Wow... I've never taken DMT, but maybe I should. I know it probably sounds crazy, but I believe there are different planes of existence/enlightenment that you can travel through in your dreams if you know how (or if that's your purpose...). This "onion" you mention is almost exactly how I'd describe these planes. Dense layers upon layers, most of which are superficial and unimportant (such as the one we live in) but some of which hold pretty much all the knowledge that you could imagine (and some you can't imagine).
There are religions and philosophies built around this notion, as well.
Might sound like a big 'ol box of crazy to most, but I'm sure there are some people out there who can relate to this.
I've heard about DMT and the DMT "beings" and all that and figured it was something I should probably try at least once just to see what happens.
I've also played around with the notion of taking a datura trip, as I think this substance might also help me gain some insight into what *really* goes on after I fall asleep (it's much more than dreaming, I assure you).
Friend, I don't mean to Piss all over your parade, but there are no separate planes of consciousness, no spirit beings, and most of all no knowledge. Dreams are caused by endogenous DMT production, in the pineal gland. People have a constant blood plasma concentration of DMT, and 5-MeO-DMT, that means that we are always seeing what we are seeing and higher elevations only project something that isn't there but you are familiar with, understand?
Things in a DMT trip are things that your sub-conscious is showing you, you may not be directly familiar with these objects, but you have recognition of them, colors, the elf spirits, aliens. But while you dream, because you are unconscious, the DMT is pulling images and ideas directly from your conscious mind because it is not being used to recognize for the images, storyline, ect. you are simply following it. It is firing things that your brain cells have connected to, have you seen, What the Bleep do we Know? It is very good at breaking down some of these ideas. As well as the book DMT: The spirit molecule, Dr. Rick Strassman is a very important mind, a must read in my opinion.
"Dr. Callaway of the University of Kuopio, Finland, has after all, conclusively demonstrated that the Near Death Experience, Out Of Body Experience, and death itself (by blood plasma spinal tap readings), are based on Pinoline, DMT, and 5meoDMT release."
"Every night we produce Pinoline, 5meoDMT, and DMT, in fact they are in the cerebral spinal fluid right NOW. LUCID dreams are induced by DMT, again Dr. Callaway demonstrated this objectively."
"By taking Creatine or vitamine Q-10 for ATP synthesis, one is also taking an external source. In fact we are drug addicts to 20 essential amino acids, which we require from food, to produce the brain drugs of: Dopamine, Noreadrenaline, Serotonin et al. These are EXTERNAL SOURCES, and drugs unto themselves, they are highly PSYCHOACTIVE, not only that, but presently, we are also addicted to them."
Because when in the dark the pineal gland produces melatonin, which allows DMT to bypass the bodys MAO's so, "After some 10-12 days..." in the dark "...one starts to see in infra red, and ultra violet, one can actually run accross the room and touch a person, by seeing their heat patterns."
"The most pronounce activity of DMT within the human body is usually connected with Psychosis, dreams, Near-Death-Experiences, spiritual experiences, the birth process, and psychedelic drugs. However, DMT could regulate our entire three dimensional experience. Dr. Rick Strassman refers to DMT as the spirit molecule. DMT may act as an anchor to this mundane reality. However, altering the levels of DMT may open up infinite possibilities for the human condition."
Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic with powerful hallucinogenic and psychedelic properties, including out-of-body experiences, transcendence of time, an extension of awareness beyond consensus reality into other universes, and other effects. Ketamine can produce every feature of a near-death experience (NDE) (Jansen 2001), including the conviction that one has died, awareness leaving the body, ringing/buzzing/ whistling sounds followed by travel through a tunnel at high speed, emerging into light, communion with God, and a life review.
Because we know how ketamine acts in the brain, this provides us with an understanding of how NDE’s arise. Ketamine blocks ion channels attached to NMDA receptors, and causes a blockage so that salts cannot enter the cell. The neurotransmitter glutamate crosses the gap between cells and binds to NMDA receptors, turning the chemical key which should allow ions to enter the cell. However, while the tunnel is blocked by ketamine, this is not possible.
"NDE’s also involve blockade of NMDA receptors. A sudden fall in O2 or blood sugar, a rise in CO2 (e.g. during a heart attack), and other factors cause a flood release of glutamate. This over-excites cells which die. This is called ‘excito-toxicity’. The glutamate flood also activates apoptotic genes which trigger the cell to commit suicide. Ketamine can prevent this brain damage via the same mechanism which is important to its psychedelic effects: blockade of channels so that ‘the ion sea’ cannot rush into the cells. This led to the prediction that the brain would have its own, natural protective mechanisms against the glutamate flood (Jansen 2001). There would be a huge evolutionary advantage in the development of a protective mechanism involving a counter-flood of natural NMDA receptor-complex blockers, producing ketamine-like NDE effects. While a person is having an NDE at the psychological level, the brain is thus protecting itself from excito-toxic damage. Natural blockers include NAAG (N-acetyl-aspartyl-glutamate), magnesium and kynurenic acid, all of which protect cells from excito-toxic damage.
People deprived of oxygen for long periods, e.g. after a heart attack, and who report NDE’s, sometimes survive with unimpaired brains. This lack of damage may result from an inherited mechanism for blocking over-excitation. Thus people who can have an NDE may be less likely to suffer brain damage. These may be the same group who report psychedelic experiences with ketamine. Dreams, ketamine ‘journeys’ and NDE’s are all states in which there is a dramatically reduced sensory input from the outside world. Those who do not recall dreams also do not recall ketamine ‘journeys’. The % who recall dreams is about the same as the % reporting ‘emergence phenomena’ after ketamine: about 40%, which is the % of the population who have had some kind of NDE. Genetic differences may be responsible, expressing themselves as different forms of NMDA receptors. "
Ref: Jansen KLR (2001a) Ketamine: Dreams and Realities. Sarasota, Florida: Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (ISBN 0-9660019-3-1) (Available from
www.maps.org).
So as you can see friend that none of these experiences are door to other worlds or "planes of existence", but your brain and body working together with chemicals to trick what ever this thing we call "consciousness", which is likely just a trick by your brain. No one really knows, but to think that everything was created by a god, or that there is a great power out there controlling things, is just unfathomably faithful in life. Now you may want to ask about Quantum Physics theory, that the human consciousness is actually creating what we are seeing, that we are describing the universe and so it is. This is an idea that could change the way people think about life, or just some incredibly coincidental mathematical proofs. But one thing that has been proven for certain is that there is no time, only constant change, chemical change always happening, every where at once. Thing on the surface of objects are decomposing and gases are solidifying or liquifying and gases are condensing, constantly and that is fairly profound.
Maybe this is a little chopped and screwed, but when people are taking drugs to have a spiritual experience, I really feel the need to explain that there is no life after death, no ghosts, no spirits and no god. And knowledge is simply your brain cells telling your "consciousness" what it has in its vault.
Peace
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