Does anyone know what might make a person either highly tolerant of DMT or partially "immune" to its effects?

I helped a friend over the weekend with a trip (his first ever DMT). I used 40mg in an e-mesh vape, and he barely had any visuals at all. Certainly below threshold. I then increased the dose to 70mg and he had some decent closed eye visuals but definitely didn't break through.

I used the same batch I use and extracted myself, so I know the product was good quality. Using this batch and vape set up, I usually use 15mg to get a good threshold experience for myself, and 30mg for a guaranteed breakthrough (25mg is usually enough). He is of similar weight and build to me.

He was in a fasted state other than caffeine and not on any medication that he admitted to.

He did say he tends to have a high tolerance for other substances like cannabis and MDMA but is fine with LSD and Psilocybin.

Anyone come across this before or have any ideas? 70mg vaped at a good temperature and all consumed seems to me like a massive dose that should have done the trick for sure, so I'm confused.

This is somewhat rare but definitely not unheard of. Other than body constitution, period of eating before the journey and other drugs taken, there's also sensitivity of their nervous system and general tolerance to the endogenous effects of exogenous materials as well as capacity for experience. For me, the last point in most poignant, reason being that there is a great deal of neuro and cognitive diversity as to the capabilities and capacities of other minds. As an example, not all individuals have a visual memory capacity.

My advice: SMOALK MOAR. It's hard to overdose, see how 90mg-100mg suits them

One love

Hmmm I've always thought this was more related to like how some people can remember their dreams better while others can't. However there are practices you can do like dream recall therapy and lucid dreaming, and other meditative practices to help sort of open these doors in your brain up. I've often wondered if people who struggled with this would benefit from trying some of these techniques.

There is also another term I've often thought applied to this problem which Is aphantasia. Aphantasia is where you don't have the ability to picture something in your mind. Like try picturing a bird for example, how well can you see the bird in your head? If you can see an image of a bird in your head you don't have aphantasia but if you can't then you may possibly have this.

aphantasia

i believe like the article states that aphantasia is not a disorder or a disability but more closely related to right hand and left hand mechanics. I believe that aphantasia exists on a spectrum and that you could train your mental eye to start seeing visuals or imagery. it is about excersising and practicing imagination which in this highly technological overstimulating world can be hard to remind yourself to excersise the imagination.






There is also a link between aphantasia and being on the autistic spectrum so I've often always wondered if this could be related to undiagnosed autism in a lot of the reports of people who aren't on meds and haven't done anything to give themselves an unreasonable tolerance.



Autism and Aphantasia



That's not to say that OPs friend is on the spectrum or anything just throwing ideas out here for possibilities I've considered on this phenomenon. People can have aphantasia who are not on the spectrum as well.




another thought is that DMT is something that is naturally occurring in our body so it'd make sense that biological factors could influence how your brain receives and interprets it.

similar to how our body has cannabanoid receptors and some users will not experience a high from cannabis no matter how much they smoke for their first couple sessions.



newer video revealing some interesting finds for brain imaging with DMT





Best of luck to your friend OP!

Was he very anxious for the trip? Anxiety can give a bad trip or no trip at all sometimes, if he resists too much. Already happened to me.
Is he a weed smoker? Some people don't know how to give a good toke too, weed is good for practice.