The psychedelic compound and suspected neurotransmitter dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, has a peculiar ability to give a seeker or traveler a very unique experience of what many refer to as the “realm of spirits”, or a non-material reality that exists separately from what we typically associate with existing. To clarify, it is a realm of experience in which a participant can voyage into a type of inner-space that appears just as real, if not more real than everyday reality. What is at the root of this experience that people report transcends language?
There are consistent reports of users connecting to a “realm of the divine” or a spiritual dimension. As we know from many recorded mystical experiences of Buddhist monks, yogis, and other devotees of spiritual practice, this spiritual experience can be reached through means other than intake of DMT, but by natural processes via meditation, yoga, and other spiritual practices. However, DMT seems to induce a state of consciousness that allows one to experience the same divine realm that spiritual practices are aimed at achieving, and temporarily have the veil of reality ripped from their typical waking state.
DMT is suspected by many researchers to be released in excess at the moment of birth and death. In this theory DMT floods the brain at the time of intense trauma or death, allowing the individual to have a life-review or seeing a reportedly bright and heavenly light. It sounds like DMT could be at the root of religious, meditative and out-of-body experiences. If so, it would make sense that when the chemical is ingested by smoking or orally, the effect would be similar to that of a near death experience or reaching the realm of the divine. But what is the realm of the divine or spirit?
Users of DMT often report (as do spiritual devotees) that there are other worlds around us all of the time. As we enter the states through which to perceive these worlds, a sense of oneness with everything and unconditional love often results. Could this suggest that our own consciousness is the door that blocks the spiritual world from our everyday reality? As one connects to a spiritual state of consciousness, it is believed that we are plugged back into the universal consciousness, the god head, or the creator, and we are able to pull information, knowledge, and experiences from that dimension to use as we come out of the experience.
Many people have described experience with DMT in which they come into contact with aliens, elves, angels, et cetera. These different words used to describe the entities of the spirit world very well could be from social language barriers. We could imagine that the world of the spirit is full of many other spirits of all shapes, sizes, colors, and textures. We as a society don’t really have a name for such entities that we see, therefore our brain interprets the experience into an already existing schema in which we use words that have limited value to the actual experience. That however does not infer that these experiences aren’t very real. The spirit state and having a spiritual experience impacts ones life in a way they may have not experienced before and can certainly happen with enough power to send them on a search with a thirst for knowledge and connection with everything.
Here are a few videos that explore the idea of spiritual reality being a part of everyday life.
