archetypal fool

I suppose you're right. I guess what I was trying to say is that it's next to impossible to smoke a lethal amount of DMT.

This is also very true, at least in my opinion. For me, the experience gave me a solid, level ground - a totally clear mind with which I could really sit down and think things through. Clearly (from an atheist perspective), the entity I spoke with was not some extraterrestrial or some transcendental being as a lot of DMT users would testify - it was my internal dialogue probing and digesting all the questions and concerns that were bothering me at the time. It didn't change me so much as allow me to change myself. It's far from a placebo affect. Also, your post summarizes my thoughts on the subject perfectly.

I also get the same effect from cannabis - if anything, it stimulates my mind and makes me think about every little thing to a detail that I normally wouldn't venture to. I would say that the DMT experience is very different, in that instead of making me think about things in great detail, it helped me think of things in a broader perspective. The dissociative effect - the loss of "I" or "me" - definitely helps in this regard.

Granted, but you know what I meant. That wasn't a plea to keep mean people from hurting my feeble feelings. The subject of drugs often brings people who are unable to think about the subject objectively or without drawing stereotypical caricatures of their users. The anti-drug slogans need not be repeated a single more time, as they don't add to any important discussion.

You're right. I didn't need to try a perfectly safe substance that has anecdotal and scientific evidence of anti-depressant characteristics that costs little more than a value mean at McDonalds. I could have just sat down and thought about my life, the way I'd been handling myself for months. Problem is, that never helped. For someone with depression, doing just that is more likely to make matters worse than better. You sit someone down who thinks their life is shitty and you tell them to think about their life, they're going to end up feeling shittier than before.

As is often the case in people with your position on the subject, the biological aspects of depression and anxiety are grossly uncredited. You treat the idea of depression as some sort of mopy and sad disposition. It isn't that simple, and anyone can research into the neurological aspects of depression and see that. It's wilful ignorance to believe that depression can be simply thought away without any outside influence.

Exactly. DMT helps some people clearly look at reality. I don't know if you're aware of this, but it's difficult to do that when you're already in a state of pain and self-loathing, as any attempts will loop back and make things worse; DMT lets you escape that for a second and address yourself directly. My experience is far from unique. Like I said before, DMT isn't a "fun" drug; it's specifically meant for use as a healing and therapeutic drug, just as much as any prescription. But of course, its psychedelic properties will make people conjure up images of "tripping balls" and seeing pretty colors - things that are, in my opinion, merely bonuses added onto the experience.

Yes, I don't feel sorry for myself any more, and I'm studying more, and I'm working out, and nurturing a talent and communicating with people more. This is all true. What I'm saying is, I woke up one day not doing any of those things, then I took the drug, I addressed myself directly and objectively, and then I immediately had a passion to do all those things we've listed and more. Absolutely, DMT had a hand in it; I'm certain that, had I not had the experience, the day would have just been another day, and not a thing would have changed. As we stand right now, I've had a positive life-changing experience directly catalysed by DMT. Outside comments that the experience wasn't necessary could not be more wrong in my mind.

I get what you mean, but there are a couple of things that can be addressed. First, people take drugs to give them the ability to do things they couldn't normally do. Whether it's alcohol for letting someone open up and maybe let some inhibition go, or cannabis for letting people relax. Could these activities be considered to cause more harm than good? And, second, though I know you're speaking generally, DMT doesn't cause dependency - people who consume it constantly are most likely doing so for the visual psychedelic effects. I haven't had any deep or pressing questions since my last DMT trip, and so I haven't use it since.

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I have my own particular sorrows, loves, delights; and you have yours. But sorrow, gladness, yearning, hope, love, belong to all of us, in all times and in all places. Music is the only means whereby we feel these emotions in their universality. ~H.A. Overstreet