I still have yet to experience this amazing substance on a recreational/learning level (waiting for promotion ) but what lead you to try DMT? I almost feel like the opportunity builds itself up only to those who truly deserve the enlightenment.

Me and my girlfriend did shrooms once and ever since that day I've become obsessed with opening my mind, thinking more positively and comprehending my life problems on a more comparative scale, giving me a good ego check.

My mother died a few years back when I was 19 and my little sister and I began communicating with her through our dreams. Even when she was alive we almost had a telepathic relationship. (EX: If she was extremely nervous, I'd get shaking fits no matter how far apart we were.) But for the past year and a half, I haven't had a single dream about her and her usual over-looking presence has completely diminished. Some may say it's just acceptance of death, but with what's occurred to both me and my girlfriend while we lived in my mother's house, I don't think so.

I know DMT usually isn't used in this sense, but I believe my future experiences will one day ultimately grow me and my mother's connection again. Among other reasons of course, but this being the bigger reason.

So what made you personally interested?

I can't begin to tell you how disgusting I find that sentiment to be. Just the idea that DMT is an enlightening experience seems very problematic to me. I have seen dozens try it and have met many others who have tried it as well. In my opinion and experience by no means are DMT users (myself included) enlightened by DMT in any way that I can tell. It doesn't make them better or worse, smarter or dumber. It can be good for them, help them have personal insights etc, but it can also be bad for them and cause them to be deluded and misled.

I've seen people who use it have all the same problems as those who don't, including mental and behavioral issues. I've seen people use it and think they were enlightened somehow, but still be the exact same person in every meaningful way except for their self opinion, somehow they feel like the achieved something by taking DMT, but they still had all the same problems we all tend to face.

I will however share why I wanted to try DMT; because I enjoy psychedelics.
I like them.

I think you can have moments of "enlightenment" with psychedelics..whatever that term even really refers too..I am still not sure. It is pretty ambiguous the way it thrown around. Although one moment is just that..one moment. What matters in this context is what you do with the moments that come next.

A moment of realization of that sort can put someone on a path where they activly work towards integration of that realization into their daily life, so that they can try to share a piece of it with the greater culture etc..not everyone who takes psychedelics does much with the realizations they may or may not have. An ongoing dialogue with psychedelics with conscious intent to integrate your realizations to constantly be a newer person free from rigid systems of mental dogma is probly the closest thing I can imagine to "enlightenment" that I could strive towards I guess..

I also find the idea that only certain people deserve this to be a pretty ego driven one.

I discovered DMT because I wanted to have a better control of my astral projections. After 10 years trying, I could only randomly get "there". After learning about ayahuasca and partaking some ceremonies, I got much more than I asked for..

The enlightment issue.. it may be really hard to be objective, even impossible. What is it about? Is it to be a better person? What is it to be good or bad? Is it to boast about it? Is it to not boast about it? IMO psychadelics do something very obvious.. it enhances what we already are. What I want to say is, if a person is christian, he will reinforce that. If a person is scientific, he will see the world as such. If he is hindu, more of that. If he is taoist, he will filter the "fountain" thru that believe system, and so on.. And you bet, that if a atheist takes DMT, after some years, he will refer to it as "just a nice dream". (Dr. Strassmann made an experiment with that, to see if a DMT experience would change somehow a person)..

So for me, a person that have somehow touched enlightment, is just being tranparent of what he already is. Be it percieved by others being bad or good, it doesn't really matter (for the enlightent at least, i guess) but then again, this is me trying to be objective..

I love altered states of the mind, it is something that humans do

I just became interested because i enjoy mind altering experiences.

I also believe that the only way to really know what something is like, you have to try it for yourself. And that there is something to be learned from every experience.

And in my opinion being enlightened happens when idea's somehow connect to form a bigger picture. This can happen on psychedelics or while your just walking down the street.

Ive always been interested in psychedelics since first trying shrooms in my younger years. In 2009 i heard about the legal psychedelic salvia and became instantly intrigued after watching youtube videos of salvia experiences.

I started researching salvia and noticed a lot of people talking about how dmt is better than salvia. I had never heard of dmt so i started researching and came across the nexus and the rest is history

In 2007 I was introduced to DMt through my friends older brother who was a meth head (although he was a very cool person). He asked if I had ever heard of DMT, explaining to me that it was what's released when you die, etc, etc. That statement alone had made me extremely nervous.

I remember laying in his apartment, he whips out a little zip bag of white/yellow powder. He told me to lay back on his couch, while he loaded up his chillum with cigarette ash, and sprinkled the DMT on top. He held it in my mouth for me and lit it for me, as all I had to do was inhale. I remember taking one huge drag...and everything started to vibrate and shift dimensions. He asked if I wanted another and I motioned "yes". He carefully held the lighter over the chillum while I gently took my drag. As soon as I took it in, he retreated to his seat. The lighting was ambient. Trance blasting from the stereo system. He smile stretched until it broke apart into a multi-dimensional fractal that started to consume the whole room. The waves from the stereo began to crystalize out into open air fractal patterns. An intense buzzing and ripping through the top of my head. (that was the only time that that intense buzzing/ripping happened) I was surrounded by this force that broken itself into many seperate entities that immeditely began showing me the process of creation, from ethereal to cell to a full form being. Complete love and comfort. I'll never forget that night...

That night changed the course of my life forever. I remember running upstairs to all my friends and telling them what had just happened to me. Telling them that EVERYTHING IS OK..EVERYTHING IS ALRIGHT! I was bursting with ecstacy...bursting with love....something that far surpassed the typical definition of happiness.

In 08 I found the nexus, started reading the teks and did my first A/B extraction resulting in white crystals. From that point on....welll....you guys know the rest.

In regards to enlightenment, I'm with jamie in the sense that I believe that it's a momentary state of being. It's that wordless nirvanic orgasmic release, momentarily transcending the ego. It's being fully present in the moment, as the moment. That's my take on it anyway.

In regards to the OP, my roommate had asked me if I ever heard of DMT. When I said no, he introduced me to the Joe Rogan rant on it which caught my interest, but it was probably the briefest of descriptions on Wikipedia at the time (it's been well-updated since) that really caught my interest with language like "experiencing multiple realities simultaneously", "recoloring of the world" (which I'm not sure if I experience lol), "geometric patterns of light" and the notion that it might have something to do with when you die. Terence McKenna's colorful descriptions of the self-dribbling basketball transforming machine elves made me seek all the harder, and after reading Strassman's "The Spirit Molecule", I just knew I had to try it no matter what. Never would have guessed I would be so lucky with the relationship I have with DMT today and the plethora of outstanding experiences and life enrichment with which it has provided me.

Thats a little extrme don"t you think? If enlightenment works for you OP , fairplay. I sort of see it as being radiantly confused, but horses for courses.
I had my interest peeked in the early 90s when everyone was talking about some DMT evangelist called Terrence Mckenna. I heard a record with a sample of him going on about mega-tonnages of psychedelics and i thought "ooh that sounds interesting". It took me another 5 years to procure some (i"ll never forget that night,it was the same night princess Diana carked it and the night i became more enlightened/radiantly confused).
Another 15 years passed , i became more settled in my housing and mental situation and i decided to return and go deeper.

syd barretts music is what made me wanna try dmt for the first time . very glad i did too, although i personally still find psilocybin to be much more useful and enlightening than dmt after much expirience with both. And as too what some others are saying here about enlightenment, i have to disagree. I have seen that if taken in the right setting with the right intent psychedelics are always enlightening no matter who uses them. how that enlightenment manifests is different for everyone. I know for me that after smoking dmt my life was never the same and i had a clearer perspective about everything i encountered afterward. after smoking dmt i wake up everyday and thank the universe for everything i know and every blessing i have, that is my enlightenment.

The one thing i recommend for your first time is that your very comfortable and prefferably alone, or with 1 or 2 people who you can trust not to exude any sort of vibes onto your experience. that way you will gain the most information from your experience.

I am curious Albert...What exactly do you think 'Enlightenment is...?'
...if not a radical shift in self opinion and view of the physical world...

(not getting at you here...just asking...)

apologies for the derail...

Oh man, you is openin" up a whole, big can o whoopass with a question like that!!! I like it!!

I got interested after years of work with the mushroom, and years of study on all things of higher consciousness. I didn't go into it lightly, of course. In fact I read up on it off and on for two years or so before getting my first kilo of root bark. I've found DMT can get me much further than any other of the plant teachers (well, shrooms with DMT is a whole new ball game, but I've only done that once). But DMT is not a means to an end, you will not become an ascended being with DMT alone, but DMT opens the initial door and leads those who pay attention to places right here on Earth and reveal things about themselves that otherwise would stay hidden. As the story goes: there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and what you say in the dark will be proclaimed in the light.

And a brief statement on "enlightenment": Enlightenment happens all the time, in many ways, but the trick is that you must remain grounded, living your life. You cannot stay enlightened while remaining in the flesh, for the flesh demands pain, ups and downs, ebbs and flows, good times and the perceived "bad" (your so-called enemies are your best friends, they make you strong; therefore, as a man wiser than I once said: Love your enemy--whether that be a person, a toothache, a firing from a job, a breakup with your true love; all serve to make you strong and evolve your spirit: you can either learn and grow, or remain spiteful about the so-called bad hand you think you've been dealt). And, of course, let us not forget that enlightenment is entirely subjective to the individual: a term as flexible as water. So, as Bruce Lee said: Be like water, friends.

I will answer first what I do not think it is:
an epiphany or insight or belief set or an idea

ideas are communicable, as are insights and concepts, if enlightenment were as simple as a set of beliefs or an ontological shift it would be widespread and abundant

If you would like more of a discussion about it, and to allow multiple beliefs about it to be shared then by all means begin a new thread and topic about just this and I will gladly participate.

Diamond Sutra, chapter 23.

ergo I do not see it as a radical shift in view of self, or other, because it is independent of that, meaning that a radical shift in view of self has nothing to do with it, nor can any concept of the sort.

Are there signs of enlightenment?
I think so.

I've always had a large interest in psychedelics. I'm yet to try any yet, due to the fact I don't really have a private, safe environment to try them. DMT initially sparked my interest when my friend mentioned watching The Spirit Molecule. I decided to watch it, then after I read the book. I hope someday I'll get the chance to actually try it, but until then I'll just soak up as much information I can about it.

I needed change, change of perspective, reconnect with domrant parts of myself, I needed something to spark my interest. I had used other psychedelics before and was considering taking a high dose of mushrooms or LSD (this was in a time of my life I hadn't taken any psychedelis for 3 years) but stumbled over a few dmt trip-reports in my investigations. I decided it was time for something new.

Terrance McKenna's famous trip report. It took a long time to get there.

While researching mushrooms and their pharmacology. DMT is a similar molecule to psilocyn. I am extremely intrigued by dmt, but am not fully sure that I am prepared to dose again. Compared to mushrooms the onset is so rapid that I can't get used to the enormous shift. I suppose no one can really get used to it, but they can handle it. With dmt I must meditate before use and be mentally ready and prepared for the un-preparable. Very high doses of mushrooms IME Can be very similar to a dmt experience, but I prefer it because it lasts longer. (I can't use MAOI on my medication)

Terrence McKenna's books, specifically "Food of the Gods" and "Archaic Revival', when they first came out

I needed answers. About what, I don't know. I just know that all my life I've been searching for something, and DMT triggered the process that allowed me to find it. For that I am eternally grateful. On enlightenment, I came to the conclusion that it just doesn't matter, because no one is able to know just what you're experiencing, except yourself. So even if you or I is enlightened, there would be no one to "prove" it, so to speak. It's a tricky thing to explain, but I hope you get my point. Anyway, that's just my take on it...