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Amateur ‘psychonauts’ have been attempting for years to map DMT’s psychedelic realms, but it seems that Silicon Valley and Artificial Intelligence are getting on board with the first-ever serious look at what happens when people travel to the DMT-induced ‘worlds’.

People who have experienced the truly mind-altering effects of the drug DMT (N, N-Dimethyltryptamine) have consistently reported similar experiences during the ultra-powerful psychedelic trip.

Some recall being in the presence of strange beings who appear curious as to what they are doing in the ‘other place’, while some are confronted with goblins, jesters, and even ‘purple cosmic girlfriends’.

The coincidences within the DMT trip have always been seen as proof that DMT does indeed allow the user to ‘travel’ to other dimensions. It’s the consistency of experiences that has now caught the attention of venture capitalists and AI researchers as they attempt to ‘map’ both the worlds and experiences of so-called psychonauts.

Amateur psychonauts—cosmic cartographers, if you will—have been “mapping” the “DMT realm” on their own for years and are now attempting to map the DMT realm using rigorous, repeatable science.

Taking a drug trip seriously has not been a priority for many scientists, and the limited study of DMT has not been done through the lens of ‘experiences’ but rather the chemical effect of the drug.

The Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London for instance has revealed how the effects of DMT mirror that of near-death experiences by breaking down the basic networks of the brain, causing them to be less distinct from one another.

Called the “businessman’s trip” for its short duration, DMT blasts users off-world and back within 20 minutes.

The short duration of the trips has hindered serious ‘exploration’ of the DMT world, but now science believes that an intravenous delivery system could allow people to have more time to map out these bizarre zones the mind (and maybe the soul) travels to.

“Breakthrough” doses are used to ensure ‘stabilising levels of the molecule in the blood, lengthening the trip’s peak or adjusting its power as needed’. These higher doses could allow visitors to La-La Land an additional 30 minutes or longer to explore, and document, their experience.

From a “purely orthodox scientific perspective”, there’s no doubt the DMT world is remarkable by itself, and worthy of deep and intense investigation. There are worlds, and beings within worlds that bear no relationship whatsoever to our normal waking world—it’s far more complex, richer than our mundane conscious experience.

Scientists also believe these prolonged altered states could open the door to more detailed brain imaging, so it’s not just all about getting a longer buzz going. DMT also ignores the ‘normal’ dimensions of our reality and seems to propel users into a ‘hyper reality’ that has more dimensions than our waking world.

This simply means that we can actually experience more than what our normal senses perceive. Yip, this is strange stuff.

DMT is often—but not always—one of the active ingredients in ayahuasca, a plant used in ritual ceremonies by various Indigenous peoples in Latin America that has also become popular with backpackers and Silicon Valley types.

The ‘Silicon Valley types’ hope that further study into the effects and world of DMT might have value for AI systems as it delves into the meaning of true consciousness – without the limits our human perceptions place on it.

You have to wonder what people like Nicola Tesla, Steve Jobs, and even Carl Jung could have dreamed up if they were around today to take advantage of our newly found openness to technology, AI, and recreational drugs.

To emphasise the weirdness of the DMT universe, take a look at the below video of Shane Mauss’ encounter with the aforementioned cosmic purple girlfriend.

This actually sounds a lot like my first meeting with the missus, which she would probably call a ‘bad trip’.

[source:vice]