There are many ways to get around the pre-flight anxiety that many if not most DMT users experience prior to blasting off. Below are some of my techniques for both getting over the hump and then comfortably working through the DMT data without drowning in it. The centerpiece of all these techniques would probably be "Holding onto the last hit to tune your experience."

All mechanisms need a motivating factor for them to continue operations. You need to want this experience to work. Approaching this method with the intent of having a bummer is just counterintuitive, but of course I suppose it's possible. There can be doubt (more on that below,) but just be mindful of it and you’ll be just fine. Is one hand feeding the other? Certainly. You do not need to do this, but if you are currently reading this and experiencing trouble with your nerves when breaking through due to preflight anxiety, these steps will help you manage them.

Centering yourself is huge. I'm not including it in my steps below, as everyone has their own way they center themselves, but the most common is meditation. I try to work on mindfulness for a minimum of half of the time I expect to be in a trance (i.e. freebase DMT should be preceded by 7-15 minutes meditation, at a minimum.) If you find yourself having trouble with keeping your mind a tabula rasa, meditate on the three hyperspace navigation techniques I've detailed below.

You have two phenomenons you’re going to need to meditate on immediately prior to, and outside of the ceremony, and to hold deep sacredness for:

(1) To be mindful of the pace, and when you choose to exhale your last hit. Similar to tuning the strings on a guitar, consider plucking the string as your final (probably third,) biggest inhalation yet. Once the string is plucked a guitarist twists the tuning peg to dial in where he wants the string to resonate. Hold in your hit, and get a feel for the pace. Sometimes you see people so startled they blow the last hit right out - this is not what we want to do.Hold in the last hit, and feel the pacing of hyperspace. If you've done it correctly, you should be traveling through S.T.U.N. Runner tunnels pretty rapidly, but you should also be able to notice the pace accelerating. Once you're comfortable with the trajectory and pacing, exhale your hit and comfortably float down the tryptamine river.

(2) The intersecting points on the meridians will be your guide to see your way around. When you're first dumped into hyperspace, or just prior, there can be a sense of confusion associated with not knowing how to navigate through the looking glass. Here's a tip to embed deeply in your brain, because you're going to want it to be the first thing you remember once you've exhaled (or are about to exhale) that last giant hit you outdid yourself with. I'm sure everyone here is familiar with the Indra's net / grid / matrices that seem to twist and bend all while defining the parameters of hyperspace. Spend less time oggling those elves and more time getting a handle on these meridians; this is a lot like feeling your way around in the dark. Once you have located intersecting points on these patterns, reach for them, dive into them, and explore them. You will use these to navigate hyperspace (and I promise, if your intention is behind it, this should work for you as well!) This might be one of the more difficult notions to articuate, but there's a very specific pressure towards the front of your head when you're in the trance state. This is the rudder directing the yacht at sea, focus your navigation through this point in your skull... so now that you have been given proper coordinates try to steer clear of those choppy waters, sailor!

(3) You are seeking to remember 3 things. Remember quite deeply, and quite personally, and see your way to articulate what you recall and have an intense, unique bond with these three items. This is the most important element to navigating the trip successfully - as it is going to provide you with the access points that you need to resolve the data dump you're experiencing. So much content is delivered in such a short amount of time, and in such a cryptic, archetypal manner, that making sense of it, hell, even remembering it can prove to be a challenge. If you use this mnemonic device of remembering three things that stand out to you during your journey, this will create little memory clusters in your brain that make it easier to access what might at the time seem like senseless / absurd content. So pick three things; the neon brick wall, Poseidon, and the Jack of clubs...whatever you see, latch onto it and try to make peace with it and hold onto it and remember it like you've never remembered before. Shamans of the Amazon consider even a single Ally as an Ally for life, and to be considered a miracle. Regardless of your degree of skepticism, recalling three things quite vividly will aid in bringing more of your trip back to Earth and aid in integration. This vision can quite literally be the difference between Heaven and Hell, so whatever it is that you choose to remember, keep it close to the heart; keep it sacred. Also, even if it's verging on the woo-woo, if your ally Poseidon has your back next time you go into hyperspace, that resolves some pre-flight anxiety right there, now doesn't it?

And if things begin to feel dark or overwhelming just keep reminding yourself;

The experience is going to escalate at a rapid pace - go with it. Trying to stand your ground at the peak of Niagara Falls is going to prove more difficult than riding the water's current. You're here to watch and learn, not to exert your will.

“Don’t be so quick to call this a bad trip. Just stay with it for a bit, take a look at it." Take a deep breath. Are you experiencing tension or anxiety? Why is that? Ask out loud, "Why am I experiencing fear?" or "Show me love instead." Or say nothing at all. Size things up -
“Follow it back to the root." What is causing that negative entity to drip fungal plasma into your soul? Ask the entity. There's a reason you're seeing what you're seeing right now, and if you can get to the root of it, you're well on your way to total integration.

There are plenty of navigation mechanisms. These are just some of mine. The most important navigation mechanism if you do start to feel uneasy is to understand what direction you need to drive forward in. A lot of times people are seeking out. (“I want out of the experience, I want to be out of my body, get me out of this…”) This is a profound transgression against the directions of the grain. You do not go out, you go through. Through is present. In the Inferno you can't escape Hell from the sides, you need to go right through the whole of it. Hyperspace can be like Dante's vision in this context.

And finally, the most tried and true technique if the darkness really has begun swallowing you whole? This is of critical importance to be remembered if you find yourself in the worst of all potential scenarios; The Dreaded Hyperslap. Any anxiety after you blast off or at any time during the journey can be lowered by humming deep and long, getting vibrations from the throat, and it feels quite amazing seeing its efficacy in action. Terence McKenna advocated for singing, but when I'm petrified the last thing I want to do is try and figure out what song I know the words to, and this deep, resonant hum will do the job just as well.

Sorry if this seems less than cohesive, but I thought it only fair to share some of my techniques for properly working in a trance state. If you have very specific techniques for comfortably working your way through hyperspace, by all means share them below.

In keeping with good practice, I don't wish to suggest that I'd invented any of these ideas or techniques. These are a decoupage of practices that work for me, which I learned via small nuggets of wisdom from the like of D.M. Turner, Dale Pendell, Kathleen Harrison, Robert Anton Wilson, Nick Sand, Terence McKenna, Keeper Trout, the Nexus, and of course lots of tryptamines shared between myself, my friends, and the Others.

These are some great suggestions here. I love the guitar tuning analogy.



I have two things to add in terms of pacing. Sometimes 2 hits are more effective than 3 equally-sized hits. Timing can play a big role. You've got this narrow time-window in which to inhale all the DMT. After that window closes (which isn't always perceptually clear), smoking DMT doesn't really usually do all too much. It's kind of like a sling-shot; The window of time you have is the time it takes you to draw back and release the shot. After you've done so, drawing back the sling again isn't really going to make that mid-air shot go any further or faster. Not getting to hyperspace fast enough can muddy up what would have otherwise been a clear take-off.



To add onto this, I find it in my best interest to align with the meridians/multidimensional panorama. As you say, it's hard to explain, but somehow I manage to align my perspective and physical self with hyperspace. The reason for achieving this alignment is twofold. The geometries that were successfully aligned will glow neon or "hypercolors." This additional energy not only makes them seem more beautiful, but appears to give the things the power necessary to do the amazing things they do, and then some. The other part to this is that proper alignment will increase the likelihood that the experience is happening to you as much as possible. In other words, if the experience is severely misaligned from my perspective, it appears that the events are not happening to me, but rather around me. I don't find this to be satisfactory or engaging in any way. It's like the multidimensional stuff is still there, but I have no connection to it. Even in the event of good initial alignment, something sudden like an abrupt change in music, the door slamming, a dog barking, the phone ringing, etc...can derail the experience in a very physical and literal manner.



Couldn't agree more. When I see something I want to remember, I direct all my faculties to do so. I think it's a brilliant idea you have to go in looking for three things to remember. Often so many things can happen, and we get greedy and want to unrealistically remember it all, but limiting yourself to looking for three things can be a much more manageable task, and you're more likely to be able to bring back three details you remember. Even if you come back with one great thing you remember, that can be better than many of those times when you cannot remember a single thing that happened.

Also, to add one more tip about the pacing of inhalations: I always feel tense for hours sometimes before an experience, and it is only relieved once that hit is in my lungs. Once it is, I have this mindset like, "ok, we're on our way. There's no sense in trying to turn back now. A very real physiological reaction I have is that the first hit in particular can be a bit harsh, but I find that once it is in my lungs for a few seconds, my lungs, shoulders and just whole body relax, and I can hold in the hit as if holding a normal breath without the harshness or anxiety. The second hit usually goes down easier.

I get this all of the time. Sometimes I'll even get my nerves wrapped up into such a tizzy I think it best to ease my way into hyperspace, with a light sub-breakthrough dose to prime myself for the real deal. Before I've even exhaled that first hit, as soon as the initial physical effects begin to make themselves known, I'll almost always get very very comfortable and think "Ahhh, forget that let's just go all the way."

Hey some great techniques listed there UgraKarma!

I do also agree, I think double dosing is often a great way in. I take a smaller dose with hands shaking and heart racing then somewhere round about 30-60 mins later take a larger dose. After the first dose I'm back feeling ecstatic about the experience and feel I know what's going to hit me the next time. Second time round I'm actually looking forward to getting back there with minimal nerves.

Another technique I'd add is to simply bombard the experience with love as you first enter. Somehow the dmt gives you the power to blast love at the situation and let the ego be blown out the way in the process. If you're still in the "marigold" at this stage at least for me I've seen the fractals go from dark ominous colors through to bright pinks and yellows as they pick up on the positive feelings.

Happy flights everyone