Hey Nexus,

I do not have DMT experience as of yet, but I do have limited Salvia, some LSD, and more extensive Shroom experience. I have always held quality before quantity, and living in a rather suppressive country from a psychonautic standpoint, I'm more a weekend sailor than a salty sea dog of the chemical seas... (I do have extensive experience with mysticism, meditation and various non-chemical methods and approaches.)

I'm preparing for my entry into the world of DMT, and there is a question that came up for me while reading the Wiki and the forum, especially on the really far out hyperspace stuff. If you compare your individual experience under a DMT breakthrough, and a "sweet spot" shroom or LSD trip, would you say that the DMT trip is more cogent (as in more convincing of being a reality onto itself, as opposed to the effect of random neural storms)?

Did you observe a noted difference between the cogency of different entheogens? Or did your trip experiences become more cogent with experience tripping? Or is it the social act of talking about your breakthrough experiences with fellow psychonauts that does it?

My own experiences:

My most cogent non-waking experiences so far were certain regular old dreams, (non-chemical) lucid dreams and shamanic meditations based on rhythmic breathing techniques.

I love shrooms, and do respect them as a sacred lifeform. They have healed me many times. But my shroom trip experiences cannot really be called cogent. When passing the "goa party" stage of awesome OEVs and a feeling of oneness while otherwise wakeful, most of them were new and interesting views of my own psyche and memories. It usually felt like decomposing in dark side trips, and in light side trips, it had the feeling of being disassembled with care, like soul surgery. Sometimes I did have vague feelings of a benevolent presence, but not beyond "feeling the love of God and Nature" on a happy, sunny morning while awake. Shrooms, for me, have never been truly alien - it was more of a magic mirror, a journey within myself; also, it was always more a semi-disjunct delirium, than a coherent and cogent experience.

With Salvia, I felt some deep connectedness, but the trip lasted a very short time, and the "hyperspace" I experienced was extremely simple, a "higher level", but 2-dimensional version of the room and the people I was with.

Beyond the "party phase", LSD has given me a LOT to think about, some very heavy stuff, but no feeling of spiritual contact with anything, anyplace or anyone. (I have to add that so far my LSD experience is limited, as the first experiments were not very enjoyable, and shrooms felt much nicer and friendlier, so I didn't really push it.)