A guide for your journals and logs

[Qoniaq]

Hello, travelers.

After the various messages and nudges I’ve received about my journaling practices, I’ve gone ahead and assembled a non-exhaustive list of things that may be useful to remember after a trip. It was made by asking GPT to go through all my reports, and compile what important bits of info keep coming back, and are worthy of noting and remembering.
This isn’t a rulebook, or a checklist you must complete,.. Think of it more as a set of handrails—use as many or as few as feel appropriate for you, or ignore entirely if that’s what the moment calls for.
It can be printed, skimmed, revisited later, or ignored all together.
If any part of it helps someone here retrieve memories, organize experiences, or store impressions a little more clearly, then it has done its job.

No further obligations are implied

DMT Phenomenology Field Notes Template​

Purpose: This template is designed to capture the structure of a DMT experience with enough precision to support comparison, reflection, and later analysis, while leaving space for personal narrative.

Use it as soon as possible after the experience. Bullet points are encouraged. Precision is more valuable than interpretation.

I. Context (Pre‑Flight)​

- Date & time:
- Location / setting:
- Physical state (rested, tense, calm, ill, etc.):
- Emotional state / expectations:
- Preparation (meditation, music, silence, etc.):
- Observer present? (Y/N; role):

II. Entry & Onset​

- Route / form (oral, vaped, IV etc.):
- Onset speed (instant, rapid, gradual):
- Initial bodily sensations:
- First disruption noticed (visual, bodily, temporal, self‑sense):

III. Phase Structure (Timeline)​

Describe the experience in phases, even if they felt simultaneous.

Phase A – Threshold:
- Key features:
- Affect:

Phase B – Peak / Immersion:
- Key features:
- Affect:

Phase C – Return / Re‑embodiment:
- Key features:
- Affect:

IV. Perceptual & Spatial Structure​

- Environment type (space, tunnel, room, field, void, etc.):
- Geometry (flat, curved, infinite, bounded, layered):
- Motion (static, flowing, rotating, snapping, none):
- Inside/outside distinction (clear, ambiguous, absent):
- Stability (solid, shifting, crystalline, indeterminate):

V. Sensory Modalities​

- Visual qualities (if applicable): color, brightness, texture, impossibility:
- Auditory qualities (tone, silence, music interaction):
- Somatic qualities (pressure, vibration, dissolution, absence):
- Cross‑modal effects (synesthetic, fused, non‑local):

VI. Self & Agency​

- Sense of self (observer, participant, absent):
- Boundary between self and environment (clear, dissolved, irrelevant):
- Agency present? (none, implicit, explicit):
- Did anything feel like it was "happening to you" rather than being observed?

VII. Interoception (Body Awareness)​

- Heartbeat perception (present, absent, distorted):
- Breath perception (present, absent, irrelevant):
- Body awareness overall (intact, fragmented, gone):
- Fear related to bodily disappearance? (describe):
- Somatic sub-routines (describe):

VIII. Affect & Valence​

- Dominant affect (terror, awe, neutrality, bliss, confusion):
- Was affect directed at something, or objectless?
- Did affect change across phases?

IX. Anchors & Coping (if any)​

- Any grounding or anchor used (passive or active):
- Was it maintained or only checked?
- Did it interfere with or allow surrender?

X. Exit & Integration (Immediate)​

- Moment of return:
- First coherent thought:
- Immediate bodily/emotional state:
- Observer feedback (if applicable):

XI. Narrative Description (Free Form)​

Write freely here. Use metaphor, story, or imagery. Do not worry about precision in this section.

XII. Provisional Reflections (Optional)​

- What felt novel or unprecedented?
- What assumptions were challenged?
- Anything that resists description?

 

[universecannon]

I think I enjoy reading trip reports that were just written naturally from humans not following an overly structured template. Explaining the details within the narrative flows better to me than just listing all of them sequentially before a narrative like this.

I feel that conveys someone's perspective more realistically and generally is how a good story unfolds. Imagine if a book was deconstructed with a template. Its ability to transport you into another's shoes would likely be diminished.

The nudges you mention re your journals seemed moreso encouraging you to share natural thoughts, and not more LLM, from what I understood.

A problem with AI is that its responses initially sometimes feel like a genuine insight and novel idea of ones own making, only to later be revealed as hollow and off the mark once the sensation of creating something unique fades. At least that's been my limited eexperience with it.

Please don't take any of this the wrong way. I appreciate the intention of helping others. I can be pretty blunt but I don't mean to come off as harsh. People of course have their own preferences for how to write reports

 

[Varallo]

Hello, travelers.

After the various messages and nudges I’ve received about my journaling practices, I’ve gone ahead and assembled a non-exhaustive list of things that may be useful to remember after a trip. It was made by asking GPT to go through all my reports, and compile what important bits of info keep coming back, and are worthy of noting and remembering.
This isn’t a rulebook, or a checklist you must complete,.. Think of it more as a set of handrails—use as many or as few as feel appropriate for you, or ignore entirely if that’s what the moment calls for.
It can be printed, skimmed, revisited later, or ignored all together.
If any part of it helps someone here retrieve memories, organize experiences, or store impressions a little more clearly, then it has done its job.

No further obligations are implied

DMT Phenomenology Field Notes Template​

Purpose: This template is designed to capture the structure of a DMT experience with enough precision to support comparison, reflection, and later analysis, while leaving space for personal narrative.

Use it as soon as possible after the experience. Bullet points are encouraged. Precision is more valuable than interpretation.

I. Context (Pre‑Flight)​

- Date & time:
- Location / setting:
- Physical state (rested, tense, calm, ill, etc.):
- Emotional state / expectations:
- Preparation (meditation, music, silence, etc.):
- Observer present? (Y/N; role):

II. Entry & Onset​

- Route / form (oral, vaped, IV etc.):
- Onset speed (instant, rapid, gradual):
- Initial bodily sensations:
- First disruption noticed (visual, bodily, temporal, self‑sense):

III. Phase Structure (Timeline)​

Describe the experience in phases, even if they felt simultaneous.

Phase A – Threshold:
- Key features:
- Affect:

Phase B – Peak / Immersion:
- Key features:
- Affect:

Phase C – Return / Re‑embodiment:
- Key features:
- Affect:

IV. Perceptual & Spatial Structure​

- Environment type (space, tunnel, room, field, void, etc.):
- Geometry (flat, curved, infinite, bounded, layered):
- Motion (static, flowing, rotating, snapping, none):
- Inside/outside distinction (clear, ambiguous, absent):
- Stability (solid, shifting, crystalline, indeterminate):

V. Sensory Modalities​

- Visual qualities (if applicable): color, brightness, texture, impossibility:
- Auditory qualities (tone, silence, music interaction):
- Somatic qualities (pressure, vibration, dissolution, absence):
- Cross‑modal effects (synesthetic, fused, non‑local):

VI. Self & Agency​

- Sense of self (observer, participant, absent):
- Boundary between self and environment (clear, dissolved, irrelevant):
- Agency present? (none, implicit, explicit):
- Did anything feel like it was "happening to you" rather than being observed?

VII. Interoception (Body Awareness)​

- Heartbeat perception (present, absent, distorted):
- Breath perception (present, absent, irrelevant):
- Body awareness overall (intact, fragmented, gone):
- Fear related to bodily disappearance? (describe):
- Somatic sub-routines (describe):

VIII. Affect & Valence​

- Dominant affect (terror, awe, neutrality, bliss, confusion):
- Was affect directed at something, or objectless?
- Did affect change across phases?

IX. Anchors & Coping (if any)​

- Any grounding or anchor used (passive or active):
- Was it maintained or only checked?
- Did it interfere with or allow surrender?

X. Exit & Integration (Immediate)​

- Moment of return:
- First coherent thought:
- Immediate bodily/emotional state:
- Observer feedback (if applicable):

XI. Narrative Description (Free Form)​

Write freely here. Use metaphor, story, or imagery. Do not worry about precision in this section.

XII. Provisional Reflections (Optional)​

- What felt novel or unprecedented?
- What assumptions were challenged?
- Anything that resists description?

I understand the intention. However, we already have a template, which you can see in the pinned topics above. I will link to it again below, but this is the format we’ve been using on the Nexus for many years. For the sake of consistency and comparability, it makes sense to continue using that structure.

At the same time, I’m open to the idea that the current template might be improved. We had that same discussion years ago, which is why this template exists.

If there are concrete suggestions or proposed changes, the best place to discuss those would be in the existing thread, so they can be considered in context.

Thread 'Template for comparative analysis of bioassays'

Mar 23, 2011

Let me know what you think and we can edit this together. I feel something like this is a good idea for us to be able to compare experiences, especially when dealing with relatively little documented mixtures, forms of administration or substances.

-------------------------
PRE-CONDITIONS
(mind)Set:
(physical condition) Set:
Setting (location):
time of day: (12 or 24 hour system, daylight? starlight? overcast?)
recent drug use: (list also any kind of medication)
last meal: (Time and type)

PARTICIPANT
Gender...

• Enoon
• Replies: 12
• Forum: DMT Experience Reports