You will have a psychedelic experience
If it’s the last thing you do
Whoever said that the only certainty of life is death was wrong. There are two certainties — death and a psychedelic trip. A study in 2018 finally confirmed what was previously dismissed as the ravings of good-for-nothing hippies — Taking DMT is like having a Near-Death Experience (NDE). So no matter how terrified you are of dying, rest assured that it will at least be an exciting adventure.
The study by Imperial College London found “intriguingly strong overlap between specific and broad features of these states…with only subtle differences that might relate more to obvious contextual differences than anything to do with the specific inducers themselves.” For example, the following passage could just as easily describe either experience:
“I saw a bright light. I had left my body behind. I saw some of my dead family members. I also met some wacky, friendly creatures entirely out of this world. Yet, it felt real, as real as anything I’ve experienced in ordinary reality. I felt an overwhelming love for all life, a peace that stayed with me long after returning to my body.”
People often report lasting psychological benefits after both DMT trips and NDEs. These benefits are an outcome of the experience of death or ‘ego dissolution that is concurrent with the experience of unity with all life. This experience is often intimately profound for the subject and changes their perspective towards life and its inevitable end.
Research has found that people exhibit a greater affinity for nature after an NDE, a deeper concern for others, a higher sense of self-worth, and a reduced interest in material possessions. These changes are commonly associated with the after-effects of DMT and other psychedelics like the DMT-containing Ayahuasca, psilocybin, LSD, and mescaline.
DMT is produced and secreted in trace quantities in various parts of the human brain. Therefore, it is tempting to assume that NDEs are caused by a greater than normal secretion of DMT at death.
If this is true, DMT experiences and NDEs are almost identical, the only differences being the source of the DMT and the context in which it is present.
Some scientists have postulated this theory claiming that endogenous DMT is responsible for naturally occurring altered states of consciousness during death, birth, and while dreaming. However, this hypothesis has been widely contested under the claim that the amount of DMT found in the brain is insufficient to create full-blown psychoactive states. Instead, they argue that other changes in the brain can adequately explain altered states of consciousness without recourse to the DMT theory.
But regardless, the science is clear that DMT simulates a near-death state.
Psychologists often help people get over their fears by exposing them to the thing they fear in safe, incremental doses. Fear can’t stand the presence of the thing that causes it.
Scared of spiders? Hold one. Scared of heights? Climb. Scared of public speaking? Get on a stage. Scared of death? Well, of course, I’m not going to tell you to die. But, what if you could die while still being alive?
Regardless of whether you want to experiment with your mind in this way, the accounts of people who’ve experienced near-death contain a fascinating observation —
Dying seems less like a terrifying plunge into nothingness and more like an ecstatic flight into the fabric of life itself.
