Phenomenology and content of the inhaled N, N-dimethyltryptamine (N, N-DMT) experience

Abstract

Understanding the phenomenology and content of the inhaled N, N, dimethyltryptamine (N, N-DMT) experience is critical to facilitate and support ongoing research and therapeutic models targeting mental health conditions and central nervous system pathology. A qualitative analysis was conducted of all N, N-DMT experiences posted to the r/DMT Reddit community over a 10-year period from 2009 to 2018. A total of 3778 experiences from 3305 posts were included in this study. A median dose of N, N-DMT of 40.0 mg [interquartile range (IQR), 27.5 to 50.0] and a median experience duration of 10 min (IQR, 5.0 to 15.0) were identified. The most common somatic effects were somaesthesias (n = 1415, 37.5%) and an auditory ringing (n = 583, 15.4%). Visualizations predominantly consisted of fractals, shapes, patterns (n = 1231, 32.6%) and vivid colours (n = 953, 25.2%). Entity encounters were reported in 45.5% (n = 1719) of the experiences and involved predominantly a feminine phenotype (n = 416, 24.2%); deities (n = 293, 17.0%); aliens (n = 281, 16.3%); creature-based entities (n = 158, 9.2%, including reptilian and insectoid beings); mythological beings (n = 144, 8.4%, including machine elves); and jesters (n = 112, 6.5%). Entity interactions were predominantly positive (n = 600, 34.9% of encounters) involving benevolent, comforting, protecting, or outwardly caring interactions. A companion-type, pedagogical, or guide-type interaction was identified 32.4% of encounters (n = 557). Common typology, architecture, and structural features of the “DMT world” included descriptions of alternate or higher dimensions (n = 952, 25.2%); rooms [n = 582, 15.4%, including the “waiting room” (n = 105, 2.8%)], and a tunnel (n = 390, 10.3%). Features of mystical and ego-dissolution experiences were common. Additional rewarding aspects were identified, including a sense of familiarity and the acceptance/removal of the fear of death. Challenging and difficult responses were less frequent but also documented. Statements of profundity were identified in 232 experiences (6.1%), including pronouncing the experience or an aspect of the experience as the most “beautiful” or feeling the most “beautiful” of their life (n = 47, 1.2%). This study identified common phenomenological themes and content of naturalistic inhaled N, N-DMT experiences. Major thematic domains included (1) physical and somatic experiences; (2) visualizations and imagery; (3) entity encounters including entity phenotype, descriptors, attributes, disposition, and characteristics of the interaction; (4) typology, architectural features, structural characteristics, and scenery of the “DMT world”; (5) alerations in consciousness (including mystical experiences, out-of-body experiences, and ego-dissolution); (6) emotional responses (including positive, rewarding, difficult, and challenging); and (7) statements of profundity.

Language Models Learn Sentiment and Substance from 11,000 Psychoactive Experiences

“…Confirming its reputation as the "spirit molecule", DMT displayed heightened trajectories for the tag "Mystical Experiences" and, even more dramatically, for the tag "Entities and Beings", echoing themes uncovered in manual DMT-specific analyses [27]. As expected, the "Depression" tag trajectory highlights antidepressants, while the "Addiction Habituation" tag is consistently elevated for the stimulants cocaine and methamphetamine, see Supplementary Fig.…”

“…Metadata semantic tags are also learnable, with some of the best performing being "Medical Use", "Mystical Experiences", "Alone" and "Addiction Habituation", with areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC AUC) ranging from 0.88 to 0.95, areas under the precision-recall and ROC curves for all tags are shown in Figure : Results. Confirming its reputation as the "spirit molecule", DMT displayed heightened predicted trajectories for the tag "Mystical Experiences" and, even more dramatically, for the tag "Entities and Beings", echoing themes uncovered in manual DMT-specific analyses [35]. As expected, the Depression tag trajectory highlights antidepressants, while the "Addiction Habituation" tag is consistently elevated for the stimulants cocaine and methamphetamine, see Figure : Trajectories.…”

“…Repeated inference with BERTowid over contiguous windows of text in held-out testimonials followed by interpolation constructs the trajectories shown Figure: Trajectories. Confirming its reputation as the “spirit molecule”, DMT displayed heightened predicted trajectories for both “Mystical Experiences” and even more dramatically for the tag “Entities and Beings”, echoing themes uncovered in manual DMT-specific analyses (22). As expected, the Depression tag trajectory highlights antidepressants, while the “Addiction Habituation” tag is consistently elevated for the stimulants cocaine and methamphetamine.…”

Language Models Learn Sentiment and Substance from 11,000 Psychoactive Experiences

“…Con rming its reputation as the "spirit molecule", DMT displayed heightened trajectories for the tag "Mystical Experiences" and, even more dramatically, for the tag "Entities and Beings", echoing themes uncovered in manual DMT-speci c analyses [27]. As expected, the "Depression" tag trajectory highlights antidepressants, while the "Addiction Habituation" tag is consistently elevated for the stimulants cocaine and methamphetamine, see Supplementary Fig.…”

Mapping Pharmacologically-induced Functional Reorganisation onto the Brain’s Neurotransmitter Landscape

“…Although the main strength of our study is our extensive coverage of both neurotransmitters and pharmacological data, it is important to acknowledge that neither is complete: in particular, our sample did by no means exhaustively include all mind-altering drugs that have been studied: prominent additions for future work may include psilocybin, DMT (as separate from the other components of the ayahuasca infusion) 156,157 , the kappa opioid receptor agonist salvinorin-A 158 , the alpha-2 receptor agonist dexmedetomidine [159][160][161] , and anaesthetic doses of ketamine 24,148,162 , just to name a few that have been recently studied -but also alcohol or caffeine, arguably the two most widely used psychoactive substances.…”