychedelics and religious experiences, by William A. Richards. Richards's career of clinical research with psychedelics and professional formation in theology, comparative religion and the psychology of religion bring integrative perspectives to understanding psychedelic experiences. Clinical accounts, scientific research and his personal experiences with psychedelics enable Richards to address issues of core importance in religious studies, medicine and society in general. Clinical studies with psychedelics provide findings that contribute to assessment of issues in religious studies, providing evidence that supports a perennialist view of mystical experiences as inherent to human nature. Double blind studies establish the intrinsic ability of psychedelics to produce mystical experiences, as well as behavioral changes in the participants' lives. Similarities in mystical and psychedelic experiences across people and cultures point to their transcendental nature and basis in human biology. Richards weaves together various strands of evidence to educate professionals of many disciplines and the general public about the range of promising uses of psychedelics. Although psychedelic ingestion does not always produce mystical experiences, when they fail to do so, they generally engage the user with personal experiences related to childhood trauma or unresolved emotions, especially fears, grief, anger and guilt. This reveals another power potential of these substances to provide relief for conditions often found intractable by modern medicine. Sacred Knowledge provides a call to recognize the biases that have affected our societal evaluations of psychedelics and how current scientific research demands reconsideration of the significance of these powerful entheogens and their implications for understanding spiritual experiences and human nature.

This thesis attempts to address the philosophical implications of the N, N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) research of Dr. Rick Strassman. Strassman concludes that the psychedelic properties of DMT represent a proper biological starting point for discussing spiritual and near-death experiences. My research attempts to incorporate philosophical elements from the philosophy of mind and philosophy of religion/mysticism to give an accurate account of some of the philosophical issues worth exploring for future research. One of the essential patterns in this thesis is to trace the research and conclusions of Strassman, compare them with the philosophical issues in the contemporary philosophy of mind and to address the problems of spiritual qualia and mystical experience. Part of the issue stems from understanding a theoneurological (brain mediated prophetic/spiritual communication) account for spiritual experiences within the framework of naturalism/supernaturalism philosophy. Here, I decipher the problems of qualitative distinctions amongst spiritual and nonspiritual experiences and how consciousness plays an essential role in this process. Keywords: N, N-Dimethyltryptamine, DMT, Spiritual Experience, Mystical Experience, Mystical Consciousness, Consciousness, Theoneurology

Frontiers in Psychology, 2018

5-MeO-DMT is a psychoactive substance found in high concentrations in the bufotoxin of the Colorado River Toad (Bufo alvarius). Emerging evidence suggests that vaporized 5-MeO-DMT may occasion mystical experiences of comparable intensity to those occasioned by more widely studied psychedelics such as psilocybin, but no empirical study has tested this hypothesis. Data was obtained from 20 individuals (M age = 38.9, ± 10.7; male = 55%, Caucasian = 85%) who were administered 5-MeO-DMT as part of a psychospiritual retreat program in Mexico. All participants received 50 mg of inhaled vaporized toad bufotoxin which contains 5-MeO-DMT and completed the Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ30) approximately 4-6 h after their session. Administration of 5-MeO-DMT occasioned strong mystical experiences (MEQ30 Overall M intensity = 4.17, ± 0.64, range 0-5) and the majority (n = 15, 75%) had "a complete mystical experience" (≥60% on all MEQ30 subscales). Compared to a prior laboratory-based psilocybin study, there were no differences in the intensity of mystical effects between 5-MeO-DMT and a high dose (30 mg/70 kg) of psilocybin, but the intensity of mystical effects was significantly higher in the 5-MeO-DMT sample compared to moderate/high dose (20 mg/70 kg) of psilocybin (MEQ30 Total Score: p = 0.02, d = 0.81). Administration of vaporized 5-MeO-DMT reliably occasioned complete mystical experiences in 75% of individuals and was similar in intensity to high dose psilocybin administered in a laboratory setting. The short duration of action may be advantageous for clinical interventions and for studying mystical-type experiences.