So I have come in contact with someone who leads regular DMT ceremonies with song. I don't want to give out too much information, but I have been informed that he is not full of shit and was trained in giving ceremonies down in South America. I trust my friend who has done both ceremonies in South America and ceremonies with him. He confirms that he is the real deal. I am going to give you a little background first and then go into my question.

My initial psychedelic consumption all began many years ago back in high school. It was just some "acid" which looking back on it was weak compared to future lsd I would consume, but got the seed of exploring consciousness planted. When I was about nineteen I began to explore psychedelics much deeper. I finally got a hold of some quality LSD and my roommate at the time who was a freaking genius was extracting DMT and mescaline. I ended up tripping too often and felt that my abuse had been due to a shift in intention. What started out as exploration and growth shifted to aversion and recreational use. I also was not ingesting them with people I felt were in the same place I was with their use and so I decided to hang up the phone. Even before my psychedelic binge I had on and off regular mindfulness meditation practice. Specifically Vipassana with a touch of Zen. It has been many months since my binge and about 4 or 5 since my last trip or hit of weed for what that is worth. I found weed was holding me back in my growth with meditation. My meditation practice has since become my path towards spiritual growth. I practice at least 30 minutes to 2 and a half hours a day. I completed a 10 day retreat(not Goenka) and have seen a SIGNIFICANT amount of internal change, as well as my external situations changing for the better without much effort from myself. It just has been working out that way.

My internal change is pretty amazing, I use to take all my emotions and thoughts very personally. I thought I was them! Slowly as my sense of self was being deconstructed, there was less of a "me" to be effected by the sensations. The more that perspective manifested, the more sensations were just sensations and I could just allow them to arise and pass as just sensations instead of taking them so personally. This has been extremely liberating. When I started this path I promised myself my days of RECREATIONAL use were over. The only way I would ever trip is if a proper ceremony presented itself and I was not going to go out seeking it. It was going to come to me. Well, it has presented itself and the calling inside has not died, but I have some concerns. I am concerned that maybe this ceremony might effect the results that have yielded itself from daily vipassana practice. I am also wondering if the effects yielded by the ceremony will aid me in my spiritual growth anymore than what I am already doing. Lastly I am wondering if there is anyone who could possibly shine some light on what I have said. If you have been a regular vipassana or mindfulness practioner and if a breakthrough has aided you in your practice. Mainly it is about working with what is, so trying to induce an event seems almost counter-productive given the criteria of what mindfulness is about, but my teacher shinzen encourages people to mix spiritual practices and create their own path and that is what I do. I tend to have a lot of "tripped out" experiences that yield insight without psychedelics anyways so my aspirations with other psychedelics are slim. In my time with DMT I never allowed myself to break through since it didn't feel right or respectful given the environment and people I was ingesting it with. I feel that a breakthrough experienced with the right intentions and proper environment may make me a little more sensitive and allow me to dive deeper into some of those experiences that come up naturally. Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Thank you :-)

I can't say much about vipassana Pengy. But I am mildly familiar with Zen (Alan Watts and Echart Tolle) and I can deffinately vouch for the efficacy of shamanic healing techniques. They work very well in my case. If you really put in the effort and take the time to learn a lot about it as well as do some practices outside of an entheogenic context, you will be rewarded. I have a great .pdf on some of these techniques. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to get it on here or even how. I got it somewhere off the net for free though I bet you could find it. Its called "Walking between Worlds: Techniques of Modern Shamanism" Surprisingly, most of them are 'mindfulness' excercies but arent advertised as such. Also, "Plant Spirit Shamanism: Traditional Techniques for Healing the Soul" is a very informative, coauthored book that covers a lot of the basics.

How much time and energy you put into into preparing (dieting, paying respects to your ancestors and the plants your using, forming a relationship with the plant) will directly affet how rewarding the experience will be. It has the potential to be one of the most rewarding experiences of your life. Tripping and exploring consciousness is one thing, but taking these subtances in a traditional healing context is a whole different story. I'm sure it will serve as another healing technique that will continue to help you grow and develop into the ever present moment.

Is this a smoking ceremony or more traditional ayahuasca session?

You may want to check out an ayahuasca forum as well for more sources of info. I'm no expert, and the drinkers here are a minority I think. Anyways they tend to be more Shamanism-oriented which I think is what you're looking for.

I wish you the best in your efforts!

AD

EDIT: The DMT in my opinion wont heal you. The combination of plants and the shamanic techniques are what really make the difference. Theres also a great video called Metamorphosis produced by the Blue Rhino center for shamanism.

This is what I was thinking as well. It is a smoking ceremony which is what makes me second guess participating in it. I am not really interested in DMT to trip. I look at the tripping aspect as an added bonus, a fascinating aspect that comes along with the healing and growing aspects of it. Thanks for your input.



Do you have any websites you would suggest? I have not investigated any ayauasca forums specifically.

ayahuasca.com

Sounds like ayahuasca is what you are looking for more than smoked DMT.

So I realize this is over a year after you originally posted the question, but I stumbled upon this page in my online search of people like me who have gone from a DMT experience to a consistent meditation practice and thought I'd share my own bit.

I recall having read in this thread someone saying they are leery of smokeable DMT and its healing effects as opposed to the tea. I can 100% attest to the effectiveness of smokeable DMT.
For years my lifestyle was anything but spiritual. I was a thief and a drug addict.
In my earlier teens, before getting into really hard drugs, I did a lot of psychadellics...mainly mushrooms and acid. It always represented for me a wondrous aspect of human experience but at the time I had no idea how deep one could go down that road and how it could ultimately lead to spiritual healing.
Anyway, so after taking a hard turn from experimental and recreational use of psychadellics and other relatively harmless drugs like pot to the use of harder drugs, it became clear to me how much I was destroying myself both physically and psychologically so I began to really delve deep into alternative medicine. Naturally having already had experience and interest with psychadellics, and having some friends that have a lot of resources, I found myself with the opportunity to smoke DMT...I'll skip the page long detailed description of the DMT experience and how utterly breathtaking it was because I'm sure by this point you've gone ahead with your ceremony or whatever. In case you haven't, or for those that read this post in the future, I would like to offer my humble opinion as someone who has smoked DMT for healing purposes. In my opinion, it does NOT need to be used ceremonially in the jungles of the Amazon...Yes, it is better to do it in that type of setting as opposed to your bedroom..But the transcendental nature of DMT makes the setting rather irrelevant. To be specific about my healing experience, I smoked it (and broke through) on the bench of a dugout of an empty baseball field...Not the ideal place but tranquil enough to not in any way negatively affect my experience. I really can't see you going wrong in terms of setting unless you blast off on the couch at a huge house party...I think anyone considering doing DMT for healing purposes is not stupid enough to do that.
Another point I would like to make, again, in my humble opinion, is that it does not need to be consumed as ayahuasca. For me, my first experience with smoking DMT which was not even a break through was enough to relieve me of some severe psychological afflictions. It instilled me with such a sense of humility and wonder and inquisitiveness about the nature of the world and the human condition that eventually I had to smoke it again in order to break through. And what I can say is that it is by far the best decision I ever made. From the minute I came down from that breakthrough trip onward, I have not touched any drugs and my life has improved tenfold. To see how influential a ten to fifteen minute trip can be in spiritual healing is utterly baffling. I can't imagine the intensity and increased effects of the two or three hour long ayahuasca trip! (Want to be clear I am not saying smoking is the same exact experience as drinking the tea, but for healing purposes it is often times just as effective!)Aside from the absolutely breathtaking hallucinations which in and of themselves are miraculous healing tools, the emotions that often accompany these hallucinations is like nothing I had ever before experienced. It redefines your understanding of the word "love" and "wonder" and "peace". Totally life changing.
What I began to realize was that the change in my personality and view of the world that came about as a result of this experience wasn't in any way forged or inauthentic. Or, in other words, these realizations of love and peace and wonder and awe and connection with the world were always present in me, but were heavily masked by drug abuse, depression, and an array of social conditionings which made me completely blind to my true and genuine nature of being.
So, the relevance of all of that is that it dawned on me that since this profound self realization was something that was inevitably going to happen and wasn't just artificially created by the DMT experience, DMT was therefore an extremely effective catalyst for a spiritual awakening, for lack of a better term. (The term "Spiritual Awakening" always seemed a little taboo to me, I didn't really understand what it meant and associated the word "spiritual" with Christianity and the believe in God which was not my cup of tea). But once I experienced this spiritual awakening I knew exactly how true and profound it was in my life. It literally changed my world view and motivation in life a full 180 degrees. The awakening brought about a strong interest in eastern religions, as well as other alternative healing/traditional medicine practices, and eventually I ended up at Buddhism and meditation and ever since then I have been happily practicing meditation in the pursuit of a purer form of consciousness or further spiritual realization. ( I have no desire to do DMT again unless I use it with someone else to help them heal. I feel it has done all for me that it can do. Even though it changed my life in such a great way, a spiritual awakening brought about by a drug is nothing more and nothing less. To use the drug again in an attempt to attain further wisdom or realization or to simply experience the captivating amazingness of the DMT spirit realm would be an abuse of its power and would also be quite hazardous to my state of mind. I feel that the profundity and literally hypnotizing power of DMT should not be treated casually. Again, for those that may some day read this and haven't tried it, it is not for the faint of heart. This is not a substance for recreational use like weed is and it would be a supreme degradation of its sacred nature if it were used in such a way...not to mention it is, in my opinion, at least in the beginning, one of the most freighting experiences one can have in life. In the process of blasting off or breaking through the threshold to the spirit realm or whatever terminology you want to use for that initial part of the DMT trip, I thought I was dying...and I handled all psychadellics and other drugs pretty damned well up until that point. Point being, use DMT with the right intention and be prepared for the world as you know it to be turned upside down and catapulted a jillion lightyears into outer space and then brought back to earth within a span of fifteen minutes)

So I guess I'm explaining all this to see if anyone else has had a similar experience/change in lifestyle and all that stuff.. Has anyone else experienced a spiritual awakening as a result of the use of DMT?
Also, has that spiritual awakening led you to meditation? Has anyone else found such fulfillment in meditation as a method of embodying the profound life changes that DMT can provoke? If so, how is it going for you?

I wish you the best in your spiritual search and/or experiences with DMT and its healing powers to all that come across this post.

Hasta luego!