What Am I

I wanted to share this awesome older video of Adyashanti and Loch Kelly describing their everyday state of consciousness after extensive spiritual practice and transformation has occurred. I feel like this type of description is not easy to find for whatever reason. It has lined up very well with a bunch of experiences I've had using 5-MeO-DMT, and even bits of my sober experience get the occasional taste of the picture they paint. It's really valuable imo to hear what a matured version of conscious awakening would be like. It sounds liberating indeed.

It's indeed the essential question which we'd probably all like to know the answer. Thanks, happy to be here where I can discuss these things. God knows I don't have many other outlets to do it.

Don't ask me

Awesome post, it seems to me it's always helpful to call out the need for balance in a spiritual approach. I've come to interpret effective spiritual practice as kind of like riding a bike, where the act itself is a flow of instinctual skill that gets uncovered more and more as the practitioner exposes themself to what is, the Self, etc. So a heavy emphasis on direct experience and mostly non-conceptual. On the other hand, there's probably a large amount that can be said intellectually about the spiritual process, just as there's mathematics and physics that could explain how a person doesn't tip over while riding a bike. And it seems to me the intellectual side would especially have its place in spirituality in the form of useful pointers and maps of the experiential territory. Though I can't claim to have any significant skill, so I could be off on the interpretation. Very interesting, I was not aware of this. Perhaps I've unknowingly fallen into this category as well considering my experiential bias.

I realized this thread, acting as a warning based on firsthand experience, could also benefit from a scientific description of the dangers. See below for an excerpt from the FIVE GUIDE, which I linked a few posts ago. 5-MeO-DMT and Serotonin Toxicity Serotonin Toxicity is best understood as a type of poisoning or adverse effect of serotonergic drugs involving excessive intrasynaptic serotonin that results in toxic levels of signaling via the 5HT2A receptor [29]. It is often discussed as Serotonin Syndrome which is less accurate as it’s not a group of symptoms that define a condition and it can occur along a spectrum . Therefore, substances that increase intrasynaptic serotonin such as monoamine oxidase inhibitors (e.g., MAOIs), serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs e.g., SSRIs, SNRIs) as well as serotonin releasing agents (SRAs e.g., MDMA) are most implicated in the development of Serotonin Toxicity [30]. However, the underlying mechanisms of each substance and their abilities to act additively, synergistically, or diminutively in combination require evaluation to understand if the combination is truly high risk for Serotonin Toxicity [9]. Relative to other tryptamine psychedelics, 5-MeO-DMT appears to be a stronger serotonin stimulating substance and may even be able to activate 5HT receptors to a greater extent that serotonin itself, whereas classic tryptamines (LSD, psilocybin, DMT) are only partially able to stimulate serotonin receptors [4, 25]. It is also a full agonist at the 5HT1A receptor. This may explain why it appears Serotonin Toxicity can occur with 5-MeO-DMT (particularly in combination with MAOIs) whereas it has not been reported with LSD, psilocybin, or DMT. Other contributing aspects of 5-MeO-DMT’s pharmacology to risk of Serotonin Toxicity could include its serotonin reuptake inhibition as well as the presence of its active metabolite bufotenine (more probable with toad venom).

True enough, I bet a highly advanced individual fully established as the Self may have a less disjointed experience.

If I were to guess based on a large number of experiences with it, I'd say DMT facilitates an opening via the third eye into a hyperdimensional reality that's in some way related to an afterlife state for humans. That's the intuition I've had in quite a few trips. A more honest answer would be that I simply don't know for sure though lol. One warning I could give if you ever decide to try it is that the DMT experience is probably not what you're expecting. I remember imagining it'd be angels and heavenly realms like in renaissance artwork, but it's more like incomprehensible geometry and mental profundity beyond what someone could make up. The experience is so transcendent, you can only really bring back the memories of your reaction to it rather than memories of the event itself. It's just too different from our normal mode of operation.

I should have made this the thread title lol.

It might be worth mentioning that this occurred years ago when I was more naive and when there just wasn't the same level of detailed information that's available now. The current version of myself with the resources I have may have made a different decision in that scenario. Here's a link to the type of guide I wish I'd had: https://five-meo.education/risks-and-cautions/ If you scroll down on the page, there's both a downloadable and embedded copy of the excellent document "FIVE GUIDE" written by the credentialed and knowledgeable Benjamin Malcolm. Beyond detailing the contraindications, it's an amazing resource for 5-MeO-DMT information in general.

Wow, damn right I'd be interested. I just took a look and it's definitely the type of guidance I'm hoping for. It's always helpful to get poetic and insightful pointers from someone who's way further down the same road that I'm working up the courage to travel. Thanks man. It would appear you and I have similar past experiences, current interests, and future aspirations. For most of your posts, it's as if I typed them myself. Good luck to you soul brother.

I believe thinking can be fine when placed in the proper context and exercised in an appropriate frequency. It's as if the typical person is compulsively thinking 90% of the time and accidentally experiencing silent awareness 10% of the time. Rumor has it this state of affairs leads them to mechanistically tying their sense of self to the thoughts as opposed to the silent awareness. If this ratio could flip and a person could rest as the Self for the majority of the time, and use their mind intentionally while knowing it's just a tool to be wielded, that's probably closer to the natural state. Regarding your question about thoughts being used themselves as a tool towards liberation, I remember there are some traditions that do that. Mahasi Sayadaw of Theravadan Buddhism is one example. They use thought to continually mentally note the present moment, thereby leading them to that same experience of silent awareness beyond thought.

I've found inner body awareness practices to be the most powerful both during and outside of psychedelic trips. More specific than experiencing the feeling of your physical body, it's more so a continuous connection and alignment with the more subtle feeling of your own literal vital energy. I've known about this practice for many years, but it wasn't until I had a bunch of 5meo experiences that I could suddenly feel the real thing even when sober, which was quite a revelation. I'm sure it's related to the kundalini energetic aspects of 5meo. The power of this practice is in its simplicity. It's non-conceptual, experiential, and in the moment. You make the initial intention to feel it, and then from there you simply just continuously feel it by way of awareness rather than mind. When done correctly, it's effortless. Consistency in practice at all times is the key to meaningful transformation and growth. The sensation of the energy is like a guiding light that can instantly point a chaotic and wayward trip in the proper direction towards a state of being and presence. And of course, it has the same effect when sober. Like anything else though, it gets more familiar and easy the more you do it. If you get too lax in your attention and efforts, the full sensation can be difficult to find again for a time. Here's some lines from Eckhart Tolle's book, "Practicing the Power of Now": "To stay present in everyday life, it helps to be deeply rooted within yourself; otherwise, the mind, which has incredible momentum, will drag you along like a wild river. It means to inhabit your body fully. To always have some of your attention in the inner energy field of your body. To feel the body from within, so to speak. Body awareness keeps you present. It anchors you in the Now. The body that you can see and touch cannot take you into Being. But that visible and tangible body is only an outer shell, or rather a limited and distorted perception of a deeper reality. In your natural state of connectedness with Being, this deeper reality can be felt every moment as the invisible inner body, the ani­mating presence within you. So to "inhabit the body" is to feel the body from within, to feel the life inside the body and thereby come to know that you are beyond the outer form. You are cut off from Being as long as your mind takes up all your attention. When this happens - and it happens continuously for most people - you are not in your body. The mind absorbs all your consciousness and transforms it into mind stuff. You cannot stop thinking. To become conscious of Being, you need to reclaim consciousness from the mind. This is one of the most essential tasks on your spiritual journey. It will free vast amounts of consciousness that previously had been trapped in useless and compulsive thinking. A very effective way of doing this is simply to take the focus of your attention away from thinking and direct it into the body, where Being can be felt in the first instance as the invisible energy field that gives life to what you perceive as the physical body."

This warning is a funny coincidence considering the post I just made about the dangers of combining 5-MeO-DMT and harmalas lol. I'll take this to heart and do my due diligence in research. I have seen quite a few examples where people combine the 4-sub tryptamines with ketamine, so I think the safety profile looks a little better. Caution is always warranted though.

So I've seen this question asked a million times in various forms: "Can 5-MeO-DMT be used with MAOIs such as harmalas to enhance and extend the experience?" The questioner would usually be met with a bunch of responses stating that it's inherently dangerous and can cause medical emergency-level reactions. Usually the answers are kept vague, but sometimes they get more detailed and specific, naming serotonin syndrome as a potential result. The one thing missing in all my research was a firsthand description from somebody who'd actually experienced these negative and dangerous effects themselves. There was always reference a few obscure recorded deaths whenever the question came up, but never anything overly convincing or verifiable, which is why the question was kept in a gray zone in my mind where it may or may not be a myth of sorts. Well I'm here to affirm the warning and give that firsthand report I wish I'd had before being crazy enough to actually try this combo. It's not an especially long story. I've used harmalas plenty of times with DMT, and I love the enhancements and added psychedelic flavor they provide. In my ignorance, stupidity, and lack of a convincing counterexample, I decided to give it a try using 30mg sublingual caapi harmalas (harmine+THH) followed ~20 minutes later by a relatively low dose of 2mg IM 5-MeO-DMT. Within a few minutes of the injection, I started to feel a panic that kept building and building. It wasn't the type of panic we're probably all familiar with which results from something like a bad trip though. This was a physiological panic where my body was giving strong signals that something was going terribly wrong. I felt an extreme form of hypertension throughout my whole body, and especially in my chest. It's hard to put words to the sensation, but it felt like a true risk of physical death as opposed to the ego death produced by psychedelics. I was indeed not even tripping very hard, but I was giving myself decent odds that I was about to actually lose consciousness and die. Thankfully I was able to hold out and it started receding after around 30-40 minutes. It was harrowing and possibly the closest I've ever been to a life threatening emergency. Please let my example be a lesson to anyone who's considering actually trying the combo. The dangers it poses are the real deal. If my dose of 5meo had been any higher, I may not be here to type out this warning. And maybe I'd become just another statistic that people cite when the question gets asked.

Ah nice, just watched it, good stuff. Thank you @Leo Gura for seemingly always having preexisting content (posts, videos, and otherwise) relating to whatever has caught my interest. Thanks man, this is helpful in making a decision. I'm guessing you must mean 5-MeO-MALT as opposed to the standalone MALT. Though I've heard some people like MALT as well. I wonder how the easier substances like AL-LAD and 4-HO-MET would mix with a small dose of ketamine. Maybe the slight dissociation and calming effect would help the mind get into the ideal state to best take advantage of their potential, without the negatives that can come from excessive amounts of ketamine and other dissos (an actual loss of conscious presence in my case). I've tried this a number of times with 5-MeO-DMT, and I'd say it was mostly successful. But I hear the psychs that mainly affect 5-HT2A receptors are more profoundly synergistic with ketamine, so I wonder how it'd change the trip for the substances that can sometimes be considered boring on their own due to a limited headspace.