DMT
The Spirit Molecule
C12H16N2
Di-Methyl-Tryptamine, commonly referred to as “DMT” is one of the most powerful psychoactive substances known to mankind. Interestingly, this substance is endogenously produced by the human body (and endogenously produced by many other forms of plant and animal life). This characteristic (biosynthesis by humans) is exceptional because it is not shared by any other psychedelic substance.
DMT is also the active hallucinogenic compound in ayahuasca, a tea brewed from the Psychotria viridis shrub and the Banisteriopsis Caapi root. Ayahuasca has used for ritual purposes by indigenous cultures across southern and Central America for hundreds, if not thousands of years.
While Ayahuasca is the oldest known method of DMT consumption, it is now more common for DMT to be consumed in crystal form, by smoking in a pipe, bong, or vaporizer pen. This form of ingestion produces a powerful but short-lasting hallucinogenic state, considered to be one of the most intense psychedelic experiences in existence.
The reason why smoking DMT results in a short experience, while drinking Ayahuasca results in a 12+ hour experience is because of a compound called Monoamine Oxidase (MAO). The human body naturally produces Monoamine Oxidase, and this compound effectively serves to nullify any psychoactive effects that perhaps would be felt due to the bodies naturally produced DMT.
MAO’s role in the body is to “clean” neuroreceptors by breaking the bonds that several different monoamine neurotransmitters ( like serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine) form with neuroreceptors. N- N, Di-methyl-tryptamine is also a monoamine compound, so therefore endogenously produced DMT is broken down by MAO before it has the chance to bond with neuroreceptors.
When exogenous DMT (not produced by the body) is introduced in large enough amounts (by smoking or vaporizing DMT) it is able to overcome the inhibitory action of MAO and elicit a short but very intense psychedelic experience. The Ayahuasca brew on the other hand contains naturally occurring Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors (MAOI’s), which stop the body from producing MAO. This results in psychoactive effects being felt for a longer period of time, until the effects of the Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitor wears off.
Overview
“It may be that DMT makes us able to perceive what the physicist call “dark matter” — the 95 per cent of the universe’s mass that is known to exist but that at present remains invisible to our senses and instruments.”
― Graham Hancock
There’s something uncharacteristic about DMT (when compared to other psychedelics): it’s naturally produced by the human brain. It’s theorized that this is why DMT is often referred to as the ‘Spirit Molecule’, along with the fact that DMT reliably elicits an other-worldly, often spiritual or mystical experience.
What’s more is that this particular tryptamine is found commonly throughout nature — in the cells of animals and produced in many species of plants. Most notable among its characteristics is the rapidity of its onset and the intensity of its effect. Consuming DMT catapults a user into vivid visual hallucinations and temporal distortions within moments of being consumed (when consumed through smoking or vaporizing).
When inhaled (by smoking or using a DMT vape pen) the effects of DMT last only a short amount of time — between five to twenty minutes — though they’ll last much longer if orally ingested, usually in the form of a compounded ayahuasca brew. When consumed, DMT initiates a physiological response as it forms a bond with serotonin receptors in the brain, sending a signals throughout the central nervous system and altering sensory perceptions.
Out of this world
What’s perhaps most controversial about DMT, aside from the above-stated fact that it’s produced endogenously by the pineal gland of the human brain, is the particular set of insights that it may lead the consumer to experience. Aside from being extremely revelatory, such insights are often said to originate from external, extra-dimensional or otherworldly ‘entities’.
These reports of interaction with entities while under the influence of DMT is why the substance seems to be one of the most trending, mysterious and highly sought-after psychedelics today. The consumption of psychedelics is often associated with expanding perception— helping a user break through the confines of everyday perspective and transcend the limits of our routine cognitive capacity—however DMT is unique in the appearance of entities who are reported to bestow these shifts in perception and personal realizations to the user.
While substances like LSD and psilocybin can certainly achieve perspective shifts to a considerable and varying degree, DMT seems to shatter the ends of the spectrum altogether, prompting the kind of temporal distortions and imaginative contemplations that would occur far outside the realm of anything we may consider routinely psychedelic.
It’s no wonder that it’s often associated with near death experiences, which are themselves theorized to instigate a neurological flooding of DMT into the sigma-1 receptors of the brain.
From Angels to Elves
Famed psychonaut and ethnobotanist Terence McKenna had coined the term ‘machine elves’ to describe the entities which he had reportedly encountered when consuming DMT, and McKenna hadn’t been the only one.
Numerous researchers detail these entities in an eerily similar manner, going as far as to correlate various biblical interpretations (encounters with angels, for instance) to DMT experiences and reinforcing such experiences with the accounts of participants in modern studies.
Regardless of whether such encounters emanate directly from benevolent external entities or from within the mind of a user, layers surrounding the nature of reality itself tend to peel away, offering profound insights that can culminate themselves into a life-changing experience.
It’s for this reason that DMT is situated atop the list of ‘must-try’ psychedelics, as its potency remains as unparalleled as the intrigue surrounding it.
Dosage & Experience
The most popular method of consuming DMT is by smoking, with vaporization considered the easiest and most user-friendy option as it prevents the DMT from being heated past the point of efficacy – DMT crystals are exceptionally heat-sensitive and should not be exposed to temperatures over 180 degrees Celsius. Our DMT vape pens can function on 3 different power settings and will ensure that the product is heated to optimal vaporization temperature.
Freebasing, whereby DMT is simply smoked out of a pipe, is also a popular method that has persisted long before DMT vape pens became available. However, this method is recommended for experienced users as it is not only more harsh than a DMT vaporizer pen, but also catapults the user directly into the experience. DMT vapes on the other hand are better suited to modulating dosage, taste better, and offer just as robust of an experience if used correctly.
A starter dose for those wanting to simply try to feel the initial onset of effects – dipping their toes into the water of this enigmatic experience – hovers around the 10-20mg range. While such a low dosage isn’t enough to cause hallucinations or the kind of euphoric revelations that are typically associated with DMT, it can cause a distortion of some sensory experience, lasting only a few minutes at most.
In the higher range, from 25-40mg, one can expect the often-sought breakthroughs to happen, along with visualizations and changes to auditory perceptions as well as a shift in temporal perception. A dose of 40mg or higher is certain to provoke a revelatory experience, lasting anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes at the most.
The experience brought on by a breakthrough DMT dose is potent to say the least, facilitating a different interfacing with reality that many people would have a hard time explaining. From conversations with ephemeral beings to observations of geometric harmony, those who have tried DMT will be afforded a glimpse of the world from such a radically different perspective unlike any they’ve experienced before.
The after-glow – a term associated with the subtly euphoric and calm feeling after a trip – will typically last up to an hour, during which point all cognitive faculties are back to normal.
Pharmacology
Widely found in plants and animals, N,N-Dimethyltryptamine is an alkaloid renowned for its intensely potent psychoactive effect, lasting an extremely short duration in comparison to most other psychedelics.
While it remains to be fully understood in terms of its pharmacological scope, evidence suggests that DMT plays a crucial role in a number of innate processes of the periphery and central nervous systems, acting as an endogenous neurotransmitter with numerous mechanisms of action relating to serotonin regulation.
Monoamine Oxidase, a digestive enzyme, breaks down DMT that is consumed orally, necessitating the combination of an inhibitor of this enzyme (an MAOI) – like the famous ayahuasca vine. Together, they prolong the duration of the effect while also increasing its intensity.
Upon its consumption, DMT will bind to several types of serotonin receptors, the stimulation of which causes hallucinogenic effects and sensory distortion, also effecting mood, emotion, and cognitive function.
One of the most intriguing questions surrounding the pharmacological dimension of DMT is whether our brains produce DMT naturally, as mounting evidence suggests that it is produced while we dream and in the death process itself.
Pop Culture
Despite being synthesized almost a century ago, DMT has only become more of a mainstream hallucinogenic in the last several years as a number of factors have come together to popularize this peculiar hallucinogenic.
Most iconic could be the documentary published in 2010 entitled “DMT: The Spirit Molecule”, which explored the origins and applications of this substance, detailing the fact that its popularity sprouted from an inherent association with Ayahuasca.
A collective and surging interest in Ayahuasca itself, throughout the last decade, has also proliferated a lot of focus on DMT, exacerbated by references from popular media productions like The Joe Rogan Experience and Rick and Morty.
Where to buy DMT online
Psychedelics world shop offers DMT products, available in several forms (either freebase DMT powder, or DMT vaporizer cartridges) We offer both N,N-DMT and 5-MeO DMT vape pens, but at the moment we only offer N,N-DMT freebase. Our products have been reviewed by many as the best on the psychedelic market.