FUNDAMENTAL PERCEPTION OF REALITY ALTERED AFTER USING PSYCHEDELIC DMT

Media Contact: Vanessa McMains, Ph.D.

For thousands of years, people have used psychedelic drugs found in plants, mushrooms and animals for spiritual and recreational purposes. One such chemical, N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), creates intense and unusual experiences for up to 30 minutes when inhaled via smoking or vaping. These experiences often involve visions and changes in emotions and thinking, which are sometimes interpreted as feeling the compelling presence of another conscious entity such as an angel or even an alien.

In a study published in the May 7, 2020, issue of the Journal of Psychopharmacology, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers reported results from an online survey of more than 2,500 participants who described their most memorable entity encounter experience after inhaling DMT. They found that 80% of respondents said their fundamental perception of reality was altered following this event. For those who declared themselves as atheists before the DMT entity encounter, more than half no longer claimed to be afterward.

“That we have the capacity and are biologically predisposed for these experiences with psychedelics suggests that this may be an evolutionarily conserved process in which we are wired to detect sentient others. Historically, such a predisposition would have a significant survival value in hostile environments,” says senior author Roland Griffiths, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry, behavioral sciences and neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and director of the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research. “Finding out why we have these experiences and how people interpret them may lead us to a better understanding of the human condition and how we perceive reality.”

Most respondents reported that the entity had the attributes of being conscious, intelligent and benevolent. Almost three quarters of participants reported believing that the entity continued to exist after the encounter. The vast majority of participants attributed subsequent positive changes in life satisfaction (89%) and purpose (82%).

“Although we need to do more research in order to understand how these entity encounters exert positive changes in people’s lives, it’s possible that the metaphysical shock from questioning one's worldview occasioned by these vivid, unusual experiences may play an important role in the enduring positive life changes in attitudes, moods and behavior they inspire,” says lead author Alan Davis, Ph.D., a part-time adjunct assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences.

However, a small portion of participants (5% or less) reported negative and undesirable changes in mood, behavior or life satisfaction.

“We have to be cautious because we’re delving into experiences that appear on the psychotic end of the spectrum and there may be an unknown set of harms in certain susceptible people,” says Griffiths.