DMT's Brain Effects: Short- & Long-Term Impacts

[LightbulbSun]

What kind of short term and long term effects does DMT have on the brain?

 

[ZeuZ]

i can highly recommend the book that is essential reading on this, it has been acclaimed by a lot of scientists, and is the only decent scienfitic look into the effects of DMT on the brain/mind. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0892819278/?tag=pfamazon01-20
you can view the ebook from http://www.scribd.com/doc/3655/DMT-The-spirit-molecule-by-Rick-Strassman Its by doctor Rick Strassman, MD, and although it is a scientific paper, it reads like a science fiction book. He deals with a lot of the controversial symptoms that his patients showed, like drug induced alien contact, vivid flashbacks and spirituality. Another focus of the book is on the huge amount of people who claim to have had near death experiences on DMT, and how that can change peoples entire perspective on life. One of the most fascinating things about DMT, although it is highly illegal to use, it has been found that it is produced naturally by the pineal gland every night when you are in REM sleep. Also it can be extracted from grass, making it one of the most abundant drugs in the world. Some neurobiologists think DMT may be the drug that makes people dream when they are asleep, a mild type of physchadelic trip.

As it is natural and works primarily on your mind, not your body, it does not cause physical damage to the body like other man made drugs (similar to LSD or Psilocybin) but it can change peoples perception of life from a mental perspective. Skeptics would say that changing your mental perception is brain damage, but the users often say they prefer the change it makes to them, so by their standard its beneficial and not causing damage, it just depends how you look at it.

I highly recommend the book, but not trying the drug, it scared the pants off me, you have to be confident of your surroundings when you do it or it can be a bit overwhelming, after all, it is the strongest hallucinagenic known to man. Shamans have used it for centuries.

 

[Moonbear]

As it is natural and works primarily on your mind, not your body, it does not cause physical damage to the body like other man made drugs (similar to LSD or Psilocybin) but it can change peoples perception of life from a mental perspective. Skeptics would say that changing your mental perception is brain damage, but the users often say they prefer the change it makes to them, so by their standard its beneficial and not causing damage, it just depends how you look at it.

This is a misstatement. First, there is no such thing as a drug that acts on the "mind" but not the body...the actions of hallucinogens involves modifying the function of the brain, which is a very important part of the body. And, there is no reason to assume that just because a substance occurs naturally that it cannot cause harm to the body. Indeed, toxicity is dose related. As an example of another example of a substance naturally produced by the body that can be harmful to it, estrogen is naturally produced by the body, yet in higher doses than it is naturally produced, it is a carcinogen.

 

[ZeuZ]

This is a misstatement. First, there is no such thing as a drug that acts on the "mind" but not the body...the actions of hallucinogens involves modifying the function of the brain, which is a very important part of the body. And, there is no reason to assume that just because a substance occurs naturally that it cannot cause harm to the body. Indeed, toxicity is dose related. As an example of another example of a substance naturally produced by the body that can be harmful to it, estrogen is naturally produced by the body, yet in higher doses than it is naturally produced, it is a carcinogen.

yeah, i don't know why i said 'as it is natural', point taken, I should've just mentioned it is specifically the safe type of tryptamine species, not everything natural.

It would cause minor changes to the body i agree, but as you produce it every night as you sleep it is not a very toxic chemical to humans. Not many people know the long term effects from what I've seen, look at this site, its from one of the biggest anti drug organizations in america that has lots of drug info, but they just leave long term effects for DMT completely blank! http://www.drugfree.org/Portal/drug_guide/DMT
as with most hallucinogens it has been linked to shizophrenia, but not much else i don't think. - http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/dmt/dmt_journal2.shtml

 

[jmnew51]

5-HT or serotonin (a tryptamine) is also naturaly produced in the brain, but when large amounts of it accumulate in the brain, due to one or more of the checks or balances not working, it becomes fatal. Nothing safe about that.

Jim