1. Tryptamine Psychedelics

In this article I wish to draw attention to a strange property of the
tryptamine psychedelics, especially N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), which
sets them apart from other psychedelics, namely, their ability to place
users in touch with a realm that is apparently inhabited by discarnate
entities of an intelligent nature. The investigation of such a possibility
clearly takes us to (and perhaps beyond) the border of what is considered
scientifically acceptable. Nevertheless, the phenomenon of apparent alien
contact is so impressive to those who have experienced it, and the
implications of such contact are so radical, that the evidence deserves
serious investigation.

The term "psychedelic" may be understood to denote a class of substances
whose primary effect is to alter consciousness in an ego-transcending
manner so that the experience of a person whose neurochemistry is altered
by such a substance is enhanced and expanded in comparison with ordinary
experience. This enhancement and expansion may be emotional, intellectual,
intuitive, sensory, spiritual, somatic or in some other mode. The
qualification that the experience involve a tendency to ego-transcendence
is added partly to distinguish substances such as LSD and MDMA from
stimulants such as amphetamine and cocaine and partly because it is one of
the more remarkable properties of psychedelics that, by their means, we may
enter mythological and spiritual dimensions not normally the concern of our
everyday selves.

Psychedelics may be classified most easily in two ways: according to their
effect on consciousness or according to their chemical structure. The
former is difficult to quantify, and the data here tends to be of a
literary nature (for example, Horowitz [56]). Due to the highly regrettable
proscription of the use of psychedelics in many countries, and to the
totally unjustifiable suppression of research in this field, not much has
been published during the last twenty years regarding the effects of
psychedelics on consciousness. With the increasing recognition in more
enlightened countries (especially in Europe) of the potential value of
psychedelics we may hope to see a revival of publication in this area.

The structural classification lends itself to quantitative scientific
investigation and has thus been preferred by Western scientists. From such
work as has been permitted in this field, it seems that, for the most part,
"hallucinogens are divided into two separate categories. The first . . .
covers the substituted phenylalkylamines, with the prototype for these
structures being mescaline. The second category includes indole-based
compounds, including various substituted tryptamines, beta-carbolines, and
LSD." (Nichols [81], p.97). Not all psychedelics fall into these two
categories. For example, ketamine is clearly a psychedelic but is
structurally unrelated to the phenethylamines or to the tryptamines.

The most well-known psychedelic tryptamines consist of DMT and three
variations on it:

                    5-MeO-DMT  =  5-methoxy-DMT
                    psilocin   =  4-hydroxy-DMT
                    psilocybin =  4-phosphoryloxy-DMT

Psilocybin is dephosphorylated in the body and thereby converted to
psilocin.

The corresponding diethyltryptamine analogs are similarly psychoactive (and
reportedly longer lasting). As well as N,N-diethyltryptamine (DET), the
compound CZ-74 (4-hydroxy-DET), the ethyl analog of psilocin, is known to
be a psychedelic. (For chemical information regarding DET, CZ-74 and
4-phosphoryloxy-DET see Ott[82a], pp. 432-433.)

Psychoactivity has been reported in alpha-methyltryptamine (Murphree [79]),
4-methoxy-DMT and 5-methoxy-alpha-methyltryptamine (Nichols [81]) and
bufotenin, which is 5-hydroxy-DMT (Fabing[23] and Turner [126] ).
6-hydroxy-DMT has been reported as one of the excretory metabolites of DMT
(Szara [118]). A review of the literature will reveal a considerable number
of other tryptamine derivatives which either are known to be or may be
psychoactive.

Although LSD is not a tryptamine its molecular structure includes that of
the tryptamine molecule. We cannot thereby simply classify it as a
tryptamine psychedelic because its molecular structure also includes that
of some psychedelic phenethylamines such as
2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylamphetamine (DOM) (Nichols [81], p.114). Nevertheless
LSD is usually classified with the tryptamine psychedelics and seems more
closely related to the them because it is more readily displaced from
receptor sites by the tryptamines than by the phenethylamines.

DMT has been found to occur naturally in mammalian brains (Barker[4] and
Christian [17]). "Indolealkylamines ... are the only known hallucinogenic
agents whose endogenous occurrence in mammals, including man, has been
confirmed" (McKenna [67]). Szara [114] says that it "seems that the whole
enzymatic apparatus exists in mammals which can produce tryptamine from
tryptophane, DMT from tryptamine and 6-HDMT [the probably hallucinogenic
6-hydroxy-DMT] from DMT."

It is of interest to note that, since DMT is present in every human brain,
any person in a country which prohibits possession of DMT may be arrested
on sight. Every U.S. citizen is now automatically a criminal at birth.

The question as to what function DMT and related substances have in the
mammalian body has not yet received a definite answer. DMT is structurally
similar to serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine) which is well-known as a
neurotransmitter in the mammalian brain. It has been suggested that DMT is
a also a neurotransmitter, but this has not been established.

Strassman [110] has presented evidence that psychoactive tryptamines are
produced endogenously by the pineal gland and are related to the metabolism
of the pineal hormone melatonin. It has been suggested that DMT plays a
central role in dreaming (perhaps with the pineal gland releasing DMT or a
related subtance at certain times during sleep). Much research in this area
remains to be done.

                                2. DMT Usage

(a) Shamanic usage

The history of human involvement with DMT probably goes back many thousands
of years since DMT usage is associated with South American shamanism.
Stafford [108] mentions that the "Spanish friar Ramon Paul, who accompanied
Columbus on his second voyage to the New World, was the first to record
native use of ... 'kohhobba' to communicate with the spirit world." (p.310)
A series of distinguished ethnobotanists eventually established that the
psychoactive ingredients of these native snuffs (known under various names,
including cohoba, parica, yopo, and epana) were obtained from plants such
as Anadenanthera macrocarpa, formerly peregrina (Shultes [95] and Harner
[48]). Chemists then showed that the active ingredients consisted of
various tryptamine derivatives, especially DMT, 5-MeO-DMT and bufotenine
(Holmstedt [55] and Fish [25]). "These and related indolealkylamines have
been detected in members of at least five different plant families"
(Nichols [81], p.120), including Acacia, Anandenanthera, Mimosa, Piptadenia
and Virola.

Plant tryptamines are also used by Amazonian shamans in the form of
ayahuasca, a dark liquid formed by boiling sections of a vine from the
Banisteriopsis genus, usually B. caapi (Rivier [88]). This vine contains
harmala alkaloids, mostly harmine with some harmaline, which are sufficient
in themselves to induce a mild psychedelic state (but at the cost of
nausea). Usually another plant is added to the brew "to make the visions
more intense" (according to the native shamans). This additional plant is
often Psychotria viridis, a plant which contains DMT and 5-MeO-DMT.
Although the DMT content of ayahuasca is sometimes thought to derive solely
from the additives, Stafford [108] reports that the leaves and stems of one
species of Banisteriopsis, B. rusbyana, "have a large amount of N,N-DMT,
5-methoxy-N,N-DMT, 5-hydroxy-N,N-DMT [bufotenine] and
N-beta-methyltetrahydro-beta-carboline."

DMT is not by itself orally active (in doses of up to 1 gram), since it is
broken down by the enzyme monoamine oxidase (MAO). This breakdown may be
prevented by the ingestion of a MAO-inhibitor, allowing the DMT to act
within the brain without being metabolized by the homeostatic mechanisms
normally present. Ayahuasca contains an MAO-inhibitor, namely, the
beta-carbolines derived from the B. caapi vine. Thus a chemical from one
plant makes possible the action of a chemical from another plant.
Anthropologists are still trying to understand how the indigenous people of
South America learned this trick.

Ayahuasca is frequently consumed at night by a group of people (Kensinger
[60] and McKenna [69]), although there are large variations in its mode of
usage among the Indian tribes of the Amazon. Currently the use of ayahuasca
among Indians in the Amazon is declining due to the destruction of
traditional tribal cultures. This lends an urgency to the preservation of
the knowledge associated with its use, a knowledge which concerns not only
the preparation and use of ayahuasca but also the manner in which the
experiences of the practitioner are to be interpreted.

Since the 1950s a couple of ayahuasca-using churches, including Santo
Daime, have arisen in Brazil. Members partake of a brew said by some to be
weak and insufficient to produce visions, but presumably occasionally quite
effective. Santo Daime, is expanding and now has a presence in Portugal,
Spain and other European countries. Religious services involve the singing
of Christian hymns in Portuguese, and it remains to be seen whether some
adaptation to local conditions will be necessary to capture and retain the
interest of the majority of Europeans.

(b) Professional and academic research

Stafford [108] and Ott [82a] mention that DMT was first synthesized in 1931
by the British chemist Richard Manske (who was also the first to synthesize
harmaline, in 1927). Subsequently it was found that DMT occurred in nature,
in the plant Anadenanthera peregrina (1955) and in the plant Mimosa
hostilis (1959 though first isolated in 1946). (Ott [82a], pp.109-110)
Later "Albert Hofmann synthesized a series of DMT analogues, but little
attention was paid to this work until the mid-1960s." (Stafford [108])

In the 1950s and 60s some researchers experimented with tryptamine
hallucinogens injected intramuscularly. The first to publish in English on
this subject seems to have been the Hungarian investigator Stephen Szara,
while working for the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health in
Washington, D.C. (For some reason most of the earliest researchers appear
to have been Hungarians; presumably they learnt about it from each other
before their non-Hungarian colleagues heard about it.) Szara published on
DMT as early as 1956, and produced a series of at least twelve papers on
the pharmacology of the alkylated tryptamines during the next eleven years.
Writing in 1961 he said:

     I became interested in the possibility of hallucinogenic action
     of alkylated tryptamine derivatives in 1955, when I read about
     the chemical analysis of a snuff powder prepared by Haitian
     natives from Piptadenia peregrina seeds which they used in
     religious ceremonies to produce mystical states of mind which
     enabled them to communicate with their gods. . . . [C]hemical
     analysis . . . revealed the presence of bufotenin and a small
     amount of N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT). (Szara [114])

Szara administered 75 mg of DMT hydrochloride intramuscularly to himself
and experienced intense visions. He established "that intramuscular
injection of 50 to 60 mg of DMT brought about intense visual displays . . .
within five minutes. These reached peak effects within a quarter of an
hour, diminishing and then disappearing totally within half an hour . . .
Subjects became catatonic or lost consciousness when given doses larger
than 125 mg" (Stafford [108], p.314).

During the early 1960s the psychiatrist Dr Oscar Janiger (founder of the
Albert Hofmann Foundation in Santa Monica, California) administered DMT to
many subjects. The data and conclusions from these studies remained as of
1991 unpublished. One time he administered to himself an excessive dose and
described the result as "terrible - like being inside a gigantic pinball
machine with lights going on and off everywhere." [58]

(c) Studies by independent researchers

In the 1950s William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg journeyed to South
America in search of the ayahuasca experience. They wrote about this in The
Yage Letters [14]. Later Burroughs, like Janiger, injected an overdose (100
mg) of synthetic DMT and had a "horrible experience".

Timothy Leary heard of DMT from Allen Ginsberg and contacted Burroughs, who
warned him of the perils of this substance. Undaunted, Leary, Richard
Alpert and Ralph Metzner began to experiment, and discovered that the DMT
experience, although intense was manageable and very interesting. Leary
published in 1966 in the Psychedelic Review an article discussing DMT and
giving, with his usual enthusiasm, an extremely positive account of what he
experienced following an intramuscular injection of 60 mg ([63]).

Jonathan Ott writes:

     It would seem Leary's enthusiasm was justified - although DMT was
     never widely distributed either before or after its
     illegalization in the late sixties, it has always had its
     faithful adherents among entheogen users. (Ott [82a], p.164)

Peter Stafford writes:

     This article by Leary and Metzner caused a wave of interest in
     DMT among many in the counterculture. About this time came the
     discovery that DMT evaporated onto oregano, parsley leaves or
     marijuana and then smoked could produce effects similar to those
     from injections, except that they occurred almost immediately and
     disappeared more rapidly. ([108], p.315.)

In fact smokable DMT is not the same as injectible DMT. Generally speaking
the freebase compound is smokable (for example, DMT) whereas a salt (for
example, DMT fumarate) is injectible, snortable and sometimes orally active
(though not in the case of DMT salts).

There is a certain art to smoking DMT to produce a significant effect which
is only acquired with practice. Some who have tried DMT once have not
experienced its full effect; others have found it too much to handle. It is
indeed not a drug for "party trippers", but only for those who "take drugs
seriously". Smoking DMT has been compared by some novice tokers to
parachuting at night into the midst of a tribe of frenzied New Guinea
natives at the height of an elaborate war-dance.

Carlos Castaneda gives an account of his terrifying experience with
something that don Juan gave him to smoke ([15], pp.151-157). Although
Castaneda does not identify the substance, one cannot help but wonder
whether it contained a psychedelic tryptamine (though of course Castaneda
might have invented the whole thing).

     Castaneda: But what does the smoke teach, then?
     Don Juan: It shows you how to handle its power, and to learn that
     you must take it as many times as you can.
     Castaneda: Your ally is very frightening, don Juan. It was unlike
     anything I ever experienced before. I thought I had lost my mind.

     ... Don Juan discarded my simile, saying that what I felt was its
     unimaginable power. And to handle that power, he said, one has to
     live a strong life. ... He said that smoke is so strong one can
     match it only with strength; otherwise one's life would be
     shattered to bits. ([15], pp.160-161.)

(d) Recent developments

Since the first version of this article was published (late 1992) others
(in particular, Jonathan Ott) have published valuable contributions to DMT
research. D. M. Turner has suggested that, in the words of his leprechaun
informant, "DMT is a Water Spirit plant" ([125a], p.89), and that although
"it may yield positive results to those who begin with, or only know of
this method of use [smoking]", the DMT spirit is averse to fire, loves
water, and if smoked in a dry environment (such as a desert) will give the
smoker a particularly hard time (in the form of dread and terror).

Whether this is the case is, as D. M. Turner points out, a subject for
further research. If, however, it turns out to be true, then another method
of administering DMT which does not involve fire is needed.

     Another notion which this leprechaun imparted to me is that in
     the Amazon region, where DMT has been used by the native for
     millennia, it is most frequently consumed in the Ayahuasca
     beverage. ... I've never heard of a native method of consumption
     which involves burning, or putting a flame to the DMT. Yet some
     of the native preparations would certainly have produced a strong
     effect if used in this manner. (Turner [125a], p.91)

So perhaps we should learn from the shamanic tradition - and in fact
Western researchers, in particular Jonathan Ott (see [82b]), have been
discovering how to enter the DMT state by taking it orally in combination
with an MAO-inhibitor such as harmine, the principal MAO-inhibitor in
ayahuasca.

Without special techniques it is not possible to have a fully orally-active
DMT/harmine combination in one capsule, because before the DMT can do its
work in the brain the harmine must work to deactivate the body's MAO
enzymes. Thus the harmine must be taken at least an hour before the DMT
(and preferably taken in parts over a period of an hour or two, so as to
reduce any tendency to nausea).

Harmine may be obtained from several plant sources, including Syrian Rue
(of which Gracie & Zarkov have written (see [44]). Seeds of Syrian Rue may
be ground up and placed in capsules. Three or four grams of this material
may be taken over a two-hour period (actually the amount needed is that
which is just sufficient to produce mild nausea - which can be found by
experiment), followed immediately by 30 mg. or so of DMT (or DET).

Another method of administering DMT which does not involve fire is
injection, but since this requires the use of a needle it is not for
everyone. Intramuscular injection is sufficient to produce extraordinary
visual effects. Intravenous injection has an effect which in intensity is
similar to smoking, and may be the form of injection required to experience
contact with alien entities, but this form of administration requires
technical skill and is not without risk to health so it should be performed
only by someone with medical or nursing expertise.

                     3. Dosage and Duration of Effects

If DMT is synthesized to a high level of purity it emerges as crystals
which are then broken up into a white powder. If the DMT has not been
completely purified during the synthesis it may be encountered by the user
as a pale orange waxy material. Dose levels mentioned in this article refer
to pure DMT unless otherwise noted.

The amount of DMT needed to produce significant psychic effects when smoked
is 5 mg to 20 mg, there being considerable variation in individual
reaction. Some people have reported "profound" effects with as little as 10
mg. A moderate dose is 25 mg, with 50 mg a large dose. A very large dose
(for example, 75 mg) will often lead to loss of consciousness.

Stafford writes of DMT, DET (diethyltryptamine) and DPT
(dipropyltryptamine) that:

     More often [compared to injection], these tryptamines are smoked
     because less is needed to feel the effects . . . The DMT peak
     lasts for three to ten minutes, and it's all over in twenty to
     thirty minutes. DET and DPT, which have more subtle effects than
     DMT, may take a few minutes to register . . . DET lasts about an
     hour when smoked; the most intense part of a DPT experience is
     over in about twenty minutes." ([108], p.322)

Several different methods may be used to smoke DMT, and there are
differences of opinion as to their efficiency. "Some users prefer to smoke
a compound like DMT . . . in a small glass pipe. A small amount of the
crystals or oil is placed in the bowl and then slowly heated until fumes
begin to fill the pipe. . . . A regular pipe covered with a fine screen can
also be used." (Stafford, [108]) In this method the DMT should be spread
over some plant material such as mint leaves, parsley, marijuana or mullein
(which is smoked by asthmatics to clear bronchial passages); a flame is
held over the bowl and the vaporised DMT is inhaled deeply. It is usually
advisable to do this under the guidance of a person who is experienced in
this practice.

When smoked, one or two deep inhalations may be sufficient in the case of
some people to cause profound effects very quickly, whereas others may
require up to four or five inhalations for full effect. One should be in a
position to lie or to lean back comfortably, since the effects of smoking a
large amount (for example, 50 mg) are usually physically incapacitating.
Some favor a sitting position. As noted above, the effect is most intense
in the first few minutes, and wears off after about ten or fifteen minutes.
Since DMT occurs naturally in the human brain there are probably
homeostatic mechanisms for regulating its concentration, which would
explain the rapidity with which the effects wear off.

As noted in the previous section, smokable DMT is not the same as
injectible DMT. What is smoked is the freebase (the compound itself)
whereas the salt (usually the fumarate or the hydrochloride) is normally
injected, snorted or taken orally. According to Alexander Shulgin ([98b]) a
"complete psychedelic experience" results from the intramuscular injection
of 50 to 70 mg (75 mg subcutaneously) or from smoking 30 mg.

When calculating doses for the injectible DMT fumarate, one should reckon
on the fumarate being equivalent to 75% by weight of the freebase. That is,
in terms of DMT content, 40 mg of the fumarate is equivalent to 30 mg. of
the freebase (this figure may be different for other salts of DMT, such as
the hydrochloride). However, injecting 40 mg. of the fumarate does not have
the same effect as smoking 30 mg. of the freebase because with the latter
method the DMT is delivered to the brain faster than with intramuscular
injection, producing a more intense experience.

When DMT fumarate is injected the effects come on in about five minutes
(compared to one minute when the freebase is smoked) and last for about
twenty to thirty minutes (compared to the five to ten with smoking).

DMT has been extensively tested both in the U.S. and in Europe and is
apparently quite safe in normal subjects.

A case of a severely adverse reaction which has been reported in the
literature is that of a woman who received 40 mg by intramuscular injection
and who "suddenly developed an extremely rapid heart rate 12 minutes after
the injection; no pulse could be obtained; no blood pressure could be
measured. There seemed to have been an onset of auricular fibrillation."
(Turner [126], p.127) However, this woman (who had been diagnosed as
schizophrenic) was, at the time of the injection, extremely tense and
apprehensive.

Her apprehension was no doubt justified insofar as she was an unwilling
participant in Nazi-like medical experiments performed by Drs Turner and
Merlis in 1959 at a New York mental institution. Jonathan Ott describes
these experiments in detail ([82a], p.167), and referring to this woman he
writes:

     Only when a female "patient" nearly died of cardiac arrest after
     a 40 mg injection ("extreme cyanosis quickly developed" and the
     poor woman was without pulse for 30 seconds, necessitating
     cardiac massage) did the good doctors cease their murderous
     experiments with DMT.

Whether such "medical" experimentation continues to this day is uncertain
(but certainly is worth investigation). In any case, the enforced
administration of this powerful psychoactive material to uninformed and
helpless prisoners and mental patients in a hospital prison environment is
very different from the voluntary use of DMT by individuals intent on
exploring the potentialities of their conscious minds.

For such exploration (so I am informed) to proceed safely one should have
good cardiovascular health and avoid drugs and foods which increase heart
rate and blood pressure by direct stimulation of the heart or by
vasoconstriction. DMT should not be used by anyone who is taking
MAO-inhibiting drugs.

                    4. Subjective Effects of Smoking DMT

                            Modified 1996-06-10

The subjective effects of a good lungfull of DMT are usually very intense,
with consciousness usually overwhelmed by visual imagery. With eyes closed
this may take the form of extremely complex, dynamic, geometric patterns,
changing rapidly. Such a dose of DMT may produce a visual pattern
consisting of overlapping annular patterns of small rhomboid elements all
in saturated hues of red, yellow, green and blue. Gracie & Zarkov [44]
refer to this, or something similar, as "the chrysanthemum pattern". The
pattern itself seems to be charged with a portentous energy.

This state of consciousness characterized by amazing visual patterns seems
to be a prelude to a more profound state, which subjects report as contact
with entities described as discarnate, non-human or alien. A very
articulate account of the subjective effects of smoking DMT is given by
Terence McKenna in his talk Tryptamine Hallucinogens and Consciousness
[72], in which he describes his contact with what he calls "elves".

As usual with tryptamine psychedelics there is usually no loss of ego,
although large doses will produce unconsciousness. There is often loss of
body awareness. It is usually possible to think under the influence of DMT,
but with larger doses it may become difficult to hold a thought, and
sometimes confusion will occur.

     The term "mind blowing" might have been invented for this drug.
     The experience was described by Alan Watts as like "being fired
     out of the nozzle of an atomic cannon" (Leary 1968a p.215).
     Thoughts and visions crowd in at great speed; a sense of leaving
     or transcending time and a feeling that objects have lost all
     form and dissolved into a play of vibrations are characteristic.
     The effect can be like instant transportation to another universe
     for a timeless sojourn. (Shulgin [98b])

With a fully effective dose the experience is usually so bizarre that an
inexperienced person may believe that he or she has died, or is dying,
especially if body awareness is lost. If this belief arises then it is
important to remember that one will survive and return to ordinary
consciousness. In general, yielding to the temptation to believe that one
has died is not helpful when navigating psychedelic states since the
resultant anxiety will usually distract one from a scientific observation
of what is going on. More experienced users, knowing that hitherto they
have always survived, however weird the experience, can learn not to
succumb to this anxiety.

Unfortunately most users are not especially experienced in using DMT in any
form. In fact, some first-time users of DMT are not at all well-informed as
to this substance. It has happened that some, perhaps having heard of DMT
only from their friends, are persuaded to smoke some by peers who are
mainly interested to see what observable effects they can produce, the
weirder the better. In the wrong setting a first-time user smoking DMT can
find themself in a state which they never wished to be in. Fortunately all
return safely. Nevertheless such an experience is hardly to be recommended
(and it is unethical to induce it in others), and need not occur.

If there is some risk with smoking DMT, the solution is not to criminalize
the use of this material but rather to provide accurate information, based
on first-hand experience, to those who are interested in exploring it. It
is lack of information which is the problem. And this lack of information
in comtemporary society about DMT is primarily due to the fact that DMT,
along with other psychedelics, was in the late 1960s made illegal. Had its
use not been criminalized, research and publication would have continued
(as regards DMT as a psychedelic, hardly had reports begun to be published
when it was made illegal). Thus the prohibition of the use of this material
has not protected people; it has had the opposite effect, it has harmed
them, by suppressing important and relevant information. What is needed is
not a repressive attitude from society but rather an attitude which fosters
the free flow, and general availability, of useful information. Information
about what happens when you use DMT (or any other psychedelic) is without
doubt useful to those people (increasing in number) who wish to explore the
use of these substances (as they have a right to) and so in fact society
has an obligation to its members either to make this information available,
or at least, not to object to its dissemination.

                            5. Personal Reports

As regards the nature of the DMT experience we are still at the Baconian,
data-gathering, stage. Before going on to offer some generalizations and
speculation I shall here present some descriptions of DMT experiences,
especially insofar as they relate to the question of contact with
discarnate entities. Because the use of DMT is still illegal in certain
countries whose governments do not yet recognize a person's natural right
to explore his or her consciousness in whatever way desired, the authors of
these reports shall for now mostly remain anonymous.

Explorer O: First DMT experience (female, written communication)

     Remember to breathe. Recline and get into position, subsumed by
     the momentum, before me I see an irridescent membrane, taut and
     gently pulsating, something stretching and pushing towards me, on
     the other side, straining to emerge. A fissure rends, tears and
     inside I glimpse the existence of some-thing/place consisting of
     a dense whirling body of brilliantly multi-colored primordial
     life/thought stuff, seeping and beckoning . . . I breathe and
     return into the plexus, center of my being, to witness myself as
     an outline-constructed 2-D diagramatic shell of many coherent
     light-points, revolving quadrated vortices, large central to
     smaller and then tiny outer, phosphorescent green and I . . .
     exit into utter emptiness, space matrix ... [I]mpression of basic
     colors unmuted blue, yellow and red, shimmering into being, depth
     imperceptible yet defined within the space, endlessly recurring
     back from/into the corner when, slowly, from around the edges
     they peer towards me, watching, eyes bright and watching in small
     faces, then small hands to pull themselves, slowly, from behind
     and into view, they are small white-blond imp-kids, very old in
     bright mostly red togs and caps, candy-store, shiny, teasing and
     inquisitive, very solemn and somewhat pleased (ah, here you are!)
     watching me as I meet their eyes bright and dark without any
     words (look!) or any idea remembered, they only want to convey
     (look!) through their eyes that I must know that THIS is what
     they/we are doing ...

Explorer O: Her second DMT experience (written communication)

     ... I found myself once again in the company of the "elves", as
     the focus of their attention and ministrations, but they appeared
     much less colorful and altogether preoccupied with the task at
     hand, i.e., pouring a golden, viscous liquid through a network of
     long, intertwining, transparent conduits which led into the
     middle of my abdomen ...

Explorer S: No previous experience of DMT (male, written communication)

     My first attempts with DMT have left me with some serious
     thoughts. ... I did less than 10 mg on my second attempt and had
     a very wierd experience. Not only did I have what I can only call
     a "close encounter," I was left with two thoughts. First, they
     were waiting for me, and they were not "friendly." ... [On the]
     third attempt [it] seemed like they could not wait for me to
     experiment. In this event, I did not have actual contact, but
     rather "felt" them wanting to get into my consciousness. The
     actual experience was far more frightening than any major "trip"
     previously experienced. ... I was profoundly affected.

Explorer G: Very experienced with DMT (female, Gracie [44], #5)

     We each had taken 150 mg of pure MDA. ... About hour 4, I decided
     to try smoking some DMT. ... This time I saw the "elves" as
     multidimensional creatures formed by strands of visible language;
     they were more creaturely than I had ever seen them before. ...
     The elves were dancing in and out of the multidimensional visible
     language matrix, "waving" their "arms" and "limbs/hands/fingers?"
     and "smiling" or "laughing," although I saw no faces as such. The
     elves were "telling" me (or I was understanding them to say) that
     I had seen them before, in early childhood. Memories were
     flooding back of seeing the elves: they looked just like they do
     now: evershifting, folding, multidimensional, multicolored (what
     colors!), always laughing, weaving/waving, showing me things,
     showing me the visible language they are created/creatures of,
     teaching me to speak and read.

Explorer T: Several previous DMT experiences (female, verbal communication)

     I saw a tunnel, which I flew down at great speed. I approached
     the end of the tunnel, which was closed by two doors on which was
     written THE END. I burst through these and was carried up through
     seven heavens, breaking through each one in turn. When I emerged
     at the top I was flying over a dark landscape (it seemed to be
     Mexico). I felt that this was all so weird that I should be
     scared (perhaps I had died), but I did not feel scared. I
     continued to fly on, over a ravine, leading up to a mountainside,
     and eventually saw a campfire. As I approached this, cautiously,
     I saw that on the other side of the fire was a human figure
     wearing a sombrero, whom I intuitively knew to be don Juan. He
     invited me to come closer, and spoke to me.

Explorer V: Very experienced with DMT (male, verbal communication)

     I was in a large space and saw what seemed to be thousands of the
     entities. They were rapidly passing something to and from among
     themselves, and were looking intently at me, as if to say "See
     what we are doing!" ... I noticed what seemed to be an opening
     into a larger space, like looking through a cave opening to a
     starry sky. As I approached this I saw that resting in the
     opening was a large creature, with many arms, somewhat like an
     octopus, and all over the arms were eyes, mostly closed, as if
     the creature were asleep or slumbering. As I approached it the
     eyes opened, and it/they became aware of me. It did not seem
     especially well-disposed toward me, as if it did not wish to be
     bothered by a mere human, and I had the impression I wasn't going
     to get past it, so I did not try.

Explorer M: The author of this article. Each of the following paragraphs is
a description of a separate experience

     (i) It was not until my fifth DMT trip that I became aware of
     alien contact. I took two inhalations from a mixture of 75 mg of
     DMT wax (less than 100% pure) and mullein. The visual
     hallucination was experienced as overwhelming, totally amazing,
     incredible and unbelievable. I could only surrender to the
     experience, reminding myself that I would survive, and attempt to
     deal with the sense that what I was seeing was completely
     impossible. I wondered whether this was what dying was like, and
     reassured myself, through noting my breathing, that I was still
     alive. What I was experiencing was happening too quickly to
     comprehend. At one point I suddenly became aware of beings, who
     were rapidly flitting about me. They appeared as dark, stick-like
     beings silhouetted against a rapidly-changing kaleidoscopic
     background. Although I could not make out much detail, I
     definitely felt their presence.

     (ii) On the sixth occasion I took two inhalations of about 35 mg
     of pure DMT in a glass pipe. Immediately upon closing my eyes I
     was overwhelmed by the usual visual hallucination. This seemed to
     last but briefly, whereupon I passed abruptly through to another
     realm, losing all awareness of my body. It was as if there were
     alien beings there waiting for me, and I recall that they spoke
     to me as if they had been awaiting my arrival, but I cannot
     remember exactly what was said. This time, rather than (or as
     well as) flitting about me, the entities approached me from the
     front, rapidly and repeatedly, appearing to enter and pass
     through me. I could make no sense of what was happening. I opened
     my eyes and made contact with my companions, locating myself once
     more in the room from which I had begun. Immediately I completely
     forgot what I had just experienced. The contents of the room
     appeared stable but weirdly distorted. I was able to recognize
     and to talk to my companions, but I felt and appeared very
     disoriented. ... The memory of this experience came back only
     when, later that evening, I smoked the remainder of what was left
     in the pipe - not enough to break through, but enough for me to
     remember.

     (iii) I got deeply into the visual hallucination. I was barely
     able to remind and to reassure myself that "DMT is safe," though
     I had some difficulty recalling the name "DMT". With eyes closed,
     I experienced intense, overwhelming visual imagery. I was seeing
     a large, extremely colorful surface, like a membrane, pulsating
     toward and away from me. ... I recalled that I had seen this
     before, on previous DMT trips, but had forgotten it. During this
     experience I was aware of my breathing and heartbeat, and was
     careful to continue breathing deeply. The pattern was in intense
     hues, and its parts seemed to have meaning, as if they were
     letters of an alphabet, but I could not make sense of it. I was
     quite amazed. I felt that I was being shown something, and I
     tried to understand what I was seeing, but could not. I also
     heard elf-language, but it was not meaningful to me. Eventually
     the visions subsided, with no breakthrough and no overt alien
     contact.

     (iv) I smoked at around 2 a.m. with little effect and some
     vaguely unpleasant visual hallucination (harlequin-like
     gargoyles). This might have been due to being tired and to having
     eaten substantially a few hours before. There was a sense of
     alien presence.

     (v) Smoked 40 - 50 mg of DMT wax ... An overwhelming and
     confusing experience. My heart rate seemed to go way up, which
     caused me some concern. I had to remind myself that one does not
     die from smoking DMT. The experience was disjointed and erratic.
     There were white flashes, like subtitles in a film, except that
     they were not verbal but rather like a white-energy-being rushing
     quickly through the scene from left to right (what I now think of
     as "the white lightning being"). There was a strange,
     incomprehensible auditory hallucination. Confusing and
     unpleasant.

     (vi) Upon lying back I became aware of brightly colored, moving
     patterns, which I remembered having seen before on DMT (but
     having forgotten about - indeed even now, a half-hour later, I
     cannot recall them clearly). I was then immersed in a totally
     weird state, like being in a large multi-colored hall whose walls
     (if it had walls) were moving incomprehensibly. ... Apart from
     occasional awareness of my breathing I was hardly aware of my
     body at all. I seemed to be in another world, disembodied, and
     feeling flabbergasted. I seemed to be aware of the presence of
     other beings in the same space, but had only fleeting glimpses of
     them, as if they were shy about appearing to me. In this state I
     did not know what to do. It was as if I was offered a wish by the
     dragon but did not understand what was being offered - or even
     that there was a dragon at all. Throughout there was elf-music,
     and elf-language in the background. I did not attend much to this
     since the visual component was so overwhelming. As the effect
     wore off I felt myself losing contact with this state, and knew
     that I would forget what was happening. It felt as if there were
     beings "waving goodbye".

     (vii) I smoked 40 mg of pure DMT mixed with some marijuana ... I
     quickly entered into the trance state without noticing any great
     amount of the usual patterned visual hallucination ... I seemed
     to be falling away, spiralling into some large, black void, after
     which I seemed to be in a bright, open space in the presence of
     two other beings. Their forms were not very clear, but they
     seemed to be like children, as if we were together in a
     playground. They appeared to be moving very rapidly ... The two
     beings seemed to be trying to attract my attention, and to
     communicate something to me, but I could not understand. It was
     as if they were trying to make me understand where I was. One
     even seemed to be holding up a sign, like a speech balloon but,
     as I recall, the sign was blank. I attended to my breathing, and
     with this came an increased sense of self-identity, and with this
     a lessening of contact with the two beings.

     (viii) Smoked 40 mg spread over mint leaves, in three tokes,
     sitting upright. My intention was to see what spirits, if any,
     are currently about me. As the experience came upon me I managed
     to keep that intention, or at least, "What spirits ...?", and
     also remembered to breathe regularly. A strange state of mind
     ensued, one of dynamic, patterned energy, in which I was not sure
     whether I was perceiving a scene, with a moving being, or not. I
     finally realized that the answer to my question regarding spirits
     was that there were indeed many around me, and that they were
     merry, hiding and playing a joke on me. However, I did not
     specifically see or hear any.

     (ix) Smoked 40 mg of DMT wax spread over mint leaves as usual,
     sitting up leaning against a pillow. ... As the trance came on I
     was overwhelmed with visual imagery that I did not even attempt
     to make sense of. I struggled to remember who I was. ... [I]
     turned my attention to the visual component, and what I saw was
     an incredible amount of stuff coming at me in waves, sort of
     rolling toward me. There were two beings in the scene, and they
     were doing the rolling, definitely throwing all this stuff at me
     - I don't know why. The scene changed, and there was more visual
     hallucination, but I don't remember the details - all happening
     very quickly.

                          6. Levels of Experience

Based upon these reports and others I tentatively put forward the following
classification of levels of experience associated with the effects of
smoking DMT. This classification should be tested in the light of further
reports, in particular those resulting from an experiment conducted in 1992
or 1993 involving the administration of DMT via intravenous injection to
eleven subjects (Strassman [111b] and [111c]).

Level I: Threshold experience.

This stage is characterized by an interior flowing of energy/consciousness.
It may be extremely intense. It often has a positive feeling content.

Level II: Vivid, brilliantly colored, geometric visual patterns.

Here one is observing a colored, patterned, basically two-dimensional,
field, although it may have a pulsating quality. One may remember having
seen this before.

Transitional phase: Tunnel or breakthrough experience.

One may see or fly through a tunnel (a passage to the next level). A veil
may part, a membrane may be rent. There is a breakthrough to another world
(or perhaps even a series of breakthroughs). Alternatively, it may also
happen that the transition from Level II to Level III is abrupt, almost
instantaneous, with no experience of transition.

Level III: Three- or higher-dimensional space, possible contact with
entities.

This stage is characterized by the experience of being in an "objective"
space, that is, a space of at least three dimensions in which objects or
entities may be encountered. Sometimes the entities appear to be
intelligent and communicating beings. This stage may be extremely energetic
with an experience of everything happening incomprehensibly fast.
Alternatively it may be relatively coherent. Travel is possible at Level
III. One may, for example, assume the form and consciousness of a bird, and
fly. The limits of this stage, if any, are unknown.

                    7. Interpretations of the Experience

Although the amazing kaleidoscopic visual patterns experienced under the
influence of DMT are sufficient in themselves to command attention among
students of psychedelics, the really interesting part of the experience may
well be the apparent contact with alien beings. Since some may feel
reluctant to admit the possibility of the existence of alien beings getting
in contact with DMT-modified humans, we should consider all hypotheses that
might explain the observations, or at least, be consistent with them.

Several questions can be distinguished. At the least controversial level
the matter can be approached from the point of view of orthodox physical
science, in particular, neuropharmacology (which, like all other branches
of natural science in the West is a part of physical science in the wider
sense, since Western science acknowledges no reality other than the
physical). When approached from this perspective we can ask: What exactly
is going on when those DMT molecules get in there among the neurons of the
brain, causing it to function in what appears subjectively to be a
radically different manner?

Secondly, we can seek a phenomenology of the DMT experience. What do people
experience, and how do their experiences differ? How often do they
experience contact with entities, and when they do what are they seen as
and seen to be doing? What is happening, for example, when some people
report seeing thousands of these entities simultaneously? Even more
interesting is the phenomenon of communication, or attempted communication,
which many explorers report. Some also report seeing the entities
communicating with each other, in some kind of mutual exchange - but of
what?

Finally there is the question of the independent reality of the entities.
Explorers report experiences of contact with communicating beings whose
independent existence at the time seems self-evident. These experiences are
not described as dream-like. If the entities have an existence independent
of the DMT-influenced subject then a realm of existence has been discovered
which is quite other than the consensus reality which most of us assume is
the only real world.

Such a discovery of a separate reality would directly challenge the
foundations of the modern Western view of the world. One might be tempted
to say that it would be the most revolutionary change in our understanding
of reality since the fish crawled out on land, but this would be to
overlook the fact that the worldview of the modern West is a comparatively
recent invention, stemming mainly from the rise of physical science and
technology in recent centuries. Earlier cultures had, and non-Western
cultures still have, more expansive views of the extent of reality.

Listed below are eight suggested interpretations of the DMT experience
which imply answers (true or false) to some or all of the questions raised
above. Some of these, like the experience itself, are bizarre, but at this
stage any idea should be considered since probably in this matter (in the
words of the 20th C. British biologist J. B. S. Haldane, himself an
explorer) the truth "is not only stranger than we suppose but stranger than
we can suppose."

  i. It's all merely subjective hallucination; there are no alien entities.
     The DMT state may be interesting, even extremely so, but really (come
     now) there are no independently-existing alien entities to be found
     there.

 ii. DMT provides access to a parallel or higher dimension, a truly
     alternate reality which is, in fact, inhabited by
     independently-existing intelligent entities forming (in the words of
     Terence McKenna) "an ecology of souls".

iii. DMT allows awareness of processes at a cellular or even atomic level.
     DMT smokers are tapping into the network of cells in the brain or even
     into communication among molecules themselves. It might even be an
     awareness of quantum mechanical processes at the atomic or sub-atomic
     level.

 iv. DMT is, perhaps, a neurotransmitter in reptilian brains and in the
     older, reptilian parts of mammalian brains. Flooding the human brain
     with DMT causes the older reptilian parts of the brain to dominate
     consciousness, resulting in a state of awareness which appears totally
     alien (and sometimes very frightening) to the everyday monkey mind.

  v. A non-human intelligent species created humans by genetic modification
     of existing primate stock then retreated (a la Sitchin and others). So
     that we would have a way to call them if we needed to they left behind
     biochemical methods for contacting them. The psychedelic tryptamines
     are chemical keys that activate certain programs in the human wetware
     that were placed there intentionally by these ETs as a way to contact
     them.

 vi. The realm to which DMT provides access is the world of the dead. The
     entities experienced are the souls, or personalities, of the departed,
     which retain some kind of life and ability to communicate. The realm
     of dead souls, commonly believed in by cultures and societies other
     than that of the modern West, is now accessible to Westerners by using
     DMT.

vii. The entities experienced are beings from another time who have
     succeeded in mastering the art of time travel (or the art of moving
     from one time stream to another), not in a way which allows
     materialization but in a way which allows them to communicate with
     conscious beings such as ourselves when in an altered state.

viii.The entities are probes from an extraterrestrial or even an
     extradimensional species, sent out to make contact with organisms such
     as ourselves who are able to manipulate their nervous systems in a way
     which allows communication to take place.

These hypotheses can be expanded and are, of course, vulnerable to
objections. No doubt other hypotheses are possible. These matters will not
be resolved until we have more data with which to test these and other
hypotheses.

                           8. DMT and Hyperspace

In this section and in the following one I shall present a view which
elaborates upon interpretations (ii), (vi) and (vii) in Section 7. This is
speculation but nevertheless provides a preliminary framework for steps
toward an understanding of what the use of DMT reveals to us.

The world of ordinary, common, experience (in which we normally experience
ourselves interacting with other beings) has three spatial dimensions and
one temporal dimension, forming a place and time for the apparent
persistence of solid objects and enduring persons. Since this is a world of
experience it's study belongs more to epistemology than to ontology. The
being, or ontological nature, of this world (if it has any) may be quite
different from what we experience it as.

Psychedelic experience strongly suggests that (as William James
hypothesized) ordinary experience is an island in a sea of possible modes
of consciousness. Under the influence of substances such as LSD and
psilocybin we venture outside of the world as commonly viewed and enter
spaces which may be very strange indeed. This happens as a result of
changing our brain chemistry. Why then should we not regard ordinary
experience too as a result of a particular mode of brain chemistry? Perhaps
the world of ordinary experience is not a faithful representation of
physical reality but rather is physical reality represented in the manner
of ordinary brain functioning. By taking this idea seriously we may free
our understanding of physical reality from the limitations imposed by the
unthinking assumption that ordinary experience represents physical reality
as it is. In fact physical reality may be totally bizarre and quite unlike
anything we have thought it to be.

In his special theory of relativity, Albert Einstein demonstrated that the
physical world (the world that can be measured by physical instruments, but
is assumed to exist independently) is best understood as a four-dimensional
space which may be separated into three spatial dimensions and one temporal
dimension in various ways (the particular separation depending on the
motion of a hypothetical observer). It seems that DMT releases one's
consciousness from the ordinary experience of space and time and catapults
one into direct experience of a four-dimensional world which is perhaps
identical to the four-dimensional world studied in special relativity
theory.

This hyper-dimensionality to some extent explains the feeling of
incredulity which many first-time users report. The DMT realm is described
by some as "incredible", "bizarre", "unbelievable" and even "impossible",
and for many who have experienced it these terms are not an exaggeration.
These terms make sense if the world experienced under DMT is a
four-dimensional world experienced by a mind which is trying to make sense
of it in terms of its usual categories of three-dimensional space and
one-dimensional time. In the DMT state these categories no longer apply to
whatever it is that is being experienced.

Some persons report that it seems that in the DMT experience there is
information transfer of some sort. If so, and if this information is quite
unlike anything that we are used to dealing with (at least at a conscious
level) then it may be that the bizarre quality of the experience results
from attempting to impose categories of thought which are quite
inapplicable.

The space that one breaks through to under the influence of a large dose of
DMT has been called "hyperspace" by Terence McKenna and Ralph Abraham [74]
and by Gracie & Zarkov [44]. It may be that hyperspace is an experience of
physical reality which is "closer" to it (or less mediated) than is our
ordinary experience, and that in hyperspace one has direct experience of
the four-dimensionality of physical reality.

Parenthetically we may note a mildly interesting case of historical
anticipation. In 1897 one H. C. Geppinger published a book entitled DMT:
Dimensional Motion Times [31], an appropriate title for our current
subject. However he was, of course, quite unaware of what the initials DMT
would later come to mean (the compound was not even synthesized until
1931).

In The Doors of Perception [56a] (the book that initiated the psychedelic
revolution of the 1960s), Aldous Huxley, reflecting upon his mescaline
experiences, suggested that there was something, which he called "Mind at
Large", which was filtered by the ordinary functioning of the human brain
to produce ordinary experience. One may view the human body and the human
nervous system as an instrument for constructing a stable representation of
a world of enduring objects which are able to interact in ways that we are
familiar with from our ordinary experience. This is analogous to a
computer's production of a stable video display - for even a simple
blinking cursor requires complicated coordination of underlying physical
processes to make it happen. In a sense we may be thought of as
hyperspatial bushes whose typical shrubbery is the world of everyday
reality (as we experience it). When our neuropharmacological processes are
modified by unusual chemicals the hypermetabolic process functions
abnormally, and we have the opportunity to view the reality underlying
ordinary experience in what may be an entirely new way.

Einstein's four-dimensional space-time may thus turn out to be not merely a
flux of energetic point-events but to be (or to be contained in a
higher-dimensional space which is) at least as organized as our ordinary
world and which contains intelligent, communicating beings capable of
interacting with us. As Hamlet remarked cryptically to his Aristotelian
tutor (following an encounter with the ghost of Hamlet's deceased father),
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in
your philosophy." Should we be surprised to find that there are more
intelligent, communicating, beings in the higher-dimensional reality
underlying our ordinary experience than we find within that experience?

                               9. The "Elves"

Hyperspace, as it is revealed by DMT (revealed to some, anyway), appears to
be full of personal entities. They are non-physical in the sense that they
are not objects in the three-dimensional space to which we are accustomed.
Some of the beings encountered in the DMT state may once have been living
humans, but perhaps such "dead souls" are in the minority among the
intelligent beings in that realm.

In his classic The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries [21] W. Y. Evans-Wentz
recorded many tales provided to him by local people of encounters with
beings, variously called fairies, elves, the wee folk, the good people, the
gentry, the Sidhe, the Tuatha De Danann, etc., who inhabit a realm normally
beyond our ken. The belief in this order of beings was firm among the
celtish peoples of Brittain and France at the time Evans-Wentz conducted
his studies (c. 1900), but has since been largely supplanted by the beliefs
instilled in the public by the rise of physical science and technology.
Evans-Wentz collected numerous reports of elf-sightings, such as the
following (which is part of an account given by a member of the Lower House
of the Manx Parliament):

     I looked across the river and saw a circle of supernatural light,
     which I have now come to regard as the "astral light" or the
     light of Nature, as it is called by mystics, and in which spirits
     become visible. ... [I]nto this space, and the circle of light,
     from the surrounding sides apparently, I saw come in twos and
     threes a great crowd of little beings smaller than Tom Thumb and
     his wife. All of them, who appeared like soldiers, were dressed
     in red. They moved back and forth amid the circle of light, as
     they formed into order like troops drilling. ([21], p.113.)

Reviewing his data, Evans-Wentz writes:

     We seem, in fact, to have arrived at a point in our long
     investigations where we can postulate scientifically, on the
     showing of the data of psychical research, the existence of such
     invisible intelligences as gods, genii, daemons, all kinds of
     true fairies, and disembodied [i.e. deceased] men. ([21], p.480.)

He then goes on to quote an earlier researcher:

     Either it is we who produce these phenomena [which, says
     Evans-Wentz, is unreasonable] or it is spirits. But mark this
     well: these spirits are not necessarily the souls of the dead;
     for other kinds of spiritual beings may exist, and space may be
     full of them without our ever knowing anything about it, except
     under unusual circumstances [such as a sudden change in brain
     chemistry]. Do we not find in the different ancient literatures,
     demons, angels, gnomes, goblins, sprites, spectres, elementals,
     etc.? Perhaps these legends are not without some foundation in
     fact. (Flammarion [28], quoted in [21], p.481.)

Evans-Wentz concludes ([21], p.490) that a realm of discarnate, intelligent
forces known as fairies, elves, etc., exists "as a supernormal state of
consciousness into which men and women may enter temporarily in dreams,
trances, or in various ecstatic conditions," such as, we may add, the
condition produced by smoking DMT.

I suggest that the faerie world studied by Evans-Wentz and the space into
which one may enter under the influence of DMT are parts of a common
higher-dimensional space which transcends and encompasses consensus reality
as understood at present.

This hyperspace, or metacosmos, has the knack of arranging for things to
happen at the right time and place and for the right purpose, though how
this happens is not always clear.

                        10. DMT and the Death State

Who are we and how did we get here? Clearly we are personalities who
develop in connection with our physical bodies. But are we personalities
who have our origin in this physical development? Or do we originate as
hyperspatial entities who become associated with bodies (perhaps several
levels thereof) for the purpose of acting in what appears to us (once
incarnated and functioning) as the ordinary world? The answer may be a
combination of both. It may be that a personality must first come into
existence in connection with a body but that, once developed, it may
separate from that body, and perhaps subsequently become associated with a
new body. Or it may be that intelligent entities, most of whom were never
human, can come into existence as beings in hyperspace by virtue of a
creative power associated with the origin of hyperspace itself. In the more
poetic words of an Irish seer, they may "draw their life out of the Soul of
the World" ([21], p.65).

DMT appears to allow us to leave our three-dimensional bodily organisms and
enter into hyperspace where we can function (for a short period of earthly
time while our brain biochemistry is altered) as disembodied personalities,
able to communicate with other discarnate personalities. In fact it may be
that this is what happens to us when we die. In death, however, unlike the
DMT trance, you can't return to your body. Once your body is destroyed, or
is damaged so that it cannot function as a channel for your will, then you
have entered hyperspace and you will remain there indefinitely or until
association with a new body becomes possible (which may be quite a while).

After telling of frequently seeing spiritual beings enveloped in shining
light, one of Evans-Wentz's informants says:

     In whatever country we may be, I believe that we are for ever
     immersed in the spiritual world; but most of us cannot perceive
     it on account of the unrefined nature of our physical bodies.
     Through meditation and psychical training one can come to see the
     spiritual world and its beings. We pass into the spirit realm at
     death and come back into the human world at birth; and we
     continue to reincarnate until we have overcome all earthly
     desires and mortal appetites. Then the higher life is open to our
     consciousness and we cease to be human; we become divine beings.
     ([21], p.84.)

It now seems possible, by the use of the psychedelic tryptamines, to
venture into the death state before we die and to accustom ourselves to
that state. This is the path of the shaman and the spiritual warrior. At
death, when the transition is finally and irrevocably made, the psychedelic
explorer will enter a realm he or she knows from previous experience, and
will, hopefully, not be swept away by fear and ignorance.

                        11. Further Research Needed

The idea that there might be a realm inhabited by alien beings able to
communicate with humans in an intelligent manner, and that these beings may
be contacted through the use of a laboratory product, is sufficiently
bizarre that some may be tempted to reject it unthinkingly. Modern-day
common sense certainly rejects the possibility entirely, but a scientific
approach to the subject requires suspension of common sense in favor of an
unbiased study of the available data. In this case the rawest data
available consists of the reports of those who have had direct experience
of the DMT state.

Further research is needed to distinguish among the possible
interpretations presented in Section 7, or to provide a basis for other
interpretations. Basically this means further human explorations of the DMT
experience, with articulate reports on the experience. This would allow us
to begin to determine what are the common characteristics, in humans, of
the experience induced by smoking DMT. Do all subjects eventually
experience (apparent) contact with alien beings? How is this contact
related to dose and method of administration? In what form(s) do the
entities (tend to) appear? How often are cases of human-alien communication
reported? What is the content of this communication?

As an aid to further research in this field I have compiled a bibliography
of publications, mostly articles concerning DMT.

A psychedelic explorer who makes a committed study of DMT (especially if
smoked or administered i.v.) will before long find themself dealing with
that which transcends ordinary imagination (having left reason far behind).
This may challenge the courage of the explorer, as is well described by D.
M . Turner, who confirms that sometimes one approaches the experience with
trepidation. However, it may be that we have yet to fully understand what
is the best mode of contact with the DMT realm (which may prove to be oral
ingestion in combination with harmaline), and once this question has been
answered it may be possible for explorers to enter this realm without
encountering the fear and dread which earlier explorers have reported.
Contact with alien entities in other worlds has long been reported from
non-Western and pre-modern societies. Such reports are usually presented in
the context of a particular mythology or cosmology that makes it difficult
to relate them to a modern scientific view of the world. This may mean, not
that these reports are false, but that our scientific view of the world
needs to be extended. A scientific attitude - that is, an open and
questioning attitude to the advancement of knowledge, one which does not
shun any repeatable observation regardless of how bizarre it may seem - is
not inconsistent with the discovery of intelligent, non-human entities in a
higher-dimensional realm. If they are there, and can be contacted reliably,
let us see what they have to say.

                     Answers to DMT interview questions

                        Originally written July 1990
                           Modified November 1990

DMT is smoked either in a glass pipe or (more usually) in an ordinary pipe
spread over vegetable material. The number of inhalations is variable, but
I prefer to try to get it all in one hit if possible. The effects come on
fairly quickly, beginning within 30 seconds, the full effect occurring by
c. 60 seconds. First time was three years ago, last time was this evening.
I always smoke it, except one attempt at snorting 20 mg, with little
effect. Time of day is irregular, but lately usually early evening. Effects
have been too variable to notice correlations with time, if any. I have
thought of looking for a correlation with the phase of the moon, but have
not done this.

I generally smoke it alone, since colleagues in this area are not numerous.
I have no objections to a sitter; generally not available.

Onset: As noted, the effects come on quickly, and I'm swept away. After
taking the last hit I lay back and close my eyes and try to observe what's
happening. There is no sweating, and no peculiar temperature sensations,
nor any somatic tingling sensations. Generally I lose awareness of my body,
especially on a large dose, although I try to stay in touch with my
breathing to assure myself that I'm still alive. I don't feel I have moved
in any direction. Sometimes there is awareness of heartbeat, sometimes not;
sometimes alarmingly so. Sometimes there are auditory effects, sometimes
not. When there are my attention is usually rivetted on the visual affects
so I tend to neglect the auditory.

The auditory effects are not constant, and seem dose-dependent. I have on
one occasion heard the "tearing/crinkling of cellophane" sound as the DMT
took effect, but this is unusual. With smaller doses the auditory
hallucination takes the form of a distant shamanic chanting, regular but
with a peculiar rhythm. With larger doses it becomes "elf-language", a
high-speed chatter with no discernible linguistic components. This might be
compared to a burst of information transmitted at high speed.

I usually experience some anxiety before smoking, and must calm myself.
After inhaling I attend to what's happening and don't have any increase in
anxiety. I sometimes experience anxiety during the flash, but this is more
an intellectual anxiety than an emotional one. That is, I don't panic, but
may be worried. I try simply to observe, and if I get worried I remind
myself that I shall survive. I do not always do this (worry), since the
subjective effects vary considerably. Occasionally, however, I may doubt
that I'll survive, but in such cases I just hang in there and have faith
that I'll come through OK (or if not, then hopefully I'll be able to deal
with whatever happens). I've never actually panicked, but on one occasion I
got into a state where I did not know who or what I was, and a basic
survival instinct kicked in, so that I struggled and clawed my way back to
self-awareness. This was a particularly unpleasant experience, accompanied
by actual bodily aches in the shoulder muscles and mild headaches lasting
two weeks thereafter.

Middle phase: The visual effects are unpredictable. There seem to be two
distinct visual phases, an initial geometic-pattern phase, followed
(sometimes) by a pictorial phase. The geometric patterns are usually very
complicated and dynamic, often but not always extremely colorful. Sometimes
the colors are bright and saturated, sometimes dim and muted. On some
occasions it's as if I'm watching an extensive panel or wall (it's
2-dimensional) with intricate patterns; the screen itself may be pulsating
back and forward. In this state one does not see objects against a
background, there is simply an expanse (possibly extensive) of colored
patterns, possibly highly complex and dynamic.

Subsequently there may be a "breakthrough" to some higher-dimensional
space. Whether there is a breakthrough does seem dose-dependent to some
extent, but not entirely. It's clear that small doses simply result in a
weird flux of consciousness, whose intensity is likely dose-dependent. A
larger dose may bring on the intensely-colored visual patterns. A larger
dose may result in the breakthrough under discussion. A very large dose
may, as remarked above, wipe out self-awareness to the extent of forgetting
who or even what one is. I have never entirely lost consciousness, but I
have heard that this can happen.

The hyperdimensional space resulting from the breakthrough is often a very
dynamic place, with a lot of activity. It is distinguished from the
preceding visual-pattern stage in that the former is two-dimensional, even
though perhaps complex and dynamic. This latter space is more than
two-dimensional: at least three and possibly more. Personal beings may be
seen, or intuited (perhaps as off-stage, or flitting through). Frequently
it is all happening too quickly to follow or to comprehend. If there is
auditory hallucination it is in the background; I have "seen" beings but
have not "heard" them speak. What one sees at the stage is probably not
dose-related, and depends very much on the individual and his or her
relation to the entities in this realm of being.

In a full-blown experience of this sort I am quite unaware of my body,
except for my breathing, and perhaps heartbeat. Generally I am disoriented
only in that it is all happening too quickly to comprehend. I have not
encountered anything that I would call white light, except for one occasion
when "the white lightning being" zipped through my consciousness repeatedly
during one particularly disorienting and rather unpleasant experience.

Usually I retain my sense of self-identity, although on the most recent
occasion I did get into a state where I did not know who/what/where, and
felt I had to struggle to survive. I have seen entities on several
occasions, but the circumstances are highly variable, and they are not seen
very clearly (this theme elaborated in more detail elsewhere). I have never
seen anyone I recognize. Beings are not perceived either as big or as
small. On one occasion they definitely were aware of me, and seemed to be
trying to communicate with me (not very successfully). I'm generally too
amazed to do anything but look. Sometimes I'm not even capable of calmly
observing, and feel so overwhelmed by what I'm seeing that I wish to
retreat from the scene; in this case I open my eyes and return to the room.
So far I have not been able to interact with the beings in any intelligent
way.

I don't tend to experience any emotion in these states, except occasionally
worry and aversion. During the better trips I feel overawed at what I'm
seeing. On lesser doses, which are not sufficient to break through, or to
generate amazing visual hallucinations, I generally feel quite peaceful. On
the more profound trips I may compare the experience to death, or rather,
wonder whether this is what death/dying is like. I try to be totally "in
the moment", to observe what's happening. I don't have the sense of being
"bodily" present, i.e. able to move physically as if in physical space, but
rather of being a passive observer. At lower doses I retain awareness of my
body, but bodily awareness is generally lost at the level of the complex
2-dimensional patterns and the breakthrough to the higher-dimensional
state. Even in this state, however, it's possible to have a vague awareness
of one's hands and feet, as well as one's breathing.

I'm not sure whether to say it's a different reality, but I am inclined to
believe so. It's certainly not this reality, but the question of whether
the entities experienced are independently existing beings is still for me
to some extent an open question, although I incline to the view that DMT
provides access to an alternative reality which is full of spirits - the
same spirits that shamans encounter.

I don't seem to have much choice in directing attention (although this
could perhaps be developed more) since the experience is generally
overwhelming, especially following the passage beyond the stage of
geometric patterns. The experience can be stopped only by opening my eyes
and returning attention to my physical surroundings (though there is still
visual distortion). So far I have not tried to influence the experience,
simply to observe. I don't have a sense of being in the presence of a
"Higher Power". I take it as a working assumption that any beings I meet in
that state I can relate to as an equal (albeit an ignorant and confused
equal). I would not describe it as a religious experience; there is not a
sense of holiness, though sometimes it has a hellish aspect. I have not
been able to identify any non-pharmacological conditions which can be said
to have a reliable influence on the experience. I neither pray nor meditate
in any formal manner, though my philosophical outlook does not exclude a
spiritual perspective.

As for time, it is not greatly changed in the geometric pattern phase,
though the patterns may be moving rapidly, but in the breakthrough phase
things often seem to be happening too fast to comprehend. In this phase I
sometimes get the impression that things are out of control, meaning partly
that it's all happening too quickly for me to understand what's going on,
and in this situation I have a tendency to wish to retreat. There is not a
sense of earthly time, e.g. five minutes having passed, since one's
attention is generally too engrossed by the weirdness of what is happening
to be concerned about such questions as how much time has passed. On one
occasion, however, I was in a rather unpleasant state and withdrew by
opening my eyes and returning to the room. This must have been about five
minutes into the trance. I was still very much under the influence of the
DMT, and somewhat shaken and anxious as a result of the experience I had
just escaped from. The room looked stable but weird. I was with a sitter,
and I was somewhat concerned that the experience was going on too long, and
I asked him about this, and he reassured me that it was not taking longer
than usual, whereupon my anxiety was reduced and I waited for the effects
to wear off.

Generally, with me, it seems that the trance state (in which I am unaware
of the external world) lasts about five minutes, then there's a gradual
lessening of the intensity of the experience in which I know I am coming
back, which lasts again about five minutes. During this time the visions,
if there are any, gradually fade away; there is no "funkyness" to the
fading visions, but they are gradually replaced by a strange energy of
consciousness, which itself gradually wears off. I spend some time
reflecting on the experience, or on other matters such as life and death.
After fifteen minutes I am generally back to something like ordinary
consciousness, although effects may linger for another fifteen minutes.

I have not noticed a sexual element to the state. Beings perceived, if they
are humanoid, are of indeterminate sex.

The feeling tone varies greatly. Low doses tend to produce a peaceful
state, but higher doses generate too much activity for me to feel peaceful.
The nature of this activity affects the feeling tone, which can be one of
aversion if the experience is disorienting or hellish, or positive, if the
experience is awesome and fascinating.

Ending phase: The beginning of the end is when I return to awareness of who
I am and what is happening (i.e. that I have just smoked DMT and am now
coming back). Awareness of my body gradually returns, and the
hallucinations gradually fade, until there seems no point in keeping my
eyes closed longer. The trance lasts about five minutes, then there's about
another five minutes during which the effect is fading, and by 15 - 20
minutes I'm pretty much back to normal consciousness, although a certain
shakiness of mind may persist for an hour. Recently a mild headache has
ensued for a day or two, which did not happen before. Frequently, at about
the 10 minute stage, I experience physical trembling, which may be quite
marked. Sometimes I've thought of it as a delayed fear reaction. However,
on one occasion when a sitter was present he said he did not notice any
physical trembling. It feels as if there's some strange energy in my body.
This wears off after a few minutes. Sometimes it doesn't occur at all.
Order of becoming aware of body: Breathing is always the first - in fact I
usually don't lose contact with the awareness of breathing. Then perhaps
awareness of heartbeat. Sometimes in the trance I am vaguely aware of my
hands and feet. Total body awareness returns gradually. I open my eyes when
the hallucinations have ceased, or ceased to be of interest. At this point
the room seems fairly normal. However, if I open my eyes during the trance
(in retreat from something unpleasant) then there can be severe visual
distortion. In the most extreme case of this the parts of the room seemed
to be moving around a lot in relation to each other. I was aware of the
door, the window, etc., but nothing would remain still. This was a little
disconcerting, but not frightening, since I was aware it was due to the
effect of the drug, and it was in fact a reassuring state compared to that
which I had just been in. On an earlier trip, after retreating and opening
my eyes, I felt disoriented and the room seemed weird but the parts of it
were stable; objects were recognizable but seemed to have strange auras.
The feeling associated with the end of the trip varies a lot, from
amazement to relief. Generally I reflect on what has happened. If nothing
much happened I may find myself reflecting on personal matters; sometimes
even childhood memories emerge. These are not "total recollection", and it
is not as if I am reliving the experience.

I have not noticed any negative after-effects except at some times a mild
headache. This could be related to diet [at that time a minimal-subsistence
diet] or general health.

I don't feel I have lost anything by smoking DMT. I have gained a number of
unique and amazing experiences, which have led me to wonder about sources
of non-normal knowledge possibly available by this means. There has not
been a progression or regular change over time in my DMT experiences, due
perhaps to irregularity of quality and quantity, as well as to differences
in mood, set and setting. There has presumably been an effect due to my
learning to use this substance, but this is hard to describe.

In my experience with hallucinogens (LSD, psilocybin, ketamine, iboga,
harmaline, MDMA and 2-CB) DMT is certainly the most powerful. Psilocybin
may in large doses take you into the hyperspatial reality, but only DMT
will take you there directly, reliably and quickly. There is still much
uncertainty as to the nature of the world to which DMT provides access, but
further research will presumably allow researchers to arrive at some
consensus. I believe that this is an alternative reality which previously
only shamans have explored in a methodical fashion, that it is a reality
which surrounds the reality of our ordinary experience, and that it is the
realm we shall enter when we die. It is a rich and fascinating (as well as
occasionally frightening) realm which awaits our continued exploration.