ARTICLE

Are the Entities and Experiences of a DMT Drug Trip Real or Imagined?

BY GEORGE MICHAEL

DMT, OR N,N-DIMETHYLTRYPTAMINE, is an extremely powerful yet short-acting psychedelic drug, derived from tryptophan, a chemical substance that is found universally in living systems.1 Pharmacologically, DMT is a relatively simple molecule. It has been used for centuries by various cultures for ritual purposes in that it induces alterations in perception, mood, consciousness, and cognition. For example, in South America, indigenous tribes have long consumed ayahuasca, which is derived by decocting two plants native to the Amazon forest—Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis. Taken separately they have no hallucinogenic effect, but when brewed together they can induce an extraordinary visionary state lasting for several hours.2

It was not until 1931 that Western science became aware of DMT after it was synthesized in a laboratory by Canadian chemist Jeremy Manske. In 1946, a Brazilian chemist and ethnobotanist, Gonçalves de Lima, isolated DMT from plant sources. The psychotropic effects of DMT were first described in 1956 by the Hungarian-born chemist and psychiatrist Stephen Szára after he self-injected the synthesized substance.3 In 1965 a German team announced that they had discovered DMT in human blood.

The “clandestine chemist” and advocate for psychedelics, Nicholas Sand, is credited with being the first person to discover that DMT could be smoked.5 DMT has been called “the crack of ayahuasca.” Physiological changes under the influence of DMT include a rapid increase in pulse (up to 150 bpm) and in blood pressure, but both tend to fall quickly once the peak of the trip had been reached. Inasmuch as DMT metabolizes very quickly, users typically reach a peak high about five minutes after taking the drug. When DMT is smoked, the full “trip” typically lasts between 20 to 25 minutes. In order to “breakthrough”—to reach the DMT realm—a user has to inhale and hold three hits of the smoked drug. Unlike most other drugs, people who use DMT over time do not build up a tolerance for it. Smokable DMT is in a sense a rediscovery of a mechanism that has long been used by shamans to access what they believe to be hidden realms in order to obtain sacred knowledge.

DMT and the Shamanic Tradition

DMT has been employed by shamans in the Amazon jungles, where they are referred to as “vegetalistas,” or those who work with plants.8 Ayahuasca is regarded as an entheogen, an ethnographic term used to describe a plant or drug that evokes a sense of the numinous or a mystical experience. Encounters with entities in the form of jaguars and snakes are frequently reported. According to the Amazonian tradition, jaguars represent power, while snakes represent knowledge. The shaman’s role is important, for he serves in the name of the community and conducts intermittent commerce with the spirits of nature. During his journey, the shaman goes somewhere and brings back information that he uses to improve the well-being of the community. The entities with whom the shamans entertain a relationship are morally ambiguous. Whereas some have healing knowledge, others have destructive knowledge. It is usually easier to get knowledge that can harm people faster than to get knowledge that can heal them. For this reason, it is crucial for the community to keep a close eye on the shaman so that he uses his skill to benefit the group11

In his 2007 book Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind, journalist and “alternative archaeology” writer Graham Hancock linked cave paintings dating back 35,000 years with shamanic traditions throughout the world. He noted that many of the paintings depicted therianthropic (human-animal hybrids) images not unlike the descriptions of entities that people had reported meeting under the influence of ayahuasca. The paintings depict these figures in various stages of their transformation and have appeared diachronically and across cultures12 Hancock speculates that perhaps the total darkness of the caves facilitated the production of melatonin and DMT that contributed to spiritual voyages.

The often experienced “insectoid being” of a DMT experience.

As Gordon Wasson, Albert Hoffman, and Karl Ruck have argued, shamanic plants and practices played a vital role in the genesis of many of the great world religions14 In that same vein, Hancock adduces evidence that that the Abrahamic religions were inspired by hallucinogenic visions. He notes, for example, that the ordeal of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ followed by his death and subsequent resurrection is essentially the narrative of the wounded man, which is commonly found in visions of Amazonian shamans. Similar stories are told by shamans everywhere of their own initiatory agonies, death, and resurrection15 In recent years, Rick Strassman has advanced the idea that the Hebrew Bible could be the accounts of people who entered a prophetic state under the influence of some hallucinogen, possibly DMT, and he calls this model “theoneurological.”

The Varieties of DMT Experience

When DMT is smoked, initially users will often hear ringing sounds followed by a feeling that they are traveling through a tunnel. After that, there is a feeling that one has entered another realm that appears to be hyper-dimensional with intricate morphing patterns. The environments often appear to evince landscapes with hyper-advanced structures and vessels of complexity beyond human imagination17 Users report seeing extraordinary visual phenomena, including kaleidoscopic lights, geometric forms, tunnels, and a variety of unusual entities. The experiences often seem veridical to the users; indeed, the realms are often described as more real than normal reality.