Just a fair warning, I've never once seen a depiction of the effects of any kind of psychedelic drug that matched the effects I've personally experienced. And I've tried quite a few of them.
A lot of the experience is the head space and body load, which you're just never going to get from way over the top visual approximations. If you haven't experienced those, you aren't going to be able to imagine them very accurately.
The actual hallucinations are often much more subtle, but it's the headspace that makes them seem more significant. For instance, the most psilocybin does (for me) is cause text on a screen to wiggle around by a few pixels, and things to kind of zoom in and out by maybe 1% of their actual size, and colors on pictures to kind of bleed around by a few pixels if you stare at it long enough.
Now granted, I have not tried dimethyltryptamine. I don't have the courage for that one yet :P
> For instance, the most psilocybin does (for me) is cause text on a screen to wiggle around by a few pixels
Take more. I've been sitting in my living room literally holding my eyelids open seeing a completely different world. I agree 100% about the visual depictions though. Never gets close.
I've gone as high as I could before the body load became truly threatening. That's around 5-6g of cubensis, or 50mg of 4-AcO-DMT. Psilocin and its analogs tend to cause hypothermia for me that gets worse as dosages increase. Freezing cold yet sweating profusely. Muscles unable to keep still. At that level, it's a struggle for me to stay conscious and not black out. I have to move constantly to avoid that. It ceases to be enjoyable beyond 2-3g or 20-30mg here; low visuals there but amazing euphoria. Though to be honest, the constant nausea ruins regular mushrooms regardless of dosage.
I think there's just something off with me and visual hallucinations. I've gone as high as 1.5g on dextromethorphan, and the most I've gotten there was seeing the vague outline of what looked like my room while my eyes were closed, or seeing a grayscale wall that seemed to go up forever. Sometimes with eyes open it seems like in the darkness there's a shadowy silhouette of some other place, but the second I try to focus on it, the illusion breaks. Much more boring than the description sounds.
Note that I'm only 150lbs, too. So it's not a mg/kg dosing issue.
> I agree 100% about the visual depictions though. Never gets close.
It makes me wonder if they're just trying to give a good show for the viewers, like the way they portray computer hackers and such. Or if the people making these depictions have just never in their lives tried psychedelics themselves. Probably the former.
The thing about hallucinogens is that they really change how you think. The visual changes are such a small part of the experience, compared with the complete transformation of your consciousness. DMT itself is particularly potent in this regard, it basically completely strips away your sense of self.
I highly recommend a heavy dose of ayahuasca at least once in your life. It is pretty much guaranteed to radically change your perspective on a lot of things.
If it has a such a profound change in consciousness, would it be easy for a non-DMT user to identify someone who has used DMT, albeit with some training?
Haha. I have done quite a bit of hallucinogens, but I never bring the subject up myself. My ideas are wild enough, I don't want to give people an easy excuse to dismiss them :)
There's a pretty easy test. Just start talking about the illusion of the ego. People who've never experience ego death will have no idea what you are talking about. Given that ego death is pretty much only caused by epic trips or a profound mastery of meditation, you should be able to get an idea fairly quickly.
> would it be easy for a non-DMT user to identify someone who has used DMT, albeit with some training?
No. There is basically 30% of the population that will believe anything no matter how stupid. Because the percentage of people who have smoked DMT is probably closer to 0.1%, it would be very difficult to separate people who believe dumb-sounding things for good reasons from the people who believe dumb-sounding things for dumb reasons.
I'm curious whether or not there's even a test for the presence of this drug or it's metabolites in the blood of a user who has taken it within say even just the past hour, due to its purportedly short lived effects...
Not curious enough to consult the literature, but curious.
Its naturally occurring in the body, and quickly broken down by mono-amine oxidase enzymes (taking MAOI's, mono-amine oxidase inhibitors, with it extends the duration of the trip).
I'm not sure if it's a valid test -I'd think that a better test would be to identify if there is a significant positive change before/after use of DMT, without telling anyone of the use.
^My favorite way I've seen it described, and also a really cool video even without the subtext. (but ya this is one rabbit hole that I've yet to travel down. guess i took the blue pill, but more pills just seemed unnecessary at the time)
A lot of the experience is the head space and body load, which you're just never going to get from way over the top visual approximations. If you haven't experienced those, you aren't going to be able to imagine them very accurately.
The actual hallucinations are often much more subtle, but it's the headspace that makes them seem more significant. For instance, the most psilocybin does (for me) is cause text on a screen to wiggle around by a few pixels, and things to kind of zoom in and out by maybe 1% of their actual size, and colors on pictures to kind of bleed around by a few pixels if you stare at it long enough.
Now granted, I have not tried dimethyltryptamine. I don't have the courage for that one yet :P