Recently I had my first experience with DMT. Over the years, I had read a great deal
about DMT - mostly from McKenna, but also Pinchbeck and others. Immensely intrigued,
I had also developed a good sized fear of it from some of the descriptions.
I had tried DPT and Salvia before. Both seemed very intense. There was a real rush or
woosh to the come up that I had a fear reaction to. I didn't soon go back to either of
those.
The occasion came to try DMT on a weekend retreat in the country. The day had been
spent with MDA and LSD, playing weird, free improv music. When the sun went down,
we transitioned into the house and it became a beautiful listening scene/dance party.
(There were only four of us.)
So at some point, the DMT comes out, and my friends are lying back and peacefully
having their dreams. A little later, I'm talking to my friend about it. He said, it's
not what you think. It's actually quite gentle in the way that it comes on.
There's a lot of child-like humor present. He said, ya know, you definitely won't regret it.
This is an old friend and he's not the type to try to be persuasive normally.
So I lay back, they load the bowl up and I take a hit. I may have taken a 2nd
one, but I can't be certain. The experience took over as I lay there in astonishment
gazing at the arabesque tapestry that poured in from the periphery. Arabesque
and at the same time, incredibly clean, like it all had been designed by Apple.
Emerging now and then from the panoply of images were representational
icons like a heart, or a red rose, or a caricature of a face in profile.
As self-consciousness reemerged, I realized that I was lying there with my mouth
completely agape. I closed my mouth and went back into the experience
for a bit. I had one other session that evening which produced a similar
experience as the first. (As far as I can remember.)
From the literature and anecdotes, it seems I had a very pleasant Level II
experience or encounter with the chrysanthemum. It all felt very 2 dimensional
and I never had the sense of being in a wider space or the presence of entities.
I did have the clear impression of a friendly intelligence at work.
One that was trying to show me something. But that's as far as I got.
The other people in my party all had pleasant yet powerful experiences.
My wife decided to wait until the next day, to do it on a clean head.
She did report the emergence into an expansive space as well as the presence
of subtle entities, albeit not anthropomorphized in any way. One of the entities
(who she called the guardian) manifested as patterns of green lights. She said his/her
energy was sober and powerful. She also saw rainbow light and heard elfin whisperings.
One of my main take-aways was that I was surprised at just how gentle it all seemed.
We all reported that. It just sort of flowed in effortlessly. There was no rapid woosh
up or down. There wasn't any feeling of falling...or of ego loss. There wasn't any
accelerated heart rate or particularly noticeable physiological change. It all seemed
quite playful and easy, and fascinating.
Now...of course I know there are deeper level experiences, so I have no arrogance on
the topic. However, my fear of it has lessened. The sentiment from everyone involved was
that this was something very interesting and efforts must be made to explore this more.
The topic itself took on a glowing aura about it. It felt like an encounter with real magic.
We all seemed to get excited at its mention. I was certain that I could smell it and taste it
every time it was mentioned. I can (almost) right now as I type this. It's been about a week
and a half since the experience.
It's nice to be in a universe and central nervous system where this sort of thing goes on.