Well first of all I wasn't the author of that article on whatever board it was posted on so don't falsely accuse Gosvami.
But personally I think DMT can make people (not everyone)
hella deluded
Hahahaha here we go:
When I hear someone say is DMT dangerous for your mind two questions come to mind. Physical damage? Psychological damage? Physical damage I don't think really is the problem here.
Psychological damage is what I find more interesting and I think a lot of people over look this part of the psychedelic experience in general. Partially because "psychological damage" is often ill defined.
The first area however that I would differ with the original poster is that shamanism and DMT and psychedelic effects and or after effects do not resemble classical psychosis. In a couple of ways which I won't completely detail. One way however is that classical psychosis often involves deep social reclusion. Most dmt users and psychedelic users are not secluded and anti social in the way that someone with schizophrenia is. They also don't hear voices or experience delusions when they are sober which is of course a
major difference. DMT doesn't often precipitate this kind of psychosis and in that sense its not dangerous psychologically unless an individual is prone to such delusions / schizophrenia. Which also goes for any psychedelic.
So what do I consider psychological 'damage' that could come from psychedelic drug use. Lets make a short list and a short comment.
1) Running away from society. This happens often with people. They finally wake up to societies BS by taking acid or dmt or whatever. They freak out. They run away. They drop out of school they quite their jobs they go dance around in a commune for a few years until they accidentely get pregnant and realize oh shit I gotta feed my kid. This is a realistic danger. It can seriously interfere with the development of an individual especially younger people. I can think of many people in my life who have done this and now suffer either financially or psychologically because of it. There are problems with society and there always will be. But part of being a mature person is realizing that one person can't change all that by running away. The 60's failed for this reason.
2) Believing in things that are dangerous to the self. This should be rather obvious. Some people wind up thinking they are the Messiah or some other garbage and kill themselves. Believing you can fly and jump out a window. I don't think DMT does this so much though because its so short. I've yet to hear of cases of suicide related to DMT use. Although I am sure if more and more people use it this will happen. It always happens. It might have already happened I don't know.
3) False belief systems that can grow from these experiences. This is probably the most controversial thing I will say. In a way this is like religion. DMT can become your religion if you want it to. Its so perfect for that. The entire psychedelic experience is. If you base your entire life on the belief system you invent while high on dmt you may later in life become very disappointed when you see its not real. I view all religion this way. You may consider me biased but I think religion is a horrible thing and we need to move past it. I worry that psychedelic experiences may become a religion of the future and end up in a brave new world scenario. Maybe thats what Huxley was hinting towards I dunno.
My advice:
Don't take it too seriously. Your taking powerful drugs. No matter what you experience it might not be real it might all be in your head. No one really knows whats going on with these substances so don't jump to rash conclusions because you just tripped your nuts off and spoke to some elves who told you to "get ready for their arrival" or whatever sillyness comes out of this kind of exploration.
I also want you all to know that I am not coming at this from an angle of oppression or repression of these experiences. For me personally they have been the defining experiences of my life. I have learned a GREAT deal from the psychedelic experience. But to pretend like there is no such thing as an "acid casualty" or a "dmt casualty" is not realistic and to tell this to young people is also down right dangerous. NO SUBSTANCE IS PERFECT NO DRUG EXPERIENCE CAN REPLACE YOUR MIND AND YOUR RATIONAL SELF!!!
