First of all I know DMT is more on the side of out-of-body experiences, but there are similarities. I wanted to outline some aspects of this phenomenon. Here is a link to a website that gives a handful scientific theories or theories in general regarding the experience. Very interesting.

http://www.near-death.com/experiences/experts01.html

I personally do not think it is a hallucination, atleast in the aspect most people assume, perhaps if we got into quantum theory this may make sense. There are a lot of interesting things to read. One of my friends is a physics teacher who is an atheist who believes deeply in evolution, science, and the absence of a soul or an afterlife. When I had a conversation with him about DMT, he said he would not be surprised if our species developed this as a coping mechanism to accept death. Sometimes I tend to agree, we really do not know. But what got me thinking about this is a recent study done that I had never heard of regarding NDE's, maybe it makes sense when DMT is flooded into the bloodstream and crosses the blood-brain barrier to be burned up so quickly. What I'm talking about is an overload of carbon dioxide that is very common in the experience. Here is an article:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/100408-near-death-experiences-blood-carbon-dioxide/

What are you thoughts or assumptions, and if any, in correlation with DMT?

As you’ve said, an out-of-body experience is not the same as a near-death experience. As far as I know, all NDEs are out-of body experiences, but obviously not all out-of-body experiences are NDEs.

There are many possible causes of NDEs, as the article suggests. High levels of carbon dioxide in the blood may be a cause, but the study suggesting this shows correlation, not causation. Even DMT only rarely produces NDEs.

I have trouble understanding how a release of endogenous DMT near death (which itself is speculation) imparts an evolutionary survival advantage on a species. If someone can explain the logic behind this idea, I’d like to hear it.

I believe NDEs are real (I had a DMT-induced one not too long ago), and that consciousness is capable of leaving the body far behind. Of course, there’s no proof.

I have wonder that as well. Why does the human body create DMT as gibran said there is no evolutionary advantage to having a transition to the other side. Everything in evolution is based upon the new element whatever it be giving a person a advantage and thus more likely to survives and create offspring. I find the existance of DMT in the human body deeply puzzling.

My assumption is that dmt has something to do with the nde and obe, but one probably should consider all the other chemicals and interactions instead of pointing to one, dmt. I'm certainly no brain chemist, though. I have heard of the "release of dmt" and never really questioned it, like I should have.

My assumption, and that's all it is, was that the nde and obe was from the brain's reaction to the loss of the senses. I've experienced a truly incredible out of body experience on dxm, with the use of breathing exercises. I attributed this largely to the dissociative effect, the loss of senses. Some nitrous oxide experiences seem oddly similar to the obe and nde. When the brain loses the senses, weird things happen. Just take a look at the effects produced by a sensory deprivation tank. Even pilots doing g-force training will see a "light at the end of a tunnel" or "their life played back before them."

I assumed, as well, that this was somehow an advantage to the individual and thus an evolutionary advantage to the human race. I never really questioned this, especially after accepting the belief that our ancestors had some sort of evolutionary advantage being able to access these "states," at death and at times of extreme bodily and nervous stress. People in extreme pain can experience an obe.

It does kinda puzzle me how a near-death experience would be an "evolutionary advantage." But, it also puzzles me how the use of psychedelic plants/drugs could be an evolutionary advantage, yet it's very hard for me to doubt. How does a near death experience increase your likelihood of having fertile offspring? That's hard to answer.

Here's the issue. What is believed to occur in the human body in regards of DMT is pretty much totally unknown. Even what we think is a fact are actually theories from scientists but often have no factual basis other than educated speculation. There has been very very little real scientific research on this drug and what little there has been done is very basic.

And so I am inexplicably drawn to directly explore the phenomenon myself...

One thing that Ayahuasca has taught me, though, is that it's always polite to keep a little bit of the mystery a secret for the next person. Perhaps the scientists are just being polite?

The scientists are limited by the ethical standards of the APA (American Psychology Association). The rules set up by this group is to ensure there are moral standards on experiementation on humans. It is essential that such a thing exist to be sure that the subjects mental well being be protected from studies that may leave behind long lasting mental issues. They tend to be a little overly conservative as to what they judge acceptable but better to err on the side of caution.

hmm, i dunno about trying to pin this thing down as either OBE or NDE..that just raises other questions of comparison, like what about salvia or ketamine or ibogaine then?..

I think this is various dimensions of experience we are talkign about, mediated though chemicals synthed by nature, having action within a reality generating machine that is created by nature. Doesn't quite make sense that its just OBE or NDE..shamans drink ayahuasca and communicate with the planet and the forest and learn about other plants to heal people..its more like various dialups to gaian and cosmic mainframes.

As am I Ms, to explore this phenomenon myself, as it is truly subjective. I understand the assumptions and thoughts surrounding this topic, but why is DMT in plants, animals, us, most living organisms, what role does it play in them? Will this always be a mystery, or will each and every one of us face the facts one day when our earthly existence is over? When it comes to any chemicals the brain is affected by, psychedelics drugs with psychoactive properties, what does this prove, and why is it even possible to experience anything under the influence of these drugs? This is what puzzles me, but DMT being my number one obsession on the topic of NDEs and OBEs and death and life as the "ultimate convincer" as Terance Mckenna put it, baffles me to the point where I have no choice but to explore every aspect of it, and will continue to even if I do not find the answers to anything, even if I do, will prove nothing beyond what our nature, future, or life even holds, what can we do about it except indulge in anything and everything. For what?

Ive had a near death experience, and i can tell u there is no relation between dmt and a near death experience.. ofcourse my experience was a short one where i saw the white light and some entity started talkin to me like 10 sentences in a second... for people who had longer experiences including out of body experiences may find it similar to a high dose dmt trip tho.

And about releasing dmt on near death experience, i really dont know but if that white light and loosing sense of ur nervous system is because of dmt .. so let it be

From what I’ve read, among those people who have had both near-death experiences (not DMT-induced) and DMT-induced near-death experiences, many of them say that the experiences are very similar.

Of course, very few DMT experiences are near-death experiences. Out of hundreds of DMT experiences, I’ve only had one that I would consider to be a near-death experience. And yes, there was brilliant, beautiful white light, a presence of entities, etc. and it was totally unlike any other DMT experience I ever had before or since.

So don’t assume that just because you haven’t yet had a near-death experience caused by DMT that it isn’t possible.

near death experiences usually are out of body experiences as are some dreams

If you had carefully read all of the posts in this thread, you would have realized that this has already been stated: