DMT, also known as Dimethyltryptamine, is in almost every living organism in minuscule amounts, and is often referred to as the sprit molecule because it is released in your brain when you sleep and is the reason you dream. In my research paper I will be researching how DMT is used as a hallucinogen recreationally, how shamans used DMT spiritually now and in the past, and how the chemical reaction occurs in your brain when you sleep when you are born, and when you die.
The name Ayahuasca comes from Quechua, a widely spoken South American language found throughout the Amazon: aya means “soul” or “spirits” and huasca means “vine”, therefore translating to “vine of the soul” or “vine of the spirits”- a powerful plant based medicine that can open a doorway to communication with the spirit realm. Traditionally, the Shipibo have used Ayahuasca to diagnose and treat illnesses and malfunctions in general, to take important decisions, to ask the Gods for advice, to solve personal conflicts – between families and between tribes, to communicate with the spirits of nature, to exercise one's divine capacities and to elucidate mysteries, thefts, disappearances, to know if we have enemies, and to see if a spouse is being disloyal.
The use of Ayahuasca in Amazonian healing practices has historically been limited to the healers, using it as diagnostic tool for identifying the cause of illness, bad luck, witchcraft, etc. and to then prescribe treatments to the patients – through ikaros and plant remedies – of which guidance on what plants & remedies to use is shown to the healer by the spirit of Ayahuasca. Ayahuasca works with the healer and in combination with a plethora of other plant spirit doctors to treat the patients – Ayahuasca has not traditionally been the only plant spirit doctor involved in the treatment (more info to follow). Ayahuasca was not taken by the patients who would simply come to ceremony in order to receive the diagnosis and subsequent treatments from the healer.
However, in more modern times, Ayahuasca is now being used as a medicine by the patients themselves. There is an evolution in the use of Ayahuasca now clearly being worked with as a medicine in itself. Western use of Ayahuasca over the past 20 years has now resulted in many foreigners working with the medicine in ceremonies, led by Amazonian healers, in order to personally face the causes of their conditions, illnesses, issues, etc. personally and to "take part" in the healing equation – moving healing into a co-creative relationship between the healer, the plant spirits, Ayahuasca and the patient. By imbibing the medicine, the drinker is then able to face issues from their past that have resulted in energetic imbalances – often the cause of the dis-ease, psychological and/or emotional imbalance that they are focused on healing.
However, solely drinking Ayahuasca without the presence and work of an experienced healer will not provide the level of healing achieved when combining the medicine, the healer and a multitude of plant spirit doctors (called in by the healer) in ceremony. Ayahuasca on its own will in some circumstances (although serious caution is required in terms of the set, setting, etc) provide superficial healing although will not enable the drinker to reach and heal to the root of the issue needing to be healed. We do not recommend drinking Ayahuasca on your own - guidance, care, attention and healing is required from trained healers in order to ensure a safe and protected experience.
Dimethyltryptamine is one of the serotonin-like hallucinogens that have appeared on the drug scene in North America. The compound was originally derived from the beans of the Anadenanthera peregrina tree, which grows in northern and central South America, and has related species in southern South America. South American tribes have used it as a hallucinogenic snuff called yopo or cohoba. However, it is most often available today as the pure compound, which users prepare as a tea or in conjunction with marijuana, by first soaking the buds in a solution of DMT and then drying and smoking them. The drug takes effect very rapidly: the entire experience develops and ends within an hour. Probably because the onset of action is so fast, DMT causes anxiety attacks much more frequently than something like LSD, although the basic experience is similar.
Some serotonin-derived compounds, such as 5-methoxy dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT) or bufotenin, are found in the skins of some toads, including the Colorado River toad. Milking the glands on the back of the toad, to obtain the hallucinogens, which are then smoked or ingested, was an old Native American trick that has been re-popularized to the extent that The Wall Street Journal reported it. The high that is produced is extremely brief and can be accompanied by side effects that can be worse than most hallucinogens. These can include increased blood pressure and heart rate, blurred vision, cramped muscles, and temporary paralysis. These side effects are due mainly to the bufotenin. The same compounds also appear in the seeds of a number of trees that grow in the Caribbean, Central America, and South America (piptadenia peregrina). The powered seeds provide the basis for hallucinogenic snuffs used by indigenous peoples and have been indentified as a component of voodoo powders.
DMT can cause neuronal damage in the brain. It can cause impaired judgment that often leads to rash decisions and accidents. It can cause extremely frightening trips and flashbacks. Some people have become frightened and paranoid after taking DMT. Its effects can be disorientating, resulting in panic and confusion. Although most hallucinations do not cause addiction, they do build tolerance quickly, requiring larger amounts of the drug to achieve the same effect or “high.” The risk of adverse reactions and overdoses increase as users take lager amounts of the drug to get high. Repeated doses of DMT or ingestion of multiple DMT-containing substances, such as a plant brew or combination of snuffs, can produce highly adverse effects that can be fatal.
The long-term effects of heavy hallucinogen use include impaired mental function and distorted abstract reasoning. In addition, hallucinogen users are susceptible to flashbacks of the drug experience that include spontaneous recurrence of visual or sensory distortions. Some studies have documented changes in the mental functions of some chronic hallucinogen users. For example, some users develop signs of brain damage affecting memory, attention span, mental confusion, and difficulty thinking. Long-term users report memory and speech difficulties, as well as hearing unreal sounds and voices.
Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is a hallucinogen, a broad group of drugs defined more by the effects they produce than by any common chemical structure. As a group, hallucinogens produce varying levels of visual auditory, and tactile distortion and so-called “out-of-body” sensations. As with all drugs, the intensity of effect depends not only on ingestion of a specific and does but also on the user’s perception or expectation of the experience. Although persons with psychotic disturbances may hallucinate without an external stimulus, normal individuals can induce the same (but temporary) effect using hallucinogenic drugs.
DMT, or N, N- dimethyltryptamine, is a hallucinogenic chemical found in a variety of natural and synthetic compounds. It is present in many plant genera and is a major component of several hallucinogenic snuffs. DMT is also present in the intoxicating beverage Ayahuasca, which is made from Banisteriopsis caapi plants.
Like many hallucinogens, DMT has been used for hundreds of years. The oldest known record of DMT use comes from an eighth-century burial site in northern Chile, where bags of snuff remnants containing DMT, 5-MeO-DMT, and bufotenine were found. Through the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, natives of Columbia and surrounding areas used several DMT-containing concoctions, including snuff from the Yopo tree and brews made with Anadenanthera columbrina. In the early 1950s, DMT and 5-MeO-DMTwere identified as he main psychoactive ingredients of cohoba snuff. DMT was isolated as the active ingredients in A. peregrina in 1954.
DMT is used in both is natural and synthetic forms. Natural DMT can be taken orally as an herbal tea or other beverage. If prepared this way, it is combined with another substance in order to maintain its effect. For example, certain religious groups concoct a beverage from plants that contain DMT and use this drink in sacred rituals. The drink, called Ayahuasca, is usually made from two plants: chacruna, which contains DMT; and yag, which contains a substance called harmalinethat allows DMT to pass through the stomach. The taste of Ayahuasca is reportedly so foul that some people cannot bring themselves to drink it.
DMT usually has no effect when taken orally because it is inactivated in the stomach by an enzyme called monoamine oxydase. Adding harmaline[Harmaline is a central nervous system stimulant and a "reversible inhibitor of MAO-A (RIMA)] blocks the effects of this enzyme and allows the drug to enter the user’s system. To become active orally, DMT must be combined with monoamine oxydase inhibitors (MAOIs), a highly potent and potentially dangerous medication. Synthetic DMT is usually smoked, injected, or sniffed. The drug sometimes comes in the form of a crystal ready-made for smoking. Alternatively, some users will soak parsley in a liquid form of the drug and then smoke the dried leaves. When smoked or injected, DMT acts quickly. Its effects begin in five minutes or less, peak in about twenty minutes, and are usually over in an hour. The brevity of the DMT experience has eared it the nickname “businessman’s trip”. When sniffed, the effects of synthetic DMT begin and end even more rapidly. The intoxication begins in about ten seconds, lasts for two or three minutes, and is over within ten minutes.
Scientists in the United States and other countries are exploring the use of hallucinogens such as DMT to treat drug and alcohol addiction. For example, scientists at the Orenda Institute in Baltimore are examining LSD as a possible treatment for heroin, opium, and alcohol addiction. Researchers at the University of Miami are studying the psychedelic drug ibogaine as a treatment for cocaine addiction. Other scientists are exploring the use of hallucinogenic drugs to help ease the pain of cancer patients.
The medicinal use of ayahuasca, a plant beverage with psychotropic effects, has been proposed as a possible treatment for cocaine addiction. Proponents of this approach argue that DMT and other hallucinogens allow the substance abuser to modify his state of consciousness. In this altered state, the substance abuser looks for a meaning in his life.
So Dimethyltryptamine has many side affects and is a potenshaly harmful drug that if abused could cause physical and scicological damage. On the other had DMT found in Ayahuasca has been used for hundreds of years as a spiritually in lighting substance; also it is becoming more and more recreatiol used to find the sprit realm. And scientists are now starting to test if DMT will ever have a hand to play in the modern medical world to help with addiction. Hope you enjoyed learning about Dimethyltryptamine as much as I did. ;)
The name Ayahuasca comes from Quechua, a widely spoken South American language found throughout the Amazon: aya means “soul” or “spirits” and huasca means “vine”, therefore translating to “vine of the soul” or “vine of the spirits”- a powerful plant based medicine that can open a doorway to communication with the spirit realm. Traditionally, the Shipibo have used Ayahuasca to diagnose and treat illnesses and malfunctions in general, to take important decisions, to ask the Gods for advice, to solve personal conflicts – between families and between tribes, to communicate with the spirits of nature, to exercise one's divine capacities and to elucidate mysteries, thefts, disappearances, to know if we have enemies, and to see if a spouse is being disloyal.
The use of Ayahuasca in Amazonian healing practices has historically been limited to the healers, using it as diagnostic tool for identifying the cause of illness, bad luck, witchcraft, etc. and to then prescribe treatments to the patients – through ikaros and plant remedies – of which guidance on what plants & remedies to use is shown to the healer by the spirit of Ayahuasca. Ayahuasca works with the healer and in combination with a plethora of other plant spirit doctors to treat the patients – Ayahuasca has not traditionally been the only plant spirit doctor involved in the treatment (more info to follow). Ayahuasca was not taken by the patients who would simply come to ceremony in order to receive the diagnosis and subsequent treatments from the healer.
However, in more modern times, Ayahuasca is now being used as a medicine by the patients themselves. There is an evolution in the use of Ayahuasca now clearly being worked with as a medicine in itself. Western use of Ayahuasca over the past 20 years has now resulted in many foreigners working with the medicine in ceremonies, led by Amazonian healers, in order to personally face the causes of their conditions, illnesses, issues, etc. personally and to "take part" in the healing equation – moving healing into a co-creative relationship between the healer, the plant spirits, Ayahuasca and the patient. By imbibing the medicine, the drinker is then able to face issues from their past that have resulted in energetic imbalances – often the cause of the dis-ease, psychological and/or emotional imbalance that they are focused on healing.
However, solely drinking Ayahuasca without the presence and work of an experienced healer will not provide the level of healing achieved when combining the medicine, the healer and a multitude of plant spirit doctors (called in by the healer) in ceremony. Ayahuasca on its own will in some circumstances (although serious caution is required in terms of the set, setting, etc) provide superficial healing although will not enable the drinker to reach and heal to the root of the issue needing to be healed. We do not recommend drinking Ayahuasca on your own - guidance, care, attention and healing is required from trained healers in order to ensure a safe and protected experience.
Dimethyltryptamine is one of the serotonin-like hallucinogens that have appeared on the drug scene in North America. The compound was originally derived from the beans of the Anadenanthera peregrina tree, which grows in northern and central South America, and has related species in southern South America. South American tribes have used it as a hallucinogenic snuff called yopo or cohoba. However, it is most often available today as the pure compound, which users prepare as a tea or in conjunction with marijuana, by first soaking the buds in a solution of DMT and then drying and smoking them. The drug takes effect very rapidly: the entire experience develops and ends within an hour. Probably because the onset of action is so fast, DMT causes anxiety attacks much more frequently than something like LSD, although the basic experience is similar.
Some serotonin-derived compounds, such as 5-methoxy dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT) or bufotenin, are found in the skins of some toads, including the Colorado River toad. Milking the glands on the back of the toad, to obtain the hallucinogens, which are then smoked or ingested, was an old Native American trick that has been re-popularized to the extent that The Wall Street Journal reported it. The high that is produced is extremely brief and can be accompanied by side effects that can be worse than most hallucinogens. These can include increased blood pressure and heart rate, blurred vision, cramped muscles, and temporary paralysis. These side effects are due mainly to the bufotenin. The same compounds also appear in the seeds of a number of trees that grow in the Caribbean, Central America, and South America (piptadenia peregrina). The powered seeds provide the basis for hallucinogenic snuffs used by indigenous peoples and have been indentified as a component of voodoo powders.
DMT can cause neuronal damage in the brain. It can cause impaired judgment that often leads to rash decisions and accidents. It can cause extremely frightening trips and flashbacks. Some people have become frightened and paranoid after taking DMT. Its effects can be disorientating, resulting in panic and confusion. Although most hallucinations do not cause addiction, they do build tolerance quickly, requiring larger amounts of the drug to achieve the same effect or “high.” The risk of adverse reactions and overdoses increase as users take lager amounts of the drug to get high. Repeated doses of DMT or ingestion of multiple DMT-containing substances, such as a plant brew or combination of snuffs, can produce highly adverse effects that can be fatal.
The long-term effects of heavy hallucinogen use include impaired mental function and distorted abstract reasoning. In addition, hallucinogen users are susceptible to flashbacks of the drug experience that include spontaneous recurrence of visual or sensory distortions. Some studies have documented changes in the mental functions of some chronic hallucinogen users. For example, some users develop signs of brain damage affecting memory, attention span, mental confusion, and difficulty thinking. Long-term users report memory and speech difficulties, as well as hearing unreal sounds and voices.
Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is a hallucinogen, a broad group of drugs defined more by the effects they produce than by any common chemical structure. As a group, hallucinogens produce varying levels of visual auditory, and tactile distortion and so-called “out-of-body” sensations. As with all drugs, the intensity of effect depends not only on ingestion of a specific and does but also on the user’s perception or expectation of the experience. Although persons with psychotic disturbances may hallucinate without an external stimulus, normal individuals can induce the same (but temporary) effect using hallucinogenic drugs.
DMT, or N, N- dimethyltryptamine, is a hallucinogenic chemical found in a variety of natural and synthetic compounds. It is present in many plant genera and is a major component of several hallucinogenic snuffs. DMT is also present in the intoxicating beverage Ayahuasca, which is made from Banisteriopsis caapi plants.
Like many hallucinogens, DMT has been used for hundreds of years. The oldest known record of DMT use comes from an eighth-century burial site in northern Chile, where bags of snuff remnants containing DMT, 5-MeO-DMT, and bufotenine were found. Through the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, natives of Columbia and surrounding areas used several DMT-containing concoctions, including snuff from the Yopo tree and brews made with Anadenanthera columbrina. In the early 1950s, DMT and 5-MeO-DMTwere identified as he main psychoactive ingredients of cohoba snuff. DMT was isolated as the active ingredients in A. peregrina in 1954.
DMT is used in both is natural and synthetic forms. Natural DMT can be taken orally as an herbal tea or other beverage. If prepared this way, it is combined with another substance in order to maintain its effect. For example, certain religious groups concoct a beverage from plants that contain DMT and use this drink in sacred rituals. The drink, called Ayahuasca, is usually made from two plants: chacruna, which contains DMT; and yag, which contains a substance called harmalinethat allows DMT to pass through the stomach. The taste of Ayahuasca is reportedly so foul that some people cannot bring themselves to drink it.
DMT usually has no effect when taken orally because it is inactivated in the stomach by an enzyme called monoamine oxydase. Adding harmaline[Harmaline is a central nervous system stimulant and a "reversible inhibitor of MAO-A (RIMA)] blocks the effects of this enzyme and allows the drug to enter the user’s system. To become active orally, DMT must be combined with monoamine oxydase inhibitors (MAOIs), a highly potent and potentially dangerous medication. Synthetic DMT is usually smoked, injected, or sniffed. The drug sometimes comes in the form of a crystal ready-made for smoking. Alternatively, some users will soak parsley in a liquid form of the drug and then smoke the dried leaves. When smoked or injected, DMT acts quickly. Its effects begin in five minutes or less, peak in about twenty minutes, and are usually over in an hour. The brevity of the DMT experience has eared it the nickname “businessman’s trip”. When sniffed, the effects of synthetic DMT begin and end even more rapidly. The intoxication begins in about ten seconds, lasts for two or three minutes, and is over within ten minutes.
Scientists in the United States and other countries are exploring the use of hallucinogens such as DMT to treat drug and alcohol addiction. For example, scientists at the Orenda Institute in Baltimore are examining LSD as a possible treatment for heroin, opium, and alcohol addiction. Researchers at the University of Miami are studying the psychedelic drug ibogaine as a treatment for cocaine addiction. Other scientists are exploring the use of hallucinogenic drugs to help ease the pain of cancer patients.
The medicinal use of ayahuasca, a plant beverage with psychotropic effects, has been proposed as a possible treatment for cocaine addiction. Proponents of this approach argue that DMT and other hallucinogens allow the substance abuser to modify his state of consciousness. In this altered state, the substance abuser looks for a meaning in his life.
So Dimethyltryptamine has many side affects and is a potenshaly harmful drug that if abused could cause physical and scicological damage. On the other had DMT found in Ayahuasca has been used for hundreds of years as a spiritually in lighting substance; also it is becoming more and more recreatiol used to find the sprit realm. And scientists are now starting to test if DMT will ever have a hand to play in the modern medical world to help with addiction. Hope you enjoyed learning about Dimethyltryptamine as much as I did. ;)
Source dmt paper
Drugs and controlled substances information for students by Stacey L. Blachford, Kristine Krapp
Buzzed third edition by Cynthia kuhn, PhD, scott swartzwelder , PhD ,wilkie Wilson , PhD of the duke university medical center
http://www.templeofthewayoflight.org/shamanism-ayahuasca/ayahuasca-doctor/teacher-spirit
Drugs and controlled substances information for students by Stacey L. Blachford, Kristine Krapp
Buzzed third edition by Cynthia kuhn, PhD, scott swartzwelder , PhD ,wilkie Wilson , PhD of the duke university medical center
http://www.templeofthewayoflight.org/shamanism-ayahuasca/ayahuasca-doctor/teacher-spirit