What it’s like to trip on DMT: ​“My friend turned into computer code”

If I were to write a sci-fi novel, I’d ask someone to describe their DMT trip and write it up. This powerful hallucinogenic, which can be smoked, snorted or injected, is one of the strongest psychedelics known to man. It dramatically transforms the way the user interacts with reality almost instantly, landing them in a world often containing ​“machine elves” and impossible shapes, with the ability to transport through other dimensions.

This week, I asked people to explain their DMT trips and someone complained. They suggested that I should be taking it myself if I’m going to write about it. This is a sentiment I actually somewhat agree with, but at the same time, I can’t be arsed. If there’s doors in my mind I’d rather leave them shut, to be quite honest. I take mushrooms about once a year and laugh at my shadow for a few hours, but that seems very chill compared to the following stories.

A couple of friends and I smoked DMT together out of a bong. Straight away I felt euphoric, my arms lifted up towards the sky and I just laid back. I had some trippy, geometric visuals. Time stopped, the whole room disappeared and I shrinked out of my body. My heart was racing like crazy and I started to feel sick, so I walked into my toilet and could not stop throwing up. I’d been in there for 40 mins and my friends were like, ​“What the fuck is going on?” I said I was in the shower. We’d planned on having a threesome after the DMT, but because I had such an intense physical reaction they left. So I messaged a good friend who laid in bed with me. I was hearing a voice saying: ​“No more.” I had smoked a lot of weed for seven years, but after that trip I never took any drugs again. That was five years ago.

I smoked DMT and the effect happened so fast it was beautiful. Everything moved forward and fast like you’re on a magic carpet ride. I swear I met my ​“maker”. I had ended up somewhere and it felt like I was being toured around the innards of the control centre of the universe. Someone asked: ​“Oh, would you like to meet your maker?” Then I got pulled into some other area, like if a tour guide at the White House were to say, ​“there’s the president”. It was a chance meeting. All of sudden this shining wall of grey light appeared. It said ​“hello” and it was gone. I guess that was, like, God or something.

I was at my flat in Amsterdam with a couple of mates. Our friend made [the DMT] into vape liquid and the trip was wild. My entire flat was completely immersed in different shades of purple, things were floating around the room but nothing ever touched or bumped into each other. My chair would dance swiftly around my TV, then dodge the desk and end up back in its usual spot. My friend started slowly turning into computer code. First his skin flaked off into code, then piece by piece he transformed completely. I couldn’t stop staring. After, I was convinced I’d seen into the future, so I was trying to tell everyone that I had proof we were being taken over by AI.

I eyeballed a dose and put it in a teaspoon, added a couple of drops of vinegar and water in, and sucked it up into a syringe. Really cringe, but I put on chanting music and thought, ​“this is going to be sooo spiritual.” I shot it up. I immediately went into what I can only describe as a hyperspace. I was hurtling through this black hole that was made out of holograms and hieroglyphs. There were people sitting around me, maybe they weren’t human people but other living things. They chattered and fussed over me, and put long tubes into my head. It felt like they cared about me.

Everything started to pixelate out and I was then floating towards this woman I can see in the distance. She’s gigantic, an indescribable scale. I opened my mouth and a million questions fell out really fast. She opened her mouth and I felt a wave of love and acceptance and appreciation. It just felt like pure unconditional love from this woman made of galaxies. Then I’m back in my room. With the needle still in my arm.

My nan died during Covid and I was struggling to come to terms with it. I’d used DMT a few times when I had important decisions to make, to help guide me towards an answer, and thought it was pretty helpful. Why not see if it can help me with this, too? So, I toked, laid back and closed my eyes. I found myself on a wooden raft slowly travelling down a river. I was surrounded by death and decay, vultures and wooden buildings that were abandoned and falling apart. A shadowy figure slowly ascended into the nothingness. Although I don’t believe in heaven, hell or the afterlife, I felt a real sense of acceptance and understanding of what had gone on once I came out of it. This place was not frightening or scary but instead just eerily beautiful and peaceful (even though it was full of death and decay). My head definitely saw the figure as my nan ascending into something better and, when I came out, I felt pretty OK about losing her.