DMT is a substance most people have never heard of. But in the age of the internet, it’s surged to popularity in recent years. Those who’ve read a little about it likely just picture the bizarre and cartoonish inter-dimensional odysseys its users so often describe.
At face value, it can be difficult to take these stories very seriously. When people talk of conversations with gods and encounters with aliens from other dimensions, it can be hard not to hear the words of raving loons. But there are reasons not to be quite so dismissive of what this substance offers people.
One of the most fascinating features of DMT is that it occurs endogenously. Endogenous substances are ones that are naturally created by our bodies. And DMT stands as the only known psychedelic that occurs in this way.
According to PhD candidate of the University of Michigan Nick Glynos, “Science currently has almost no grasp about what DMT might be doing in the body, but the fact that it’s withstood generations of human evolution and remained a part of our own physiology to this day… suggests that it’s here for a reason.”
He later concludes that, “The mystery of DMT deserves the attention of scientists, philosophers, psychologists, therapists and anyone trying to make sense of this situation we call reality… The presence of naturally occurring DMT in the body represents a great unsolved mystery and a tangible link between altered states of consciousness and human physiology… let’s determine if DMT, the only psychedelic known to be produced by humans, plays a role in the most fundamental mystery of science — human consciousness.”
In the instances when I’ve taken DMT in the past, I could tangibly sense its natural presence within me. The onset is sudden, but it emerges from the regular conscious experience so cohesively that it feels more like a veil lifted than a substance taken.
It’s a feeling unique from anything I’ve ever experienced with any of the chemical cocktails sold in pharmacies. So many of the substances we put in our bodies can arrive with a palpable feeling of unnaturalness. Even with those most naturally occurring substances, like marijuana and tobacco, I’ve always been able to tell they’re substances I’m putting into my body. But DMT differs wildly.
One of the great frustrations around DMT, though, is that the experience it offers doesn’t lend itself to description in quite the same way as more common psychedelics. The LSD and magic mushroom trips, for example, might be difficult to understand for someone who’s never taken psychedelics, but words can at least offer some justice to the experiences they provide. But the DMT journey is something that can only be described through a vocabulary we don’t yet have.
This difficulty in articulating the DMT experience might be due to the specific ways it interacts with the brain. According to a study conducted at Imperial College London in March of 2023, during the DMT experience, there was increased connectivity across the brain, with more communication between different areas and systems. The changes to brain activity were most prominent in areas linked with “higher level” functions, such as imagination.
The revolutionary experiment involved fMRI scans of participants under the influence of DMT, and offers unprecedented insights into the neurobiological effects of this compound and into psychedelics as a whole.
While DMT offers a profoundly transformative journey, though, it’s important to note that it isn’t without potential dangers. As with all psychedelics, the unexpected and powerful nature of the experience can sometimes be overwhelming and arrive with lasting consequences. More often than that, though, they can occasion experiences which can positively alter our personalities and the entire course of our lives.
For those who’ve tried it, findings like those made by Imperial College London may not be so surprising. That the experience taps into the boundless nature of imagination is practically undeniable. But DMT stretches perception beyond what most would even consider possible.
Though I can offer the loosest of descriptions to some of what I’ve encountered in that strange, strange place, they fall incomprehensibly short of communicating the grandeur of it. While I can’t meaningfully describe what I see when I take DMT, though, I can certainly talk about the beauty in the world I see after I’ve taken it.
Whatever internal realm of vision DMT seems to transport users to can render the trivial issues of waking life utterly meaningless. The upcoming tests and awkward moments and runaway anxieties feel exactly as small as they truly are. And as I float through this transcendent place, my lifetime of fears and worries fades into a speck so small I can simply laugh at it. In these moments, depression and anxiety just seem like petty wastes of time.
As I return from this place mere minutes later, I’m exactly where I was when it first began. But the facets of the world around me can feel unfamiliar. Everything is novel. I piece my world back together bit by beautiful bit. It’s a dazzling and disarming reassimilation.
I look at the iPhone beside me and consider the colossal ways it’s reshaped the entire world in which we’re living. I consider my ability to Facetime with friends across the world. I remember my ability to learn everything there is to know at the drop of a dime. And I’m in awe of it all.
I remember love and loss. I see renewed value in each and every relationship. I look with fresh eyes at our outlandish world, and I remember all of the beautiful places on it that I still haven’t seen. I look objectively at everything that my subjectivity has dulled.
Even the happiest people can lead lives trapped inside of their own perspectives. So much of becoming an adult is learning to accept the extraordinary as something mundane. By a certain age, we almost always lose the wide-eyed child within us.
We stop asking the what and why of everything. We see the world as a flawed sum instead of a combination of mesmerizing parts. As we grow older, our minds compartmentalize more and more of the world around us. We block out what our subconscious deems unnecessary. The abstract and enchanted lens through which children look at the world is a window that closes with time. The great utility in psychedelics, though, is the ability to reopen that window — if only for a few minutes or hours.
In those moments returning from the DMT experience, there’s little that doesn’t fascinate me. The entire world around me induces a child-like sense of wonder. My renewed curiosity will linger for months if not years. And even in those days where the novelty in everything seems to fade slightly, the memory of my DMT experiences brings a smile to my face.
What the substance provides is something that I wouldn’t have believed possible before I first experienced it. That it exists at all — and exists inside all of us — is profound beyond words. It’s one of the great mysteries of consciousness. But in a world amassing more and more knowledge at an overwhelming pace, it’s a welcome mystery. It’s an unknown that’s helped to shape me into who I am.