Onset : 15 - 60 seconds

Duration : 5 - 20 minutes

Normal After Effects : 15 - 60 minutes

Threshold : 2 - 5 mg

Light : 10 - 20 mg

Common : 20 - 40 mg

Strong : 40 - 60 mg

Heavy : 60 mg +

DMT is a naturally occurring psychedelic compound of the tryptamine family. It acts as a partial agonist for several serotonergic receptors. DMT has a high affinity for the 5-HT2A serotonin receptor in the brain where it mimics the effects of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, or 5-HT). Its presence is widespread throughout the plant kingdom and occurs in trace amounts in mammals (including humans) where it is thought to function as a trace neurotransmitter.

It acts as a short acting smokeable psychedelic that provides a short trip of only five to ten minutes in length. Despite this short duration, it is still universally considered by anybody who has tried it in a positive environment to be the most incredible experience a human being could ever possibly go through.

It is so vastly different from anything else a person has previously experienced that not even the most extreme of sober circumstances could ever come close in terms of profoundness and intensity.

DMT is broken down by the digestive enzyme monoamine oxidase through a process called deamination and is therefore inactive if taken orally unless combined with a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI) such as harmaline or a reversible inhibitor of monoamine oxidase A (RIMA) such as harmine. This is how DMT is taken traditionally within Southern American tribes, through a mixed brew known as Ayahuasca, which has its own dedicated guide here.

The DMT experience contains a complex and wide array of effects which based on the predefined potential subjective effects index found here, I will now begin to breakdown and describe.



Physical Effects:

The physical effects of DMT can be broken down into two 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.

- 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.

Cognitive Effects:

The head space of DMT is described by most as extremely sober and clear headed in its style when compared to other commonly used psychedelics such as LSD, psilocin or even ayahuasca. It contains a limited amount of typical cognitive effects.

The most prominent of these typical effects generally include:

Enhancement of current mind state

Removal of cultural filter

Feelings of fascination, importance and awe

Rejuvination

Direct communication with the subconscious

Ego suppression, loss and death

States of unity and interconnectedness

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 contains less personal insight in comparison to orally active psychedelics such as ayahuasca, LSD and psilocin due to its short acting nature.

Visual Effects:

Enhancements

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

Increased visual acuity

Enhancement of colours

Enhanced pattern recognition

Distortions

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

Visual 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.

(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. Tracers

After images

Texture repetition

Colour shifting

Scenery slicing

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 as structured in its organization, organic in geometric style, intricate in complexity, large in size, fast and smooth in motion, colourful in scheme, glossy in colour, equal in blurred and sharp edges and equal in rounded and angular corners. At higher dosages, the geometry is significantly more likely to result in states of Level 7B visual geometry over Level 7A.

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) they are 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:



External hallucinations

Internal hallucinations - this particular effect commonly contains hallucinations with scenarios, settings, concepts and autonomous entity contact. They are more common within dark environments and can be described as internal in their manifestation, lucid in believability, interactive in style and almost exclusively 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:

Now that I’ve at least vaguely discussed the basis material for everything seen during such an experience, I can now walk you through the four different stages of a DMT trip and explain to you what they are like.

The First Stage: 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 a tripper as they start to smoke DMT.

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

This is followed by a sudden onset of high level 3 geometry, the body high and the feeling of your 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 visuals increase. This sound becomes all enveloping 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 room in front of you splitting in two down the middle leaving a gaping infinite chasm filled with incredibly fast moving visuals as you separate from your body shooting directly into it at light speed

increasing geometry simply becoming so all enveloping that absolutely nothing of the room is left any more.

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 Second Stage: 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 to feel like a psychedelic “waiting room” or a “loading screen”. This can take any form but generally takes the shape of a tunnel or space comprised of fast moving geometry that lasts approximately 10 – 20 seconds and feels distinctively different from the main bulk of the trip.

This distinctive feeling has led me to speculate that this is some sort of psychedelic loading screen and it’s during this moment that the trip ahead of you is being generated and planned out.

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

The Third 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 to you, but despite this most trips seem to follow some extremely common archetypes and plots that happen almost universally across people who have tried DMT.

These 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 your line of sight. These entities appear to have been waiting for your arrival, usually completely unsurprised by the tripper’s sudden appearance into their dimension.

They immediately begin to greet and welcome you with open arms, giving off a sense that they are deeply concerned with what they have to show you in the short amount of time that they have before you comedown.

At this point it is pretty common for the tripper (unless they are very experienced) to be completely overwhelmed by the nature of what is happening to them despite feeling completely sober mentally, often screaming and shouting in amazement as the entities encourage you 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 you using a variety of different methods such as directly manipulating what you can see and view, by telepathically beaming information into your 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 you their message or show you what they want to show you.

This message is often something personal to you or something that only applies to the logic of the universe in which it was taught in making it impossible to integrate and apply it into your 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 you, after several minutes it begins to leave you at the final stage of the trip.

The Fourth Stage: Coming Down

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

Once this is over you immediately find yourself 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 your 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.

Health Effects, Potential Addiction and Tolerance:

Similar to other psychedelic drugs, there are relatively few physical side effects associated with DMT acute 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. In mice, the median lethal dose (LD50) of DMT when administered intravenously is 110 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg). This means that 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 110x the commonly used dosage of 60mg.

DMT is not physically addictive and many users experience a frequency self-regulating quality to the drug.

In terms of tolerance, smoked DMT tolerance builds very rapidly but also decreases rapidly. You should wait at least one hour between trips to allow tolerance to go down.



Legal issues:

DMT is classified as a Schedule I drug under the UN 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances, meaning that use of DMT is supposed to be restricted to scientific research and medical use and international trade in DMT is supposed to be closely monitored. Natural materials containing DMT, including ayahuasca, are explicitly not regulated under the 1971 Psychotropic Convention.

DMT is classified in Canada as a Schedule III drug.

DMT is classified in New Zealand as a Class A drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975.

DMT is classified in the United Kingdom as a Class A drug.

DMT is classified in the United States as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970.

If you are motivated to experience this drug, it is completely possible to make through some very simple kitchen based chemistry described in detail here. The recipe requires only legal and freely available ingredients (all of which can be found through Google).

Keep in mind, however, that this is extremely illegal and I am in no way responsible for your actions.



Misconceptions:

Before I finish this article off I am going to address the extremely common misconceptions and borderline mysticism that surround this drug all over the internet. These misconceptions are the widely held belief that DMT is naturally produced in the pineal gland and is routinely released every night when we dream, at the moment of birth and at the moment of our death. There is not yet any conclusive scientific evidence that it is released during dreams, birth and death. Despite this however, many people on the internet claim it to be fact on a regular basis.

These ideas were first hypothesized by Rick Strassman in the book DMT: The Spirit Molecule and have since been popularized by the likes of Terrence Mckenna and Joe Rogan.

This is not something that the scientific consensus supports but as I mentioned earlier, it has been conclusively proven that trace amounts of DMT have been found in the blood, urine and cerebreal spineal fluid of some mammals including humans. A great little list of them can be found here. DMT has also been found within the pineal glands of rats, but this does not mean we have any reason to believe that it is released during birth, death and dreams.

Stopping the spread of pseudoscience and misinformation across the psychedelic community is important if we want our position to be taken seriously so this is not something that should be tolerated.

Reader submitted trip reports:

Conclusion:

The things experienced on this drug are incredible and completely logic defying, if a single object could be somehow brought back into the real world from such a place nothing would ever be the same again as the sheer impossibility of these things would instantly break reality.

DMT is the drug that people are looking for when they buy and smoke salvia without knowing what to expect. It is in my opinion the pinnacle of the psychedelic experience, yet despite this, very few people outside of the psychedelic community have heard of it and even fewer have actually gone ahead and tried it. It’s said that DMT is not only stranger than you suppose but it is stranger than you can suppose. There is literally nothing that could ever truly prepare you for it until you’ve tried it for yourself.

Click here for a more comprehensive breakdown.