DMT
HOW AND WHY TO GET OFF

a note from underground by Gracie and Zarkov

Number 3.

DMT, N,N-dimethyltryptamine is not orally active (by itself), and must be smoked to experience its effects. Tolerance for the drug builds almost immediately. If you don't get enough in the first 30 seconds, smoking more will not put you into the far out visionary DMT state, but will only result in a more "ordinary" hallucinogenic state. If on an attempt, you don't get enough, you must wait at least one hour before trying again (smoking multiple doses within the hour can result in you seeing the patterns but it is almost impossible to break through to the extreme states described below). Furthermore, the actual mechanics of smoking DMT can be quite tricky. In our experience, without careful attention to technique, about half the DMT shots misfire. Therefore, it is essential to use effective technique in order not to waste the drug. In this paper we offer three different tested techniques in an easy to follow step-by-step format; We have also included our description (however inadequate) of what a DMT trip is like.

We are well aware of how scarce a substance DMT is. We had to undertake a long, intensive search to secure a supply of this marvelous drug in the smokeable, freebase form. The search was well worth it! One of the reasons for writing this paper is, hopefully, to increase the demand for DMT. If this paper intrigues you, we suggest that the you seek out a supply of your own. Look for DMT in the smokeable freebase, not hydrochloride form. You will not be disappointed.

Getting Ready

1. We recommend a uniformly, though not brightly, lit room. Unlike with mushrooms, in total darkness the DMT visions are rather drab. In full sunlight the colors are unbelievably intense with red and gold predominating but we feel that bright sunlight tends to obscure some of the intricate detail so characteristic of DMT visions. We usually do it during the day in a room that is brightly lit with indirect light.

2. Get comfortably seated where you can lie back and rest your head during the trance. If you smoke DMT standing up, you will almost certainly fall on your ass if you get a good hit!

3. We recommend a dosage of about 40-50 mg. The dosage should be weighed out and not eyeballed. Dosages below 25 mg yield only physical and threshold psychedelic effects. Dosages between 25 mg and 40 mg are usually not enough to display the full range of the unique DMT effects described below. Dosages in excess of 55 mg, particularly if you are successful in holding all of the vapor in your lungs, can be VERY heavy and are not recommended for f irst time users.

Method One: The "Freebase" Method

4a. Obtain a "freebase" airpipe such as the one illustrated below. Use with the largest funnel type bowl you can find. Insert the largest fine mesh stainless steel screen that will fit into the bowl. Then sprinkle the DMT uniformly over the center of the mesh screen. Make sure to keep thE DMT away from the edges of the screen so that when it melts it does not run over the edge of the screen.

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     FREE BASE AIR PIPE     CLASSIC DMT PIPE
5a. Hold a match or torch above the screen and inhale deeply and slowly. Do not let the flame touch the DMT as this will destroy much of the drug. DMT melts and vaporizes easily so the point is to let the hot air rushing by the flame into the pipe vaporize the DMT. It is quite easy to vaporize the DMT and end up with the airchamber full of white DMT vapor.

Method Two: The Classic Psychedelic Ranger Method

4b. If you hanq out around a good glass blower or long time "head" you might be able to obtain a classic DMT pipe such as the one illustrated. Load the DMT into the glass reaction chamber and heat the outside bottom of the chamber with a flame.

5b. When the white vapor appears, breathe in deeply and slowly. If you inhale too soon or too quickly, the powdered DMT will be blown down your throat. It is not active that way. Make sure that all of the DMT is vaporized. In the absence of a classic DMT pipe, some people use a regular 'hash oil' pipe heated from the outside. We find this too tricky to be reliable. You are just as likely to end up with boiling liquid DMT in your mouth. (That's why the classic pipe has a "V" shaped stem.) We personally use the "freebase" method.

In either case...

6. The smoke is very harsh. It tastes like burning plastic. It isn't particularly hot, but you will have a tendency to cough. On each toke try to hold your breath for as long as possible. Exhale and immediately take a second toke. The physical effects, a buzzing or vibration throughout your whole body, come on first. The intensity of these effects is not a reliable guide to the dosage of DMT that you have consumed. Keep taking lungfuls and holding them until all of the premeasured DMT is consumed. Gracie suggests that the best way to smoke DMT is to try to smoke as much as you can before you inevitablly fall into a trance. While not recommended for beginners, it does capture the approach you should take towards smoking your premeasured dose.

One advantage of the "freebase" method is that the 50 mg of DMT can be divided into three toke sized piles. The smaller amount can be easily vaporized and inhaled in one breath with the screen being reloaded with DMT after each toke.

7. Just as you feel yourself "going over the top", exhale. Breathe normally, close your eyes and enjoy the visions.

Your companions should be instructed to take the pipe from you when you close your eyes because you will have poor motor control. Since you will be in a trance for 4-8 minutes, you should also have told them not to disturb you. To them you will look like you are asleep. This is not a social drug or one to be taken casually; you will be entranced.

8. When you come our of the trance, remain seated for about 10 more minutes as you will still have only shaky control of your limbs.

9. In 30 minutes from the time you started you will be pretty much down, but still euphoric. You will be completely down after a total of about one hour.

1O. We do not recommend that DMT be combined with other drugs. It should be done on a clean head. Marijuana fogs the effects. It is not a party drug: the effects are most entertaining experienced in a quiet room. When DMT is smoked at the peak of a mushroom or LSD trip, the effects are spectacular, but only recommended for the experienced, most brave (or some might say, most foolhardy) of investigators. The effects used at the peak of another psychedelic can last for several hours.

Notes on the Visual Stages of a DMT Trip

0—20 seconds : a scratchiness in the lungs

20—30 seconds : a buzzing starts in the ears, rising in tone and volume to an incredible intensity. Its like cellophane being ripped apart (or the fabric of the universe being torn asunder). Your body will vibrate in sympathy with this sound, and you will notice a sharp blood pressure rise. You may feel like you are deeply under water. Wearing a unitard or leotard and tights helps to minimize this sensation. Your visual field will also vibrate in resonance to the sound and will finally be completely obscured by the visions.

30 seconds—1 minute : You break through into DMT hyperspace. Often at this point, users believe that their hearts or breathing have stopped. This is not true. To an outside observer, you are breathing normally and your pulse, while elevated, is strong. We believe that this subjective effect is due to your "internal clock" being slowed so greatly that the subjective time interval between breaths or heartbeats seems like an eternity. Synthetic DMT has been extensively tested by medical authorities here and in Europe. It is perfectly safe with no lasting physical effects at these doses. However, since smoked DMT causes an abrupt blood pressure increase, it is probably not good for people with abnormally high blood pressure.

1 minute—2-5 minutes : depending on dosage: DMT hyperspace. For all practical purposes, you will no longer be embodied. You will be part of tne intergalactic information network. You may experience any of the following:

Do not be amazed and do not try to actively direct your observations but merely pay attention. The beings can show you amazing things, but if you try to impose vour personal trip on the DMT you will find that you cannot and may become frightened.

At the end of the "flash" of the visions you will have an after-vision of circular interlocking patterns in exquisite colors. It has been described as looking at a vaulted ceiling or dome. If you did not "breakthrough" to the levels described above, this "chrysanthemum" pattern, as we call it, is all you will see. It is worth the trip, too.

You may begin to wonder how you will ever find your way back to your body. If you have taken enough DMT to fully "breakthrough", by the time you can even wonder about it, you are almost back. Trust in your own wetware; your psyche and your body will be reunited. Worrying will only prolong the process.

5—12 minutes : The visions have subsided. There are still patterns when you close your eyes, but with eyes open the world is back. At this point a flood of information may rush through your mind. The phase is fleeting. In order to preserve your DMT ideation, we recommend that you begin talking as soon as you come out of the visionary state. Don't try for complete sentences but get as many ideas out as you can while you can. Have a tape recorder running during the trip and you can review your thoughts at a later time.

15—30 minutes : The ideation flood subsides leaving you euphoric. You may still have a trace of the vibrations in your body.

30—60 minutes : The euphoria subsides.

60+ minutes : You are completely down.

Note: While we recommend above not to combine DMT with other hallucinogens, we have had excellent results using DMT as a "pre-dose" for LSD, MDMA, MDA, or mushrooms. The technique is to take the second hallucinogen orally just as you come out of the vision state. The resulting trip will be more profound and will help you to understand the strange and alien vistas which you were shown while on the DMT. (For more details, see our Note from underground no. 4.)

Method Three: The Tryptamine Giggles

If the description of the DMT effects sound too heavy for you, (we certainly don't deny that DMT can be a heavy trip) 25 mg of DMT can be mixed with some dope in a joint or in a pipe and smoked in a liesurely fashion. The giggley mood lift is quite pleasant. The occasional breaking through of abstract hallucinatory patterns can liven up an otherwise quite ordinary stoned-again evening. However, we would recommend that before you burn up all your DMT in this fashion that you at least try one high dose trip as described.

Finally, while there is no such thing as a 'typical' DMT experience, we have attached a note of ours (reprinted from High Frontiers, issue 2) to this paper which describes one of our DMT trips. The most accessible information on DMT is Peter Stafford's Psychedelics Encyclopedia. Terence McKenna, who offers, in our opinion, the most sophisticated analysis of the DMT experience, has two excellent cassette tapes which discuss the DMT state: Mind, Molecules and Magic. June 1984; and Tryptamine Hallucinogens and Consciousness, December 1982. They are available from Dolphin Tapes, P.O. Box 71, Big Sur, CA 93920 for $9.00 plus tax and $2.00 postage. (Note: this is dated, try SoundPhotosynthesis)

a hit of dmt 10/9/84 - zarkov

i loaded about 40-50 milligrams of dmt into a glass pipe on top of a small amount of damiana. even though i had been warned, i was still shocked at how harsh the first toke was. it tasted and smelled like burning plastic. i involuntarily exhaled. i immediately took a second toke. the heavy white smoke rushed up the pipe as harsh as before, but i was somewhat better prepared for the terrible taste and i was able to hold the smoke for a few seconds. i exhaled, took a third toke, and was able to hold this last lungful. suddenly i began to hear a loud, moderately high-pitched carrier wave. immediately, the room started vibrating in sympathy. the pattern on the wall hangings oscillated madly in time to the buzzing that overlaid the carrier wave's fundamental tone. simultaneously, a heavy, trembling feeling swept over my entire body as if i were being propelled at multiple g acceleration by some giant rocket engine. my visual field dissolved in the most amazing colors. i could not see the room over the intensity of the visual effects. the events of the preceding paragraph occurred in the space of a few short seconds.

closing my eyes, i got a glimpse of several entities moving in front of a giant complex control panel. the visions were not crystal clear and seemed as if i were viewing it through a scrim. the creatures were bipedal and of about human size. it was impossible to say more other than they did not move like the giant insect creatures i have seen clearly under the influence of stropharia mushrooms. there was a direct awareness of an overwhelmingly powerful and knowledgable presence! it was neither frightening, nor encouraging. it was just mentally there. a thought came, unbidden, into my head. i realized that i was viewing 'god central.' the central panel i saw was the control panel for the entire universe.

the vision was fleeting and dissolved into a vision of much greater clarity. a gaggle of elf-like creatures in standard issue irish elf costumes, complete with hats, looking like they had stepped out of a hallmark cards "happy saint patrick's day" display, were doing strange things with strange objects that seemed to be a weird hybrid between crystals and machines.

this vision was also fleeting, and it dissolved into a visual pattern unlike that experienced by me on any other psychedelic or combination of psychedelics. the visuals were interlocking sinusoidal patterns arranged in a japanese chrysanthemum pattern that filled my entire visual field. the pattern was ever-changing and the colors of the individual patterns changed independently of the underlyng pattern. the colors were intense and came in a magnificent variety of colors: metallics, monochromes, pastels, each flickering in and out of existence as if obeying some undetected ordering principle.

an idea came into my head that i was seeing the "true universe" or universe as it really exists. that is to say, i was seeing directly the vibrations of every particles in the universe that "i" was somehow in contact with. "i" was directly "seeing" the universe withough ordering it into an arbitrary reality tunnel—i.e., perceived "solid, objective reality." the visual pattern seemed to be a sort of n-dimensional lissajous curve formed by the intersection of "i" with the shock wave of space-time causality.

the carrier wave remained strong throughout the experience. while definitely the same type of phenomena as the carrier wave heard under the influence of psilocybin mushrooms, the dmt carrier wave was much louder than even the loud carrier wave heard under the influence of ten grams of very potent, dried stropharia mushrooms. also, by comparison to the mushroom experience, the carrier wave sounded as a "purer" tone—i.e., the sinusoidal component dominated the buzzng component. my throat was too sore from the harsh smoke and the control of my breathing was hindered by the intensity of the expereince, so i was unable to sing or even generate a solid tone, to attempt audio driving of the visuals.

the overwhelming sense of a presence did not disappear when the vision changed to visual patterns, but remained an almost palpable entity as lon as the visuals remained intense. i never felt the foreboding—let alone the direct challenges—i have felt under the influence of stropharia mushrooms whenever the feeling of contact with the presence has been strong. the presence was just there and very powerful. i felt that i had glimpsed Whitehead's god.

the period of intense visuals lasted about eight minutes. the side effects remained unpleasant, but easily ignorable. the dmt left me euphoric and very bemused for about an hour.

definitely far out and very impressive!

Copyright December 1984 by Gracie and Zarkov Productions. We believe that in a truly free society the price of packaged information would be driven down to the cost of reproduction and transmission. We, therefore, give blanket permission and encourage photocopy, quotation, reprint or entry into a database of all or part of our articles provided that the copier or quoter does not take credit for our statements. Revised August 1985.

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