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Why Do DMT Users See Insects from a Parallel Universe?

sprott.physics.wisc.edu

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Re: Why Do DMT Users See Insects from a Parallel Universe?

#31

Post by anamoulous »

GuiA wrote: post #16

There is some evidence that seems to indicate that the humans have an evolved "built in" reaction to snake/snake like patterns: http://www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/cd/12_1/Ohman.c... As reptiles, snakes may have signified deadly threats in the environment of early mammals. We review findings suggesting that snakes remain special stimuli for humans. Intense snake fear is prevalent in both humans and other pri…

One day when I was a teenager I was in the backyard and stepped off the sidewalk and onto the grass like I had done a hundred times before. After taking a couple of steps I froze with an uncomfortable feeling and turned around to see that I had stepped over a very large cottonmouth viper. There wasn't any standing water near the house so I guess it had gotten lost or was sick and wandering. I've always remembered how seemingly automatic my reaction was, like I was controlled by some other thing.

FWIW I've always hated snakes.

Re: Why Do DMT Users See Insects from a Parallel Universe?

#32

Post by byuu »

3131s wrote: post #27

Datura users are also commonly reported by observers to act out hallucinations involving insects. While the user often recalls an entirely different mental experience, it's common for their physical selves to be seen picking at imaginary bugs on the floor in a primal manner (among other reflexive actions, such as convincingly smoking imaginary cigarettes). It is interesting and darkly humorous (keep in mind that datu…

It's not just Datura, either. Belladonna/Nightshade and anti-histamines like Benadryl/diphenhydramine/dimenhydrinate do the exact same things: you see lots of bugs, hear and talk to people who aren't there, smokers tend to smoke imaginary cigarettes, your body feels very heavy, and it screws with your vision.

The most horrifying aspect of the whole experience is that, no matter how much you warn yourself going in, you'll always believe you're completely sober and rational during the experience. It's not until after it wears off completely that you were basically completely schizophrenic during the experience.

Just for anyone thinking this sounds interesting ... even for an entomologist, there is not one single microscopic ounce of euphoria from this experience. Don't try it. There's a reason those who do never try it a second time.

Re: Why Do DMT Users See Insects from a Parallel Universe?

#33

Post by colordrops »

nhaliday wrote: post #23

I have no idea what a DMT trip is actually like but I liked the depiction in Enter the Void: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCIe9gh84NE .

This scene from Renegade recreating an ayahuasca trip is amazing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxtkoE-HV-k

Re: Why Do DMT Users See Insects from a Parallel Universe?

#34

Post by byuu »

nhaliday wrote: post #23

I have no idea what a DMT trip is actually like but I liked the depiction in Enter the Void: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCIe9gh84NE .

Just a fair warning, I've never once seen a depiction of the effects of any kind of psychedelic drug that matched the effects I've personally experienced. And I've tried quite a few of them.

A lot of the experience is the head space and body load, which you're just never going to get from way over the top visual approximations. If you haven't experienced those, you aren't going to be able to imagine them very accurately.

The actual hallucinations are often much more subtle, but it's the headspace that makes them seem more significant. For instance, the most psilocybin does (for me) is cause text on a screen to wiggle around by a few pixels, and things to kind of zoom in and out by maybe 1% of their actual size, and colors on pictures to kind of bleed around by a few pixels if you stare at it long enough.

Now granted, I have not tried dimethyltryptamine. I don't have the courage for that one yet :P

Re: Why Do DMT Users See Insects from a Parallel Universe?

#35

Post by Itsdijital »

3131s wrote: post #27

Datura users are also commonly reported by observers to act out hallucinations involving insects. While the user often recalls an entirely different mental experience, it's common for their physical selves to be seen picking at imaginary bugs on the floor in a primal manner (among other reflexive actions, such as convincingly smoking imaginary cigarettes). It is interesting and darkly humorous (keep in mind that datu…

A long time ago I had an experience not with datura, but a close relative - benedryl (both are dissociatives).

Came home after rolling on ecstasy all night and wanted to go to bed. It's not that easy though after taking a bunch of stimulants. So I took a little bit of a lot of benedryl (iirc ~200mg or 8 pills). Ripped my bong for a bit and felt nice and chilled out. About 30 minutes later though, things started to get weird. Was taking a piss and all these really vivid tears started appearing, like someone ripping the movie screen of my vision with intense psychedelic swirls and stuff behind it. These weren't like lsd or mushroom hallucinations, they were far more real and vivid. It wasn't anything overwhelming though, just small little pockets here and there.

I went back to my room, and holy shit, there were thousands of flies pouring out of my blinds. Like this amorphous mass of flies dripping from between the slats. All the other hallucinations were gone. It was just the flies, and I cannot stress enough how real it was. I went up to it and could get in real close and see all their little wings and glittery eyes. I got in bed and now there were hundreds of spiders crawling on my computer chair. I just laid in bed watching in awe of how real it looked. Then huge spiders started crawling on my ceiling, like the ones from jumanji. It was unsettling, but I was oddly sober (mentally) and knew how common reports of insects and dissociatives were. Except for the psychedelic rips, there were no other hallucinations besides the bugs. I don't even have a fear of spiders or bugs, and always assumed that was the underlying cause.

Re: Why Do DMT Users See Insects from a Parallel Universe?

#36

Post by DaiPlusPlus »

splitdisk wrote: post #7

The more common term is "entities" or "elves"-and I can't really say I've ever seen them.

I read that "The Machine Elves" are more associated with LSD than DMT. Perhaps they activate different parts of the brain associated with object recognition - LSD for humans and faces, and DMT for insects/reptiles as other comments have speculated - it makes me wonder what myriad other substances out there that we haven't discovered yet and what otherworldly effects they could have.

Re: Why Do DMT Users See Insects from a Parallel Universe?

#37

Post by saywatnow »

GuiA wrote: post #16

There is some evidence that seems to indicate that the humans have an evolved "built in" reaction to snake/snake like patterns: http://www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/cd/12_1/Ohman.c... As reptiles, snakes may have signified deadly threats in the environment of early mammals. We review findings suggesting that snakes remain special stimuli for humans. Intense snake fear is prevalent in both humans and other pri…

> This makes sense, as humans have co-evolved along venomous snakes for presumably a very long time.

I always find appeals to evolution for phenomena like this a bit weak. In the Darwinian sense, this response would have to be a random mutation that is environmentally selected for. Not a biologist, but that seems a very high-order function to be subject to random mutations.

Re: Why Do DMT Users See Insects from a Parallel Universe?

#38

Post by RandomInteger4 »

saywatnow wrote: post #37
GuiA wrote: post #16

There is some evidence that seems to indicate that the humans have an evolved "built in" reaction to snake/snake like patterns: http://www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/cd/12_1/Ohman.c... As reptiles, snakes may have signified deadly threats in the environment of early mammals. We review findings suggesting that snakes remain special stimuli for humans. Intense snake fear is prevalent in both humans and other pri…

> This makes sense, as humans have co-evolved along venomous snakes for presumably a very long time. I always find appeals to evolution for phenomena like this a bit weak. In the Darwinian sense, this response would have to be a random mutation that is environmentally selected for. Not a biologist, but that seems a very high-order function to be subject to random mutations.

I don't think you understand evolution. Evolution is not just random mutations.

Re: Why Do DMT Users See Insects from a Parallel Universe?

#39

Post by CuriouslyC »

nhaliday wrote: post #23

I have no idea what a DMT trip is actually like but I liked the depiction in Enter the Void: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCIe9gh84NE .

The thing about hallucinogens is that they really change how you think. The visual changes are such a small part of the experience, compared with the complete transformation of your consciousness. DMT itself is particularly potent in this regard, it basically completely strips away your sense of self.

I highly recommend a heavy dose of ayahuasca at least once in your life. It is pretty much guaranteed to radically change your perspective on a lot of things.

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