Subjective Psychedelic Experiences

Induced DMT experiences can include profound time-dilation, visual, auditory, tactile, and proprioceptive distortions and hallucinations, and other experiences that, by most firsthand accounts, defy verbal or visual description.

Examples include perceiving hyperbolic geometry or seeing Escher-like impossible objects.

Several scientific experimental studies have tried to measure subjective experiences of altered states of consciousness induced by drugs under highly controlled and safe conditions.

Rick Strassman and his colleagues conducted a five-year-long DMT study at the University of New Mexico in the 1990s.

The results provided insight about the quality of subjective psychedelic experiences. 

In this study participants received the DMT dosage via intravenous injection and the findings suggested that different psychedelic experiences can occur, depending on the level of dosage.

Lower doses (0.01 and 0.05 mg/kg) produced somaesthetic and emotional responses, but not hallucinogenic experiences (e.g., 0.05 mg/kg had mild mood elevating and calming properties).

In contrast, responses produced by higher doses (0.2 and 0.4 mg/kg) researchers labeled as "hallucinogenic" that elicited "intensely colored, rapidly moving display of visual images, formed, abstract or both". 

Comparing to other sensory modalities the most affected was the visual. 

Participants reported visual hallucinations, fewer auditory hallucinations and specific physical sensations progressing to a sense of bodily dissociation, as well as to experiences of euphoria, calm, fear, and anxiety.

These dose-dependent effects match well with anonymously posted "trip reports" online, where users report "breakthroughs" above certain doses.

These "breakthrough" experiences often result with the user becoming completely or almost completely detached from reality (especially visually and auditorily), and thrust into "DMT hyperspace". 

It is here that most users report contact with entities, while even doses slightly under a breakthrough dose have far less extreme effects.

Strassman also stressed the importance of the context where the drug has been taken. He claimed that DMT has no beneficial effects of itself, rather the context when and where people take it plays an important role.

It appears that DMT can induce a state or feeling where the person believes to "communicate with other intelligent-life forms" (see "machine elves"). 

High doses of DMT produce a state that involves a sense of "another intelligence" that people sometimes describe as "super-intelligent", but "emotionally detached".

A 1995 study by Adolf Dittrich and Daniel Lamparter found that the DMT-induced altered state of consciousness (ASC) is strongly influenced by habitual rather than situative factors. In the study, researchers used three dimensions of the APZ questionnaire to examine ASC. The first dimension, oceanic boundlessness (OB), refers to dissolution of ego boundaries and is mostly associated with positive emotions.

The second dimension, anxious ego-dissolution (AED), represents a disordering of thoughts and decreases in autonomy and self-control. Last, visionary restructuralization (VR) refers to auditory/visual illusions and hallucinations.

Results showed strong effects within the first and third dimensions for all conditions, especially with DMT, and suggested strong intrastability of elicited reactions independently of the condition for the OB and VR scales.

Physical effects

Spontaneous bodily sensations – The “body high” of DMT can be described as a pleasurable all-encompassing glow. It maintains a consistent presence that quickly rises with the onset and hits its limit once the peak has been reached. It is capable of becoming very powerful at higher doses and can remain for up to half an hour after the experience itself has ended.

Physical euphoria – It should be noted that this effect is not as reliably produced as it is with substances like stimulants or entactogens, and can just as easily manifest as physical discomfort for no apparent reason.

Changes in felt gravity – At higher breakthrough doses, physical feelings of being launched across vast distances at incredibly high speeds are commonly reported.

Spatial disorientation

Changes in felt bodily form

Physical autonomy

Nausea – This effect is much less common than it is with 5-MeO-DMT as well as longer-lasting psychedelics like psilocybin mushrooms or mescaline. However, it can still manifest spontaneously and sometimes lead to sudden bouts of vomiting.

Pupil dilation

Increased heart rate

Temperature regulation suppression

Seizure – This is a very rare effect but is believed to happen in those who are predisposed to them, especially while in physically taxing conditions such as being dehydrated, fatigued or undernourished.

Visual effects

Enhancements

Colour enhancement

Pattern recognition enhancement

Visual acuity enhancement

Magnification

Distortions

Drifting (melting, breathing, morphing and flowing) – In comparison to other psychedelics, this effect can be described as highly detailed, slow and smooth in motion and static in its appearance.

Colour replacement

Colour shifting

Colour tinting

Tracers

After images

Recursion

Scenery slicing

Symmetrical texture repetition

Environmental patterning

Geometry

The visual geometry encountered can be described as more similar in appearance to that of psilocin than LSD. It can be comprehensively described through its variations as intricate in complexity, abstract in form, equally organic and digital in feel, structured in organisation, brightly lit, multicoloured in scheme, glossy in shading, equal in sharp and soft edges, large in size, fast in speed, smooth in motion, equal in rounded and angular corners, immersive in depth and consistent in its intensity. At higher doses, it is significantly more likely to result in states of level 8B visual geometry over level 8A.

The geometry present with smokeable DMT is considered by many to be the most profoundly intricate and complex set of visual geometry found within the entirety of the psychedelic experience. In comparison to orally active DMT (ayahuasca), it is significantly more digital in appearance and contains a colour scheme which is similar to LSD and a structured style that resembles a high dose of psilocin (4-HO-DMT).

Hallucinatory states

DMT produces a full range of high level hallucinatory states in a fashion that is more consistent and reproducible than that of any other commonly used psychedelic. These effects include:

Machinescapes

Transformations

Internal hallucination (autonomous entities; settings, sceneries, and landscapes; perspective hallucinations and scenarios and plots) - DMT produces high level internal hallucinations at appropriate doses more consistently than that of any other psychedelic. They are more common within dark environments and can be comprehensively described through their variations as lucid in believability, interactive in style, new experiences in content, autonomous in controllability, geometry-based in style and almost exclusively of a personal, religious, spiritual, science-fiction, fantasy, surreal, nonsensical or transcendental nature in their overall theme.

External hallucination (autonomous entities; settings, sceneries, and landscapes; perspective hallucinations and scenarios and plots) - These are more common within dark environments and can be comprehensively described through their variations as lucid in believability, interactive in style, new experiences in content, autonomous in controllability, geometry-based in style and almost exclusively of a personal, religious, spiritual, science-fiction, fantasy, surreal, nonsensical or transcendental nature in their overall theme.

Cognitive effects

Analysis enhancement

Anxiety

Déjà vu

Delusion

Ego replacement

Emotion enhancement

Cognitive euphoria

Feelings of impending doom

Increased music appreciation – This typically occurs only at lower sub-breakthrough doses, and is not as prominent of an effect as it is with longer lasting psychedelics like LSD or psilocybin. Many people prefer to have their DMT experiences in complete silence, other than shutting out perceptual distractions this is often done to prevent a muddled or overwhelming experience.

Memory suppression

Ego death

Mindfulness – This effect tends to occur after the experience has ended and the individual has returned to ordinary waking consciousness, to a sense of presence and sensitivity towards one’s inner sensations as well as outer environment.

Multiple thought streams – This effect tends to manifest in a much more chaotic fashion, in tandem with the sensation of cognitive overload.

Novelty enhancement

Personal bias suppression

Rejuvenation – This effect tends to occur after the experience has ended and the subject has returned to ordinary waking consciousness, often in Near-Death Experience (NDE) variants of a DMT experience.

Autonomous voice communication

Time distortion – This effect is a very prominent aspect of the DMT experience, which only tends to last under 15 minutes but is commonly reported to subjectively feel as if it had lasted much longer, in some cases “many lifetimes” or even an “eternity”. This particular effect is most prevalent and notable with “breakthrough” experiences.

Auditory effects

Enhancements – Enhancements of one’s auditory acuity, often following the end of the experience, have been reported in clinical studies with intravenously-administered DMT.

Distortions

Hallucinations

Multi-Sensory effects

Synaesthesia – In its fullest manifestation, this is a very rare and non-reproducible effect. Increasing the dosage can increase the likelihood of this occurring, but seems to only be a prominent part of the experience among those who are already predisposed to synaesthetic states.

Transpersonal effects

For a number of individuals these effects are consistently more reproducible and powerful with smoked or vaporized DMT than they are with other “classical psychedelics” such as LSD or mescaline, this is most likely due to its very intense but relatively short-lived effects. These components are unique to DMT in that for a majority of its users they are significantly more likely to manifest during “breakthrough” experiences as opposed to sub-breakthrough level experiences.

Spirituality enhancement

Existential self-realization

Perception of eternalism

Perception of self-design

Perceived exposure to inner mechanics of consciousness

Unity and interconnectedness