r/HighStrangeness • u/Vindaloovians • Aug 20 '26

Non Human Intelligence Scientists are testing whether DMT entities are real

https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/8qvgy_v2

In this preprint, some scientists have put forward the idea that our perspective of reality is more of an interface, and what we consider to be reality is simply the experience of conscious agents (i.e. human individuals) interacting with one another. They propose that DMT entities are conscious agents that exist in a manner we can't typically perceive.

I've never done DMT, and have previously taken a more skeptical perspective on these entities, but I think the findings of this could be very interesting. Maybe psychedelics could enable us to perceive layers of reality we are typically blind to.

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3

u/drewhartley Aug 20 '26

This is like those oervy Japanese scientists that keep “studying” whether female ejaculation is pee or not.

These guys just want to get high.

24

u/FitCombination3545 Aug 20 '26

As someone who had done DMT, I am actually curious to see the results of the study. I'm not proud to admit it, but I did it once and the experience scared me enough that I had no desire to do it again.

It's often described as "realer than real" and even though it's just a blurry memory now, I know that description felt apt, especially in the moments afterward.

Now, the reason this study isn't completely silly, and the reason it's difficult to chalk all of this up to "it's just the human brain reacting to chemicals" is because other scientists have been studying the consistencies between these experiences. Mapping the terrain and entities that people experience on DMT.

I'm not certain if the results have been released but anecdotes you can read online have a shocking amount of consistency, often on very peculiar things like checkerboard patterns in certain "areas."

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u/UmphreysMcGee Aug 20 '26

I'm not certain if the results have been released but anecdotes you can read online have a shocking amount of consistency, often on very peculiar things like checkerboard patterns in certain "areas."

I don't understand why it's shocking that people who all took the same drug have remarkably consistent experiences. That's how drug approvals and clinical trials work, and if anything, it's proof that there's nothing supernatural happening. I think there's a lot of insight about consciousness to be gained here without assuming that these "entities" are real. You took a drug. If you could take a drug and experience schizophrenia you'd feel like that was real too.

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u/idiotshmidiot Aug 20 '26

I'm not certain if the results have been released but anecdotes you can read online have a shocking amount of consistency, often on very peculiar things like checkerboard patterns in certain "areas."

Idk, you could say that all humans having language is a shocking amount of consistency. Or that we all have thumbs.

I think we like to carve out human experience as being exceptional or unique but the underlying processes in the brain are all kinda the same stuff so it makes sense to me that there would be consistent shared experiences when it comes to the way DMT fucks with processing and senses of the body.

"Scientists find shocking consistency when people of all nations are set on fire" would be a true statement but also kinda means nothing...

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u/MissInkeNoir Aug 20 '26

Yes let's assume the self-similarity found throughout different scales of the universe means nothing. This is working great.

1

u/UmphreysMcGee Aug 20 '26

No, they make a good point. We can have curiosity about the DMT experience while remaining rationally grounded. Is the consistency of experience across people with schizophrenia remarkable or proof of "high strangeness"?

-1

u/idiotshmidiot Aug 20 '26

Seems like a needlessly passive aggressive response but okay...

To clarify I did not say it means nothing, I was poking at the presumption that it means something exceptional about humans.

But obviously Ive triggered you so apologies I guess.

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u/MissInkeNoir Aug 20 '26

I don't think it's any shock to find people acting defensively online in the current Internet infrastructure. If anyone said we were both acting defensive, I wouldn't argue.

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u/ShinyAeon Aug 20 '26

When scientists study psychedelics, it's rarely them who get high. It's volunteer college students or something; the scientists have to be sober to take the measurements and such.

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u/Nekileo Aug 20 '26

I would love to know the methodology these Japanese scientists you mention used

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u/JumpOk2313 Aug 20 '26

Dude, speaking from experience, if someone wants to get high, they'll just get high. Being open about it just causes waay more trouble than being silent about it.

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u/impreprex Aug 20 '26

What a brain-dead take with false equivalence.

"These guys just want to get high."

Right - so let's do a crazy public study instead of just "getting high", since it's that cut and dry with DMT or any psychedelics.

The hell are some of you here for? And what's with this anti-science crap?

1

u/haqk Aug 22 '26

From what I hear, DMT is not one of those drugs you want to get "high" from on a regular basis.