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Any Experiences of Lasting Psychological/Physical Effects After DMT Use? Awake while Asleep

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Apoc

Apoc

Esteemed member
OG Pioneer
Hello! I was wondering if anyone experiences after effects from using dmt, either physiological, or otherwise.
As for me, I did dmt one week ago, and the exact same thing has happened to me every night since. It is to a point now where it can no longer be coincidence, and I consider it a lasting physiological effect. Also, try to keep the "that's what you get!" responses to a minimum. I know you're out there.

Well, the thing is, every night, I become conscious while asleep. I become aware that I'm asleep, and yet I don't wake up. I can feel my body going to sleep, and I am aware of the moment I fall asleep. This has never happened to me ever before. I'm even able to open my eyes and remain asleep, while my everyday mind still functions. And also my body feels exactly like it did when I was on dmt, like it's floating, and there is a great sense of peace and well being. Some might call it a flashback, I don't know. But that seems unlikely to me because it is happening in a very organized fashion, and the issue revolves itself as soon as I decide to wake up. It seems to be just another body process that I have become conscious of, but there is no dysfunction. It's not happening randomly or inappropriately or impeding my ability to do anything. It's like sleep and dreaming, you are incapacitated and accepting an alternate reality temporarily, but as soon as you wake up, it goes away.

I'll explain what happens. First, I hear a ringing in my ears, and it becomes quite strong. That's the sign that I'm starting to fall asleep. Then I become extremely dizzy, and a need to just lie there and be still. For the first few nights this happened, I was convinced that I had accidentally or unknowingly taken dmt again somehow because this feeling I was having was impossible without drugs. It felt exactly the same. This state of major vertigo is the bridge between sleep and awake. My eyes feel like they're rolling back, and the vertigo sort of maxes itself out after a minute, and then there is just peace, lack of discomfort, easyness, a sense of rejuvination, a sense of receiving energy from this void that I call "the source" in this case. I will ususally smile when I get to this stage. "Oh my God, I'm asleep, and yet awake". I just smile. Then sometimes I'll open my eyes and just go in to a trance. After a few minutes I'll realize, "oh, I've just been staring at the wall for several minutes, and yet I'm not awake".

The first few nights this happened, I was actually quite afraid because I really really thought that I was under the influence of dmt, and it was going to last in to the morning and I wouldn't be able to get up and function, or maybe I had lost my mind. My body felt so weak and so high that I didn't think I had the power to get up. I thought I was locked there in my bed until the trips wears off. But one time, just for the heck of it, I tried to get up under my own power. To my surprise and amazement, as soon as I decide to wake up, and get out of bed, the dizzyness, the foggyness, the light headedness, the fogyyness, the trance like, free flowing mind state, all of it, it all goes away just like normal sleep does when you get up. I thought I was locked in to that state but I can choose to come out, or be snapped out of it if I get woken up.

There's also something else..... I've been experiencing my death every night as well. At the moment I become as tranced and asleep as I can get.... this hard to describe, but I sort of reach a point where I can't go any further. A point of absolute blakness, and there is a complete logical absurdity and break down of all reality. The absurdity is existence itself. Existence is seen to be impossible, and yet here it is. All reality and experience falls apart at this point, and for a moment there is absolutely nothing. The next thing I know, I take a breath in. With this breath, there is somehow a birth of the universe, not just of my world, but somehow a sense that it is ALL being manifested right now. And with that breath I realize that I just died, and was reborn, I smile and say "there is no death. Literally, there is no death". And I know that everything is absolutely ok. Reality fell apart altogether, but somehow just keeps coming back, that's what it always does, it is eternal.

There usually aren't dreams while I'm aware of my sleep, but thoughts do become more dream like, sometimes wander or repeat, and then I realize again, "oh, I'm asleep", and then usually thought stops altogether and I just grove on how wonderful my body feels. I'm spending about 4 hours each night in this awake state, it's still there when the sun comes up. The rest is regular sleep as usual, maybe having less dreams than normal. I wake up more refreshed than I used to even though I'm spending some time in the night with my eyes open.

That's about it. I'm tempted to get some biofeedback thing. I'd like to see what's going on in my brain when this happens, and how it compares to usual sleep. So, has anyone else experienced lasting effects? I wondered if the reason I remembered so much from my large dose dmt trip was becaues that I actually did pass out during the experience, but somehow remained conscious. And that trip was the very first time that I was conscious during sleep.... and my body somehow from that point remembered to recognize the sleep state, and that's why from that day forward, I've been conscious when going to bed. That's my theory thus far.
 
Ya said:
I respect the fact that you are continuing to share your experiences, openly, honestly, courageously.

Some of us here are openly reading, thinking, and learning. Please continue to share your experiences.
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Thanks, yeah I was starting to get the feeling that anything I posted, people were just going to come and say "That's crazy, you're an idiot".
 
Congratulations brother, you have found a secret many people don't even know exist. Being conscious while asleep provides you with the opportunity to have lucid dreams, promote sleep-paralysis, and if you really want to take it far, astral projection. It is really great to hear that DMT have opened up this possibility for you! This possibility is something yogis and monks strive for in years of mediation to obtain.
 
:d Very intriguing!

I have something I'd like to share and get some opinions on; a year or so ago I was reading a book by Alex Grey and I came across a passage about alex' first memory. It was an excellent description of a vision I received as a child but had all but forgotten. I got chills as a childhood recollection came screaming back to me.

The vision I had occurred in a hypnogogic state (just before or right as sleep begins) in a home I lived in during elementary school. I would be lying in perfect blackness, and I would feel as if my body was shaking like mad, then I would feel weightlessness and sometimes slip back and forth between tremors and floating. I don't think the tremors were actually happening, it was just a feeling like massive energy was in my body.I would be unable to see anything around myself and was in a void. Then I would get the vision...

an orb of perfect purity and whiteness would materialize in the void. pulsating slighty or growing and shrinking, or sometimes would take the form of a bust, like a perfectly symmetrical head and shoulders. This was the most pure thing EVER, I was in awe of it everytime. Then it would begin to happen....
The most horrid putrid black and bulbous tentacles would consume my pure white vision, I would turn my face in disgust, this would continue unitll all the light was exhausted and only awefulness remained.

I remember being relatively un-frieghtened of the blackness, and slowly the glowing purity would spread from a pinpoint of light and again ignite my vision with its white loveing symmetry.
:d :d

I love talking about it! does anyone know anything about what Im babbling about?
I hope one day I get the chance to talk to the Grey's about the experience. Alex postulated in the book that his vision of striking similarity was his earliest memory of birth, but im not convinced that what its all about.

fnog9 I hope we can explore this realm some more!!!!!
 
That's amazing. After the highest dose of shrooms I have ever taken, I began experiencing almost exactly what you are experiencing, with some key differences: It wasn't always pleasant, and I couldn't always snap out of it easily, though with effort, I always could. I would be aware, yet asleep, with my eyes open. When I went into this state, it was always accompanied by this loud ringing, not so much in my ears as in my brain or even my entire body, if that makes any sense. It would grow louder and louder and then I'd either be awake but my body disabled (sleep paralysis) or in a lucid dream, in full control, and able to fly.

Sometimes I enjoyed it, and could even deliberately float out of my body and around the apartment or the house I was living in. Once, when I made the effort, I was able to float through the ceiling, but usually was blocked from doing so, probably from self-imposed limitations (i.e., this is impossible).

There were times when it was terrifying however. Once, when the ringing was in full effect, and I was lying on my back in the bed, I didn't float up, I began floating down, through the bed, my room receding as if in a tunnel - and a dark presence manifested next to me, and whispered in my ear, "how would you like it if I dragged you down to HELL?" - and it proceeded to attempt to do so. I felt myself plummeting through empty space, my room receded further, and I screamed at the top of my lungs in abject terror and snapped "awake". Yikes.

This went on for years, gradually diminishing over time, and still happens very, very rarely. And though I have tripped many times since (after a long break), and taken some reasonably strong doses, my desire to go that far has been somewhat diminished (though not eliminated, lol - I dream of a world-dissolving mescaline experience, but I will build up to it when the time comes).
 
Very interesting stuff, folks. Also interesting no one has mentioned after effects of dmt yet.

I think last night I actually took my first trip to hyperspace. I mentioned in my trip report I was actually surprised by the lack of visuals in my high dose dmt trip, and I was expecting to experience this thing people are calling hyperspace.... and a whole bunch of super geometry and bright stuff. My visuals were more like whisps and confusion. Maybe I was so scared I didn't allow myself to go in to this hyperspace thing or see visuals. I didn't go in to an alternate reality, it was more like leaving reality altogether.

But last night I think I experienced what people are calling hyperspace and did it without any dmt or drugs. I could feel myself falling asleep, ears ringing harder ever. I relaxed in to it, and felt myself emerge in to an alternate reality, literally feeling as if I was flying through space. I have never experienced anything like this before..... where I literally felt like I left my body and emerged in some dark void where anything is possible. Just keeping this all in a journal so I don't forget.
 
:shock: wow, haven't had those exact specifics! I DID once have a dream that was EXACTLY like an experience report though... meet an entity in a Tophat and was told Cacao is an MAOI.


BUT, even many days later, I do at times feel hyperspace "creeping up" on me! And can even re-sense jimjam in my sinuous. and sometimes new thoughts will make me woozy an dizzy for no reason.


Yet the biggest changes are psychological. I have no fear. I feel less lost regarding the greater "unknowns" of the world. I've become more in touch with my repressed emotional life. AND i feel WAY OUT in left field MUCH more so than before...


a
 
Once, about a week after smoking some DMT, I did hear the carrier wave and launched into the kaleidoscope fractal veil as I was falling asleep (this veil is the hallmark of my sub-breakthrough experiences, with a breakthrough I am pulled through that veil into hyperspace). I was astonished to experience those sensations without having taken any DMT, but it only happened that one time.


SunRise, have you read PiHKAL and TiHKAL (the story/vignette halves, not the chemistry halves)? Ann Shulgin describes an experience that's very similar to what you're talking about, only it didn't just happen once. It was a recurring trope of her hypnogogic states throughout childhood, becoming less frequent through adolescence, and eventually stopping entirely in early adulthood. I wonder how common that experience is, and what it stems from.
 
After my first psychedelic trip I started having sleep paralysis. Now at first they happened quite often but with time the frequency diminished. Also the interesting part is that the first time I had sleep paralysis I felt completely helpless and really scared, and was only able to wake up when the "intruder" got really close and I awoke from fear. Now this pattern continued for a bit, but each time it happened I was able to deal with the fear a little bit better, and waking up not so shook up.

Last time though it was completely different. I "awoke" realizing I'm experiencing sleep paralysis and knowing that the "intruder" is watching me. Now instead of being terrified and remaining paralyzed I decided that if I can make it to the light switch and turn the lights on before the "intruder" gets to me I will wake up. My fear took a backseat to my determination and I was able to roll out of the bed and hit the floor. The paralysis was still affecting me like someone put me in very heavy chains. I tried to get up from the floor but the more I struggled the faster the room would spin. I started crawling towards the light switch but the room started spinning faster. Finally got underneath the light switch! Now I had to do the impossible, stand up. Time was running out I felt that I only had seconds to get to the light switch, I barely stood up straight and right away fell. Luckily I knew I wouldn't be able to stand so I stood while tilting myself to the wall. Once I hit the wall I used it as a crutch. So I was now standing slouched against the wall right near the light switch and I swear I think I smiled, then I turned the lights on and woke up.

I believe that this was the only instance of sleep paralysis where I didn't have to roam around the house for an hour due to fear before going back to sleep. Felt asleep right after waking up cause I felt I exhausted my energies but I also felt at peace and satisfied.

@Evening Glory I understand why someone would want to have lucid dreams or be able to astral project, but why promote sleep-paralysis?
 
MetaXIII said:
@Evening Glory I understand why someone would want to have lucid dreams or be able to astral project, but why promote sleep-paralysis?
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It's a good "spring board" to become lucid. Instead of fighting "the fear" you should relax into it
no matter how frightening it is...can be hard though cuz it can be really creepy=)
 
imPsimon said:
MetaXIII said:
@Evening Glory I understand why someone would want to have lucid dreams or be able to astral project, but why promote sleep-paralysis?
Click to expand...

It's a good "spring board" to become lucid. Instead of fighting "the fear" you should relax into it
no matter how frightening it is...can be hard though cuz it can be really creepy=)
Click to expand...
Yeah, exactly! Sleep-paralysis is not fun, but if you overcome the fear, you will notice that you have found a treasure chest.
 
I have never been frightened by sleep paralysis, I don't usually even have a concept of my "body" during an episode though and I think that is why.
 
What was weird is that as time went on, when I was in those states, somewhere between hynagogia and sleep-paralysis, I could enter "dreamworld" almost at will - sometimes a few times a night. Very strange experiences, and psychedelic in a mild way. It's been a few years though, since I had any sleep paralysis at all, though I still have hypnagogia at times - usually psychedelic visuals of morphing vine-like patterns accompanied by that buzzing - ringing sound, leading straight into regular dreams, sometimes lucid, sometimes not. Once, I was transported fully conscious into a dark forest - it was so real, like being there. I was lying on a bed of moss, surrounded by trees, and could hear a couple in the woods, walking nearby, laughing. I remained quiet, unsure of how exactly to explain my appearance in these unknown woods. Then the buzzing came again, and took me into another dream. So strange.
 
I have no explanation for that, but I have to admit that my dream recall has improved dramatically after my recent Acacia confusa experimentation described here. Interestingly, I seem to recall not only the dreams, but also a kind of void state that occurs while sleeping. (This is in accord with Tibetan sleep cartography, but I refuse to speculate further at this point...)

Also, regarding hypnagogia, my awareness of hypnagogic imagery increased enormously ever since my first psychedelic experience (psilocybin mushrooms), and it actually feels extremely similar to psychedelic visions, just more "pale" and less "tangible". I have also learned something about transitions from hypnagogia to lucid dreaming under the influence of LSA seeds and, on a different occasion, combinations of low-dose tropanes (mandrake) with oral hashish. However, I have never reached a point when I can reliably induce lucid dreams.
 
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