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A DMT trip 'feels like dying' – and scientists now agree

bbc.co.uk

51–60 of 142 posts

Re: A DMT trip 'feels like dying' – and scientists now agree

#51
One thing people talk about is the short-lived effects of DMT, and how they would like more time in the the DMT space. But as I understand it, your body doesn't build up a resistance to it. The DMTx [0] project is seeking to exploit this property and created extended-state DMT experiences using some basic medical techniques. Also, they are looking for volunteers.

[0]: https://www.dmtx.org

Re: A DMT trip 'feels like dying' – and scientists now agree

#52

“My body just didn’t seem relevant anymore," says Iona. "And I felt like I arrived in some consciousness soup which seemed like a different realm to the one I ordinarily inhabit – even in dreams. It just seemed like everything was rotating and swirling and spiralling. It didn’t seem like there were normal space-time proportions going on.” I'm not exactly sure how close I came to dying, but I had the exact opposite ex…

Mobile-readable quote:

> “My body just didn’t seem relevant anymore," says Iona. "And I felt like I arrived in some consciousness soup which seemed like a different realm to the one I ordinarily inhabit – even in dreams. It just seemed like everything was rotating and swirling and spiralling. It didn’t seem like there were normal space-time proportions going on.”

Re: A DMT trip 'feels like dying' – and scientists now agree

#54
post #30
post #23

Can anyone give a reason in darwinian terms, for why brains would evolve a feeling of detachment and contentment near death? I can't project a selfish-gene reason. Maybe, if you hypothesise its in the 'I die, so others live' space, its like altruistic behaviour and favours the group genome, not the individual

Maybe the human (or generally any conscious nervous system) existence is such an anxious experience that finally realizing it was all a trip that is ending is such a giant relief that the imminent death feels like a warm home? Not to sound too bleak but it would explain the contentment

That seems right. The KeepAlive muscle finally gets to relax.

Re: A DMT trip 'feels like dying' – and scientists now agree

#55
> “There is nothing here to begin to enable us to propose that on DMT, you literally transcend the laws of this universe and do actually go to another world,” he says.

This is faulty thinking. An afterlife doesn’t presuppose a violation of natural laws, or a separate world. It just means you continue living in a different form.

The only thing that would be required for that is a causal relationship (yet to be observed in science) between your dying mind and some other living structure.

The causal eelationship needn’t even be mind-out. If your mind is caused by the enduring structure and you experience its presence at death, that would be physically indistinguishable from you becoming that thing.

Given that we continue to discover entirely new structures in both the biological world and our own bodies, which were hiding in plain sight, I don’t find this implausible.

That’s not to mention psychoaocial structures which science hardly can model, and to which our individual minds are very tightly coupled.

Re: A DMT trip 'feels like dying' – and scientists now agree

#56
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

back in the day I experimented with psilocybin mushrooms and experienced what is called 'ego death'. basically, you lose a sense of self and identity. You are literally a blank slate. It was a surreal experience and I felt panicky like 'oh shit i think im dead but im still concious'. Before I reached this state I was seeing math formulas everywhere. Basically when my internal thoughts stopped, that is I was experienc…

Yeah, that can be a frightening state. And yet, it was my favorite part, during the peak of the peak. To some degree, the rest of the trip was just something to be endured. Although I eventually learned to go dancing or bike riding or whatever. The absolute worst combination is marijuana on the tail of an LSD peak. Your short term memory drops to about 100 msec. I spent a few hours, decades ago, reminding a friend wh…

yes I should clarify that after the experience, it felt like I had been in a sauna for the psyche. Basically, I had lingering sense of peace and wellness.

The scariest shit I've seen while tripping was seeing the Eye of Providence. What's more creepy is that this is a common symbol people experienced. For example, I didn't know what the hell was a third eye until I saw it. It was unbelievable.

It changed my life. It gave me an unbiased raw truths about myself, circumstances, and ultimately the realization that we are where we are because of our decisions in the past.

Everyone should consume psilocybin mushrooms once. LSD you buy off the street can be laced. But good ol' mushrooms will never let you down.

Re: A DMT trip 'feels like dying' – and scientists now agree

#58

One thing people talk about is the short-lived effects of DMT, and how they would like more time in the the DMT space. But as I understand it, your body doesn't build up a resistance to it. The DMTx [0] project is seeking to exploit this property and created extended-state DMT experiences using some basic medical techniques. Also, they are looking for volunteers. [0]: https://www.dmtx.org

That sounds awesome. I wish I could pay to lie in a hospital bed and have a medical professional administer intravenous DMT just for a short period (at least initially). Hopefully this work will bring us closer to a world where supervised DMT voyages are available to the public.

Re: A DMT trip 'feels like dying' – and scientists now agree

#59

Ive done DMT probably 10-15 times in my life so far but quit all recreational drugs ~3 years ago. My last trip being the most intense; me and a friend used a dabbing rig and poured about a gram of dmt onto the heated metal nail - for 20 minutes but what seemed like eternity I Observed the birth, life, and death of myself multiple times over until I finally came back down to the ‘real world’.

did you regret that last one? how much of a DMT trip can you actually remember?

[deleted]

Re: A DMT trip 'feels like dying' – and scientists now agree

#60
On the other hand, 5-Meo-DMT (5-Methoxy-N,N-Dimethyltryptamine), comes in the form of an organic lab-produced extract, or the Bufo Alvarius venom, takes it to a completely different level of non-duality and complete and utter shattering of your ego (temporarily of course, for about 20 minutes). Someone named Albert Most discovered this bizarre compound a few decades back by smoking the venom from the glands of a Sonoran Desert toad somewhere in New Mexico if I recall correctly. I haven't tried it myself but going down a rabbit hole of reports and practitioners on YouTube is in and of itself a profound trip: https://youtu.be/PQctOMSmBuk . EDIT: Here is the piece Vice did on Albert Most: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00jbzI4bcUw
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