Its debated wether or not DMT can give us knowledge as a direct result of taking it. What I want to ask is... what have you learned indirectly from DMT?

I know myself that I've been constantly hungry to learn since embarking on this journey, not that I wasn't before, but now I find myself reading TIHKAL and the likes and where most of it is over the head, I find myself understanding more. I doubt I'd have even bothered to look further than the 1st page if I hadn't started to extract tryptamines.

I research ancient practices like shamanism, when before I thought of shaman as simple primitive people who talk to spirits and ghosts.

As a kid I loathed mathematics, numbers were boring, repetitive and solid.. not like words, language and sounds, you could play around with them and even invent new sounds and words. Now I see mathematics as the universal language.. the solid constant language and thats down to seeing impossibe geometric structures like living maths. Now I find myself obsessed by hypercubes and other mathimatical shapes.

My knowledge of plants and their fancy latin names even surprizes me

Its occured to me that I've learned way more indirectly from getting into DMT than DMT itself has taught me. Now the question is.. would I have learned all this anyway?

I suppose you could apply this to anything though, not just DMT, but I feel I have bettered myself since walking down this path.

Does anyone else feel this way? is there anything you have learned that you dont think you would have otherwise?

What I have learned most from DMT, and all psychedelics, is just how much I do not know....and cannot know.

They broke my attachment with absolutes and removed my desire for full satisfaction as a destination...finding the water to where I would "never thirst again."
I learned to enjoy thirsting....and learned to trust that though I will never be satiated, the wonder will never cease. And I'm okay with that.

I might have discovered this otherwise, but as a tool, psychedelics are undeniably powerful. They have the ability to break down any and all preconceived ideas of reality...a way of removing yourself from your own mind. This may be possible without, but it is the path I took, and I am eternally grateful.

Secondary knowledge that I wouldn't have otherwise had... what few scraps of anything chemistry-related that my mind can absorb.

I've learned DIRECTLY that everything is sentient and interconnected.

Sounds simple, but it's really... really... huge.

If you could experience the sentience of your body, would you harm it? If you could experience the sentience of the forest, would you harm it? And what was lifestyle like previous to DMT?

I've also learned how to BREATHE!! I breathe properly now.

I learned how to stand on my head (and how to become more fluid in body).

I've learned how to manage emotional stress in completely different ways.

I've learned how to forgive... myself, especially.

And I learned there is a white monkey living in my left ear.

It's all so important. Direct knowledge has also lead to indirect findings... all so... interconnected!!

Oh my, this too, without a doubt!
I had no clue how huge an impact breathing has on ones state of mind.

It may have just been where I was in my life, but DMT especially has given me such a greater respect for my own body/all living things.
I wasn't a huge meat eater, but I would have never imagined becoming a vegetarian or meditating or doing yoga.
Not doing these things now would feel nothing short of betrayal, for whatever reason.

I feel like I've gone full circle in terms of what the actual experience offers. I ponder the same questions now as I did before.. "where did it all come from? where is it all going?" Its a perfect analogy for life itself, it all dawns on me that all this we are confronted with each day is much stranger than DMT could ever be... not taking anything away from the experience, I mean fuck! its strange.
Maybe I got so caught up in the whole whirl wind of colours that I forgot what really blew my mind... in the end I found myself exactly where I was to begin with, only now I'm better equiped to deal with it. All the ideoligys I've instiled within myself that made me better came from all of you and the people around me, DMT was just the catalyst that set the wheels in motion.

I just feel as if I'm set up for the rest of lifes journey now

oh and I've also learned that somewhere inside my head there resides a full purple and blue velvet clad samba band.. and they are really good!

I realise this went completely sideways from what the OP was about hehe.

I think psychedelics in general can change awareness. By using psychedelics one become easily aware of underlying patterns, that one would possibly (probably) not see and question if one had not used psychedelics. I too think psychedelics serve as a catalyst. To gain awarness and thereby extra knowledge. Psychedelics seem to speed things up.