Suspended in Deep Space

A mushroom enthusiast's experience

Substances: DMT

Star and I had the great good fortune and opportunity today to sample n,n,-dimethyltryptamine! Our overall impression was of a truly a marvelous and friendly material. It has many qualities that make it very similar to the mushroom to us, but also bears its own unique signature.

We took our waxy orange crystals, which smelt strongly similar to mothballs, but more friendly, and placed them atop some peppermint leaves in a glass pipe. We then used a small flame to slowly melt the crystals into the herb and then carefully combusted the DMT saturated leaves. For us, who are non-smokers, the smoke was extremely harsh. We managed to take in all the material in three large inhalations, struggling to hold it in for 20 seconds. By the time we reached the third inhalation, we were already flying high, but managed to accomplish the third with each other's encouragement.

For me, there were four most interesting aspects of this material. First of all the trip is extraordinarily visual in nature. I saw a tunnel open, the same one I have seen on large doses of gaiahuasca, which was rapidly flowing by me. It originated from a sphere of bright light located toward the upper right hand corner of vision. Secondly, the feeling tone was exactly similar to many experiences I have had with the mushroom, and is, I think, the extraordinarily sweet feeling that arises at the moment of death. It is feelings like this that lead me to feel confident that, at the moment of death, DMT must be released into the brain. Third, there arose the sense of being suspended in deep space, even with imagery flowing past one at an incredible pace (or as one was moving at an incredible speed through space); a sense of spaciousness that was very familiar from experience with the mushroom. The flowing imagery then opened up into a vast silent emptiness, and there dawned the Void which is at the heart of the cosmos. For me this has always been the core component of a deep contact with the spiritual world. It is also a hallmark of a deep mushroom experience; I felt completely at home. Finally, the wonderful tryptamine afterglow characteristic of the mushroom was also there. This is a sense of well being and quietly humming joyfulness that has always served as a validation for me of the friendly and beneficial nature of the mushroom. It is strongly there with both DMT and 5-MeO-DMT (though the latter is not visual).

The only drawback to the experience is the suffering that the body must go through to enter into it. As a non-smoker, it felt like a violation of my lungs to inhale so much, and such harsh, smoke. I had to assure my lungs that this was a one-time opportunity that couldn't be passed up; they assented, but not without great reluctance. The smoking presented a similar obstacle for Star. We will definitely do DMT again, however, but only in the form of orally active gaiahuasca brews. Our favorite deep psychedelic remains the mushroom.