The strangest part?
We still don't know exactly why DMT can produce such elaborate experiences.
Entities. Geometry. Entire environments.
Whether they're another reality or the brain doing something extraordinary, the door remains open.
๐ชถ
We talk about psychedelics like they all do the same thing.
They don't.
LSD, psilocybin, DMT, mescaline, ketamineโฆ
Different molecules.
Different mechanisms.
Different experiences.
And science is only beginning to understand why. ๐งต
Then there's DMT.
One of the most intense psychedelic experiences known. Perception, time, body awareness and emotion can shift dramatically.
People report vivid geometry, entities and entire environments that feel completely separate from ordinary reality.
Ayahuasca adds another layer.
DMT is normally broken down quickly when swallowed.
Ayahuasca contains compounds that inhibit MAO-A, allowing DMT to become orally active.
Same molecule.
Very different journey.
And then there's the brain.
DMT rapidly changes patterns of brain activity and communication.
Researchers are studying what happens to perception, connectivity and the networks involved in our sense of self.
The biology is almost as strange as the experience.
DMT doesn't simply change what you see.
It can alter your sense of time, identity, body, emotion and reality itself.
A few minutes can feel vastly longer.
That's one reason DMT experiences can be so difficult to describe afterward.
The duration depends heavily on how DMT enters the body.
Inhaled DMT comes on extremely fast and the main effects are relatively short-lived.
Oral DMT, as in ayahuasca, lasts much longer because other compounds change how the body metabolizes it.
During a psychedelic state, brain networks can communicate in unusual ways.
The brain becomes less predictable, and information normally filtered out can become noticeable.
Maybe that's why reality feels different without reality actually changing.
Take psilocybin.
Your body converts it into psilocin, which interacts heavily with serotonin receptors involved in perception, mood, and cognition.
But the interesting part isn't simply โserotonin.โ
It's what happens to the brain's communication patterns.
I still canโt help but wonder how psychedelics ended up being illegal in the first place, while alcohol is so widely accepted, normalized, and even pushed. The whole thing feels pretty backwards.
They took 93 heavy drinkers.
People averaging 7 drinks per day.
And gave them 2x psilocybin doses
and 12 psychotherapy sessions.
๐ง๐ต๐ฎ๐'๐ ๐ถ๐.
2x 5gram doses.
2 weeks apart.
Then, after 4 weeks,
they tested the group:
๐ด๐ฏ% ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฑ๐๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป in heavy drinking
And 8 months later:
48% stopped drinking completely.
The placebo? ๐ข๐ป๐น๐ ๐ญ๐ฑ%.
But yeah...no medical value, right?
@ErikPeers@BadreNicolas I love this take. Emotional range matters, and if you canโt fully access what youโre feeling, it can make deeper therapeutic work harder. The relationship between medication, emotion, and healing deserves a much more nuanced conversation.
@PaulAustin3w This is where psychedelics deserve to be taken seriously. If one carefully supported experience can help someone relate to death with less fear and more meaning, thatโs not escaping reality itโs changing how we meet it.
nature heals... ๐