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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?

#81

Post by burgerdev »

burgerdev wrote: post #79
oh_sigh wrote: post #8

Do people of all cultures see insects, or is it just westerners on DMT? For example, I've heard that schizophrenia manifests itself in different ways across cultures. Voices are almost always negative/destructive in western cultures, but often times take on playful manners in non-western cultures.

It is most prevalent among westerners writing fiction novels about alien praying mantis entities[1]. Jokes aside, as far as I know DMT is not the only compound that makes you see insects. For me, it kinda makes sense to interpret little 'irregularities' in your visual / tactile perceptions as, say, ants. [1] http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/pickover/neoreality.html

On the other hand, perhaps insects are ideal for (subconsciously) describing alien encounters. The mind has a good understanding about how insects look like (not like us), but it can barely imagine how it feels to be an insect.

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

#83

Post by Figs »

nether wrote: post #4

I saw these weird drapes folded around me that were brown, green, and white stripes. They were gently heaving, and I knew that they were living creatures that were watching over me. I didn't take enough to have a full breakthrough, but in that moment I was certain that I was dying, with all of my consciousness welled up into my head, as if that's all I was. When I came to and regained awareness of my limbs, I was rel…

> Just "feeling sure" isn't enough to certain of something.

Back when I was a teenager, I got interested in the idea of lucid dreaming. One of the suggested ways I'd read of gaining awareness that you are in a dream is to habitually ask yourself if you're dreaming -- sooner or later, you'll do it in a dream.

I tried that for a while, and sure enough, I did actually ask myself if I was dreaming while in a dream, and concluded that I wasn't in dream, because I just felt sure that I wasn't dreaming! Was rather amused when I woke up and realized that I actually had been dreaming all along...

What I should have done -- as I later learned -- was to try to do something impossible while anticipating that it will happen. For example, jump with the intention of levitating, expecting to just hover in the air. Dreams work on anticipation -- what you expect to happen is what happens next. (That's why nightmares always seem to do whatever you're afraid is going to happen next; you expect your fear to come true, so it does.)

Empirically testing reality on occasion is a good thing to do; sometimes you'll find out that what you think is real is just a dream.

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

#84

Post by riffraff »

lukeholder wrote: post #19
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…

Interesting that Satan is described as a "serpent" in the Old Testament/Garden of Eden story.

I might be wrong, but AFAIK the old testament Eden story features the serpent, but has no mention of Satan.

The identification of Satan with the serpent is a Christian and Islamic thing.

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

#85

Post by junkyarddog »

Six to seven foot tall praying mantis like entities are a common element in many alien abduction accounts. They're typically in the background, silently watching the proceedings while letting the little greys carry out the examinations.

In "DMT: The Spirit Molecule" author Rick Strassman theorises that DMT enables the brain to tune in to other parallel realities beyond "channel-normal". If the interdimensional hypothesis for alien abductions is correct, perhaps DMT allows one to occasionally tune into the source of this mysterious phenomenon.

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

#86

Post by enimodas »

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…

I always thought the same was true for spiders. Snakes don't do anything for me, maybe because they look too much like earthworms, but the distinct shape of some spiders gives me an instinctual reaction.

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

#87

Post by hardly_a_mirage »

Figs wrote: post #83
nether wrote: post #4

I saw these weird drapes folded around me that were brown, green, and white stripes. They were gently heaving, and I knew that they were living creatures that were watching over me. I didn't take enough to have a full breakthrough, but in that moment I was certain that I was dying, with all of my consciousness welled up into my head, as if that's all I was. When I came to and regained awareness of my limbs, I was rel…

> Just "feeling sure" isn't enough to certain of something. Back when I was a teenager, I got interested in the idea of lucid dreaming. One of the suggested ways I'd read of gaining awareness that you are in a dream is to habitually ask yourself if you're dreaming -- sooner or later, you'll do it in a dream. I tried that for a while, and sure enough, I did actually ask myself if I was dreaming while in a dream, and c…

> For example, jump with the intention of levitating, expecting to just hover in the air. Dreams work on anticipation

Yep, either you're dreaming or you're now dead.

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

#88

Post by saywatnow »

RandomInteger4 wrote: post #38
saywatnow wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I take it you do. Thanks for enlightening me!

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

#89

Post by dpweb »

SturgeonsLaw wrote: post #62
nether wrote: post #4

I saw these weird drapes folded around me that were brown, green, and white stripes. They were gently heaving, and I knew that they were living creatures that were watching over me. I didn't take enough to have a full breakthrough, but in that moment I was certain that I was dying, with all of my consciousness welled up into my head, as if that's all I was. When I came to and regained awareness of my limbs, I was rel…

> Just "feeling sure" isn't enough to certain of something. This, I believe, is one of the most powerful and profound lessons hallucinogens can teach us. If you can experience, first hand, that even the sensory input from your eyes and ears can not always be trusted, then it tends to make you very, very skeptical of things that are held as immutably true beliefs.

Everyone knows that we inherit physcially from our ancestors going back millions of years, but why not psychic inheritance. for instance, children are afraid of the dark. dont forget for thousands of years prehistoric animals killed humans in the dark. i believe we inherit from our ancestors and this explains some of our current psychology.

wouldnt be surprised if dmt is halping the mind tap into some human psychological archetype, the insects repesenting something in the numan experience. of course, also, maybe we are a huge experiment by extraterrestrial aliens and they examine us, block our minds from this and dmt is an antidote! the point is, were trapped in our conciousness its all we know.

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

#90

Post by nabla9 »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #67
SturgeonsLaw wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Just "feeling sure" isn't enough to certain of something. This, I believe, is one of the most powerful and profound lessons hallucinogens can teach us. If you can experience, first hand, that even the sensory input from your eyes and ears can not always be trusted, then it tends to make you very, very skeptical of things that are held as immutably true beliefs.

It would be hilarious if math, science, and logic turned out to be consensus hallucinations that were not only incomplete but could not make more than limited patches of sense.

It's possible to give a person posthypnotic suggestion that number four does not exist, for example. When they try to count their fingers, hilarity ensues: 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9,10,11. WTF! 11 figers, this is wrong. I try to count fingers in both of my hands separately and sum them together. 1,2,3,5,6 and 1,2,3,5,6. 6+6=12 WTF, now I have 12 fingers.

If math and logic were hallucinations, they would lead into contradictions.

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