Hello!

I'm the author of this article. I stand by it and I think comments are failing to engaging with the actual models, phenomenological observations, and synthesis provided. I suspect people here have not actually payed attention to these experiences and may have epistemological assumptions that make them think it's impossible to bring useful information back. In particular, I'll say that the article's analysis assumes indirect realism about perception (it's all "in your head"), it focuses on structural features of the experience (phenomenal character rather than intentional content - I'm not interested in what the machine elves told you, I'm interested in what were the wallpaper symmetry groups that were covering their garments!), and tries to do what we named "algorithmic reductions" (i.e. identifying simple processes or effects that when stacked together might generate enormous emergent complexity - as in chemistry and physics, the rules are simple yet the emergent effects can have incredible complexity). In other words, this is a first attempt at a scientific and algorithmic understanding of the rich phenomenology of DMT without either (a) ignoring the facts, or (b) taking the semantic content of the experience at face value. I hope you enjoy it! :)

Admittedly, the article is a little old (2016) - but I have yet to see anyone go much further than it. I look forward to rational, scientifically-minded, and smart psychonauts actually engage with the content.

In the meantime, let me link you to some additional pieces of content and further information about DMT I've arrived at using these frameworks since then:

1) Here is the ELI5 (Explain Like I'm 5) version of the article: https://qualiacomputing.com/2017/05/28/eli5-the-hyperbolic-g...

2) Here is a presentation I gave at Harvard's Science of Psychedelics Club about the article (which goes a little deeper as it also explains the "energy x complexity" landscape and ties it to Neural Annealing): https://youtu.be/loCBvaj4eSg

3) Here is an article comparing 5-MeO-DMT and DMT: https://qualiacomputing.com/2020/07/01/5-meo-dmt-vs-nn-dmt-t...

4) Here is a video on the same topic: https://youtu.be/bwwZP-Bm7kI

5) Another related video "Why Does DMT Feel So Real? Multi-modal Coherence, High Temperature Parameter, Tactile Hallucinations": https://youtu.be/Bgv1ptz1wOc [see below for the video description]

6) A Guide for how to write scientifically useful trip reports: https://www.qualiaresearchinstitute.org/blog/rigorous-report...

7) Psychedelics and the Free Energy Principle: From REBUS to Indra's Net
- https://youtu.be/45tG1oVigVo

and

8) The Theory of Neural Annealing (very related): https://youtu.be/ndjbeF4EqRs (see also: https://opentheory.net/2019/11/neural-annealing-toward-a-neu...)

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Video description to give you a taste of the explanatory style I'm pursuing:

Why does DMT feel so "real"? Why does it feel like you experience genuine mind-independent realities on DMT?

In this video I explain that we all implicitly rely on a model of which signals are trustworthy and which ones are not. In particular, in order to avoid losing one's mind during an intense exotic experience (such as those catalyzed by psychedelics, dissociatives, or meditation) one needs to (a) know that you are altered, (b) have a good model of what that alteration entails, and (c) that the alteration is not strong enough that it breaks down either (a) or (b). So drugs that make you forget you are under the influence, or that you don't know how to model (or have a mistaken model of) can deeply disrupt your "web of trusted beliefs".

I argue that one cannot really import the models that one learned from other psychedelics about "what psychedelics do" to DMT; DMT alters you in a far broader way. For example, most people on LSD may mistrust what they see, but they will not mistrust what they touch (touch stays a "trusted signal" on LSD). But on DMT you can experience tactile hallucinations that are coherent with one's visions! "Crossing the veil" on DMT is not a visual experience: it's a multi-modal experience, like entering a cave hiding behind a waterfall.

Some of the signals that DMT messes with that often convince people that what they experienced was mind-independent include:

1) Hyperbolic geometry and mathematical complexity; experiencing "impossible objects".
2) Incredibly high-resolution multi-modal integration: hallucinations are "coherent" across senses.
3) Philosophical qualia enhancement: it alters not only your senses and emotions, but also "the way you organize models of reality".
4) More "energized" experiences feel inherently more real, and DMT can increase the energy parameter to an extreme degree.
5) Highly valenced experiences also feel more real - the bliss and the horror are interpreted as "belonging to the vibe of a reality" rather than being just a property of your experience.
6) DMT can give you powerful hallucinations in every modality: not only visual hallucinations, but also tactile, auditory, scent, taste, and proprioception.
7) Novel and exotic feelings of "electromagnetism".
8) Sense of "wisdom".
9) Knowledge of your feelings: the entities know more about you than you yourself know about yourself.

With all of these signals being liable to chaotic alterations on DMT it makes sense that even very bright and rational people may experience a "shift" in their beliefs about reality. The trusted signals will have altered their consilience point. And since each point of consilience between trusted signals entails a worldview, people who believe in the independent reality of the realms disclosed by DMT share trust in some signals most people don't even know exist. We can expect some pushback for this analysis by people who trust any of the signals altered by DMT listed above. Which is fine! But... if we want to create a rational Super-Shulgin Academy to really make some serious progress in mapping-out the state-space of consciousness, we will need to prevent epistemological mishaps. I.e. We have to model insanity so that we ourselves can stay sane :)