I have NEVER lost sense of my ego or have had the "ego death" that comes with large doses of other psychedelics. Honestly, ego death occurs so much more easily when you are in an unfamiliar location (while sober, no substances involved) that is so unlike your normal, day to day living. When I had my one and only breakthrough, I became the eyes and ears of the omniverse (if it had either of those two things). I was still ME while taking on an existence that is existence, I still retained the prominent memories from human life.

So to address your issue with the fading/death of your ego, DMT (freebase at least) is not something that will rip your ego out of you. It will [most likely], however, make you adopt beliefs that, in your current mindset, would be extreme and irrational. Once you adopt these beliefs, for me at least, it is so frusterating to even explain since most of it is inexplicable. My folks are very supportive of my focus on psychedelics and philosophy, but telling them about the experiences on DMT that I view as 100% real is something that I have not been able to bring myself to. If I told them that my intrests in these substances has led me to believe 100% that we are all eternal, that I have communicated with friendly reptilian-humanoids, and that death will be the biggest relief our soul will experience from now and on...I would lose all credibility towards my views with them. Adopting beliefs that DMT teaches you is irrational to everyone who has not experience it, that is why I am so glad this board exists

I don't believe DMT is a good starting point for people who haven't done Psychedelics before.
Allthough I reckon a small, humble enough dose wouldn't overwhelm you and be a good, gentle introduction.

I myself eased into the world of Psychedelic substances starting with Magic Mushrooms.
However it's easy to take "too much" since the potency of mushrooms vary so greatly.

Try maybe to steep a tea in a large mug from 1 large mushroom. Drink half of it and wait an hour and a half.
If you feel you want to go deeper into the experience, drink the other half of the mug.
If you didn't go as deep as you liked you can try making a tea out of 1 large and 1 small mushroom. Proceed with care.

Do it in a comfortable enviroment in company of people you really trust and all should go well.

It's funny how there are always people on two different sides of the Mushrooms V.S. LSD preference. I would say LSD would be a better choice as there is much less body load and (for me at least) less of the disorientation/confusion/stronger death of ego. Though, with all of the dangerous chemicals going around in place of LSD, mushrooms are the safer choice.

When i said DMT is getting towards near death territory, what i meant was near towards the feeling that has been described of actually dying.I was stating that to essentially try to describe the deepness of the DMT experience, and strange , weird , otherworldly feelings-not of this realm.

I feel fortunate that I was able to have hundreds of experience's with many other psychedelics before trying DMT.

Vaped DMT would have been too much for me at first.

My first experience with a psychedelic was 20x Salvia. I was lucky that lady salvia took a liking to me, and let me off fairly gently with uncontrollable laughter and a melting sensation. Since then, I have eased fairly well into other psychedelics. The thing with Salvia and DMT, when smoked, you know the experience will only last a max of 10 min (give or take), so you can always keep that in mind. The bad side is that the come up is like being shot out of a rocket. Whereas with shrooms, LSD, or oral DMT, you have a much more extended come up, but the ride is much longer to navigate through.

Whatever you choose to do, go for it with confidence that you made the right decision for you!

I have been researching for a year now, pretty consistantly. I know its very, very intense (as much as I can know from reports/info) and do not treat it lightly at all. I wouldn't say that I have had no psychedelic experience at all. I've had completely outstanding OEV's on potent marijuana and whilst meditating on potent weed had some pretty intense CEV's, but I know its nothing in comparison. I'll have a VG for my first time, and thinking my first experience will be with changa.

Another thing is, the drugs laws in Australia are freakin' heavy. Me and some friends have been hunting down LSD for a while now, no luck. Just promises that lead to nothing, the dealer being a douche, people not replying, that kinda stuff.

In reference to some other posts about ego death. I think ego death has "degrees" (like almost everything). I've had times (sober) where I've felt a lot of clarity, lack of inner dialogue and total astonishment that this reality is what it is. But I sure as hell wouldn't say it was ego death. Just a degree of ego death.

Also, maybe I've got something wrong here but from what I've read it seems like when your having a DMT experience that theres not much inner dialogue with yourself but more inner dialogue in reaction to something thats happening. But it seems with other entheogens that you can bicker with yourself which can lead to anxiety. This is what I fear. I'm looking for something that will almost completely dissolve irrational (minor irrational thoughts that keep popping up, obviously thinking that your dying may be classified as irrational, or that there as aliens living among us) thoughts and take me on a beautiful journey, which (in response to Enoon) WILL (I know this for a fact, just a personal thing) give me lots of strength to move into other entheogens and then with a clear mind, face what is giving me anxiety. I'm just too worried from past experiences with pot (I realise that all entheogens have different make-ups and attributes) that I might not have a smooth experience due to my ego not handing the reigns over to the experience.

Mojo

I don't know about all of you (in fact I know I have much opposition), but the long come-ups of LSD, shrooms and oral DMT drive me crazy. I can get kind of impatient while waiting to come up. In fact if the come-up for vaped spice was any longer, I'd probably get antsy with that too. I love the fact that if I take a thick enough hit, that I'm already seeing patterns and colors before I even exhale my first hit. If I had the ability to tweak the durations of the experience, I would leave the come-up as is, make the peak half an hour longer and the afterglow and hour longer than that, and that would be the ideal spice experience for me (if it were possible without MAOIs).

LSD's come up is ridiculously short for me, gobalswg. How much do you ingest approximately? When I take 150 to 300ug I am already well past high at the thirty minute mark, and 450ug to 1mg I am already melting into eternity at the fourty five minute mark. With mushrooms, at five grams I am definitely stoned at the one hour mark, not such a long wait imo. I have no experience with oral DMT, though.