DMT: Actual beings, or anthropomorphic hallucinations?

I have thought about this a lot. I have tried marijuana, psilocybin mushrooms, ipomoea violacea seeds and salvia divinorum.

So far, my conclusion is as follows: everything You experience on at the above mentioned drugs, is simply put the effect of the hallucinogenic property of the substance. Thinking that it may be otherwise, is an illusion. The interpretation of the “high” experience(s), however, is that which can reflect on the deconstruction of the same illusion. Or, perhaps it is more convenient to say, "expansion of consciousness".

The drugs stick to receptors which as a result has an increase in serotonin production. Meditation also increases the levels of serotonin. This leads to the conclusion that the generally increased feeling of well-being (which is directly influenced by the amount of serotonin in the bloodstream) leads to a state of mind which understands its current property to be an exemplary model and is building philosophy that involves supportive coexistence.

What are Your thoughts? :)

A book was written about this very thing. It is called Doors of Perception and it illustrates how various psychoactive substances open doors of perception to different dimensions. According to the author, the mind usually filters unseen dimensions out, so as not to cause confusion or be overwhelming.

Since drug-use is the only known way of accessing these dimensions, we do not yet have a way of investigating these dimensions in such a way that would allow us to distinguish misperceptions from accurate perceptions.

Our waking reality is a controlled hallucination, one that has been shaped by evolution to allow us to spread our biological material to propagate the species.

"Our sensory organs are limited: They evolved for reasons of survival, not for depicting the enormous wealth and richness of reality in all its unfathomable depth. "
-Metzinger

Our wide variety of conscious states exist on a sliding scale, none I would say is more or less real, only that our waking life is the state which most accurately represents the physical and material. The state under psilocybin may be a more accurate representation of the underlying order to our representations (by removing cognitive filtering), one that is closer to that which is being represented during our waking state.

The DMT state I do not have any experience with so I can not say, nor can anyone else that has not undergone the experience. Even if you have underwent the experience, that doesn't give you authority on the subject, but it certainly gives you a platform from which to speak from. Based on what I've read, to contrast it to the psilocybin experience which seems of this world, the DMT experience seems to be otherworldly, and perhaps that is what it is!

An important question is, what is this experience representing? Ie. our waking state represents the physical/material plane here on Earth, our dream state does something more or less similar but with fewer restrictions, psilocybin allows us to "see" with less cognitive gating and filtering, what though is DMT ?

Even in so-called regular consciousness there are those who deny, reject, and misconstrue actual experience. Almost all sociological "norms" of perception, behavior, and opinion "come from" such default lackadaisicalness. {lack of progressive and expansive understanding}

The ever perptual "non-quantum" psych-socio-political inertia that dismisses it's own participatory insightful intuition for the sake of the "lowest common denominator party line" of basic shallow materialism ... as if "relativity itself" existed beyond the limitations of the humanistic mind.

Whereas both Quantum Physics amd Entheogenic Mysticism {not necessarily limited to ingestable substances} offer direct experience beyond such slothful inertia ... from static to ecstatic .. from vaguely reasonable to wonderously unfathomable ... allowing each to become their own visionary in a highly short sighted world.

All of us seem to have the propensity to default from the new and wonderful back to the casual and familar {familiarity breeds contempt etc} in all levels of conscious experience {mere mental habituation} from the most basic to the most exotic.

Yet virtually all of our progressive value has always only come about by pioneers who do not shy away from the intrigue of the ever advancing imagination and associable experience {as if one can ever really separate the two}

Is there knowledge / wisdom beyond the relavatistic information age of inertial conformity .... beyond the limitations of the linear "past-to-future evolutionary fairy tale" ... a truly quantum / spiritual world of infinite possibility that certain "tree-or-life" organic substances are here soley to help one tune into ...

... forever beyond the forbidden fruit {tree-of-knowledge} of humanistic interpretation and judgement

"Wonder is what Mystery would do if it was conscious" ...
"Wandering is for every other possibility"
Pippalayana Muni

Recent fMRI studies of subjects under the influence of enthoegenic medicine has proved the conjecture (shared by most who have had the experience) that entheogens do not *add* neurological information, they remove filters and allow users to experience reality on a wider bandwidth. I have no experience with elf-ogenic substances so this comment should not be interpreted as taking a position on the original question. More information about the fMRI study:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9034669/Magic-mushrooms-cou...

In Sanskrit there is the word "Dhira" which loosley translates as "sober" .. yet this refers to freedom from infatuation itself, in no way limited to bodily substances.

It is used in relation to Yogis, and Sages who try to free themselves from the inertial complacency that pervades materialistic life in general. Just like most Westerned styled Monks the goal is to be sobered by a non-aggrandized life .. free from all the associable pitfalls of wealth and fame that tend to "intoxicate" the mind and inflate the ego.

There are many. many of us who by the very use of such mind-expanding substances, came to such similar conclusions all on our own, just from the organic-to-cosmic conscious "entrainment" that is so often associated with these high and lofty states.

The whole hippy trip was based on living free from such self-imposed aggrandizement {hence organic sobriety} that pervades material life ... and this "shared ideology" came mostly from use of such "non-intoxicating" substances. {pot, peyote, mushrooms etc .. the actual mind expanding substances}

So "true sobriety" is freedom from illusion itself, which many on the so-called spiritual path have simply not attained due to infatuation with ritual and dogma, which in all honesty cannot really be transcended without a mystic visionary state of acheivement .. however that comes about.

Actual revelation / realization beyond the "followership" is very rarely found. How many have been "intensely sobered" by the very visionary state offered by such "entheogenic sacrifice" ... never to return to the more intoxicating notions of material wealth and fame.

Language like anything else {including ideology itself} can easily be misconstrued and perverted by common concensus. Many of us had our very first revelations of Buddhism, Taoism, Nagualism ... the very essence of Bibilical mysticism .. peace, love, and universal brotherhood in the intense midst of such an entheogenic state ... this very website would most likely not be here without such botanical inspiration.

Such intense states of transformational potential are not for "everyone, anytime," but certainly have their unique place amidst all spirituality and coherent human life ... and there will always be those who realize such ... for others the actual experience will just never be had .. no judgement .. no disdain.

To become infatuated with psychedlia itself is not as common as most would believe, but does in fact happen ... mostly due to having to take shelter from "anything" due to the modern insanity of gross materialism, which most would easily bypass in a more understanding culture ... as in rituals of initiation and ongoing guidance from elders etc ... which in the materialitic intoxicating Western cultures tis nowhere to be found ... so many take to unnecessary indulgence .. if it wasn't entheogens it would be something else.

As long as one sticks to organic plant substances in their holistic state there will never be any actual difference between the "spiritual" and the "visionary" outside of the karmic immaturity of the individual .. once one starts playing with chemical synthetics then it is anybody's guess.

Just like food and medicine remain ultimately "non-determinational" for the soul-proper ... but still have their unique revelation ... so it is with organic plant entheogens ... none are addicting and none have any actual lasting toxicity beyond the synergy they support during the actual experience.

To say that everything is there in consciousness already is really a meaningless statement. Then why do we eat food and take medicine .. because "they exist in symbiotic relationship to consciousness" {same with entheogens} and therefore "do not exist in deteriment to consciousness" ... to try to separate the human soul from the Garden of Eden itself in the name of secular humanism is the "original sin" ... for those in the know, every organic thing is already here for a reason ... for the rest ...nothing exists outside of ones mental speculation ... free will being what it may ...

"Wonder is what Mystery would do if it was conscious" ...
"Wandering is for every other possibility"
Pippalayana Muni

Why so quick to brush off the lower level visual affects as irrelevant side effects?

If anything there more like viewing something from the surface that resides deeper below the water. Like the glimmerings of an object or fabric of a dimension that can't fully surface. I mean dmt is very similar to high doses of mushrooms and is a perfect example of this. On subbreakthroughs you can see beings, vista, the works, but it isn't as fully manifested as in the full on balls to the wall breakthrough experience.

I don't think they are just a side-stepped light show or prelude for the realizations that accompany the mushroom experience. We have this tendancy to seperate elements into their neat little categories when really its usually a seamless, interconnected web of interrelating elements on various levels and facets.

Discovering the inner (and/or outter!) mechanism of consciousness will probably also yield an explanation for these states of mind. I think these psychedelics essentially will be found, very soon perhaps, to turn on the brains non-local capacities via some sort of mechanism involving the microtubule system, which itself is involved in fascilitating our consciousness. Although i think consciousness itself is an aspect of the entire space/time continuum so its a bit hard to grok that unless your breakin through ATM!