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Neural correlates of the DMT experience assessed with multivariate EEG

nature.com

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Re: Neural correlates of the DMT experience assessed with multivariate EEG

#71

Post by hjek »

EL_Loco wrote: post #69

I'm brazilian, and lived a big part of my life in a city where there were two religious groups who did ayahuasca. In my 20's, I had quite a lot of friends who tried it, with some doing it quite frequently and a few even joining the groups as full members. The experience I had with knowing them before and after ayahuasca not too different than with other drugs/hallucinogens: my friends related life-changing events, co…

> The funniest thing is, the guy who was most outspoken about his transformation, about feeling 'the wisdom of the plant spirits', and how all this here was 'a dream reality', after a few years became a cop. Another friend is today a wealthy corporate lawyer.

It's good to be wary of cheap spirituality. Thanks for sharing your story. I've seen similar. It's that whole Steve Jobs taking LSD kinda thing, isn't it?

Re: Neural correlates of the DMT experience assessed with multivariate EEG

#72

Post by hypewatch »

deckar01 wrote: post #12

> The present study’s findings significantly advance our understanding of the brain basis of one of the most unusual and intense altered states of consciousness known – previously likened to dreaming... This study does not "find that DMT produces a dream-like state"; that was already well established. This study identifies the subtle brain activity that differentiates the hallucinations from dreaming. > This experien…

DMT is also naturally released at the time of death. These experiences sound similar to how the afterlife is described by many religions.

Re: Neural correlates of the DMT experience assessed with multivariate EEG

#73

Post by romwell »

EL_Loco wrote: post #69

I'm brazilian, and lived a big part of my life in a city where there were two religious groups who did ayahuasca. In my 20's, I had quite a lot of friends who tried it, with some doing it quite frequently and a few even joining the groups as full members. The experience I had with knowing them before and after ayahuasca not too different than with other drugs/hallucinogens: my friends related life-changing events, co…

>the guy who was most outspoken ... after a few years became a cop. Another friend is today a wealthy corporate lawyer.

Or perhaps people who seek power and aren't afraid to take risks are the sort of people who end up trying ayahuasca.

We'd need more data about people who had ayahuasca to establish a link :-)

Re: Neural correlates of the DMT experience assessed with multivariate EEG

#74

Post by davebryand »

ThJ wrote: post #56
phaedrus wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting! When you say executive functions, could ADHD be linked in a way to this? When I "zone out" it feels like REM dreaming while awake.

Oh, um, that’s interesting. I have found I can make myself dream while awake in a way... I use relaxation techniques on myself all day and it’s actually a bit frightening what you can make your own brain do... What happened to me is I became more openminded, more fluent in my writing, more daring in my choices, and actually also more socially aware... I can only compare it to eating the forbidden fruit of the garden…

Sounds like you are moving through spiritual awakening. Congrats!

Re: Neural correlates of the DMT experience assessed with multivariate EEG

#75

Post by lazyguy2 »

EL_Loco wrote: post #69

I'm brazilian, and lived a big part of my life in a city where there were two religious groups who did ayahuasca. In my 20's, I had quite a lot of friends who tried it, with some doing it quite frequently and a few even joining the groups as full members. The experience I had with knowing them before and after ayahuasca not too different than with other drugs/hallucinogens: my friends related life-changing events, co…

Many people in the USA observed the same thing.

That's what the term 'yuppie' implied for a lot of people.

All these people from the late 1960's and 1970's that spoke about dropping out or how awesome it would be join a short lived commune and so on and so forth only to became intensely materialistic and image obsessed in their 30's.

Which then spoke to the idea that a lot of the 'ultra spiritual' stuff that hippie movement was involved in was nothing more then getting wasted and being fashionable. And when it was fashionable to be materialistic and image-obsessed they turned into that.

This may confuse people who associate hippies with anti-war movement, but the anti-war movement was largely a separate from the hippies.

Re: Neural correlates of the DMT experience assessed with multivariate EEG

#77

Post by nyolfen »

pavas wrote: post #66
ThJ wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, um, that’s interesting. I have found I can make myself dream while awake in a way... I use relaxation techniques on myself all day and it’s actually a bit frightening what you can make your own brain do... What happened to me is I became more openminded, more fluent in my writing, more daring in my choices, and actually also more socially aware... I can only compare it to eating the forbidden fruit of the garden…

This sounds like mania. Be careful.

my thought as well, particularly the bit about following amphetamine use and the death of their mother, assuming it wasn't figurative or an arbitrary example. as someone who has experienced mania it reminded me strongly of the way i've felt in the midst of it -- the sense of mastery, the paranoia, and feeling like i had some kind of conceptual or philosophical breakthrough.

Re: Neural correlates of the DMT experience assessed with multivariate EEG

#78

Post by sgdpk »

BigChiefSmokem wrote: post #53
_arvin wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the worst side effects of cannabis :[ I miss dreaming and REM sleep. feelsbadman

You still dream while on cannabis, I just don’t think you are able to record any of it to main memory. Actually from what I understand it we all dream a lot (with or without cannabis) we just can’t remember most of it.

According to Matthew Walker (Berkeley researcher on sleep), it does affect sleep. See this small clip, starting at 2:14.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lRp5AC9W_F8

Re: Neural correlates of the DMT experience assessed with multivariate EEG

#79

Post by pharrington »

shawnz wrote: post #30
deckar01 wrote: post #12

> The present study’s findings significantly advance our understanding of the brain basis of one of the most unusual and intense altered states of consciousness known – previously likened to dreaming... This study does not "find that DMT produces a dream-like state"; that was already well established. This study identifies the subtle brain activity that differentiates the hallucinations from dreaming. > This experien…

Contrary to popular opinion I haven't found DMT to be that much different than any other psychedelic drug when comparing equivalent doses. Sure it's true that while high on the drug it creates experiences that feel real, but that's true of dreaming too, isn't it? It's not obvious that it wasn't real until it's over. And similarly I have had the same feeling from high doses of "plain old" psychedelics.

It's probably important to remember that most people aren't this rigorous about drug use, in general. If one is not precisely monitoring dosages, let alone trying to compare roughly equivalent doses and effects among a variety of drugs, DMT is waaay easier to ingest a high dose of, accidentally or otherwise, compared to most other psychedelics.

Re: Neural correlates of the DMT experience assessed with multivariate EEG

#80

Post by mapcars »

rzzzt wrote: post #55
dana321 wrote: post #50

I've had my own dreams while awake, the key is to stay aware while you are going to sleep.. Everyone knows the state between sleeping and awake, its great. But to go to sleep while still conscious, is like advanced meditation. I've had similar experiences during meditation. The world around you merges into a dream-like state, but it all seems to feel more real than the world we usually experience while awake. Dreams…

One often mentioned trick is to look for stuff to read if you think you are in a dream - street signs and other text tend not to make a lot of sense (the brain falls behind GPT2 in that regard).

That's not exactly like this, this and other "tricks" are described in great details in Stephen LaBerge's books on Lucid Dreaming
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