I've been listening to Terence McKenna and in one of his talks he mentions that he's experienced a realistic DMT flash within a dream. Of course, he's smoked DMT before so he's aware of what the experience is like so it makes sense for him. However, I had a dream recently where the idea of smoking DMT was brought up but never actually done within the dream. I've never smoked DMT before so I don't know what it's like but would I somehow still be able to smoke DMT within a dream and experience a DMT flash? I'm not completely sure that it would be impossible, since our brains produce DMT and I've also had some freaky vivid cosmic geometry and patterns within dreams before. What do all of you DMT veterans think about this?

No

Was talking to a friend yesterday who knows I smoke.

He asked me the same question. He told me he was dreaming and suddenly he was hit by a baseball in his face. The. He remembered looking into a mirror and only seeing his profile not his face. Then more trippy stuff. His reasoning was that he had taken 5-htp as sleeping aid and that all that extra triptophan could be processed by his brain as DMT. He felt that his dream could be a breakthrough.

I just started bugging him telling him that he is ready.


There are theorists that speculate that DMT takes an active role in our dream states thru the relationship between sigma-1 receptor and deep levels of sleep . Plenty of literature around that.

But one may be drinking from a well of water and other diving into it.

I have had incredibly realistic DMT dreams after having used it a few times. I'd say it happens about once a month or so, and if I didn't do DMT so rarely I'm sure I would mistake my dreams for actual trips

To answer your question, though, no. 100% no, in my experience. Before I had taken DMT, I had never seen or felt anything even remotely close in a dream. There are some similarites between fantastical dreams and the DMT experience but they are two totally different states of mind.

In a dream itself no, not unless you had prior memories of an experience from which to draw upon. Trust me, I used to have 100% lucid dreams.. you can't wilfully imagine an experience you've never had on your own.. it will always draw upon memory.

However, I would say it is possible to experience DMT in and around the sleeping state; the time between laying down and falling asleep, and during the oscillations between REM and deep sleep. I say this because of my own experiences as a child/young teen, when my sleeping state experiences were fucking rad haha.

There were two instances when I was younger where I became aware in this visual sphere of bright colours and sensations that upon reflection I believe were 'hyperspace' experiences; looking back after smoking DMT I can see it and feel that that's what it was. At the time though it was overwhelming, I couldn't make out distinct shapes or anything, it was just a blur of sensory overload, and I was disorientated because I think I was dreaming just prior to the experience and then found myself in this space. It was intimidating to say the least. My point is even if you could, you wouldn't have the capacity for it or ability to translate it back into waking memory properly. The same principle applies with dreams all the way up to astral projection - some people don't remember their dreams, but we all dream (scientific fact). There is a process of conveyance that has to be established first - you need the language/symbols/framework or whatever it is.

You can definitely experience DMT through meditation as visionary states. It has a different quality though, much more clarity and less chaotic.

I would say that even in dreams that are to a very high degree "lucid", you'd still miss a layer of lucidity. I've had some DMT-dreams myself as well, but still it is never quite the same as the real thing.

This is true for most things, ofcourse. But especially for DMT and other, simmilar hallucinogens, as experiences induced by these substances tend to be even more lucid than the normal waking state is.

I'm not sure I agree with this to be honest; having experienced both external and endogenous DMT experiences the endogenous one is by far the more lucid experience. External DMT is a whirlwind whereas my endogenous experiences were more visually crisp, less chaotic with less subconscious material churning.

I think the same goes for any substance taken. It's not more lucid (or 'higher' than the waking state, it's not increasing your awareness or self-attention, not unless you predisposed to go in that direction with an introverted mind. It's putting a different colour filter over the light source so to speak. I see this reflected in the disparity between my experiences, those of close friends, and from accounts online.

Hallucinogens are a picture show. The waking state is a picture show. The mechanics of turning 180 degrees towards the projector has little to do with either - hallucinogens don't produce enlightenment.

Do the people who believe endogenous DMT release causes dreams where one smokes and experiences DMT also believe that dynorphin (the endogeneous K-opioid receptor agonist) release causes dreams where one smokes salvia and experiences the effects? I don't, but I'm curious about this sort of logic.

I've certainly had salvia dreams. It will be a normal dream, and then all of a sudden my next exhalation is a cloud of smoke, and I start tripping on salvia in the middle of public.

I would not want to call it enlightenment perse. Just a slightly higher degree of wakefullness.

Many people have described the DMT experience as "hyperreal" or "more real than real", wich in some cases drew them to the conclusion that herefore the content of what they've experienced must be real as well, or even more real than everyday consensus reality.

I think that this phenomenon is caused by this higher degree of wakefullness.

Another example is that for me, DMT visuals often have a higher resolution than what the capacity of my eyesight normally would allow for.

It could ofcourse be that i am far less experienced in lucid dreaming than you. I have had lucid dreams that felt very real. But never exactly as real as waking reality tends to be.

I think what this comes down to is mistaking resolution or vividness of imagery for self-awareness.

Waking state visuals are to DMT what a first generation flat screen is to a £10K 4K UHD TV (or whatever the top range is). That 4K UHD TV generates a lot of 'wow' emotions upon first glance and short-term.. but over the long term it loses that wow factor and the image, although impressive, becomes just another image. We get accustomed. But regardless of where we are on the timeline of that metaphorical example, nothing new has been gained about the viewer of that screen.

I can count on one hand the 100% lucid dreams I've had, where it was literally my waking state ego in that dream scene; these were extremely vivid and sharp, like waking state sharp. They make regular dreams seem like you are drunk. When 100% lucidity was achieved everything seemed to slow and stop, and the focus then became inverted to 'me'. This is opposed to less lucid dreams where the subconscious is still leaking impressions that then manifest, where the scenery warps and shifts according to your projections.

I've had a similar thing happen with one of my endogenous DMT experiences too.. where I said to myself "Wait. Stop. What is this?". The whole experience slowed and stopped moving altogether. In both cases the stopping coincides with this inversion of focus, to 'you', and there's a sort of rising elation and panic simultaneously as you get the feeling that you are both the experience, experiencer, and experienced.

This is why I feel the clarity of the imagery doesn't equate to wakefulness. They certainly can ebb and flow together, and I think psychedelics can give a boost of sorts to the wakefulness, but the imagery itself is actually a distraction.