Warning: this article is not intended to encourage anyone to use N,N-Dimethyltryptamine. Individuals participating in DMT research were taken care of by specialists and physicians, they were characterized by very good psychological well-being and experienced DMT in controlled, safe conditions. It is highly risky to use this on your own and can result in permanent negative psychic changes and harm to your health.

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What is DMT?

N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (shortened to DMT) is the most powerful psychoactive substance known to humans. It was first synthesized in 1931 by the English chemist Richard Manske. It is the main active ingredient of the brew used for sacral and healing purposes by many traditional cultures of South America called ayahuasca (I will probably write be a separate entry on this).

DMT is naturally found in many plant species, mammals and... human brain, as confirmed by the Nobel Prize winner Julius Axelrod in 1972. Contrary to the myths told by some psychedelic enthusiasts, there is no evidence that DMT is produced by the pineal gland. Like most of the classic psychedelics, it acts on serotonin receptors (5-HT2A).

_Serotonin
_{Source: Wikipedia}

_{N,N-Dimethyltryptamine}

_{DMT crystal}
_{Source: Erowid.org}

DMT can be vaporized, administered intravenously and injectively. DMT alone is not active in oral consumption because it is metabolizes by an enzyme called monoamine oxidase (MAO) in our stomach. However, there are chemical compounds that inhibit the enzyme (MAO inhibitors). They are found, among other things, in the vine Banisteriopsis caapi, which is used in the preparation of ayahuasca.

When it comes to easily measurable effects: after injection or vaporization the blood pressure increases slightly for about 7-10 minutes, whereas the pulse rises dramatically (e.g. from 60 to 140 - an equivalent of pulse after running on the fourth floor, despite the fact that participants always lay on the bed). The pupils enlarge, beta-endorfin, corticotropin, cortisol and prolactin levels in the blood increase. After 10 minutes the effects gradually decrease, and after 25-30 there is no trace of the effects!

Subjective effects

The effects of DMT has been attempted to be illustrated several times. The most famous artistic visions of the substance are the one from the filmEnter the Void and... from Rick and Morty.

However, the majority of people who tried DMT are not able to properly describe what they experienced. There are two reasons for this: firstly, a significant part of the experience is simply lost, just like dreams are forgotten. What remains in memory for most people several minutes after the journey are single frames of the experience, very vague, fuzzy memories and memory concerning thoughts and feelings that accompanied the experience. The second reason is the very nature of experience - a large part of those who well remember what happened claim that they are unable to describe what they have seen, because language is unable to express the character of experience in a proper way.

"Load Universe Into Cannon. Aim At Brain. Fire!"
Alan Watts on DMT

The most frequently mentioned effects

Most of the people participating in the experiments and people trying "recreational" (this term does not suit here well...) use of DMT reported the following experiences (often all and usually almost all of them were experienced during one session):

extremely strong hallucinations covering the entire field of vision,
telepathic contact with the aware being, creatures, or intelligence,
a voyage through alternative realities or unknown dimensions,
loss or blurring of identity,
an sense of dying,
strong euphoria or fright (sometimes simultaneously or immediately after each other),
the feeling of "returning home" or the strong impression of familiarity of this state/place
experience being out of the body,
belief in the absolute realness of the perceived vision
disruption of perception of time and space,
loud, rising rumbling sounds,
strong sensual impressions, sometimes of an erotic nature,
a feeling of complete lack of control over the experience.

The visions contain extremely detailed geometric patterns with unusual, physically contradicting spatial properties and numerous symbolic features. The characters that are encountered take various forms from robots to insects, animals, humanoids, aliens and reptiles. Terrance McKenna called these characters "fractal, self-transforming elf machines", which was highly popularized in the psychedelic counterculture environment.

_{First seconds after "breakthrough" visualisation}

The strongest and most fantastic effects are experienced during the so-called "breakthrough", which is a complete separation from the "standard" reality and the subjective feeling of shifting to another dimension, usually accompanied by a complete blurring or loss of identity.

It is really fascinating how diverse people's visions are and at the same time how often the aforementioned common elements occur. This is well demonstrated in this, 30-minute video, which is a compilation of several reports of people who have just experienced DMT.

Research on DMT

Psychoactive effects of DMT were discovered by Stephen Szára in the 1950s, who first tested the substance on himself (at that time it was quite common), then on a group of volunteers (including William S. Burroughs).

In 1990, Rick Strassman at Albuquerque University of New Mexico began first research in the United States with the use of psychedelic substances on humans in more than 20 years. And that was a research with the most powerful of them - DMT. After a two-year struggle to obtain the necessary permits and funding, it succeeded. For 5 years of research Rick's team administered more than 400 doses of DMT to a total of 60 volunteers.

The conclusions of Strassman's study are not overwhelming, as the researchers could not really understand what really was happening during the trips. However, thanks to the study we have a rich description of the effects of DMT on humans. More than half of the participants felt like they had a meeting with other intelligent entities. Strassman speculated that DMT can be produced in large amounts while dying and also while experiencing dreams, but no study has been done so far in that regard..

Below I present conclusions from other studies on DMT:

DMT may appear to be a natural neurotransmitter in mammalian brains (Barker, Monti & Christian, 1981),
DMT occurs in human cerebrospinal-spinal fluid (Smythies et al., 1979),
DMT occurs in rats' pineal gland (Barker, Borjigin, Lomnicka & Strassman, 2013),
DMT appears to have limited neurotoxicity and other adverse effects except for intense cardiovascular effects when administered intravenously in large doses. It can be a useful tool in understanding brain functioning and treating psychosis and anxiety. (Carbonaro & Gatch, 2006),
DMT, unlike other psychedelics, does not show any tolerance (Strassman, Qualls, & Berg, 1996),
"Machine elves" and other characteristic figures and forms occurring during the experience of DMT may have an archertypical character (Szára, 2014).

_{EEG done during DMT experience: The substance inhibits the activity of Alpha brain waves, which are responsible for inhibiting the perception of distracting stimuli. Does it mean that with DMT we simply see a "stimulus noise" or maybe some kind of hidden fragment of reality?}
_Source

(Insane) hypotheses

In addition to rational and relatively scientifically acceptable hypotheses and explanations, there are also a couple of revolutionary ones, put forward by serious scientific authorities (including Rick Strassman himself):

DMT can be responsible for receiving stimuli from a reality that is not available to us (brain as a "radio receiver" and DMT as a "switch"),
On the 49th day after impregnation, the fetus's brain develops a pineal gland and according to some Buddhists teachings... that's exactly when the human soul appears. Some people connect these two coincidents with each other,
DMT produced naturally in the brain may be responsible for experiences of abduction by UFOs,
Last but not least: DMT really opens the door to new dimensions and moves people there 😂

Despite almost a century since the synthesis of DMT we still do not know what its role in nature is. Why is it found in many plants, animals and human brain? We do not know why the brain perceives or produces such intense images, a sense of familiarity and foreign entities. We do not know why most of the experience is lost in memory a few minutes after its completion. We do not know what to do and how to bite this "spiritual molecule". Actually, we know nothing. We can only wait for further scientific discoveries concerning DMT and, above all, brain scans from magnetic resonance imaging!

Literature

_{Barker, S. A., Monti, J. A., & Christian, S. T. (1981). N, N-dimethyltryptamine: an endogenous hallucinogen. International review of neurobiology, 22, 83-110.}
_{Barker, S. A., Borjigin, J., Lomnicka, I., & Strassman, R. (2013). LC/MS/MS analysis of the endogenous dimethyltryptamine hallucinogens, their precursors, and major metabolites in rat pineal gland microdialysate. Biomedical Chromatography, 27(12), 1690-1700.}
_{Carbonaro, T. M., & Gatch, M. B. (2016). Neuropharmacology of N, N-dimethyltryptamine. Brain research bulletin, 126, 74-88.}
_{Hristova, D., & Zhelyazkova-Savova, M. (2017). A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF RESEARCH ON N, N-DIMETHYLTRYPTAMINE. Scripta Scientifica Vox Studentium, 1(1).}
_{Gallimore, A. R., & Strassman, R. J. (2016). A Model for the Application of Target-Controlled Intravenous Infusion for a Prolonged Immersive DMT Psychedelic Experience. Frontiers in pharmacology, 7.}
_{Metzner, R. (Ed.). (2005). Sacred vine of spirits: Ayahuasca. Inner Traditions/Bear & Co.}
_{Smythies, J. R., Morin, R. D., & Brown, G. B. (1979). Identification of dimethyltryptamine and O-methylbufotenin in human cerebrospinal fluid by combined gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Biological psychiatry, 14(3), 549-556.}
_{Strassman, R. J., Qualls, C. R., & Berg, L. M. (1996). Differential tolerance to biological and subjective effects of four closely spaced doses of N, N-dimethyltryptamine in humans. Biological psychiatry, 39(9), 784-795.}
_{Strassman, R. J., Qualls, C. R., Uhlenhuth, E. H., & Kellner, R. (1994). Dose-response study of N, N-dimethyltryptamine in humans: II. Subjective effects and preliminary results of a new rating scale. Archives of general psychiatry, 51(2), 98-108.}
_{Strassman, R. J. (1995). Human psychopharmacology of N, N-dimethyltryptamine. Behavioural brain research, 73(1), 121-124.}
_{Strassman, R. J. (2001). DMT: The spirit molecule.}
_{Szára, S. (2014). "Interview conducted by email on the discovery of DMT and speculations regarding the phenomemology of the experience", (eds.) A.R. Gallimore & D.P. Luke.)}

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The most powerful psychedelic substance.... is in Your brain. Current knowledge on DMT