Hi everyone!
I'm a ~40 y old regular guy type of person - boring office job, wife, kids, etc. For the past 5 years or so I started to develop an interest in psychedelics, mostly mushrooms, mostly for the amazing and long-lasting mood boost they seem to provide. They also seem to provide some perspective which helps me not sweat the small things. I'm also very interested in the medical potential of psychedelics, I went to several psychedelics conferences and I'm convinced they can help many people who desperately need them, so I'm an active militant for legalization, frequently gift shrooms to people, donate to MAPS, volunteer for various activities, etc.
I've also been personally experimenting with increasingly large doses as well as some other substances, had a few nice ego-shattering trips but never anything that felt disturbing or scary.
That is until I tried DMT. I've been doing low doses for a while now, no idea exactly how much because I just invested in a scale and my vaporization method seems to be inconsistent. I would get some pretty intense fractal visuals, be transported in a world where everything seems to squeeze into me, never really felt I had an actual "breakthrough". Still even at these doses I felt like there was something disturbing about the DMT experience.
Then recently I decided to weigh out 40mg and take it with a nitrous balloon. I feel the usual visuals and as they start to subside I decide that I was going to break through that night. I had kept myself away from DMT trip reports as much as possible as I wanted to experience this with an open mind.
I should point out that I'm normally a super calm guy, I meditate, I take shrooms regularly, I eat a low-carb diet, I hardly get scared or emotional about anything. This time though my heart was racing a bit because of the anticipation and because filling another nitrous balloon made a loud noise and I was worried I might have woken up the kids.
I take the vaporizer bag and inhale deeply, right after the nitrous. I can tell right away from the taste of it that this will be more intense than anything I experienced before and my heart starts racing. My sense of reality dissolves quickly as I observe the usual freaky visuals that come with it. There's no more "I" and no more "is"-ness. Everything that has to do with day to day reality has vanished.
Suddenly there's an awareness of an entity, although it doesn't have a visual aspect. I have no sense of self so it's not like I am aware of an entity, it's just there. It points to things, it wants me to know that they are taking over. It points to all the DMT art in the world, all the festivals, the psychedelic renaissance, it shows me how they are slowly creeping into our world and for the first time in my life I wonder if psychedelics are a good idea. It also makes me know that every time I dip into this realm, I take a little bit back with me, something sticks to my essence and that every time it will be harder to go back. It shows me how it is taking me over, with colorful patterns all over my body.
Suddenly I remember a warning that I had read some time ago about the Trickster, about how it makes you forget who you are and hides things from you and screws with your head. Previously my DMT experiences felt really fragile, very easy to shake loose if I wanted to, or if something happened in my environment. This time though as I felt like I was remembering who I was I realized it was different, the Trickster was holding me back and making it clear that he had a lot of power, at least in this realm. He seemed to ask me "how do you want to return when you don't even know what's real?" I looked at my arm and saw it as an overlap of the cartoonish DMT reality, the physical reality barely visible underneath and a third, ineffable reality which I felt was there too, but didn't have a visual dimension to it. When I moved my arm it felt as if the Trickster would quickly move the cartoon arm on top of it to obscure my real arm.
Felt like I was playing a three card monte with the trickster, where I was supposed to guess which was the reality I belonged to, and the stakes were very high. The fate of humanity was at stake at first, but then I realized how crazy that was and decided the fate was just my life or my sanity. I felt like I had too many things in this world - family, friends and the Trickster had the power to take it all if I fell for his tricks.
The Trickster had a distinct three-way aspect to it, similar to how I perceived my arm, and not unlike a jester's hat. He was distinctively neutral, neither good nor evil, but there was something very ominous about it all, he seemed to ask if I was sure this was a good idea, if this is what I wanted, not that I had a choice.
Suddenly I felt the urge to go out on my porch and think my way out of this situation. At this point I can't really see anything as my brain still thinks I'm in hyperspace, but at the same time I have no trouble navigating all obstacles in my house and I make it to the porch without causing any damage. I squat on the floor in the cold air and look at my cartoonish white hands against the dark carpet.
As I regained more of my rational abilities I thought that this was clearly all in my head, perfectly explainable by science, that there was no hyperspace, to which the Trickster replied that while that was true, they were nonetheless taking over, and pointing out again the tremendous potential of psychedelics to induce individual change, from the drug addicts who is able to give it all up after a changa experience and ends up covered in colorful tattoos to the scientists that dedicate their lives and career to literally helping them take over.
The trickster keeps trying to distract me, he is overwhelming my attention with spinning thingies that keep folding and unfolding and transforming and I remember thinking that this was like juggling (I dabble), and if I could just hold enough of these spinning things in my attention I could find a way out. I remember thinking how messed up this was, how unnatural and how unsafe, and how perhaps all the psychonauts and scientists telling me that DMT was safe were also tricked by the Trickster. I felt a strong urge to cut all ties with the psychedelic/burner communities and vote conservative. (don't worry, that went away fast)
I remember thinking about all the warnings I had read about how you should go into the experience with respect and humility and I felt like I had really learned my lesson. This was NOT the path to enlightenment, it wasn't even in the same zip code as enlightenment, there were no shortcuts to that and from now on I would sit in zazen daily and do it the slow way.
The return to reality seemed to take forever and the Trickster seemed to keep repeating a question "are you sure you've learned your lesson? we'll see." I remember wanting to throw up but not being able to. Felt like I had a thick layer of DMT power in my mouth and throat. I remember thinking "never again" over and over again, and considering burning my massive stash that I had barely dipped into. Obviously I couldn't give it to anyone else, the risk of the entities taking over felt incredibly real. Then I remember thinking that DMT was still a great drug at lower doses and that I didn't need to go for another breakthrough, and then immediately thinking that this was just another trick to help the entities.
My sense of self eventually returned completely, all anxiety disappeared and I continued to experience intense visuals and a very pleasant body feel for what felt like another 15 minutes. I have no idea how long the "hyperspace" lasted, I'd guess around 15 minutes as well. I felt immense relief and gratitude as I was cuddling my wife and trying to tell her everything I went through while it was still fresh in my mind. I think that might have really helped me remember it until typing it out the next morning.
It remains to be seen how long the Trickster will stay with me, if he'll ever show up in my dreams or if I'll ever decide to seek him out again.
Anyway, I felt compelled to share this with more experienced trippers and hopefully engage in some dialogue. Might repost this to the experience thread once I get full member status.
Since I had the experience I've explored this forum and some other resources and I feel ready for another go. For now I am convinced that the Dark Trickster is in fact me, or at least part of my subconscious. Perhaps it's because I'm repressing my trickster nature too much in real life, he comes to torment me in hyperspace.
I should also add that I really have no idea if I've actually broken through, I didn't get any of the sounds, popping, high speed traveling or any of the other things people report.
Also not long before going under I was looking at some of Alex Grey's work like this:
http://www.alexgrey.com/art/paintings/soul/