DMT

DMT
The skeletal formula of N,N-Dimethyltryptamine.
Chemical Nomenclature
Common names	DMT, N,N-DMT
Substitutive name	N,N-Dimethyltryptamine
Systematic name	2-(1H-indol-3-yl)-N,N-dimethylethanamine
Routes of Administration
Smoked Dosage Threshold 2 - 5mg Light 10 - 20mg Common 20 - 40mg Strong 40 - 60mg Heavy 60+mg Duration Total 15 - 90 minutes Onset 15 - 60 seconds Peak 1 - 5 minutes Offset 5 - 10 minutes Afterglow 10 - 60 minutes

N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT or N,N-DMT) is a psychedelic compound of the tryptamine family which ingested, acts as an intense hallucinogenic drug. DMT is present in over 65 species of plants. Its presence is known to be widespread throughout the plant kingdom. Although various theories have been formulated, the compound's biological function has yet to be determined.

This compound has been used traditionally in South America in ayahuasca brews since at least around the year 1500 and archaeological evidence suggests its use in snuffs (such as yopo, cohoba, or parica) since 2080 BCE.

DMT is most commonly used as an extremely powerful visionary psychedelic that produces short acting effects. When taken in combination with an MAOI or RIMA, it becomes orally active. This combination is commonly known as Ayahuasca.

Depending on the dosage and method of administration, the effects of DMT can range from mild psychedelic states to powerfully immersive life-changing experiences-- the nature of which are often described as being the ultimate displacement from normal consciousness where users are placed in a subjective state in which they encounter ineffable spiritual/alien realms and alternate realities.

Chemistry

General formula of a tryptamine molecule.

DMT is made up of a tryptamine backbone, and two methyl groups substituted onto the nitrogen R_N1 and R_N2. It is normally found as the fumarate salt, although it is sometimes found in the less stable freebase form (as users can vaporize this form). It is also found in a sticky acetate form extracted from plant matter with an acid such as sodium hydroxide or vinegar.

Pharmacology

Main article: Serotonergic psychedelic

DMT's psychedelic effects are believed to come from its efficacy at the 5-HT_2A receptor as a partial agonist.

However, the role of these interactions and how they result in the psychedelic experience continues to remain elusive.

Subjective effects

The effects listed below are based upon the subjective effect index and personal experiences of PsychonautWiki contributors. The listed effects will rarely if ever occur all at once but heavier dosages will increase the chances and are more likely to induce a full range of effects.

Physical effects

The physical effects of DMT can be broken down into several components both of which progressively intensify proportional to dosage. These are described below and generally include:

• Spontaneous tactile sensations - The "body high" of DMT can be described as a pleasurable, warm, soft, and 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 remains for up to half an hour after the trip itself.
• Changes in gravity - At higher dosages physical feelings of being catapulted across vast distances at incredibly high speeds are common.
• Pupil dilation

Cognitive effects

DMT in its smokeable form is perhaps the least psychologically intoxicating psychedelic. It is due to this lack of mental intoxication that many people describe DMT not as something which feels not like a drug induced trip but a genuine experience that is actually happening to them. It's worth noting that many people report that DMT is extremely clear headed in its style and contains less personal insight in comparison to orally active psychedelics such as ayahuasca, LSD and psilocin due to its short acting nature.

It contains a limited amount of typical cognitive effects. The most prominent of these typical effects generally include:

• Current mind state enhancement
• Personal bias suppression
• Analysis enhancement
• Novelty enhancement
• Rejuvenation
• Subconscious communication
• Memory suppression (ego death)
• Unity and interconnectedness
• Spirituality enhancement
• Exposure to inner mechanics of consciousness

Visual effects

Enhancements

DMT presents a full and complete array of possible visual enhancements which generally include:

• Acuity enhancement
• Colour enhancement
• Pattern recognition enhancement

Distortions

As for visual distortions and alterations, effects experienced are detailed below:

• 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 their appearance.
• Tracers
• After images
• Symmetrical texture repetition
• Colour shifting
• Scenery slicing
• Colour replacement

Geometry

The visual geometry that is present throughout this trip 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 organization, 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 dosages it is significantly more likely to result in states of Level 8B visual geometry over Level 8A.

The geometry present with smokeable DMT is often considered 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 contain a colour scheme which is similar to LSD but a structured style that is closer to high dose Psilocin.

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:

• Transformations
• Internal hallucinations (Autonomous entities, Settings, sceneries, and landscapes, Alterations in perspective and Scenarios and plots) - DMT produces high level internal hallucinations at appropriate dosages perhaps 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 religious, spiritual, mystical or transcendental nature in their overall theme.

Auditory effects

The auditory effects of DMT are common in their occurrence and exhibit a full range of effects which commonly include:

• Enhancements
• Distortions
• Hallucinations

Progressive stages

When smoked at moderate to heavy dosages, the DMT trip manifests itself in a consistent and linear order which is categorized below.

Taking off

The first step of a DMT trip is the come up that leads onto breaking through. This is something that seems to have at least a few different ways of presenting itself to the user as they start to smoke DMT.

The first thing that a person notices is an extremely distinct set of visual enhancements and most notably an increase in visual acuity and colour intensity.

This is followed by a sudden onset of high level 3 geometry, body high and feelings of one's body being pleasantly tugged in all directions at once from the inside.

This is often accompanied by a soft crackling sound and an extended tone that quickly increases in volume and pitch proportionally as the visual effects increase. This sound becomes all enveloping and abruptly ends as one of a few different "take off" options are experienced.

These include, but are certainly not limited to:

• Feelings of suddenly being pushed through and onto the other side of a membrane,
• The external environment splitting into two sections down the middle and leaving a gaping infinite chasm filled with incredibly fast moving geometry as one separates from their body before shooting directly into it at light speed
• Increasingly intense geometry simply becoming so all enveloping that absolutely nothing of the room is left any more and one finds themselves having broken through into an alternate reality.

This all happens within the space of about 30 seconds to a minute and leads directly onto the second stage of a DMT trip.

The waiting room

Almost immediately after a person has smoked enough DMT to have "taken off", they often find themselves spending a brief amount of time in what is described as feeling like a psychedelic "waiting room" or perhaps a "loading screen". This can take any form but generally appears in the shape of a tunnel or space comprised of fast moving geometry. This stage of the experience lasts approximately 10 – 20 seconds and feels qualitatively different from the main bulk of the trip.

The nature of this distinctive feeling has led many people to speculate that during this moment the trip ahead of them is being generated, rendered, loaded and planned out by one's background neurological processes.

This waiting room starts off quickly but immediately begins to slow down and form into the third and most important stage.

The other side

Once the waiting period is over and the trip has been generated the user will feel that they have broken through onto the other side. It is here where literally anything can happen, despite this however most trips seem to follow some extremely common archetypes and plots that seem to happen almost universally across all people who have experienced DMT.

These plots generally consist of visiting in an alternate reality that feels so real it seems to be better defined than real life. Usually, this is with a single or multiple external autonomous entities in front of one's line of sight. These entities appear to have been waiting for the user's arrival and usually seem completely unsurprised by the person's sudden appearance into their dimension. They immediately begin to greet and welcome them with open arms, giving off a sense that they are deeply concerned with what they have to show them in the short amount of time that they have before one begins to come down.

At this point, it is pretty common for the user (unless they are very experienced) to be completely overwhelmed by the nature of what is happening to them despite feeling completely sober mentally, often internally screaming and shouting in amazement as the entities encourage the user to stay calm, not to give into astonishment and to simply try to pay attention to what is happening. It’s here that they start to communicate with the user using a variety of different methods such as directly manipulating what they can see and view, by telepathically beaming information into their thoughts, by using a visual language comprised of pure linguistic meaning and mathematics or any combination of the above. It’s through these that they teach their message or show the user what they want to show them.

This message is often something personal to the user or something that only applies to the logic of the universe in which it was taught in, making it often impossible to integrate and apply it into everyday life.

These entities often appear to be all-knowing and although they can take any form, commonly experienced entities are present. These generally include bodiless super intelligent humanoids, aliens, elves, insectoids, giant spheres, beings of light, plants and complex robotic machines.

Just as quickly as the DMT hits, after several minutes it begins to leave the user at the final stage of the trip.

Coming down

The final stage is experienced as the sensation of being pulled further and further away from the scenario in which one was placed as the entities often wave goodbye and encourage one to come back as soon as they next get the chance.

Once this is over the user immediately find themselves back in reality with strong level 4 - 5 visual geometry. This is accompanied by an incredible sense of euphoria and awe which washes over every part of their mind and body. The moderate to mild geometry stays for a further 10 – 15 minutes before disappearing completely, leaving a strong body high that stays for up to an hour. This afterglow feels like a warm fuzziness and leaves behind a sense of well being and mental clarity that can last up to weeks after a good trip.

Natural plant sources

Mimosa hostilis root bark

Mimosa hostilis root bark.

Mimosa hostilis (also known as Mimosa tenuiflora, Jurema and Tepezcohuite) is a perennial tree or shrub native to the northeastern region of Brazil and is found as far north as southern Mexico. Around 1% of the dried weight is DMT/N,N-Dimethyltryptamine. It is legal to purchase online and freely available in many parts of the world.

Acacia confusa root bark.

Acacia confusa root bark

Main article: List of Acacia species known to contain psychoactive alkaloids

Acacia confusa (also known as Acacia Petit Feuille, Small Philippine Acacia, Formosa Acacia (Taiwan Acacia) and Formosan Koa) is a perennial tree native to South-East Asia. It is legal to purchase online and freely available in many parts of the world. The plant matter itself contains the following chemicals:

• N-Methyltryptamine: 1.43% (no recreational use)
• DMT/N,N-Dimethyltryptamine: 1.15%

Toxicity and harm potential

DMT is not known to cause brain damage, and has extremely low toxicity relative to dose. Similar to other psychedelic drugs, there are relatively few physical side effects associated with DMT exposure. Various studies have shown that in reasonable doses in a careful context, it presents no negative cognitive, psychiatric or toxic physical consequences of any sort.

Lethal dosage

The median lethal dose or dosage at which 50% of participants die (LD50) of DMT for human beings has never been reached in any setting.

In mice, the median lethal dose (LD50) of DMT when administered intravenously is 110 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg). This means that hypothetically speaking, approximately 6600 milligrams (6.6 grams) of pure DMT would be required for a 60-kilogram (130 lb) person to reach the 110 mg/kg LD50 value of mice. This is roughly 110 times the commonly used dosage of 60mg.

Tolerance and addiction potential

There is no tolerance with DMT usage, meaning that it can be used multiple times in a day without the effects diminishing. Due to the mind-altering psychedelic effects, most users show no addiction to DMT and use often decreases with time.

Legal issues

• International: Under the UN 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances, DMT is classified at Schedule I, meaning that use of DMT is supposed to be restricted to scientific research and medical use.
• Australia: Between 2011 and 2012, the Australian Federal Government was considering changes to the Australian Criminal Code that would classify any plants containing any amount of DMT as "controlled plants".
• Brazil: Production, distribution, or possession of DMT is illegal. Rules are relaxed regarding religious use however.
• Canada: DMT is a Schedule III drug.
• Estonia: DMT is a Schedule I drug.
• Germany: Production, distribution, or possession of DMT is illegal.
• New Zealand: DMT is classified in New Zealand as a Class A drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975.
• Norway: DMT is a Schedule I drug.
• Russia: Production, distribution, or possession of DMT is illegal.
• UK: DMT is a Class A drug.
• USA: DMT is a Schedule I drug. Rules are relaxed regarding religious use however. In the USA, dried root bark of Mimosa hostilis had been considered a "grey area" item for a long time. However, recent efforts by the DEA appear to be focusing on eliminating internet sales of the bark, citing 21 USC § 841, which states that "(IV) any compound, mixture, or preparation which contains any quantity of any of the substances referred to in subclauses (I) through (III);" is also considered an illegal substance. Many USA based vendors have since been stocking Acacia Confusa bark as a result due to its very similar alkaloid content.

Experience reports

Anecdotal reports which describe this compound within our experience index include:

• 50mg (approx.)/ Marijuana - Geometric Angels
• 50mg - Demon faces and déjà vu
• Experience:25mg DMT - Your wall can't save you
• Experience:40mg (smoked) - The planet became a watermelon
• Experience:40mg smoked - Ego death and unity with a friend
• Experience:75mg DMT - Experiencing Death
• Experience:80mg - progressing deeper into states of unity and interconnectedness
• Experience:An Excessive Amount - N,N DMT / Marijuana - Stuck Inside an Egg
• Experience:Unknown dosage (smoked) - It felt like I was on rails the whole time

See also

• DMT Trip Reports
• Psychedelics
• Tryptamines
• Ayahuasca
• DMT Extractions
• DMT (Wikipedia)
• DMT (Erowid)