Okay, howdy again. I would like to share some thoughts I have regarding the very special thing that is N,N-DMT. I have been experimenting with this over the course of the last few years since a 'near death experience' with it's cousin, 5-MEO-DMT saved me from years.of suicidal depression, and addiction. I wish I could say it cured me of those things, but that is an impossibility, I'm afraid, but it did however, remove the possibility of suicide from my life, and placed me on a path that includes dedicating my life to legitimizing psychedelics for use in treatment of these terminal illnesses. This post is not about that though, just some thoughts that I had from my most recent experiment. Recently, I stumbled across a new acacia confusa extract and the other night, had my first immersive trip with it. For a couple days prior, I had been smoking it in small, sub-breakthrough doses and there is something I noticed. At these smaller dose levels, it would make my environment psychedelic, but not me. By this, I mean that I would have nice visuals, etc, but my thought patterns remained intact. No real introspection, etc. just glistening edges, trails, patterns in the walls and such nice pretty things, as well as a body euphoria. (an amazing body euphoria my partner described as heroin like, at least on the pleasure scale) I have, very admittedly, been proselytizing DMT over the last couple years, attempting to convince many of my addicted friends of it's potential for healing. However, many, with the exception of one or two very close ones have refused on the fear that it would put then in a terrifying,LSD/psilocybin-like mind loop as a result of years of depression and bad living. I dint think that is an issue with thus particular psychedelic. So here's the thing. I have a poorly articulated theory that NN-DMT is the endogenous chemical that is responsible for the human spiritual experience that religions are cultural attempts to describe and translate. This other-worldly, higher consciousness is a part of most religions, even those that don't seem particularly'psychedelic'. (When you get into mystical aspects of religions, like sufism, kabalism,gnostic thought, even Solomonic ceremonial majick, and read the texts, these people seem to describe DMT trips-read the Book of Enoch, for example, or parts of the Zohar) On DMT, one is either 'in the realm', or not. They are not analyzing their life and agonizing over shortcomings, failures, and victimizations as could/would occur with other psychs. One is merely high until they are pushed through directly into contact with some higher consciousness and reality. Entity contact, spontaneous healing-(physically and emotionally-)esoteric things like kundalini awakening etc. are dogmatic points of discussion and contention that I'm not trying to describe here, merely this-that DMT is, to my knowledge and experience, singular in this regard-God or bust! I am, admittedly,a highly spiritual person and have been a 'seeker' the majority of my years. I wonder how much this aspect of my personality has to do with this idea of there being a physical manifestation of spiritual thought and its implications. The universality of the DMT experience coincides with the universality of God, yes, or no? What happens when an atheist takes it? What about someone interested but with no spiritual foundation or even real conception? Even after all my 'seeking', reading, and what I felt to be understanding of 'God', and I feel myself to have a fairly decent knowledge of mystical thought throughout human history, after that first experience, all my concepts of.'God' (feel compelled to put '' around the word) were misguided and akin to conceiving of some solely external fairy-king riding a cloud (though not quite THAT ignorant). The breakthrough experience shattered all that, showing me a hierarchy of divine emanation, from the dispassionate, unfeeling pure mind that told me that I am alone and entirely distant from as human, to ultra-dimensional entities that could be appealed to and even communicated with, comparable to the descending/ascending Sephirah and associated hosts of kabala. I have elaborations, but don't really want to go on a singular diatribe here, I'm interested in opening a discussion, I promised a trip report, and in leiu, this is it, since I could just describe some pretty patterns and write what has been written. I'm more interested in your ideas concerning this. Thank you for reading . Sine experientia nihil sufficienter sciri potest -Roger Bacon *γνῶθι σεαυτόν*
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This kind of thing pops up every now and then, and while it's a nice idea, there's not a whole lot of evidence for the idea that DMT is involved in spontaneous spiritual experiences in any way. While it does appear endogenously (a fact that I think more people give more importance than it's worth), the observed concentrations are nowhere near psychedelic doses. It also doesn't make much sense, at least to me, to say that a single neurotransmitter could responsible for an entire state of consciousness: that would be like melatonin is 'responsible' for sleep. While melatonin plays a role in sleep, it is just one part of a much larger neural architecture where all the parts (including other molecules, like acetylcholine) work together to create the one "brain-state." If you're interested in the neuroscience of spiritual experiences, look into stuff that's happening with temporal lobe epilepsy. Blessings ~ND "There are many paths up the same mountain."
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Oh I'm terribly sorry at my lack of clarity. I did not mean, that and don't believe that, endogenous DMT "release" or whatever is responsible for spiritual consciousness, but rather the synergy of it (maybe, and I know that nowhere in the OP did I state this], with the CONSUMPTION of DMT, in various aya analogues, in various geographically, culturally and temporally disparate locations (I know, unsubstantiated, let alone unproven) is the culprit. I guess what I meant by "the physical manifestation" bit is just some playfully esoteric idea . Something along the lines that the Creator- which I do believe in, obviously- has created some sort of physical "doorway" -or perhaps better stated "window", since incarnate, we cannot walk through fully into it's presence,-with which we can perceive that which lies "beyond the veil". Or perhaps I'm just totally screwy and off-base,IDK, I'll be the first to admit (but not the first to point out) that I'm ignorant of most things, and while my life-path includes gaining a greater understanding of not just DMT, but psychedelics in general, their place and role in human consciousness and history, and the support of the legitimization of them in therapies for various emotional-and spiritual-illnesses of our modern society, that I am a babe in the woods. And no, I'm not very versed in neuroscience. I play with my brain chemistry enough, though perhaps I should be,ha. Hence, incohesive, pre-second cuppajoe ramblings far too early in the AM,lol. In all seriousness, though, yes, I am a little aware of the connections between temporal lobe epilepsy and the spiritual experience. But what if one doesn't own this condition? Again, I'm not trying to carry the banner of unsubstantiated theories and fully support and try try to stand behind the critical thinking process, but if I'm flogging a rotting equine corpse, then...remove this topic as part of the currently ongoing hoovering of the Nexus. It's just something that interests me me as a broken human being trying to heal both himself and the creation in the process. Peace,NattyD! Sine experientia nihil sufficienter sciri potest -Roger Bacon *γνῶθι σεαυτόν*
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null24 wrote: I have been experimenting with this over the course of the last few years since a 'near death experience' with it's cousin, 5-MEO-DMT saved me from years.of suicidal depression, and addiction. I wish I could say it cured me of those things, but that is an impossibility, I'm afraid, but it did however, remove the possibility of suicide from my life, and placed me on a path that includes dedicating my life to legitimizing psychedelics for use in treatment of these terminal illnesses.
This resonates with me. I was suicidally depressed for 20 years, with hourly self-destructive ideation if I wasn't drunk or high. One ++++ trip (which is synonymous with the NDE imho) cured me of all my addictions and removed that pit of despair that was always in my heart. It was mushrooms in my case, but they catapult you to the same radiant love-energy inferno with sufficient dosage. I was a gloom-obsessed quasi-autistic goth from 12 till my early thirties, as rigidly nihilistic as a person can be. One trip cured all that and gave me more besides (excepting the brain hardware defect). I will never stop promoting these miracle plants and fungi we have access to, the changes they can elicit make the whole field of psychology, and to a lesser degree psychiatry, slow and ineffectual to the point of uselessness in comparison. The challenge is making the changes stick after our ego is destroyed. When you rebuild from scratch you make the house better then it was before, you don't use old and rotten timber. Family and friends are resistant to dramatic change as well, you fit a particular place in their social puzzle. If your shape changes drastically you may no longer fit, in which case you have to find another puzzle to belong to. I became a hippy/psyraver/shoegazer, abandoned old tastes, friends, clothes, pasttimes. If I was to tell myself 20 years back that would be my development I would never have believed it. null24 wrote: So here's the thing. I have a poorly articulated theory that NN-DMT is the endogenous chemical that is responsible for the human spiritual experience that religions are cultural attempts to describe and translate. This other-worldly, higher consciousness is a part of most religions, even those that don't seem particularly'psychedelic'. (When you get into mystical aspects of religions, like sufism, kabalism,gnostic thought, even Solomonic ceremonial majick, and read the texts, these people seem to describe DMT trips-read the Book of Enoch, for example, or parts of the Zohar) On DMT, one is either 'in the realm', or not. They are not analyzing their life and agonizing over shortcomings, failures, and victimizations as could/would occur with other psychs. One is merely high until they are pushed through directly into contact with some higher consciousness and reality. Entity contact, spontaneous healing-(physically and emotionally-)esoteric things like kundalini awakening etc. are dogmatic points of discussion and contention that I'm not trying to describe here, merely this-that DMT is, to my knowledge and experience, singular in this regard-God or bust!
I've followed the same research path more-or-less. Merkabah mysticism predates Kabbalah and is even more hyperspatial in its description of visions and otherwordly ascent. The Hekhalot material is especially noteworthy for its shamanic content. See here below: Hekhalot Rabbati Chapter XX wrote:
[234] And Dumiel would say to him: “I bear witness and warn thee concerning two things: That none of those who descend to the Merkabha succeed to descend except only he who hath these two qualifications: He who hath read the Bible and studieth mishna, midrash, halakhoth and agadoth, and the explanation of halakhoth as to what is forbidden and permitted; and he who hath fulfilled all that which is written in the law and keepeth all warnings of statutes and of judgments and of laws which were declared to Moses on Sinai.” [235] If he said to Dumiel the Prince, “I have one of these two qualifications,” Dumiel the Prince would at once get in connection with Gabhriel the Secretary and write his the paper with red paint and would hang the paper upon the chariot of that same man, saying: “Thus and so is the knowledge of such a one in the Torah, thus and so are his actions, and he desireth to enter in before the throne of His glory.” [237] And when the door-keepers of the seventh palace would see that Dumiel and Kazpiel and Gabhriel, were before the chariot of that man who deservingly descendeth to the Merkabha, they [would] cover their faces, which had been angry, and they [would] at once unstring the strung bows, and return the drawn swords to their sheaths. And nevertheless it is necessary to show them a great seal and a fearful crown: God of heaven, Master of earth the Lord God of Israel. And they would enter in before the throne of His glory and bring out before that man all sorts of [instruments for] music and song, and they would come making music before him until they bring him up and seat him beside the cherubim, beside the ophanim, beside the holy beasts. And he beholdeth wonders and powers, loftiness and greatness, holiness and purity, fear, humility and justice. Then said Rabbi Ishmael: “All the companions made a parable of this scheme [for those who descend to the Merkhaba: It is like] unto a man who hath a ladder in his house, [and] who was going up and down on it, and there is no creature that preventeth him.” Blessed be thou, O Lord, who art wise in secrets and master of hidden things. Amen. Amen.
If your question is if DMT lies at the root of Abrahamic mysticism, I don't think it can be proved conclusively. Aconite and datura-relatives were also used by middle eastern mystics, as were amanitas and other tools. If the hierarchal hosts of angels and celestial palaces are made apparent by psychedelics it probably means they are already there in the backdrop, tryptamines just make the celestial legions more apparent. Abrahamic mysticism is just high-flown animism with a more dramatic iconography. The Hekhalot books, the Zohar, the various Sufi treatises, they describe the same basic backdrop as does the Shinto themed movie Spirited Away by Ghibli Studios. Judeo-Chrisitans have archangels instead of giant daikon probably because the brutal arid climate of the deserts is harsh and unforgiving, giving the impression that God is harsh and warlike. Tropical animists by contrast have a more gentle view on the celestial tiers and their inhabitants. Everyone was originally an animist, only with the Zoroastrian Zurvanists and the Jehovah-splinter cult of the polytheistic Canaanites did monotheism enter the stage. In all likelyhood the thousands of religions that came before had it right, theres no hard science in religion so saying any religion is primative is moronic. tl;dr - DMT shows the animistic cosmos as do all entheogens. abrahamic mysticism with its hosts of angels is also animism, despite its monotheistic pretenses. DMT is not the root of religion, but spirit communication is. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ a mind is made of words words are made of fear
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Pharmacognosis wrote: This resonates with me. I was suicidally depressed for 20 years, with hourly self-destructive ideation if I wasn't drunk or high. One ++++ trip (which is synonymous with the NDE imho) cured me of all my addictions and removed that pit of despair that was always in my heart. It was mushrooms in my case, but they catapult you to the same radiant love-energy inferno with sufficient dosage. I was a gloom-obsessed quasi-autistic goth from 12 till my early thirties, as rigidly nihilistic as a person can be. One trip cured all that and gave me more besides (excepting the brain hardware defect). I will never stop promoting these miracle plants and fungi we have access to, the changes they can elicit make the whole field of psychology, and to a lesser degree psychiatry, slow and ineffectual to the point of uselessness in comparison. The challenge is making the changes stick after our ego is destroyed. When you rebuild from scratch you make the house better then it was before, you don't use old and rotten timber. Family and friends are resistant to dramatic change as well, you fit a particular place in their social puzzle. If your shape changes drastically you may no longer fit, in which case you have to find another puzzle to belong to. I became a hippy/psyraver/shoegazer, abandoned old tastes, friends, clothes, pasttimes. If I was to tell myself 20 years back that would be my development I would never have believed it.
This was me exactly, (with a few minor variations). Variations being: LSD at 14 (which opened me to possibilities, but left me in a state of profound inner conflict), and a major Ayahuasca breakthrough at 31). I couldn't have said it better myself! Everything changed--my relationship with family, friends changed completely, path in life, outlook, mentality, beliefs... Everything. Years of therapy were a drop in the bucket compared to the oceanic tidal wave Ayahuasca brought me. I never would have believed a word of it either. And a friend I've met since these changes has a 14 year old daughter with high functioning Autism, and I see her going through similar as I did from the opposite perspective. She's very rigid in her thinking, but her mother is like a spiritual diva--quite the contrast. Many people don't survive this kind of transition. Now I see and understand why...
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