“It may be that DMT makes us able to perceive what the physicist call “dark matter” — the 95 per cent of the universe’s mass that is known to exist but that at present remains invisible to our senses and instruments.”

― Graham Hancock

​

Short but sweet

​

There’s something uncharacteristically ironic about DMT (scientifically regarded as the alkaloid N, N-Di-Methyl-Tryptamine): it’s naturally produced by the human brain.

​

So it’s a wonder that this, what is often referred to as the ‘Spirit Molecule’, provides such an other-worldly experience on the mind of its consumer. 

​

What’s more is that this particular tryptamine is found commonly throughout nature — in the cells of animals and produced in many species of plants — and has been used reverently in religious ceremonies throughout numerous parts of the world for centuries.

​

Most notable amongst its characteristics is the rapidity of onset and the intensity of its effect, catapulting a user into vivid visual hallucinations and temporal distortions within moments of being consumed — often through smoking or vaporizing. 

​

When inhaled, the effects of DMT last a curiously short amount of time — only between five to twenty minutes — though they’ll last much longer if orally ingested, usually in the form of a compounded ayahuasca brew.  

​

When consumed, DMT initiates a physiological response as its combined with the serotonin receptors in the brain, sending a signaling function throughout the central nervous system and altering sensory perceptions; it’s theorized that this process is similar in effect to naturally produced DMT in the brain during, say, a psychosis event or a near death experience. 

​

A lot remains unknown about DMT and its inherent effects on the physiological states of the body and mind, motivating researchers all the more to uncover the secrets associated with this powerful substance. 

​

Out of this world

​

What’s perhaps most controversial about DMT, aside from the above-stated fact that it’s produced endogenously by the pineal gland of the human brain, is the particular set of insights that it may lead the consumer to experience. Aside from being extremely revelatory, such insights are often said to emanate from an external, extra-dimensional origin. 

​

This, inherent in its own unique story, is why DMT seems to be one of the most trending, mysterious and highly sought-after psychedelics today.

​

The consumption of psychedelics is most often linked to the ambition of expanding perception— helping a user break through the confines of everyday perspective and transcend the limits of our routine cognitive capacity. 

​

While substances like LSD and psilocybin can certainly achieve this to a considerable and varying degree, DMT seems to shatter the ends of the spectrum altogether, prompting the kind of temporal distortions and imaginative contemplations that would occur far outside the realm of anything we may consider routinely psychedelic.

​

It’s no wonder that it’s often associated with near death experiences, which are themselves theorized to instigate a neurological flooding of DMT into the sigma-1 receptors of the brain.

​

Moreover, there’s a perplexing level of consistency associated with one particularly strange quality reported amongst many users who try DMT, and that is the reported encounters with entities beyond our comprehension. 

​

From angels to elves

​

Famed psychonaut and ethnobotanist Terence McKenna had coined the term ‘machine elves’ to describe the entities which he had reportedly encountered when consuming DMT, and McKenna hadn’t been the only one. 

​

Numerous researchers detail these entities in an eerily similar manner, going as far as to correlate various biblical interpretations (encounters with angels, for instance) to DMT experiences and reinforcing such experiences with the accounts of participants in modern studies.

​

Regardless of whether such encounters emanate directly from benevolent external entities or from within the mind of a user, layers surrounding the nature of reality itself tend to peel away, offering profound insights that can culminate themselves into a life-changing experience.

​

It’s for this reason that DMT is situated atop the list of ‘must-try’ psychedelics, as its potency remains as unparalleled as the intrigue surrounding it.

​