Psychology of DMT/Ayahuasca/Changa Experience

UPDATE
Some parts of this research have been refined and included in “Consciousness Sutras. Principles of Becoming Conscious”.

This is a summary of my research on the psychological effects of the DMT molecule and the vibrational-informational experiences (generated either by exogenous plants or endogenous processes).

Perhaps this approach could be better described as a psychology of the energy&information resonance-based experiences in the body, DMT or DMT-like. But, for the sake of simplicity, I will use “DMT” and “DMT-like” sometimes, instead of vibrational-informational-resonatory experiences.

I. Introduction

In this research, I use “energy body” as a label for the variety of energy exchanges that happen in our physical body (as a result of the various forces or phenomena – e.g., chemical, electromagnetism, body heat, food processing, changes in proprioception, etc.), and not to refer to the idea of a spiritual, invisible force field which is not detectable by physics. The energy body is the result of the life processes doing “work” to maintain the functioning of a human being.

In this research, the word “resonance” is used to refer to the process of having or acquiring a “sympathetic resonance/vibration”, e.g., when two systems start to vibrate together because they develop a harmonic likeness, due to a vibratory synchronization process (resonant synchronization). The result of this reciprocal tuning is synchrony/synchronization (“sync”), as the systems start to vibrate together, using the same vibratory/oscillation pattern (they are in “sync”).

The term “ayahuasca” is used here to refer to the DMT-enhanced ayahuasca, as I have experienced it at Santo Daime, Italy, where the amount of DMT is between 0.02% and 0.06%. ^[1]

And, I link-words-like-this because it’s an effective method to provide descriptive visuals.

II. Cosmology, layers, harmonics.

1. The Psychology of the DMT experience is an experiential harmonics theory, based on a vibrational view of subjective experience.

Walter Russell, in “The Divine Iliad” and “The Secret of Light”:

“I have but one law for all My opposed pairs of creating things; and that law needs but one word to spell it out, so hear Me when I say that the one word of My one law is Balance.
And if man needs two words to aid him in his knowing of the working of that law, those two words are Balanced Interchange.
If man still needs more words to aid his knowing of My one law, give to him another one, and let those three words be Rhythmic Balanced Interchange”.
[…] “By disobeying the law, [man] is but hurting himself while on his journey, but he must make the journey and must balance every unbalanced action while on the way”. ^[2]

2. Experientially, we are linked with a version of reality where quantum physics is not accurate enough. Quantum physics is a special case of a much broader physics. We need an information theory, and a modern interpretation of Walter Russell’s insights about universal wave harmonics.

People such as Vlatko Vedral ^[3] and Antony Valentini ^[4] are right, in my opinion, when they conclude that quantum theory is not complex enough. Information is the key, but we need a “powerful” information theory that surpasses quantum mechanics. ^[5]

In Walter Russell’s writings, I found that if I replace his concept of “thought/idea/mind” with “information-related” concepts, his explanation seems to make sense to me:

“The only “work” performed in this universe is the “work” of recording thought forms of Mind-imaginings into positively charging bodies, which are expressing the vitalizing half of the Life-death cycle of creating bodies–and into negatively discharging bodies, which are expressing the devitalizing other half of that cycle […] All bodies manifest eternal Idea by eternally repeating their manifestations of Idea in continuous cycles which have no beginnings or endings. To exemplify: cold generates–generation contracts–contraction heats–heat radiates–radiation expands and expansion cools.” ^[2]

I have no idea why physicists and cosmologists are not offering Russell’s insights more credit. During my researches, I have seen that he is somewhat included in the “electric universe” framework, although his insights are more complex than just the “electric approach”. And the actual “electric universe” movement seems to have nothing to do with his nondual-experiential insights about the dynamics of the energy-matter-information. Indeed, his style reflects the culture and the language of his time, but beyond words, I consider his views to be excellent proposals for a nondual approach to physics.

As a personal opinion, I think that Russell had an endogenous DMT burst, in May 1921, when he described the experience of a vibrational “awakening” ^[2], and as a result, he switched to unitary/nondual perception and thinking.

3. The essential features of reality, necessary and sufficient to describe subjective vibrational-hypersync-experience (DMT or DMT-like) are space, information, energy, matter & organic-cell systems. Energy and information are fundamental forms of bookkeeping.

I have included these basic features of reality as layers of experience, in the model of the conscious experience ^[6]. Time dynamics are irrelevant for perceptual experiences, as time is always now. The cognition content can be about the past or future, but the process itself happens in the present moment.

In their discussion in “The Deep Physics Behind the Second Law: Information and Energy as Independent Forms of Bookkeeping”, Todd Duncan and Jack Semura are (experientially) correct, in my opinion:

“We pursue the notion that the second law is ultimately a restriction operating directly on the dynamics of information, so the existence of this law can be traced to the need for a system of “information bookkeeping” that is independent of the bookkeeping for energy. Energy and information are related but independent, so the dynamical restrictions for one cannot be derived from those for the other…. When energy and information are exchanged between two systems, the dynamics of energy exchange does not uniquely determine the information exchanged.” ^[7]

I was unable to explain the DMT experiences until I found their research; they explain the connection between information dynamics and energy dynamics and the link between heat flow and information loss.

4. The wave structure of the Universe consists of a universal wave, which develops harmonically related waves, on various wavelengths and octaves, and each of these does the same.

The above principle is inspired by Ray Tomes and his research on harmonics and cycles. ^[8]This is how the wave structure is described by Walter Russell, in “The Universal One”:

“The wave is nature’s method of transferring the dimensionless concept of form in inertia to dimensional form in mass in motion by an impact of the energy of the concept against the inertial plane. All waves are the expression of force, a record of the universal constant or its multiples in accumulated energy. The dimensions of any wave are the dimensions of the multiples, in universal ratios, of the energy constant represented by that wave.

Waves are not undulations such as those produced by the shaking of a rope up and down. They are actions and reactions beginning at and growing from harmonic points of impact upon the inertial plane of the wave. Nor are waves continuations of motion beginning at one source and transferred in sequence. Waves are simultaneously generated from inertia at intervals which are sequential, and in dimensions which are opposed and sequential. Sequential intervals of the expression of force in motion are simultaneously recorded on the inertial planes of equilibrium of each consecutive octave of motion.

Within each consecutive octave every expression of motion is sequentially produced and reproduced in every atom of every element until it is finally recorded in the inertial planes. All of the energy of the universal constant is existent in inertia and all of its variations in accumulation are stored in the sequential inertial planes of equilibrium which have their chemical representation in the inert gases, from which they borrow their appearance of existence of mass in motion.” ^[9]

One more thing here: energy and matter waves flow inside this grid of potentialities, or cube ^[10], in Russell’s view, as some harmonies, and according to this view, there is no need for “dark energy”. The universe stays in place (also) because of its inertial movements (the echoes of this inertia in the information layer is what I refer to as “topological-information”).

If I use the cube from Russell’s view, I would add that I have seen in my explorations that the cubic-potentials-field is not quite a cube, with 90 degrees corners. It is bent, and swirled, in fractal ways. Perhaps in empty space, the cube is perfectly cubic, and where there is matter-energy, it is bent, or denser.

Another comment on Russell’s insights: I think that inert gases, from Russell’s cosmology, may indeed be considered as some sort of recorders, or keepers, as seen from a resonance perspective. It would be natural for each octave to have a keeper, to maintain the resonance dynamics of the elements in that octave as a whole. But I don’t see them as akashic records, as some interpretations of Russell’s work suggest.

5. Each point in space is an intersection of energy potentials, wave movements, and matter interactions. Each point in space is crossed-by/embedded-in waves, with various wavelengths, the larger one being the wavelength of the entire universe (or bubble), that is now in its radiation phase. So, in each point of space, there is a “topological information” available, about the global and the local dynamics of energy-matter.

“Topological information” is a concept I use to describe the qualities of the universal wave to be a coherent process as a whole, each point in space embedding information about the sub-supra-waves dynamics and interactions, direction-curvature of movement, intensity, speed, rhythms, etc. Topological information doesn’t need to travel. All is already one information pack; everything flows and pulsates inside the universal wave. Since our local universe started, it has moved continuously, and the position, dynamics, and qualities of an atom result from this inertial-ever-changing movement.

There is no need to maintain information about past movements in the topological information layer. The universal wave only keeps the information about the present moment vibration style. The way the atom moves through space, as part of stars, planets, or humans, depends on the previous position/dynamics and the system-wavelength dynamics. The “standing wave” theory seems on the right track, experientially.

Janna Levin: “If unification of gravity with the other forces ever succeeds, topology will inevitably be integrated as a predictive feature of any cosmology. In the meantime, we know that space is curved and evolving and most also possess some topology. Still, as many fear, the topology scale may naturally be far beyond the observable universe. If this is the case, we can turn to physics on the smallest scales to learn something about what we will never see on the largest scales. If an ultimate theory of gravity beyond Einstein’s is able to predict the geometry and topology of small extra dimensions, there is every reason to hope we will learn, if only indirectly, the geometry and topology of the large dimensions.” ^[12]

One of the many ways the universe happens, is through this topologically-transmitted information about potentials. So, at each point in space, energy-matter has a range of possible options for moving and vibrating. Various processes in the universe on other wavelengths can influence the tendencies to vibrate/flow/move in the present moment.

6. These layers/blocks of reality (space, information, energy, matter & organic-cell systems) are partially accessible through perception during DMT hyper-sync.

Rodolphe Chabrier, the visual effects supervisor of the movie “Renegade/Blueberry”, by Jan Kounen, which includes graphic depictions of ayahuasca experiences, decided to take ayahuasca himself, so that he could understand what it is all about.

“The experience had a profound effect on me, although not to the extent of what it had done to Jan, admits Chabrier. However, after my first trance, I was convinced that there was no way this experience could be shown on film. To me, even if you filmed it in IMAX and projected it at Showscan speed (60 fps), it still would only represent 1/1000th of the real thing! I couldn’t see how we could possibly do it.” ^[13]

When I talk about “access”, I don’t mean remote viewing or other “paranormal” things, or how to use this connection to the global wave-field to get “accurate” information about other places outside our body senses. I only refer to the inner experience, inside our body (or energy body), empathy with other beings, and information we get from the environment using the regular sensing-perceiving instruments, as they are tuned by Life in the last million years.

So, there are waves in each point of space, and there is information available through perception, but this doesn’t mean that humans can decode it accurately. For the moment, science and rational thinking are all we have, as “certified” meaning-making tools.

7. On each order of magnitude, some systems vibrate together at the same wavelength. At the same time, each point in space is influenced in various degrees by all other movements on larger/lower orders of magnitude, with different wavelengths.

The influences in-between layers of reality have various degrees of intensity; some local events are locally transforming, without any significant impact on a larger system.

Although a global process may look like it has zero influence on local dynamics (e.g., water flowing process & H₂0 atomic elements dynamics), all the local processes are changing their position in space. Everything flows, and events seem frozen on larger scales due to their larger wavelength. ^[14]

Below is an analysis of the various frequency bands existing human body, as described by Anirban Bandyopadhyay (excerpt from a personal communication):

“We are proposing here an integrated model of the whole brain and the body from 10¹⁵ Hz to 10^-15Hz, here 12 ranges of frequency bands and associated components are outlined along with major carrier type (ions for proteins and neurotransmitters for neuron firing, etc.) and interactions (electrical, mechanical or electromechanical). In our model, the entire human brain-body system is made of 1030 primary frequencies.

In the wheel, one could see 8 rings, the 8th level is at the center, colored white, is just one frequency, make a journey ring by ring, at the last ring numbered 8th, there are 864 lines, represented as 108 groups, each with 8 lines, each line representing one frequency. Then each group of eight is represented with one central frequency in the second layer, thus, the second layer is made of 108 frequencies. Now, three frequencies of the second layer are controlled by a common central frequency and those are accounted in the third layer, so it is the first triplet layer with 36 frequencies.

Then three frequencies of this layer again form a triplet in the fourth layer, wherein we have 12 frequencies. Now, 12 frequencies could make triplets with 4 frequencies (4X3=12) or quartet with 3 frequencies (3X4=12), these are represented in the fifth and the sixth layer, hence its a duality. Now, for 4 frequencies we can have another layer of 2X2, which is the seventh layer and the 8th layer has one frequency. Thus, 864 + 108 + 36 + 12 + 4 + 3 + 2 +1 =1030 frequencies form a nested network defining entire brain-body architecture.”

The order of magnitude is essential for understanding the DMT experience because the perspective and the attention schema can be expanded or minimized, or can become multidimensional, allowing a connection with the events happening on that specific wavelength. During the DMT experience, the flexibility is increasing and, as attention, cognition, and perceptions are all in sync, it allows connections and transfer of some information from that wavelength world.

8. Life is a harmonic intelligence system embedded in energy waves and matter, existing in-between a fixed interval in the spectrum of wavelengths. This mechanical-but-creative-intelligence-developing-self-awareness can be partially observed through some DMT experiences.

Life is a part of the electromagnetic spectrum, a part of the great resonance chain of reality:

9. Biological-Life is the only known process that records the information about its past dynamics in a self-reflecting and local way, through various recording systems, including DNA and books. Some Life systems (e.g., humans, some animals) can choose to act or not according to the embedded inertial tendencies.

But, in my view, to explain the dynamics of Life, there is no need for a “planetary morphogenetic field”. Through all its local processes interconnected as systems of systems, life dynamics is the “morphogenetic field”. The dynamics of Life process are integrated with the universal-wave-harmonics, as various types of resonance fields. Life-less reality doesn’t need to keep track of “previous” positions in “time”, it just resonates continuously, and it moves based on inertial movements, updated in each moment with resonance-provided information. ^[14b]

10. Attention is an informational reflection of the self-feedback mechanisms embedded in matter/wave dynamics. Attention to attention itself is an evolutionary skill, a system based on stable synchrony of the feedback mechanism itself, generating the wide-awake experience of witnessing awareness and perceptual presence.

The conscious self-reflecting system that is evolving inside Life has limited access to the dynamics of the various harmonics, either mineral or organic. Through DMT experiences, humans (or other Life systems of Earth) can temporarily access information from different layers (their structure, and dynamics), through synchronizing to that specific wavelength/scale, using perceptual or cognitive “frames-of-reference”.

Usually, for humans, the DMT experience is very intense, and the automatic patterns of the body-mind interfere with the ability to manipulate the sync style consciously. As a species, we are not in sync, so an essential part of the DMT-syncing energy is used to keep our systems in reasonable harmony.

In the DMT experiences, there is so much informational novelty, that the conscious processing mechanisms are overloaded, and the conscious experience tends to go with the flow (by abandoning into experience). But I have met people who can partially interact with the ayahuasca experience intensity interactively, even at high doses. Experience matters.

Perhaps in time, as the evolution of the human species advances, we will be more in-balance in our everyday lives. During the DMT experience, we will be able to process a more profound transfer and sync with various wavelengths without being overloaded by information. I am confident that, in the future, humans may navigate the DMT experience with fully conscious awareness and instant understanding of what is happening.

As I am an optimist, I invite you to visualize a journey:

It is all about being awake through awareness through attention-schema through multi-faceted perceptions in the body, and learning how to use various types of attention-perceptual schema, and how to densify the perceptual experience through combining perceptions by sync-ing them (reducing the number of computations necessary to understand each part), while allowing Life waves to pass through our vibrational grid of potentialities, while being able to maintain a moment-by-moment clarity about what’s happening, using the visual thinking in the “psychedelic visions” style as a feedback tool.

When flowing through DMT vibrational experience, the content is irrelevant for understanding and managing the experience. The type of flowing is what matters most. The speed of information is so high, that it is impossible to decompress it entirely and understand it logically moment-by-moment.

But, using psychedelic visions as a feedback tool, we can navigate through the experience while having a glimpse of understanding. The “feel” of the visions is essential, not what generated it. Inside the DMT experience, we can navigate by heart, so to speak, using the emotion of the vision as a perceptual carrier wave.

It’s all about… the vibrational harmonies that we can tune into. It is a static dance of inner flows while synchronizing with the flows we are part of in our lives. As Walter Russell would say, perhaps it is about the dance of the rhythmic balanced interchange happening in us as us, as Life.

End of the journey here. I hope you enjoyed the visuals.

III. DMT hyper-synchrony.

11. DMT increases the inner synchrony, enhancing perception and expanding the qualities of our sensitivity, resulting in perceptual subjective experiences of knowing-through-living-by-perceiving-thinking. It puts all our inner systems in a state of higher connectivity with reality within ourselves, depending on the person’s fluidity and awakeness skills. In terms of inner connectivity, it can be considered a temporary experience of intense synesthesia. ^[16]

My inner experiences showed me that there are no such things as hyperspace; we are not accessing a different space. It is the same space as ever, around us, as studied by physics and cosmology. We are different during the DMT experience, as we are in a state of hypersynchrony. So, instead of considering the DMT journeys as voyages into an imaginary hyperspace, let’s think in terms like… actual space, on various wavelengths, hypersync processes, and various types of lenses used for perceptions, and see if we can notice what we connect to, and what is the translation of that layer in our perceptions and visual thinking.

Here is an example of rational analysis: what is happening in the eyes during DMT-induced visual-thinking visions? What if the eyes are, in fact, symbols for the natural feedback mechanism embedded in the wave, manifested at the boundary of our energy body?

If we consider Russell’s wave mechanics, let’s say the cubic wave field is the size of a human body. Then, according to the 3D representation realized by Hannah Van Houcke, after kundalini goes up and reaches the top margin (Sahasrara chakra), it flips. ^[15]

So, the limit of the cubic wave field human-size is the limit where the mirroring-self-feedback happens; therefore, the eyes are a good symbol for the felt experience. The eyes are at the boundary of the wave field, so… when the wave gets its feedback-through-potentials-preferencing, it flips, and the visual thinking encodes/translates this feedback as eyes.

This energy-wave shape may also be encoded in the subjective experience as a “dome” (that some people encounter during their DMT journeys). When the sync wave activates, a global wave is pulsing once, through the entire body, as kundalini rise to the top of the head (eyes, dome). Then, the ego disappears (using Russell’s terminology, after charging – going up, it discharges at the rim of the field, generating various subjective experiences of completion, like dying… after breaking through something).

Another example of rational analysis: Sahasrara chakra has the lotus flower as its symbol, but the pattern is, in fact, quite similar to the physical wave-interference patterns.

I don’t consider the chakras a valuable model for describing the DMT experience, except it provides a reflective systems-thinking toward the body and its parts-organs and functions. Biological cellular energy between the cells is not the perfect shape-atomic-sacred-geometry style. We have self-organizing nature and rivers and trees inside the body, not some energy-buildings along the spine-area, each with a watchful one-eye in their center coordinating everything around.

This is just an authoritarian mindset of meaning-making, specific to the traditional layer of thinking. But, if a person experiencing with ayahuasca has the chakra mindset, the hypersync will connect retina, perception, and thinking, and they may get a lovely perceptual vision of a multidimensional chakra.

12. DMT tends to activate more visual spatio-temporal thinking, manifested as “visions-daydreams”. The speed of visual thinking is higher through images, and the rich causal content makes the perceived speed even faster, because “causal events enter awareness faster than non-causal events“. ^[16b]

The perceived high-speed of DMT experience is due to these three factors: visual thinking happening fast, the preference toward causal thinking increasing the speed even further ^[17], and the fact they causal events enter conscious awareness experience faster.

The remarkable intensity of the DMT experience comes from these elements: a denser content due to the increased receptiveness, increased synesthesia providing more connections between components, in a multidimensional way, a higher speed of processing due to the visual-causal thinking, and a faster entrance of causal content into awareness.

13. During ayahuasca experiences, there is an instant reconsolidation and updating of memory and patterns, due to the intense connection between body perception, visual-thinking, and ego fluidity.

The intensity of the experience is so strong, that the “let go” of the fixed ego structure is necessary, and when this happens, it provides the “break-through” subjective experience. After the person enters a state of flux, due to the hypersync, new connections are formed. The reconsolidation ^[19] occurs not only in the cognitive-informational layer, but also in the body perceptions, and energy-flowing patterns.

For westerners, Ayahuasca seems to prefer reconsolidating autobiographical memory, focused on causal events. During intense energy intervals, because the causal events enter awareness faster, the experience has more information about causal connections. As the perceptual-visual flux is very dense, while being primed ^[20] on causal connections, a % of attention gets triggered by the causal content, and then gets in a loop and stays connected to causal information. So, the horizontal information about qualities and facets of elements doesn’t have time to unfold, as the flux brings new information, on and on.

The reconsolidation of autobiographical memory may also be verbal, not just visual (or mixed). An inner dialogue may appear, like talking to someone or ourselves, or with some entities, or with Life Intelligence itself, or with aliens; it all depends on our psyche. But, the essential quality of this dialogue is that it is felt like a very truth-full discussion. As, in fact, it is.

14. The fractal-style shapes (Shipibo-like ^[20b], rectangular, etc.) seen in the DMT experience are a combined experience, mainly coming from the retina-excitation, with some influences from various layers of reality that become perceptually accessible.

As a personal experience, once while I was in a dense-sync experience facilitated by changa, I opened my eyes, and for a few moments, I saw in the air something similar to Indra’s net, an HD waves interference patterns ^[23]. It was due to the retina perception, mixed with the outer environment. I tried to observe how this layering creates the experience of “seeing the net in the air in front of my eyes”. After the high sync passed, the effect diminished.

The following explanation is speculative, but that would clarify the question: “Are the grid-fractal-DMT-visuals 100% hallucinations?”. My answer is that they are mostly “hallucinations” (from hyper-excitation of the retina and also creations of the visual thinking) and partly some magnetic perception – maybe due to the CRY2 cryptochrome protein in the human eye or other magnetic sensors in the body.

Roswitha Wiltschko, one of the scientists who first discovered the magnetic sense of birds, says, “To sense the magnetic field, one does not only need a molecule like cryptochrome, but also an apparatus that picks up the changes in that molecule and mediates it to the brain. Drosophila obviously has this apparatus, but humans? I have my doubts.” Steven Reppert, who led the new study, is also cautious. However, he notes that Cry2 is heavily active in the human retina. “It’s beautifully poised to sense light but we don’t know if it has the downstream pathways that communicate magnetic information to the brain. The possibility exists.” ^[24]

During the DMT hyper-sync, the vibrational synchrony allows some magnetic information to flow into the global perceptual system. The “vibrational sync” is a possible candidate for a downstream information pathway. But, I think that only “some” magnetic information can be perceived, because the microtubules’ “wifi” resonance field doesn’t carry detailed information. The CRY2 protein can only transmit (through the vibrational-sync) “some” topological information about magnetic properties, such as shape, positioning, and vibratory styles.

Now, time will tell if this speculation connecting DMT-microtubules-CRY2 and visual-grid-fractals-vortices have some value or not. The idea that humans may perceive magnetic fields is an ongoing international research, and the eyes may not be the only way humans can perceive magnetism. ^[25]

In my view, humans do have some ways to detect and adapt to changes in all essential energy layers: electric, magnetic, gravitational, and “biological life energy” (energy in living systems, on every scale of magnitude, mainly chemically-produced, from the ATP energy in the cells, used in metabolic pathways, to the energy used for cells aggregation and functioning together as an individual body or as a social group).

But we also have temperature sensitivity, balance-positioning sense, and other energy-related senses. How these energy-senses change under the influence of the DMT molecule remains to be discovered.

15. The types of information that can be accessed during DMT experiences are the layers of reality itself, including topological information on all scales, fractally expanding on all orders of magnitude.

James Kent has described the information layers that can be accessed during psychedelic experiences. ^[26]

He comments: “When a shaman enters the trance state and searches for new information, there are specific levels of knowledge which are more helpful than others. For instance, when entering group mind with the tribe, the shaman will want to access a pre-technology Δ6 information matrix where primal animal consciousness, non-verbal communication, and pack bonding instincts are strongest. If the shaman wants to commune with plant intelligence he will enter into a Δ5 matrix of cellular metabolism and genetic expression; this is also where the shaman will diagnose disease and attempt healing by visualizing and diverting the flow of metabolic energy through the patient’s cells with bodywork and sound. Some shaman may also commune with the more cosmic levels of awareness, but shamanism is essentially a Δ7 technology used by Δ6 organisms to access information available in Δ0-5 matrices; information which is always present but is normally invisible or beyond the limits of human perception.” ^[26]

But, the access is just one step; the interpretation of the perceived information is the other half of the picture.

16. The high resolution (Hrez) and low resolution (Lrez) density of perception depend on the intensity of the sync. The synchronizing process can release energy, when body-related systems are doing “work“ to synchronize themselves. Condensed energy (as “jets”), or diffused energy (as “heat” or “electric-like sensations”) may be released through the energy-body as a natural effect of the self-tuning process.

Read more about the information-energy connection in this paper: “The Deep Physics Behind the Second Law: Information and Energy as Independent Forms of Bookkeeping”, by Todd Duncan and Jack Semura:

“The limited accessibility of energy in the form of heat can be treated as a loss of information about the detailed state of the system. We cannot transfer all of that energy into some other degree of freedom because we do not know exactly where it is and don’t have direct control over it.

[…] So when energy is exchanged between two systems, information is also exchanged, but the dynamics of energy exchange does not uniquely determine the information exchanged. For the same amount of energy, different amounts of information can flow in or out of a system. This is why temperature is necessary as a parameter to describe the system – it specifies the relationship between information and energy

[…] With this background, we can make the direct link between heat flow and information loss. Consider an exchange of heat between a hot system at temperature TH and a cooler system at temperature TC. If the net heat flow ΔQ is from hot to cold as required by the Clausius form of the second law, this is equivalent to a net erasure of information from the world. To see this requires only a restatement of the standard textbook treatment describing the change in accessible states in the two systems”. ^[27]

Many people who experience with changa report about this “warm-ness” quality that persists in the body, some minutes/hours after the changa-induced experience. I hope the above explanation will be a helpful view.

Additional information regarding my observations: it seems that we can access Hrez DMT-like synchronies while the body is relaxed.

For a while, I wondered, how is that possible? I mean, how can I access a high-density experience with barely any energy consumption, while I am in a very relaxed state just by using the inner sound in the “gamma” pitch-mode as a frequency feedback tool? Well, I thought I might be delusional, but then I found out about “intramolecular vibrational energy transfer” ^[28]. So, it looks like the molecules can evolve into different electronic states without loss or gain of energy. “An electronic state is defined by the electron configuration of the system, and by the quantum numbers of each electron contributing to that configuration. Each electronic state corresponds to one of the energy levels of the molecule” ^[29]. For the moment, I fail to understand the resonance chain between intramolecular activity and subjective experience, except for the confirmation bias that “it seems to be a connection”.

17. The densely-packed information, accessed during DMT peaks, can be perceived as ”downloads” of information. This is a natural property of the Hrez visual-perceptual thinking style compared to the Lrez everyday style. Because of its multidimensionality, even one simple causal Hrez DMT scene can have an intense meaning-making message, which can be later “unzipped” and re-encoded into the everyday lifestyle as usable information.

James Kent: Using interrupt envelopes we can contrast smoked Salvia or inhaled N₂0 with vaporized DMT (N,N-dimethyltryptamine), which when smoked has similar onset and duration to both substances but very different hallucinogenic effects. Unlike the slow throbbing periodicity of N₂0 or Salvia, vaporized DMT produces an interrupt frequency associated with a high-pitched carrier wave and high-speed frame flicker (24-30+ Hz).

The frequency of DMT’s interrupt is so rapid the entire body ramps up in panicked response to the new driver. The rate of DMT’s visual frame flicker is fast enough to instantly produce geometric hallucinations and fully realized animations.

Taking these subjective effects into account we can model DMT’s interrupt envelope as having a moderate attack, long decay, medium sustain, long release, and high frequency (24-30+ Hz). The moderate attack means DMT’s perceptual frame interference is less of a physical throbbing than N₂0, but because of a higher frequency and longer frame release the rendering of DMT hallucination is more fluid, detailed, seamlessly aliased, and fades longer over a higher number of frames.” ^[26]

IV. The DMT experience.

18. The subjective DMT experience is different every time. Entering the DMT experience using changa is accompanied by a vibrational centering toward one-self (body-energy). This is a spontaneous type of pratyahara ^[26b], the withdrawal of the senses toward the inside. As a result, many people report the sensation as if “air is being sucked from the space around”.

When the journey begins, attention is automatically attracted by the density of the hypersync, and it tends to lock locally to content about the here-now experience, but in a multidimensional way.

Here is how a psychonaut describes the experience: “When you smoke this, the onset is very rapid. 30-45 seconds, you know? There’s this feeling which comes over your body – half arousal, half anesthesia. The air appears to suddenly have been sucked out of the room because all the colors brighten visibly, as though some intervening medium has been removed. And then there’s a sound, like a piece of bread wrapper or cellophane being scrunched up and thrown away.” ^[30]

19. The high-pitched sound that appears during DMT experiences, usually called “carrier wave”, results from the self-tuning energy, due to the “pressure” of the hyper-synchronizing process. I use the term “inner sound”, as I noticed that this sound becomes noticeable not only in DMT experience, but also when people begin their transformational journeys in Life or go through transformative times (usually, the inner sound is diagnosed as tinnitus).

I experienced various types of harmonies of the inner sound, so I cannot say there is just one type ^[30b]. I was happy to discover this article about tinnitus: “The Brain: “Ringing in the Ears Actually Goes Much Deeper Than That” ^[31], confirming somehow my hypothesis that the carrier wave/tinnitus may be a result of a transformational time with increased synchrony happening (perhaps related to the endogenous DMT production):

“Winfried Schlee of the University of Konstanz in Germany and his colleagues have been making some of the most detailed studies of tinnitus ever, using a method called magnetoencephalography (MEG, for short). They take advantage of the fact that every time neurons send each other signals, their electric current creates a tiny magnetic field. MEG allows scientists to detect such changing patterns of activity in the brain 100 times per second.

Schlee and his colleagues find widespread differences in the brains of people with tinnitus and those without it. A network of regions in the brains of people with tinnitus tend to fire their neurons in sync. Schlee has determined that his tinnitus-stricken subjects have a more synchronized pattern of signals coming out of regions in the front and the back of the brain. (For brain anatomy junkies, they are the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex in the front; in the back, they are the precuneus and posterior cingulate cortex.) Schlee and his colleagues also discovered a more strongly synchronized flow of signals coming into the temporal cortex—a region that includes the auditory cortex—in people with tinnitus.” ^[31]

I like to use inner sound as a feedback tool, as described in “Entheogenic Insights II: How to Activate and Navigate Intentional Visionary Experiences”. ^[32]

20. During DMT experience, unless the person has the witnessing awareness active (attention to attention itself, allowing a relative control of attention schema), the speed of the experience pushes attention to divide much more than in a usual daily state, accompanied by rapid visual saccades or global-attention-locking.

Attention tends to respond quickly to various perceptual-cognitive stimuli, making the inner experience very rich, in an immersed way. The attention schema can reorganize quickly, giving the experience its multi-dimensional feature.

Once, during a ceremony at Santo Daime, I observed a person who was just looking at the collective energy field of the group, from outside, and his eyes were doing rapid saccades, but in a very intentional and conscious way. I asked him after the ceremony what he was doing. He told me that he was collecting energy with his eyes, especially the energy present in the circle-field, because people were not using it. I am not commenting here if it was a fact or just a subjective impression; all I want to say is that attention and samyama are powerful tools, and the hyper-sync states invite us to do unusual things.

I found a similar phenomenon in a video with a person experiencing LSD while being interviewed by Simon Cohen. See how her saccades and her inner experience are connected, and how she gets cognitive information from the field during saccades. ^[33]

21. The stages of the smoked DMT experience, as described by Terence McKenna are just a part of the synchronizing process, reflecting the whole body synchronization and the fluidification of the ego. People who don’t have previous experiences or encounters with “the void”, in meditation or during transformational times, seem to follow this path as it is the first effect of the synchronizing mechanism.

In terms of stages of ego complexity, unless people have transitioned to the ego-aware stage ^[34], the smoked DMT experiences may follow this path. In a research by YouTube user Getiemoko, 30 DMT reports were analyzed, and these are the stages that seem to be experienced culturally/collectively ^[35]:

“02:06 – Can’t fight the beginning
02:40 – Everything is splitting itself
03:28 – Seeing energy through bodies
04:32 – Tunnel
05:58 – Intense sound
07:16 – Black space
08:16 – Geometric colorful complex patterns
09:16 – Perfect details / Mathematics
10:07 – Understanding everything
11:47 – Home / Deja vu feeling
13:12 – Entities appearing
15:08 – Entities asking you to calm down
16:22 – Entities showing something
18:17 – Indescribable cube
21:23 – Feeling scared
22:58 – Dying
24:03 – Breaking through
26:54 – Final impression
29:52 – Forgetting all the knowledge
31:57 – Felt like forever”.^[35]

22. In my view, the hierarchy of vision types, as described in The Psychedelic Experience ^[35b] is not necessarily a specific one; instead, these “stages” are, in fact, “layers”. The experience does indeed happen in the order described by Leary, but only when we take a navigation path through ego dissolution. Instead, in conscious visionary experiences, we can select other paths, and these layers described by Leary become available perspectives in the multidimensional awareness experience.

I have described these layers in the field notes “How to Activate and Navigate Intentional Visionary Experiences”. ^[32]

This diversity of DMT experiences is due to the “synchronizing” nature of experience. Except for the familiarity with vibrational styles, in the DMT experience, everything is configured uniquely, each time we explore.

23. The visual flows (visual thinking and perceptual visuals related to the eye retina) can be used as a feedback tool for navigating through DMT experiences intentionally and interactively.

When visual thinking is active (as in a dreamy state), visions can be similar to a lucid dream but with an intense meaning-making structure (including self-referential ideas, archetypes, fears, projections, elves, images from past, future, images generated as echoes after accessing a specific layer of reality connected by the attention schema).

In pure perceptual visuals, based on retina processing, people see fractals, Shipibo shapes, grids, etc.

For more information about how to train these visual-perceptual mechanisms, and how to use them as a feedback tool for navigating the DMT experience, please read my field notes on “Depth Perception, Space Awareness, and Other Visual Explorations” ^[36] and “How to Activate and Navigate Intentional Visionary Experiences”. ^[32]

24. During collective experiences with ayahuasca, such as the ceremonies at Santo Daime, the synchronizing process is facilitated by the collective, it may happen that a person would process a collective blockage, helping all the others; or a person may cry, without having a personal reason, but because it helps another person in the group who is energy-stuck.

I was amazed to experience and observe this collective healing in Santo Daime ceremonies. This intelligent redistribution of tasks, each individual being a part of The One and being taken care of by The One, is based on resonance. When, during a high sync, a participant has a release, a let go of something, sometimes the release is felt by the entire group.

The profoundness of eye contact during the intense waves of Life force, well, that is another fantastic experience worth trying.

25. Dancing during ayahuasca experiences helps to maintain awareness in the perceptual here-now moment, as compared to static experiences. The sync feels better, and everything flows better when dancing. The Santo Daime style is good, including chanting, rhythmic breathing, focus, and dancing. From all the methods I have tried, I prefer the “Yin/Wu Tai Chi”-like “style” of flowing, but without a strict pattern.

When I encountered the Santo Daime movement, I thought that vomiting was regularly happening during ayahuasca sessions. Still, to my surprise, including the dance and chanting, the Santo Daime methodology allowed the energy to flow, without expelling anything. I rarely saw people vomiting at the Santo Daime ceremonies. Instead, I have seen hard work (“cura”), centering, joy, ecstasy, love, caring, and amazing collective vibes. ^[36b]

With time, I discovered that authentic dance in the tai-chi style allows me to manage the high-energy vibrational experiences, and keep the energy flowing, thus re-synchronizing everything while I keep everything inside me as it is, and surpass the tendency to throw away things. I mean, using “tai-chi” styles but allowing a spontaneous flow of movements, without a specific direction schema. ^[36c]

26. The ayahuasca experience has long-term after effects, happening months/years after the experience, depending on the person’s allowance of the inner transformation.

The deep integration needs time, and it is not guaranteed that experiencing with ayahuasca once or twice will start a profound process. On the other side, if experienced too frequently, the DMT hypersync may not have time to produce the necessary structural transformation in the psyche.

As a post-effect, people may experience vibrational hypersync / DMT-like experiences in dreams. ^[37]

27. Sometimes, the vibrational hypersync configuration (DMT or DMT-like) can be activated by ganja, or LSD, or magic mushrooms, or other substances, or it can happen naturally in transformational crises, or other intense moments of our life (perhaps due to the endogenous DMT production, or other chemical/neurotransmitters – but that remains to be explored by science).

If people are vibrationally open to new synchrony styles, during the LSD experience, the vibrational hypersync may activate, sometimes interpreted as a kundalini activation. Also, ganja, as a skilled navigator, can take us to the hypersync configuration. Some people use monoatomic elements in combination with DMT, with good results.

For a good review of the endogenous DMT research up to 2010, check this paper “A critical review of reports of endogenous psychedelic N, N-dimethyltryptamines in humans: 1955–2010” by Steven Barker, Ethan McIlhenny, and Rick Strassman ^[38]. For in-depth information regarding the endogenous DMT research, take a look at the DMT Quest project, developed by John Chavez (aka Q4LT). ^[39]

28. The DMT experience is interpreted based on the ego development stage, and it highly depends on the active awakeness skills. The cultural background also has an important role in interpretation.

I tried to be technical in this research, as much as I could so that people with various backgrounds could properly use the information.

29. It may happen that for some individuals, the DMT experience could lead afterward to ego trips (ego hijacking ^[40]), spiritual-framework absorption, or aliens/energy-beings framework absorption, or side effects such as psychotic-like disintegration or ego inflation.

If the person doesn’t have a good grip on their ego structure, and a mature ego configuration, and the DMT hypersync brings in a lot of repressed or ignored information, the chances are that the ego will be overwhelmed by the flux and collapse or react with an ego trip.

V. Afterword.

During this research, the objective was to compile a bigger picture that does not conflict with any of the ideas I encountered, but rather to include them as local views or subsystems. So, I have chosen to list the conclusions as a coherent story, in an easy-to-read style. The principles and descriptions presented here are my main conclusions regarding the DMT experience.

As a psychologist, I would say that these are the basic assumptions, used to describe the variety of phenomena related to the exogenous-endogenous DMT experiences. Some of the principles I listed here are well-known facts, but the idea was to include only the facts that are necessary and sufficient to make sense of the DMT experience. After I completed this framework, I read descriptions of DMT experiences (on DMT-Nexus forum or elsewhere) for some months to see if I could understand the experiences and the ways people got their experiences. As I couldn’t find any experience that I couldn’t make sense of, I decided that it was time to write it and share it. As time goes by, I will probably upgrade and refine this framework and include more technical details in some principles.

I am thankful to all the people who helped me understand more about DMT experiences, sharing their experiences through the internet or books.

My special thanks to Filippo Caffettieri, Enrico Dassisti, Fiorenza Tallarico, and the Santo Daime community in Reggio Emilia, Cornelia Câcu, Blaise Templier, Leon Zagrean, Walter Menozzi, and Anirban Bandyopadhyay, Dünya Aydoğdu, Rick Strassman, Robbert Bengt, Tina Kat Courtney, Q4LT, Ethan McIlhenny, Sarah Wu, Bucurie, Miu, Tina, Imagika Om, Ede Frecska, Simo Necic, Katie Mottram, James Kent, and the DMT-Nexus community.