DMT is a powerful plant-derived psychedelic substance. It produces brief but intense hallucinations and alterations in thinking, emotions, and sense of time. DMT has been used in ayahuasca brews in shamanic rituals in South America for thousands of years. It is increasingly being used recreationally in other parts of the world. Researchers are also looking at the safety and efficacy of DMT therapy for mental health conditions.
Please continue reading to learn more about DMT, what to expect during a DMT trip, and the impact of this drug on mental health.
What is DMT?
DMT is the common name for a substance called 5-MeO-DMT or 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine. It is a tryptamine drug that is obtained from plants such as Mimosa hostilis (called jeruma preta in Brazil); Psychotria viridis (chacruna); and Diplypterys cabrerana (a shrub native to the Amazon basin).
Typical Settings for DMT Use
DMT has been used in religious ceremonies and shamanic rituals in Central and South America for thousands of years. Indigenous tribes in the Amazon Basin (Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, and Brazil) use DMT-containing teas called ayahuasca, yage, hoasca, and caapi for medicinal and ritualistic purposes.
What is Ayahuasca?
Ayahuasca is a hallucinogenic brew or concentrated tea. It is consumed during carefully orchestrated ceremonies in Central and South America as part of shamanic rituals. These rituals claim to cure imbalances between the body and soul and promote a spiritual awakening. The word ayahuasca in Quechua language means soul (aya) and wasca or huasca (vine), which people interpret as “vine of the soul.”
Since 2019, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has reported a concerning 78% increase in global seizures of plant-based new psychoactive substances (NPSs). In particular, the agency reported a sharp rise in the recreational use of ayahuasca, which was previously only used in traditional medicine and religious practices.
Recreational Use of DMT
DMT is illegal in the United States. However, some people use it recreationally, for example, to connect with the universe, gain spiritual insight, understand consciousness, and promote self-discovery.
What does DMT look like?
DMT is a white crystalline powder. It is sold on the street under names such as Spirit Molecule, Dimitri, Fantasia, Changa, The Sacrament, and The Glory.
How does DMT make you feel?
DMT produces a brief but intense psychedelic experience with auditory and visual hallucinations (hearing and seeing things that aren’t there), which is why it is commonly called the “spirit molecule.” People describe a DMT trip as a dream-like experience with vivid colors, shapes, and entities. Five common experiences with DMT use include:
- Euphoria or a rush of feelings of happiness and excitement
- Increased sensitivity to pain and pleasure
- Changes in mood
- Intense hallucinations
- Dissociation (losing touch with reality)
The psychedelic effects of DMT can vary from person to person, depending on factors such as the person’s body weight, the amount of DMT used, the strength or purity of the drug, whether the person has used DMT before, other substances used along with DMT, and the environment in which the drug is used.
How is DMT used?
People use DMT in various ways for a short, powerful DMT trip, such as:
- Smoking it in a pipe.
- Inhaling it with a vaping device.
- Drinking it in an ayahuasca brew.
- Snorting it or injecting it (rare).
Note: When consumed by mouth, DMT alone does not have a hallucinogenic effect because monoamine oxidase (MAO) enzymes in the liver quickly deactivate it. To circumvent this, people consume DMT by mouth in the form of an ayahuasca brew that also contains plant-based MAO inhibitors called Harmala alkaloids or beta carbolines. These substances block the effects of the liver enzymes and prevent the body from deactivating DMT. Natural MAO inhibitors are commonly obtained from plants such as Peganum harmala and Banisteriopsis caapi. Ayahuasca brews are commonly made using the leaves of Pschotria viridis and the stalks of Banisteriopsis caapi plants along with other ingredients.
Typical DMT Doses
Typical doses of smoked DMT are 40-50 milligrams (mg), although some people reportedly use doses up to 100 mg. The drug has almost immediate effects when it is smoked or inhaled, with the peak effects lasting for 2 to 5 minutes, followed by a gradual dropping off. The entire DMT trip lasts approximately 30 minutes.
Typical doses of DMT in ayahuasca brews range from 8 mg to 42 mg. The mixture is consumed in the form of a concentrated tea during a ceremony that usually takes place at night. The psychedelic effects appear within an hour and last for 5-6 hours.
Microdosing is a relatively new method of ingesting DMT at very low, non-hallucinogenic doses (5-10% of hallucinogenic doses) every alternate day. This avoids the short-term hallucinogenic side effects while enhancing focus, productivity, and creative problem solving. However, there isn’t enough research to draw conclusions about the safety or efficacy of microdosing DMT.
What Do DMT Visuals Typically Look Like?
Common Themes in DMT Visuals and Experiences
Common experiences during DMT use include intensified sensory perceptions of touch and pain, ringing in the ears, and visual hallucinations of geometrical shapes and patterns in vivid colors.
People also commonly report entity encounters during DMT trips. These are encounters with predominantly female phenotypes, aliens, jesters, machine elves, and creatures resembling reptiles and insects. Most entity encounters are reported as positive, with feelings of caring, protectiveness, comfort, and benevolence. Around one-third of people have an encounter with a guide-type or companion-type entity.
The most common structural features and scenery encountered in the “DMT World” include higher dimensions, waiting rooms, and tunnels.
Many people report ego dissolution, mystical sensations, out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences, removal of the fear of death, and a sense of familiarity.
It is common for people to describe the DMT experience in profound terms, for example, the “most beautiful experience” of their lives.
Significance and Interpretation of DMT Themes
Studies have found that most people have very similar experiences on DMT. This may be explained by the fact that humans have similar brain architecture and DMT affects the same parts of the human brain in everyone, resulting in similar psychedelic experiences.
With that said, some people believe DMT is a direct portal to a supernatural element of the universe that science cannot explain and possibly never will.
DMT Set and Setting: The Impact of Mood and Environment
The effects of psychoactive drugs such as DMT can vary depending on a person’s mood (this is called the “set”) and environment (this is called the “setting”).
For example, a person who is anxious or nervous about taking DMT may have an unpleasant experience with the drug or a “bad trip.” This may include terrifying hallucinations or overwhelming feelings of confusion, fear, anxiety, or paranoia. Similarly, if someone consumes the drug in a bright, loud, uncomfortable environment, they can have a bad experience with it.
In contrast, a person who takes the drug in a safe, reassuring, calm, and relaxed environment, surrounded by friends or trusted individuals, is more likely to have a positive DMT experience or “good trip”.
DMT Side Effects and Come Down
Common side effects during the come down from DMT include confusion, inability to think clearly, trouble focusing and concentrating, anxiety, trouble sleeping, racing thoughts, and feeling disconnected from your body.
In addition, DMT can have negative effects on heart health by causing an increase in heart rate and high blood pressure.
Long-term side effects of DMT include “flashbacks” in which a person re-experiences the effects of the drug many days, weeks, months, or even years after last use. Triggers for flashbacks can include mental stress and physical fatigue.
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+18442884672 How Do DMT Visuals Affect the Brain and Body?
DMT’s Mechanism of Action in the Brain
The chemical structure of DMT resembles the migraine medicine sumatriptan. It produces psychedelic effects by binding to serotonin receptors in the central nervous system. Serotonin is an important neurotransmitter that plays a vital role in many functions in the body, including sleep, digestion, sexual desire, blood clotting, wound healing, and bone health.
Studies at Imperial College London have shed some light on how DMT triggers changes in the human brain by binding to serotonin receptors. Researchers have discovered that DMT causes the boundaries between different regions in the brain to break down. Normally, brain activity occurs within specific networks. When you take DMT, there is more of a global connectivity in the brain with a collapse of in-network integrity, especially in areas of the brain associated with “higher level” functions like imagination. This results in a dysregulation of brain rhythms that are normally dominant and a more anarchic functioning of the brain.
Studies have also shown that DMT increases blood flow to specific areas of the brain, including the hippocampus, amygdala, and temporal lobe.
DMT and beta carbolines (the main psychoactive substances in ayahuasca) may have neuroprotective and cognition-enhancing effects due to their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.
There is also evidence that harmine and other substances in B. caapi may increase the levels of a protein called brain derived neurotropic factor (BDNF). BNDF helps to build connections between nerve cells. Additionally, research suggests these plant-derived psychoactive ingredients might stimulate neurogenesis (formation of new brain cells) in adults.
Drug Interactions: Mixing DMT With Other Drugs
Taking DMT with other illicit drugs can have unpredictable and dangerous effects. For example, DMT and cannabis can cause panic, anxiety, paranoia, and psychosis. Combining DMT and stimulants like cocaine or amphetamines may cause heightened feelings of anxiety and fear and increase the risk of a negative experience with the drug. DMT and opioids such as tramadol taken together can result in seizures. Other hallucinogenic drugs like LSD or psilocybin (magic mushrooms) can make an already intense DMT trip more intense.
DMT can also interact with prescription medications. Using DMT while on antidepressants, especially a drug class called monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), can result in a life-threatening condition called serotonin syndrome. Signs and symptoms include disorientation, confusion, irritability, anxiety, shivering, muscle spasms, and muscle rigidity. This is a medical emergency.
DMT’s Potential for Addiction
Scientists do not believe that DMT is addictive. This drug is unlikely to cause tolerance (needing larger doses to experience the same effects over time) or physical dependence (experiencing withdrawal symptoms when the drug is withheld).
How is DMT Used Therapeutically?
Researchers are exploring the use of N,N-Dimethyltryptamine or DMT therapy for treating conditions like depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
However, due to the monoamine oxidase inhibitor properties of ingredients in ayahuasca brews, there is a risk of serious risk of drug interactions. Therefore, the medical use of ayahuasca requires extreme caution.
Potential Benefits of DMT Therapy for Mental Health
There are some early positive results from a clinical trial in which a pharmaceutical-grade DMT formulation was given to people with major depressive disorder. Other trials are underway to evaluate the safety and efficacy of DMT therapy in stroke patients and people with substance use disorders including alcohol use disorder.
Research suggests that DMT can be useful in people with mental health conditions because of its ability to disrupt ingrained neural networks that are commonly present in disorders such as addiction, depression, and PTSD. In other words, DMT therapy may help patients come out of negative thought patterns and make them more receptive to conventional therapy with fresh perspectives.
Legal Status of DMT and DMT Therapy
DMT therapy is not offered in the US except in research settings. The psychoactive substance DMT is a Schedule I Controlled Substance in the United States. It is illegal to produce, buy, possess, or distribute this drug. This is also true in most parts of the world.
However, plants that can be used to make ayahuasca brews are not illegal in some countries in Central and South America.
In addition, members of ayahuasca churches such as the União do Vegetal (UDV) and Santo Daime are permitted to drink the substance under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
What happens during DMT therapy?
Mental health treatment involving a psychoactive substance such as DMT is given in a carefully controlled and medically supervised setting under the guidance of a trained psychotherapist.
The DMT therapy itself takes place in a comfortable, reassuring environment. After the DMT experience, the therapist helps the patient interpret what they saw and felt and to draw new perspectives and insights from the experience.
Note: Studies have shown that DMT produces the maximum amount of pleasure and the least amount of negative effects compared to other psychoactive substances such as LSD, ketamine, and psilocybin.
Where can DMT therapy be legally administered?
Psychoactive substances are being approved for use to treat mental health conditions in some countries. For instance, Australia has legalized the use of psilocybin and MDMA in patients with depression and PTSD. Similarly, some psychedelics, such as MDMA, magic mushrooms, LSD, Ecstasy or Molly, ketamine, and ayahuasca have been given legal status in some countries for treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, and chronic pain.
DMT Therapy and Mental Health
Psychedelic substances are illegal in much of the world, and therefore using them to treat physical or mental health problems carries considerable stigma and challenges.
Yet, research has shown that psychedelics can not only be very effective for a wide range of health conditions, but also safe when used responsibly.
One option is to decriminalize these substances, where possessing of a small amount for personal use will not result in arrest and prosecution. However, experts warn that decriminalizing psychedelics can cause more harm than good by discouraging people from speaking to healthcare providers before using them.
Yet, when psychedelic drugs like DMT are criminalized, people hesitate to call for help in emergency situations.
If you want to consider DMT therapy, it’s important to have open and informed conversations about mental health treatment options with your healthcare providers.
Final Thoughts on DMT for Mental Health
DMT is an illegal psychedelic drug that produces intense hallucinations. People frequently describe DMT visuals in profound terms, such as “the most beautiful experience” of their lives. Researchers are looking at the possibility of DMT therapy for mental health conditions. There are promising early results for the use of DMT mental health treatment in patients with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder.
If you or someone you love is experiencing mental health issues, talk to us at Discover Recovery today. We offer a range of evidence-based mental health treatment options that are proven to be safe and effective.
