What exactly constitutes a "Breakthrough"?

[Mister_Niles]

Sub-breakthroughs can be more “fun” than breakthroughs – in fact I wouldn’t call most of my breakthroughs fun at all – they’re much deeper. I can’t tell you what a breakthrough is like, but here are a few things you might think and do while returning from a breakthrough:

--- You might drop to your knees with tears streaming down your face and say “thank you” over and over.

--- You might realize that there are words whose meaning you thought you knew, but didn’t really come to know until your breakthrough. Words like “gratitude”, “love”, “communion”, “tranquility”, and “beauty”.

--- After experiencing what you experienced, you might wonder, with a certain amount of fear, how you’ll ever be able to function again in “normal” society.

--- You might return to your body and find it strangely confining.

--- After a difficult breakthrough, you might not want to have a breakthrough ever again.

Concerning your questions “is there more?” and “how deep does it really get?” here’s how I answer: Yes, there is more. And it goes very deep. If you keep at it, it’s possible to go too deep. I asked that same question – I was very curious about how deep it goes. And then I found out, and I’ve been avoiding a deep breakthrough for almost 7 months now.

That was an effing inspiring and beautiful post. A little scary too. I've been avoiding larger doses for awhile now, this post makes me want to go for a breakthrough RIGHT NOW and it also makes me think I should probably give the rest of my spice away and never look back. I won't do either, but your deep reverence for this substance and the experiences it brings are eye opening, even for someone who thought their eyes were already open (at least a little).
Thanks for posting that. You've given me some things to think about, even though I'm pretty sure I already knew all of the stuff in your post on some level. It's funny how the way something is presented to you can make such a difference. I suppose you managed a psychedelic post, in the true sense of the word. I'll stop gushing now.

 

[gibran2]

That was an effing inspiring and beautiful post. A little scary too. I've been avoiding larger doses for awhile now, this post makes me want to go for a breakthrough RIGHT NOW and it also makes me think I should probably give the rest of my spice away and never look back. I won't do either, but your deep reverence for this substance and the experiences it brings are eye opening, even for someone who thought their eyes were already open (at least a little).

Thanks for posting that. You've given me some things to think about, even though I'm pretty sure I already knew all of the stuff in your post on some level. It's funny how the way something is presented to you can make such a difference. I suppose you managed a psychedelic post, in the true sense of the word. I'll stop gushing now.

Thanks. I’m not very good at conveying in words the experiences I have with DMT (hence not many experience reports), so it’s nice to hear that my words are getting through.

As I said in my previous post in this thread, breakthroughs of this sort can’t be forced – they come when they come. In fact, it seems they often come when they are least expected. It’s best to just accept and be thankful for whatever experience you’re given.

I’ve had very deep, sacred experiences, but I’ve also had some very light and funny ones. “Hyperspace” has a very good sense of humor. Here’s a description of what I mean:


The experience began with what looked a bit like a stage, with large curtains in front of it. The curtains slowly opened, accompanied by the sound of trumpets and much fanfare, to reveal another set of curtains. This only served to heighten my sense of anticipation.

This second set of curtains opened, with even more fanfare, to reveal a third set of curtains. I was so filled with anticipation! Whatever I was about to see must be very special indeed! Then the third set of curtains opened to reveal… a fourth set. And then a fifth, then a sixth. This went on for some time, and it finally dawned on me that the curtains might never reveal anything at all! Soon after this realization, the scene faded, and soon after that, the experience ended.

All that fanfare for nothing! It was actually very funny at the time.

 

[cellux]

This second set of curtains opened, with even more fanfare, to reveal a third set of curtains. I was so filled with anticipation! Whatever I was about to see must be very special indeed! Then the third set of curtains opened to reveal… a fourth set. And then a fifth, then a sixth. This went on for some time, and it finally dawned on me that the curtains might never reveal anything at all! Soon after this realization, the scene faded, and soon after that, the experience ended.

This sounds like a Monty Python sketch.

Once I also got into such an infinite fractal recursion, but that one had a solution: I could step out from it "sideways".

 

[Mister_Niles]

The experience began with what looked a bit like a stage, with large curtains in front of it. The curtains slowly opened, accompanied by the sound of trumpets and much fanfare, to reveal another set of curtains. This only served to heighten my sense of anticipation.

This second set of curtains opened, with even more fanfare, to reveal a third set of curtains. I was so filled with anticipation! Whatever I was about to see must be very special indeed! Then the third set of curtains opened to reveal… a fourth set. And then a fifth, then a sixth. This went on for some time, and it finally dawned on me that the curtains might never reveal anything at all! Soon after this realization, the scene faded, and soon after that, the experience ended.

All that fanfare for nothing! It was actually very funny at the time.

That's hilarious. Just yesterday I was demonstrating a tiny song I wrote with a theoretically infinite number of false endings for a guitar student. Kind of the opposite, but similar. I love the sense of humor that dmt has, but sometimes it can be a cruel or taunting sense of humor. I've had hilarious moments in hyperspace, but the funniest display of plant humor was on salvia. Maybe I should post about this on the salvia game thread, because ths was sort of like "Where's Waldo?". I smoked some 10x and was transported back to the early 1970s, to my childhood bedroom. Everything was there. The orange shag carpet, my desk anb ed, my R2-D2 model... and things in the room would change as the frames of a view-master clicked by slowly, each frame was a different year. The albums on the floor progressed from Burl Ives and Disney to The Bay City Rollers, to Kiss and Cheap Trick, to Pink Floyd to Brian Eno and Gary Numan. The funny part came when I realized that in each of these frames, there was a not so subtly placed coca-cola product of some sort. A bottle, a frisbee, a shirt, and in one, a coca cola 8 track player. I couls switch the frames back and forth in time at will, and I double checked. Product placement in each frame. The Philip K. Dick homotropic advertising scheme taken to the next level (I think it was in The Simulacra). Advertisements in a trip. And it was proper placement too, because I grew up in a pepsi drinking family. Really funny.

And yeah, your words are getting though. I always enjoy your posts. I've had the feeling that if we met in real life, we'd have quite a bit to talk about. A lot of your ideas about science and philosophy resonate with me. thanks again.

 

[gibran2]

Product placement. That's very funny! :lol:

 

[polytrip]

Breakthrough refers to the fact that the psychedelic perceptions overpower your normal sensory perceptions. The moment that this happens you are fully immersed into the psychedelic state. The psychedelic experience becomes dominant over the real world experience, it takes over, it breaks through.

 

[MySmelf]

i believe that a breakthrough involves entities interacting with us. When you have very clear messages and interactions with them specifically. On a sub-breakthrough i think youre still able to perceive our consensus reality in someway, overlapped by objects, entities, etc from hyperspace. I agree that there's always the possibility of going deeper into it (body disintegration, becoming one with the trip, orgiastic climax, etc) but i consider that once you break the veil and it doesnt matter anymore if you open or close your eyes, you have brokenthrough succesfully

I don't know about this. I've had sub-breakthroughs with definite entity contact and intense breakthroughs without any entities. Also I've had a couple sub-breakthroughs where it didn't matter nor could I tell if I opened or closed my eyes. I don't consider them breakthroughs because I still had a definite sense of self and where I was in this reality even though I couldn't "see" anything but hyperspace.

To me a breakthrough is when I no longer have a sense of my body or this reality.

I'm never sure if its going to be a breakthrough or not. I've vaped 40+mg in the GVG without breakthrough and then broke through on 30mg a week later. I had a breakthrough on less than 25mg of some brown sugar looking stuff vaped out of foil in the "lab" as a test, thinking it wasn't going to be very strong!

 

[Wave Rider]

The funny part came when I realized that in each of these frames, there was a not so subtly placed coca-cola product of some sort. A bottle, a frisbee, a shirt, and in one, a coca cola 8 track player. I couls switch the frames back and forth in time at will, and I double checked. Product placement in each frame. The Philip K. Dick homotropic advertising scheme taken to the next level (I think it was in The Simulacra). Advertisements in a trip. And it was proper placement too, because I grew up in a pepsi drinking family. Really funny.

I think the Coca-Cola corporation should give their advertising department a bump in salary. This is cutting-edge stuff - advertisements in hyperspace! They must have access to some pretty futuristic technology. Or maybe I'm thinking of us...

What always makes things like this funnier to me, is the thought of trying to explain this stuff to a person who has no experience with psychedelics. Utter insanity. I've had fun/funny trips that just seemed so right/normal to me, then I would come back and try to tell someone what I saw; I usually have stop mid-sentence because there is no point, they won't get it. This is when I realize the complete absurdity of attempting to explain that world in terms of this world. The absurdity only adds to my amusement. This is what spice humor means to me. There is nothing like it.

 

[mainmang87]

Has anyone ever been denied a breakthrough? I have been accustomed to the spice for over two years now and I truely believe that I have not broken through yet. I feel that I'v been very close in the past 6 months. I have had elf-like and sims people type entities that appear withing the patterns and the only thing they say is "No" and "not quite" and "almost there" and then they say "good-bye" and they laugh at me in a taunting manner. after this i am only left with the earpiercing sound and the fluxing patterns. I just dont know what a break through really is?????/

 

[mrlucky64]

Did you want visuals or do you want to meet the people....SWIM calls it the alien DNA factory but when you meet them, you broke through IMO........

 

[welsh trip head]

i think it would be good to add to this tread that i also think its when the ego has melted away.. i think thats inportant to add, because to me thats what lets you have a true breakthrough. to experiance the presence of beings/spirits and higher states of consciousness...

 

[gibran2]

i think it would be good to add to this tread that i also think its when the ego has melted away.. i think thats inportant to add, because to me thats what lets you have a true breakthrough. to experiance the presence of beings/spirits and higher states of consciousness...

That’s not always true.

My two most intense and difficult experiences (the more recent of which has me still hesitant to try for a deep breakthrough, 7 months later) didn’t involve any loss of ego whatsoever. I was fully aware of who I was, where I was, and how I got there.

I would have welcomed ego loss. Ego loss would have served as a much wanted security blanket.

 

[Psikotrope]

My answer would be as some of the earlier replies. "You know when it happens!" I've had some intense trips but none of them ever quite felt like I went over the edge. Then I had one this morning (see my exp. report "1st Breakthrough (not what I expected)". At first after I came down I noticed it wasn't really like everyone described. Upon reflection it has a lot more in common with others than I'd thought.

The things that marked my experience and knowledge that I broke through were:

1. The out of body experience, or forgetting that I had a physical existence.

2. The dissolution of ordinary consensous reality. The normal world simply dissolved and vanished.

3. Ego-loss. My personality, memory, sense of self were obliterated and only a naked awareness remained.

4. Contact with entities. I saw no one, yet I had the overwhelming feeling someone else was present.

5. Language lost its meaning, I seemed to have forgotten how to communicate in any rational way.

6. And finally time dilalation. I was gone for what felt like thousands of year but in reality only several minutes.

The above characteristics have never happened in my dozen or so sessions until today. The first clue for me was the "oh shit youKve done it now" sentiment. This was also the first time I was really relaxed going into it. I wasn't expecting or seeking a breakthrough. Perhaps that was the ticket?!

One other thing I can say when I came back I had the deepest respect for spice. I see it now as a tool for consciousness expansion. It's not to be played with. Before I never had this deep respect. I think when you breakthrough your normal waking life will be changed. You feel like a new person.

Hope I helped in some small way!