Having experienced mimosa-huasca on two occasions now, it's been striking to lose touch with reality and have to rediscover oneself. From what I know about the mechanism of action of DMT in the human brain, it occurs to me that the frontal lobe (or conscious mind) is inactive whenever DMT is naturally released or occurring in its highest serum concentrations. The conscious mind is deactivated or switched off for these natural DMT experiences. Yet when exogenous DMT enters the body during consciousness, complete depersonalization can occur because, well, you shouldn't be conscious. If indeed DMT is released during REM sleep, then what happens is effectively a waking dream. When I've come out of each of my trips, I've had to convince myself that everything is real, and I figure what's happening is I'm trying to wake up when in reality I'm awake, which is a complete mindf*ck and could be severely traumatic. How does one awake from a waking state? It's the paradox of the (my) experience that makes it so fascinating. I imagine it's something like the opposite of a lucid dream, which I've never personally experienced.

actually that's wrong,I read a study that says during dmt experiences the frontal lobe is more active than it normally is.Also there is no data to prove that dmt is released during REM,thats all rumors and speculations.But your theory is quiet good,I myself believe that some parts of the brain work more and some less,resulting in a total change of the view of reality.All those barriers we have set up since our birth are lifted,and the brain can work in an alternative way thus the alternative form of consciousness.

You're right on both accounts. I haven't been able to confirm the REM sleep theory, but I do read of it often. I'm also five chapters into The Spirit Molecule, and I agree from the reading that the frontal lobe is active during DMT experiences, but similar to a dreaming state there may be electrical activity yet one is not necessarily conscious during the experience. I'm trying to explain the depersonalization that I've experienced to this point, just trying to make sense of everything. During my trips I tried so hard to keep in touch with my sense of self, as though I were having an out-of-body experiencing all the while in-my-body. I think that being acutely aware that I'm tripping is the culprit. If I weren't conscious, I wouldn't have any sort of recall, and nothing would seem out of the ordinary. The experience would be unremarkable and hardly profound. My other theory is that orally administered DMT should not be psychoactive, so when taken in combination with an MAOI things start to get weird. DMT's lifespan in the body is normally short-lived and occurs in a short yet powerful burst. Oral administration is the slowest route, so having a prolonged DMT experience plays heavily upon the psyche. After the peak of the trip, the effects of DMT are tamed and much more mild, so there is a period in which the conscious mind has recovered its bearings and reclaimed control but DMT is still in the system and this is when depersonalization occurs, because low serum lvl's of DMT is inconsistent with the chemicals mechanism of action. I'm refining my ideas but more than anything else I just enjoy contemplating it and strive to learn more.

While it's most likely an interesting book to read, watching the documentary that's based on the book was excruciating because it was riddled with wrong information and subjective things reported as facts. Please take that book with a grain of salt and verify the assumptions against reliable peer-reviewed scientific research.

Yeah it's unfortunate how the most famous DMT book(or at least the movie about it) presents peoples own views as facts.

Well you can't really learn,only speculate.Unless some serious scientific research is done on the subject (which unfortunately wont happen in the near future imo) all we can do is make theories as you stated before.The only thing we do know is to affects your brain and makes it work in different ways than it normally works.I really do hope though that in the near future someone will take the properties of psychedelics as treatments for psychological issues as well as tools for learning and expanding your mind seriously,and some research will be done.But as I said,in the materialistic world we live in such things wouldn't be accepted,because finding happiness within yourself and not on material possessions will cost many companies money,becoming understanding and not supportive to crimes against humanity like war will cost governments money etc etc...So the only thing that might be done is some small scale research funded by privateers like the current research on psilocybin