I smoked 5-MeO-DMT this afternoon and could write a book about the experience but I'll leave that for a another day.

What I noticed, when "coming back", was that my breathing was almost not noticeable - very slow, quiet and shallow. I came back to a total silent tranquility, no obvious sense of ego, no need to think or analyze, just perfect abiding in the moment.

I'm not sure if I should be worried about the very low level of respiration and maybe someone can advise. I'm wondering if I'd taken just a little bit more whether I would in fact have stopped breathing altogether or whether that's an unfounded concern. I would be more concerned if it weren't for the fact that this state on returning was very reminiscent of when I was much younger and spent a year or two doing many hours of meditation a day. There were times when I could go into one pointedness and breath seemed to go down to almost negligible rates.

I didn't have a sitter today as it's not always easy to get a suitable person to coincide with when I feel it to be the right time to smoke 5MEO. Apart from that I'm not sure if I want to be giving instructions on how to resuscitate me in that event - that's just going to freak out the couple of people I know who might sit for me.

I don't think anyone has ever died from smoking DMT or 5-meo due to cessation of breathing, but I have felt similarly on DMT before (though usually on the come up, after holding in the hit for a very long time). It never felt dangerous though. Can't say the same for 5-meo since I haven't tried it yet.

Take a look at this thread.

Based on the accounts linked, I’d say it’s quite possible the individuals involved may have died if they didn’t have sitters nearby able to resuscitate them.

I have not had any experiences with it that were cause for alarm. Physically I have never felt 5-MeO-DMT was any more dangerous than DMT, but I could be wrong. There are a lot more horror stories in circulation about MeO, but very few people who have actually worked with it.

I think the main issue for me with 5-MeO-DMT is the total complete loss of ego(beyond that of DMT) that can have a person doing really strange stuff, which can possibly be dangerous. You don't want to smoke this stuff on your third floor balcony, for instance.

I've posted this many times before, including in the above linked thread, in various iterations but my first 5meo exp was a pretty hefty over-dose of IV injected HCl (?) and the sensation of the cessation of heartbeat and subsequent evacuation of air from my lungs was overwhelmingly real. So much so that I actually had thought Id injected some unknown substance, fatally poisoning myself and had time to reflect on these events before being whisked up into a classic NDE.

I was alone, stupidly, and to this day do not know if these sensations were real or hallucination. In the depths of the void in my NDE, I encountered a "voice"- the same one that told me not to panic while drowning years ago, which at the time saved my life, and this time it simply put in my mind the concept of "remember" and then I recalled my life, self, body and finally breath and at that moment returned to it in a reversed manner that I left. Back down through a twisting tunnel of light into my skull I went and right then I opened my eyes and gasped for breath, breathing heavy as one does when they breach the surface after being under water a little too long. It seemed all so real that I take it as such in going ahead with my life.

I wish I had an answer for you OP, then I might have one for me. Without outside observation I can never know what happened. All I do know is that the person who came back into his body was a much changed version of the one who left.

My own feeling is that this substance is massively more dangerous than DMT. There are quite a few accounts of people who have nearly died from taking too much. Even frequent users like James Oroc in Tryptamine Palace had one episode where he had to be resuscitated. TIHKAL mentions one other and of course there's the wonderful but harrowing story of Robert Masters in Darkness Shining Wild.

Also the '15mg suits all' approach that I've seen is not at all wise IMO. There seems to be a pretty huge variation in what's needed to make a release dose. I've heard of some needing just 5mg and others 30mg. I personally find that as low as 11mg works for me. Start low and work up in increments to find your own particular level.

Common sense says always have a sitter but that's not always practical. Because my living room is at the top of some stairs, I shut the door and put a coffee table against it and then move any dangerous objects out the way. It's weird if you come back and find yourself standing on the other side of the room shouting!

I find it inconceivable to have MeO solo (but obviously not impossible as many of you have). I watched 20 or so people do it one after the other, and the levels of murderesque screaming, rolling, flipping, breathing interruptions, kicking etc made it clear to me that it is really best taken with a minder.

I know Octavio used water a lot to splash on people to snap them out of shallow breathing episodes, along with lightly tapping their chest and back - me being one of them.

Based on what I've read, I think that 5-MeO-DMT is almost certainly more dangerous than DMT. I haven't read about many people who have acted aggressively under the influence of DMT, but reports for 5-MeO-DMT seem to suggest that it can cause people to act in ways that can harm themselves or others.

Here's a recent 5-MeO-DMT report on Erowid: Don't You Dare Die on Me

From the Erowid TR:


While I don't doubt the dangerousness of 5meo, in fact I think it should be more well known, these are extreme circumstances. The guy was courting disaster.

At least he was having a swell time...

The other thing this report demonstrates is the importance of a sober sitter. Reading that report i couldn't tell if the guy actually turned white and had a seizure, or if two people high on 5-meo-dmt just freaked the hell out.

Either way this thread is a bit of a bummer. Been reading tryptamine palace and hearing almost nothing but good until now

Yes, I'm reading TP too at the moment. I wouldn't agree with how he expresses a lot of things but the theories he quotes regarding zero point field (zero point energy?) and Bose-Einstein condensates are all pretty fascinating stuff.

I'm working up to creating a post here comparing the DMT and the 5-MeO experience. Having smoked both last weekend I'd have to say the whole DMT onset thing is such a roller coaster ride and takes a lot of getting used to. My 5-MeO onsets are so gentle in comparison: smoke, then 'oh are they some sort of white visuals', then 5 seconds later pure white-out. Two eons later exit from white-out but with pure understanding ... and then the gradual fade back to human form.

Yeah to be honest I don't love the book. Parts of it are really well written, parts of it rather poorly written and the book as a whole sort of serves as a launch pad onto other topics that may be integrated into the tryptamine experience more so than any factual insight. I can't put my finger on it but the overall vibe is of someone who got carried away in a honeymoon phase with 5-meo and is blabbing a mixture of real philosophical insight and scientific halve-truths or in some cases just halve-understandings as opposed to someone who's really captured the deeper essence of the topics they're talking about and integrated it coherently. Was actually just reading the part about Bose-Einstein condensates. That and the stuff by haisch was extraordinarily fascinating and I'm glad he mentioned it, though I will definitely be picking up haisches book alongside doing more background reading on quantum physics before coming to any personal conclusions

But he certainly got me interested in toading! I only have a single hit of 5-meo so it won't last long

I don't think it should be feared or avoided, I just think it is just an experience that requires that next level of care and caution, and is suited more for the responsible, prepared adventurer.
Someone that would follow basic guides like: have a sitter; be in a place where its ok to shout like you are being murdered, so you dont attract attention; find an open space away from fires, water, things to break etc.; and like any experience that you take seriously, don't do it after a bender like that Erowid report. It can be much more physical than other entheogens, I completely clenched all of my muscles during the experience, my whole body ached a few days after (muscular)

It's the most intensely human experience, the door opens, the veil lifts, everything finally makes sense and isnt being hidden from you any more. You feel sexual, electric, and like someone is stroking a raw wound of emotion - everything at once. I remember a scene where i was transported to what felt like some native tribe doing some sort of exorcism type thing with me - the whole tribe supporting me as I violently vomited my diseases and darkness (but not really vomiting)