There is some evidence that seems to indicate that the humans have an evolved "built in" reaction to snake/snake like patterns:<p><a href="http://www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/cd/12_1/Ohman.cfm" rel="nofollow">http://www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/cd/12_1/Ohman.c...</a><p><i>As reptiles, snakes may have signified deadly threats in the environment of early mammals. We review findings suggesting that snakes remain special stimuli for humans. Intense snake fear is prevalent in both humans and other primates. Humans and monkeys learn snake fear more easily than fear of most other stimuli through direct or vicarious conditioning. Neither the elicitation nor the conditioning of snake fear in humans requires that snakes be consciously perceived; rather, both processes can occur with masked stimuli. Humans tend to perceive illusory correlations between snakes and aversive stimuli, and their attention is automatically captured by snakes in complex visual displays. Together, these and other findings delineate an evolved fear module in the brain. This module is selectively and automatically activated by once-threatening stimuli, is relatively encapsulated from cognition, and derives from specialized neural circuitry.</i><p>This makes sense, as humans have evolved along venomous snakes for presumably a very long time.<p>Is it possible that when drug users of a wide variety of backgrounds report similar hallucinations (here insects), it taps into similar mechanisms, activating neural pathways that deal with the recognition of insects?
Datura users are also commonly reported by observers to act out hallucinations involving insects. While the user often recalls an entirely different mental experience, it's common for their physical selves to be seen picking at imaginary bugs on the floor in a primal manner (among other reflexive actions, such as convincingly smoking imaginary cigarettes).<p>It is interesting and darkly humorous (keep in mind that datura is very dangerous) to read the Erowid trip reports for datura. Quite a few of them are along the lines of "I took datura, I had vivid hallucinations for three days with no relation to reality, and then I woke up naked in a hospital / jail".<p><a href="https://erowid.org/experiences/subs/exp_Datura.shtml" rel="nofollow">https://erowid.org/experiences/subs/exp_Datura.shtml</a>
My latest working theory for why DMT elicits similar experiences across different users was actually inspired by Google's "Deep Dream" art: <a href="https://research.googleblog.com/2015/06/inceptionism-going-deeper-into-neural.html" rel="nofollow">https://research.googleblog.com/2015/06/inceptionism-going-d...</a><p>"We know that after training, each layer progressively extracts higher and higher-level features of the image... The final few layers assemble those into complete interpretations—these neurons activate in response to very complex things such as entire buildings or trees."<p>I'm not an expert, but from the little I know of neuroscience, the human brain also has higher level interpreters inside of it. It is why, for example, that pareidolia (seeing faces in objects) is a thing (<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Pareidolia/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/Pareidolia/</a>).<p>"So here’s one surprise: neural networks that were trained to discriminate between different kinds of images have quite a bit of the information needed to generate images too"<p>"One way to visualize what goes on is to turn the network upside down and ask it to enhance an input image in such a way as to elicit a particular interpretation"<p>So I believe that what DMT is doing is triggering our high level interpreters to make sense of thoughts and emotions that we have. We do the same thing when we dream, where we interpret an event of the day in a very vivid, novel fashion, sometimes even creating story arcs around it.
Hmm...I've never tried psychoactive drugs but way back when I worked on hardware I was debugging a board in a lab that had poor ventilation, cleaning flux off it with Freon when I saw a little green Dragon rise out of the green solder resist film and breathe the tiniest lick of fire at me.
I haven't met anyone who described insects. Most of the entities experienced seem to be abstract, with the possibility of focusing it into an object but not a negative one. DMT seems to be generally a positive euphoric experience filled with geometric shapes of love. Although a mild dose can be unpleasant.<p>What I've experience sometimes looked like UFOs, that when you focused on them would burst into the sky far away. Like a ship taking off in a rapid dimensional-type shift. Similar to the graphics in the movie Dr. Strange.<p>The presence is more like feeling the wind, and getting a sense that the wind itself is saying hello and making fun of you.
I've seen the roots of a tree (at at distance of about 300 feet) through the ground, while on LSD (about 500ug). I'm sure those really were the roots, because the visible part of the tree (the trunk and the roots that came up above ground again at a few spots) matched completely with roots in the ground I was seeing. The image was stable and lasted for about 45 seconds. Something (not like an external voice, more like an internal voice/thought/intuition told me "yes, of course, you just need to tune into the frequency of the thing you want to see"). As soon as I tried thinking/questioning, the view vanished, and I guess it was because of the ego starting to interfere.<p>Conclusion: We still have <i>no clue</i> what reality really holds and how to use our brain in order to access our real potential. Interesting times to come, stay tuned.
I believe this world is basically a playpen in a universe having 5 spatial dimensions.<p>I've had a very interesting side-effect immediately after coming back from a DMT trip of being able to see around things. Like you look at a box on the table in front of you and you can see the side facing away from you. Faded gradually after 5 minutes. This seems like extremely fruitful territory for trying with ESP test cards, MRI imaging and more.
Do people of all cultures see insects, or is it just westerners on DMT?<p>For example, I've heard that schizophrenia manifests itself in different ways across cultures. Voices are almost always negative/destructive in western cultures, but often times take on playful manners in non-western cultures.
I have no idea what a DMT trip is actually like but I liked the depiction in Enter the Void: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCIe9gh84NE" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCIe9gh84NE</a>.
Six to seven foot tall praying mantis like entities are a common element in many alien abduction accounts. They're typically in the background, silently watching the proceedings while letting the little greys carry out the examinations.<p>In "DMT: The Spirit Molecule" author Rick Strassman theorises that DMT enables the brain to tune in to other parallel realities beyond "channel-normal". If the interdimensional hypothesis for alien abductions is correct, perhaps DMT allows one to occasionally tune into the source of this mysterious phenomenon.
"CYP2D6 is therefore a relatively highly specific, high-affinity, high-capacity 5-methoxyindolethylamine O-demethylase. Polymorphic cytochrome CYP2D6 may therefore exert an influence on mood and behavior by the O-demethylation of these 5-methoxyindolethylamines found in the brain and pineal gland."<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12777961" rel="nofollow">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12777961</a>
Is there a theory that the DMT "beings" are actually your bodies cells and proteins visualised and communicating as different entities?<p>The whole "You should not be down here, but hello" at a very very self macro level? Maybe even at the atomic level?
I saw these weird drapes folded around me that were brown, green, and white stripes. They were gently heaving, and I knew that they were living creatures that were watching over me. I didn't take enough to have a full breakthrough, but in that moment I was certain that I was dying, with all of my consciousness welled up into my head, as if that's all I was. When I came to and regained awareness of my limbs, I was relieved to feel tears on my face because I guess that meant I was still alive. For a couple of weeks I wondered if I really had died. The feeling was that strong. Now, I think that's absurd, but still a tiny part wonders...<p>The lesson learned was that I needed to start questioning my convictions more. Just "feeling sure" isn't enough to certain of something. I try to maintain a little bit of skepticism and doubt toward every thing these days.
<a href="https://www.quantamagazine.org/20150820-the-case-for-complex-dark-matter/" rel="nofollow">https://www.quantamagazine.org/20150820-the-case-for-complex...</a><p>Sorry had to do it.