Summary: A recent study has explored the sense of familiarity that some people report after taking DMT, the world’s strongest psychedelic. The researchers found that previous use of the drug is not necessary to experience a feeling of familiarity and that the sense of familiarity could be due to the drug’s effects on the brain.
DMT and the Phenomenon of Familiarity: A Recent Study Sheds Light
A recent study published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs has shed light on the strange sense of familiarity that some people report after taking DMT, the world’s strongest psychedelic. The researchers, David W. Lawrence, Alex P. DiBattista, and Christopher Timmermann, analyzed thousands of firsthand reports of DMT experiences posted on Reddit and found 227 instances where the author mentioned experiencing some form of familiarity.
Interestingly, 56 of these reports were written by people who claimed to have no prior experience with DMT, suggesting that previous use of the drug is not necessary to experience a feeling of familiarity. Furthermore, none of the reports referenced a previous psychedelic experience. The researchers categorized the 227 reports into five broad themes, including encountering an entity with whom they perceived having some sort of prior relationship or bond, feeling like they were at home, and feeling like they were returning to a place, space, state, or environment that they had visited before.
The researchers note that familiarity is a key part of recognition memory, which is responsible for recognizing a previously encountered stimulus. However, DMT seems to evoke a sense of familiarity without recollection, a phenomenon similar to déjà vu. The authors of the study suggest that the sense of familiarity in DMT experiences could be due to the drug’s effects on the brain, causing it to enter a highly irregular and plastic state. As the effects of the drug wear off and the brain returns to its default state, this could evoke a sense of familiarity.
The researchers also acknowledge the possibility that DMT could enable access to an objective reality beyond our own, as suggested by the high degree of similarity in trip reports. However, they emphasize that determining the cause of familiarity in the DMT experience was not the primary goal of their study.
[Source: Big Think].
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