^The question has been separated. In my view, the--awkwardly worded--question is now "Given your experiential acumen and knowledge of trip reports, all else being equal, is DMT the psychedelic that is most likely to cause the average person to experience the full psychedelic spectrum of effects (perceptual/cognitive amplification and distortion, visions, ego loss, etc.) most vigorously while maintaining a high signal to noise ratio?"
This way, "power" is not as wrapped up in personal experiences and has nothing to do with potency; we can have a discussion that goes beyond answering that "it's all subjective." If I had a plus 4 huffing gasoline it wouldn't be defensible to call it psychedelically powerful on this account because others' experience reports don't back it up, and a reasonable argument can be made that a plus 4's likelihood remains lower for experiences of huffing gasoline than for other drugs. Likewise, though it may be more effective than DMT in causing ego death, 5-MeO-DMT could be argued to be a less powerful psychedelic in a more general sense because it isn't a "broad spectrum" psychedelic the way many others are (it has few visuals and tends to blind all thought in light rather than causing amplifications/distortions, and lower doses do not seem to have the broader effects of other psychedelics either.) 5-MeO-DMT may be the most powerful ego dissolving psychedelic, and the weight of that status puts it high on the power list, but ego death is only one aspect of many psychedelic effects that should be accounted for by the general term, "psychedelic."
Playing by these rules, I still say DMT or saliva rules (salvia does psychedelia different, but most psychedelic effects are still definitely there). Going into combo territory, I'd say IM psilocin/ketamine is the most powerful. I base that on numerous profound reports dealing with ketamine and psilocin alone, and that in my experience it's been more powerful than DMT with ketamine (though I could imagine many to find it the other way around). I've also experienced more unprecedented effects from it than any other single psychedelic or combo in the past (glossolalia, automatic symbolic body movements, rebirth, and a very consistent but also highly elaborate trip narrative). There's something about blocking NMDA-mediated signals with ketamine while at the same time amplifying 5-HT signals with a psychedelic that really charges something up.
DMT and LSD are more powerful entheogens then 2C-C or 2C-D. There, I said it, and I was serious.
Ungelesene_bettlek's quote was:
that's what psychedelic connoisseurs usually say, but I think it is exaggerated. to be honest, most 5HT2A psychedelics are pretty much alike, with only slight variations in the subjective effects - apart from their power. nobody can seriously say that DMT or LSD are not much more powerful entheogens than 2C-C or 2C-D.
The context set the expectation that he wouldn't say that, I think...
It's interesting that 5-HT2a psychedelics have been brought up. Salvia and 5-MeO-DMT have been mentioned as contenders for the title, and one is a kappa opioid agonist and there's evidence the other's effects are due predominately to 5-HT
1a agonism.
See here regarding 5-MeO-DMT:
http://designer-drug.com/pte/12.162.180.114/dcd/pdf/5-meo-dmt.5ht1a.paradox.pdf
In rats at least, when 5-MeO-DMT was administered, 5-HT1a antagonists but not 5-HT2a antagonists put in to block 5-MeO's effects on those respective receptors were shown to mediate stimulus control (lever presses for food). The 5-HT2a antagonists did antagonize stimulus control for DOM, though. 5-MeO-DMT does have activity at 5-HT2a, but it looks like it's not predominately responsible for its discernible effects in the rat.
Edit: more evidence from a 2006 study:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/571257851858223k/
While the prevailing view was that the activation of 5-HT2 receptors is solely responsible for hallucinogenic drug effects, these results support a role for 5-HT1A receptors in the effects of the indoleamine hallucinogen 5-MeO-DMT on locomotor activity and PPI in rats.
