What happens when you microdose DMT? And is microdosing DMT bad for you? How do you microdose DMT? Here’s our research into the effects of ‘Smoking DMT Everyday For 30 Days’.
#Microdosing #DMT #NN-DMT
Microdosing psychedelics is currently a major trend around the world, also amongst ''non-psychonauts”. Despite this still being an under researched field, many people will microdose with the aim to heal depression, enhance creativity, or simply make one feel better.
What is microdosing?
Microdosing is generally described as consuming very low, sub-hallucinogenic doses of a psychedelic substance like LSD or magic mushrooms on scheduled days. Doses small enough to avoid any psychedelic effects, and with an aim to enhance our daily lives.
Does DMT lend itself to microdosing?
Not too many have been thinking of trying it with DMT. Many haven’t even heard of this psychedelic, which counts to be amongst the most potent and fascinating ones. When smoked or vaporized DMT (NN-DMT) produces one of the strangest, intense, immersive, and all-encompassing experiences a human being could possibly have. However, the short duration of the trip, only lasting 5-20 minutes, makes DMT fairly easy to facilitate. At least when compared with an 8 hour long LSD trip. It used to be called the businessman’s trip for this reason. Perfect for microdosing, or is it?
With its intensity in mind, can smaller dosages even be taken regularly? And can it also have a beneficial effect for some? Unfortunately, we are still waiting for central research to confirm our hypothesis on what microdosing DMT can do for mental health.
A scientific viewpoint on DMT’s effects on the body.
Let’s dive into some science, before we move ahead. Dr. Rick Strassman first published pioneering research on the psychedelic drug 20 years ago. According to Strassman, DMT is one of the only compounds that can cross the blood-brain barrier. This is the membrane wall separates circulating blood from the brain extracellular fluid in the central nervous system. DMT’s ability to cross this divide means the compound “appears to be a necessary component of normal brain physiology,” says Strassman. “The brain only brings things into its confines using energy to get things across the blood-brain barrier for nutrients, which it can’t make on its own, things like blood sugar or glucose… DMT is unique in that way, in that the brain expends energy to get it into its confines.”
When we look at the science, DMT is taken in- and out of the body fairly quickly. Current studies have not found any damaging effects. More research has to be conducted on long-term effects to validate whether or not it can actually have harmful effects. In short, we’re on virgin territory here.
That’s why we decided to ask advice from a person who underwent the microdosing of DMT himself. One of our fellow pioneers in this space is one of our friends. For now, we’ll call him ‘Roku’ (not his real name. We spoke with him just two days after he finished his month of daily doses of DMT. These are his experiences.
Meet ‘Roku’ a normal guy who happens to do psychedelics.
Roku first discovered psychedelics as a tool for his personal development when he was 16 years old. At this time he was learning a lot about different spiritual practices like Buddhism and Taoism. Until this point, he was convinced that every sort of drug holds nothing but negative effects. Even the use of marijuana he thought of as an awful thing for any kind of person. This changed suddenly Roku explained: “At one point a Youtuber brought up something like mushrooms, and him having an ego death on that. I have heard of ego death before, but I haven’t in relation to mushrooms. And after hearing that he got an ego death experience on this substance it got me kind of curious…”
This was the start of his research on the use of psychedelics for the sake of spiritual development. His perception of psychedelics quickly changed into the opposite, after having his first psychedelic experience with LSD two years later. The online research showed positive effects over negative, confirming it to be relative safety. He quickly discovered DMT while browsing through social media (Reddit).
Roku at this time was still living with his family, which did not hold any sort of understanding for psychedelics. And a small 15 minute DMT experience seemed a lot better to keep hidden from his surroundings, than an 8 hour LSD trip..
DMT and depression
Last year, Roku started feeling more and more down. It landed him in a spot where he was severely depressed. “The year has been very hard, I had a suicide scare with a friend, I got seriously sick and got really behind with my studies. So it let to a really bad depression, with suicidal thoughts even. Which is something I never really had and I knew that something needed to be done about it.” Roku explained.
He believes that the pandemic was one of the main reasons for his sorrow. Moving from self-isolation back into social life was causing severe stress to him.
He began to see a psychologist, which advised him to start treatment with antidepressants. And Roku agreed on committing to them. But before he wanted to try DMT for one last time, in case it could help.
''I kid you not. That one trip I had, it made all my depression go away instantly. It was very clear. It was just gone. I was getting back on track with school.''
This groundbreaking experience inspired Roku to start a follow-up experiment.
“I am going to do something that I have been thinking about for a while. And I am going to do this daily and see where this takes me”, said Roku.This meant taking the synthetic version of N, N-Dimethyltryptamine for as long as it takes, daily.
How to microdose DMT?
In terms of dosage and routine, he kept it fairly simple. Do it close to every day, and try to not skip a day. “I didn’t really have a set time where I usually did it. It was usually in the afternoons though, somtimes in the morning. And I like to do it in the dark.” To be fair, this wasn’t a complete ‘microdose’ according to textbooks. The dosages varied, but were kept low. The actual amount of DMT had been eyeballed, but would have been between 15 to 30 grams of DMT into an e-mesh, an electrical vaporizer which is one of the most effective ways to consume DMT.
He would get out his Portalbox (a high-quality wooden box specifically designed to store and use psychedelic equipment) and took it under a blanket with him. He ensured that all lights in the room were switched off. His eye mask on his forehead, he would take a couple of slow deep breaths, and then inhale enough DMT until he feels he has the right dosage in. Then he would lower the eye mask, and things would start to move.
When microdosing with mushrooms or LSD, it’s usually the aim to not have an ‘actual’ psychedelic experience, including visuals and altered states of consciousness. But with DMT this is deemed to be much more difficult, as even the smallest doses would create something more of a trip. “To be honest, if I wouldn’t do anything without a psychedelic feel, I would not even know if I would be experiencing anything or not.” The experience would be passing too quickly, he explained.
What are the results from microdosing DMT?
After 25 sessions of DMT, some conclusions could be made. The most significant, certainly, is that Roku does not feel any form of depression anymore. He explained that during the beginning of his experiment there still was some sudden but passing depression throughout the days. But the further the experiment went, it completely disappeared. When going to university he felt considerably more motivation and energy to get his work done. To an extent, he never experienced this throughout his school career.
“I have now been overly critical about all my day-to-day aspects. Instead of laying in bed, or playing a video game on my laptop, maybe I should be reading a book. It has been getting me to think more healthy about myself. Like sleeping and such sorts of things. I have much more of a critical mindset. Not a negative one. More like, I have to work on this, I have to get this done”
This new form of criticism did not show itself in an overly judgmental form but in a rather progressive and enjoyable manner. Showcasing the things he has to do to become a better person. Also, his creativity seemed to spark up.
The only ‘discomfortable’ effects of the experiment seemed to appear during the nights Roku told us. “I have been having a lot of nightmares. It's been very strange… I have been doing fine in my waking days. But at night, for whatever reason, I have way more bad dreams and nightmares than I ever have before this.” He assured us that this does not have much negative effect on the quality of his sleep however, and that he still feels awake and rested during the day.
DMT’s effects on depression
We asked Roku if DMT merely suppressed his depressive tendencies, or if it showed him the root cause of it.
“What DMT showed me is that I am okay. I am fine with my day to day life. And I don’t need to worry about things right now in my life. Instead I can just try to improve myself. I would not say that this is a drug that is suppressing my emotions, it's showing me what those negative emotions are and how to process them in a lot of ways. “
In his second to last trip Roku made an important and impactful realization. “I had this amazing epiphany that I kept letting my mind run a thousand beats a minute, without ever giving it a moment to breathe. And in the 15 minutes after this I just had the most beautiful experience. Letting my mind be free. I broke down crying. Like full on sobbing, because of how amazing it was… Like remembering something that I had forgotten and it hits you just right in the face.”
Roku explained that for most of his life he has been trying to become more like his idols, including Aldous Huxley. His ambition to perform was wearing him down. DMT made him realize that he could be better off having his own unique experience and understanding of life.
Roku is still going to psychotherapy once a month. He also told his psychologist about his experiences with psychedelics. “I don’t know if she is allowed to say that she thinks it's a good thing, but she wasn’t inherently saying it was a bad thing. And I think she must have noticed that I have improved a hell of a lot more from my last session…”
It is now time for a little psychedelic rest, he says. Time to put the fresh insights into action and to integrate them into his daily life. Living what the experiences have shown him.
Would you recommend microdosing DMT?
This experiment went extremely well for Roku, but knowing that DMT is an incredibly powerful substance does not come without warning and conscious behavior.
Psychedelics are not for everyone. Many factors have to be taken into consideration, like set and setting. Things can go downhill quickly when people have a history of substance abuse, or if they’re on medications. Roku and others are warning those around them not to just dive into a microdosing journey, but to do your own thorough research first. This is one of the craziest things that humans can do.
Portier does not advise you to take any substances, like DMT. This is just for educational purposes.
