Greetings psychonauts!
Advance apologies for the wall-of-text! I am combining my intro with a reported first experience of SWIM.I have always been interested in altered states of consciousness, dreams, the origins of spirituality and its causes or effects in the human brain.
I consider myself highly rational, logical and have a great deal of respect for and interest in most fields of scientific inquiry. The following account and all subsequent posts on the matter are the experiences of Someone Who Is not Me, but has relayed them to me in painstaking detail.
A first time smoked DMT account follows:
First some background...Years ago SWIM was offered the opportunity to participate in an Ayahuasca ceremony. He did his research beforehand, became intrigued and quite excited to probe the depths of this world he'd read of. Sadly, the ceremony was delayed, and when it actually took place, he was out of town, missing that opportunity.
Years passed and SWIM didn't give it too much more thought, outside of occasionally hearing references to it. One day, while out at a social event, an inebriated friend blurted out that a mutual friend, who was present, had and used DMT. SWIM erupted with barely contained excitement and curiosity. Really? Is this a joke? And you have some now?
SWIM and his friends immediately made their way to this persons home, where SWIM was invited to partake of freebase DMT via a GVG+torch. He would be the only traveler this evening.
Excited, nervous, partly frightened, SWIM accepted, and listened to the warnings and instruction of his guides.
The torch was lit, the GVG loaded and SWIM began to take his dose, tho there was apparently some problem with vaporization as the first hit contained virtually no vapor.
The 2nd a little more, and the 3rd was a "real hit" with a plum of, too rapidly, exhaled vapor. The guides were pushing SWIM to take another hit to ensure a breakthrough.
However...they had already begun to dissolve, the buzzing/hum came and he refused, thinking he already had plenty. It was at this point he started to feel some extreme fear and anxiety. He laid back on the bed and relaxed. The guides said some words of peace and encouragement, shut off the lights and left him completely alone in the room.
Closing his eyes, he immediately noticed some colored fog which appeared to be above him, like a storm of rainbows, some geometric patterns, the thrumming tone of the so-called "carrier wave" and a sense of forward movement. The fear and thoughts of death loomed large. All the visuals seemed muted tho, as if viewed through dark sunglasses.
He imagined himself dying there in his new friends guest bed. Soon he could no longer feel his breathing or his heartbeat which he'd been carefully conscious of maintaining. He felt as if his sould or mind had been ripped from his body. He was certain now that he'd quietly died, and after the initial panic subsided he noticed..."hey...but I'm still here. So there is an afterlife and this is it!?" and a wave of acceptance and calm washed over him. He felt a presence that he could not see or hear, telepathically reassuring him that everything would be alright. That he was welcome here. He seemed to come upon a...membrane of sorts. At this point his experience began to wind down.
He opened his eyes in the blackened room and even the tiniest points of light were as bright as a flood light. patterns and shapes shifted on the walls. He lie there for a moment, reeling. He realized, overjoyed, that he'd made it back "alive". Then out of the corner of his eye, he spotted furtive movement. A small & somehow familiar black silhouette cut through the patterns of light and moved with obvious life and intent. Despite the ominous description, he felt no fear of this being at all. In fact, he felt an extreme comfort, as if this was here to welcome him back. He then realized the outline was distinctly feline. Like a panther. He moved for the first time and noticed a new phenomena. Time displacement. One moment seemed to occur both before and after the next, with time itself skipping about like a badly compressed movie on the internet. He moved down off the bed and touched the "specter". It was then that he realized....it was his friends cat who'd been accidentally locked in the room with him.
Thankfully the cat was incredibly friendly and he spent a moment coming down back to earth in the company of a loving little animal before rejoining his friends outside and sharing his experience with them, just as he did with me, and I now do with you.
Thanks for reading this far, and I hope to make positive contributions to this community moving forward.
Stay safe, stay sane!