My friend G has done numerous mind-altering substances throughout the years and considers himself to be at least moderately experienced in this field, although his use of substances is now minimal compared to that of his past. In the past year or so, however, instead of using them for party purposes, G has been using various substances to help him discover, confront, and deal with the causes of various issues (minor but chronic depression/anxiety/poor self esteem). He acknowledges that there are chemical imbalance components to mental health issues, but it is his belief that most of them are caused by unresolved or traumatic experiences that continue to influence the unconscious mind, and that, by confronting them and reintegrating them into the conscious mind, their negative effects can be mitigated or eliminated completely. Through this, along with various other positive spiritual and general life changes, he's made significant progress.

In any case, a little over a year ago, G got some DMT that an experienced friend (who we will call B) had cooked himself. B said it wasn't completely pure (not a perfect batch), but that he had used some and it was still good quality. This has since been verified by another experienced party who used it. G waited a few months until he felt he was ready, and one day decided to try it. Given, it was not in a completely comfortable environment, but it wasn't somewhere that he felt UNcomfortable. G was was with an inexperienced friend (we will call H) who knew about DMT and how powerful it was, but was scared to try it himself and was intrigued to find out from G how it went afterward. G took two or three hits (can't remember) and held them each in for at least 10 seconds. As G was smoking, H remarked jokingly, "Dude, you're crazy!" G smiled and said, "See you in 20 minutes!" as H left the room. (G realizes that this did not set a particularly comfortable tone.) Several seconds later, G looked at the ceiling and began to see intricate LSD-like fractals that turned into some sort of non-human face. All of a sudden, he got a very strong head-rush like feeling, and a very strong, primal fear engulfed him.

The music G had put on stopped on one beat which echoed rapidly in his mind and faded away. The initial intensity of the fear subsided a bit, and he began to drift into some other reality made of red, orange, and yellow. There were gray extraterrestrial-like beings there (which G has since heard referred to as grays). These "grays" seemed to shift their body positions while acknowledging G's presence, but not showing him much attention. G was wary of these beings, as he was unsure what their intentions were. He got the feeling that he was in their house in some other world, and saw a window looking outside, where the sky was a twilight-like blue color. Looking over to the left, he saw a strange machine that he didn't recognize.

The grays began to take more notice of G and seemed to come towards him. He had a vision of being on an operation table with a bright white light overhead, like a cliche'd alien abduction scene. Again, G was unsure of the grays' intentions, and therefore was very freaked out by this image. Panic began to take hold, and suddenly, the vision ended and G was thrown back into normal reality. G was simultaneously relieved to have escaped the panic, but disappointed in that he had wanted to have a mind-expanding, productive experience. He lay in place, hoping that he might be able to reenter the alternate reality, but this did not happen and he gave up after 10 minutes or so.

Since then, as mentioned, G has used other substances such as mushrooms, 2CE, and 25i-nbome to explore his mind and confront unresolved issues. He finds he has made large strides in understanding himself and coming to terms with his issues, but still has a long way to go. He still thinks about DMT sometimes, but cannot find the balls to try it again. When he talked to his friend B about his experience, B told him to try it again and smoke more this time, since this is how to eliminate the ego (and with it, the fear). G believes that this is probably true, but is still scared. Any advice? Is there any way to ease into it, or is G just going to have to wait for a point in his life that he feels ready to dive in? Has anyone else had a similar experience? G would appreciate any feedback and thanks anyone who read this entire thing for their time

On a side note, when G was a baby, he contracted an aggressive infection within his first 6 weeks of life and was hospitalized for a significant period of time, during which he was operated on at least once. He has had numerous operations since then. He's fine now, but is sure that these early memories affected his unconscious on a very deep level, and thinks that it could possibly even be the reason for the "operation table" vision.

Any thoughts on any of this?