5-MeO-DMT can be an absolutely fantastic experience, but I struggle to talk about it in a concise and meaningful way. I go back and forth on whether it should be compared at all to N,N-DMT. I’ve been wanting to write down my thoughts on 5-MeO-DMT for sometime now, and since this thread starts off asking about a comparison to N,N-DMT I’m going to seize this opportunity:
In my psychedelic community I know very few people that are in love with N,N-DMT the way I am and often when I say that my favorite substance is DMT they assume I am talking about 5-MeO-DMT, and I’ve heard many people say their best or most meaningful experience has been with it. Yet, their experience with N,N-DMT if they’ve even tried it is reported as weird or that it just doesn’t work for them. My take on that is that N,N-DMT is coming to them in an informal way, is rather difficult to dose properly and they’ve quit trying before getting it right, whereas with 5-MeO-DMT they are getting it in a retreat setting with proper guidance and having a quality experience right away.
The name, the administration, the onset, and to some extent the after-glow are similar. 5-MeO-DMT is something like 5X as potent, so weighing out a dose is more complicated since our commonly used mg scales aren’t that accurate when 1 or 2mgs matter. But on the plus side, breathing in the low dosage of vapor is easier.
Both substances take you somewhere you likely never imagined and return you with likely more questions than you had 10 minutes before, but the experiences are distinctly different. Both bring up questions. But, where N,N-DMT causes me to question reality and how my senses perceive it, 5-MeO-DMT makes me question what it means just to exist. (I hope that makes sense.)
I’m a curious person so both of them showing me some weirdness is what I find terrific. Both trips are indescribable, and yet I still try with whoever is around to listen. With N,N-DMT, an hour after I’m back I pretty much return to my normal thoughts and may just remember bits and pieces of the trip. It’s much like waking up from a dream. With 5-MeO-DMT I return kind of mentally shattered and it takes a day or two to recover. I think this is why 5-MeO-DMT seems to be more popular with the therapy retreats (at least in my area).
That idea of being shattered is how I can best describe it. I’m propelled into nothingness (sort of like general anaesthetic). That is completely unlike N,N-DMT where all my senses have something going on and there is some magical distortion of my mental mapping. With 5-MeO-DMT I black out and from there I start to reassemble. Bit by bit things start to return. I’m aware of vision. With my eyes closed all there is vast darkness, but somehow its in my vision. At some point I hear again, I realize I can speak, memories come back, I open my eyes and start to figure out who I am and where I’ve been. (It seems like memories come back one by one, and this may be where the therapy opportunities comes in as I feel I have some choice in what I care to remember.) I go into nothingness, completely alone and the return itself is what it is all about. With N,N-DMT I go to a place I enjoy with structure, color, motion, beings/entities that welcome me, and I return as if I’ve been on vacation. A completely different type of trip.
Weirdest thing about 5-MeO-DMT though, for me, is having my wife tell me that during the time I was in the blacked-out nothingness phase, I actually move around, speak coherently to her, and am able to respond to her reassuring me that I’m alright. That is so disconnected from what I thought I was experiencing, and not at all what happens on N,N-DMT. If you are doing 5-MeO-DMT, I think it wise to have a tripsitter.
Take care and enjoy both – they offer incredible experiences.
