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What are everyones thoughts on the purpose of DMT

DMT is absolutely the primary endogenous ligand of the Sigma1R:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2947205/

Considering what we're starting to know about the psychedelic's unilateral ability to induce neural plasticity, increase dendritic branching, dendritic spines, stimulate production of neurotrophic factors, and modulate synaptic homeostasis, I see absolutely no reason why DMT would not be an endogenous regulator of neuroplasticity. Of course there are some theories that DMT is preferentially produced during REM sleep as a means to maintain synaptic homeostasis, which is fine and good and all but as of yet unproven. Interestingly enough, the enzyme that is responsible for producing DMT (indolethylamine N-methyl transferase, INMT) is absolutely not expressed in the human brain, with expression highest in lung tissue:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10552930

There is also some evidence to suggest that DMT is actively transported across the BBB by means of an unknown transporter, although those studies are rather old and may be dubious. Taken together with DMT's incredibly short half-life, this seems to suggest there's a system designed to move DMT into the brain, and the inactivate it, with phenomenal efficiency and speed. Also, the Sigma1R has been shown to respond to DMT in two unique, dose-dependent modes; at low doses, the Sigma1 ligands facilitate assembly of Sigma1R trimers, disassociate BiP, cause mitochondrial Ca2+ influx and IP3R activation (not to mention BDNF secretion), whereas at high doses, the Sigma1R gets trafficked to the plasmalemmal membrane where it inactivates voltage-dependent sodium and potassium channels. I think this bi-directional, dose-dependent Sigma1R activity serves as a "volume knob" for neuroplasticity.

In short, hell yeah DMT has a "purpose". I'd like to see an INMT knockout animal and test them for learning and memory deficits!
 
Well neuroplasticity and downstream extensive alteration of the way the CNS functions, but just like it's too early to say what's going on with nootropics targeting neuroplasticity via BDNF etc (more neuroplasticity is not always a good thing - change is a neutral potential and it depends on the context). Sigma agonists and antagonists are implicated in things like depression and schizophrenia among other things.

Before we make such hard claims as 'absolutely THE primary endogenous ligand', let's first see the significance of neurosteroids and whether they are not just as unmissable.

I think these things are often so complex that it is best to be more reserved about saying something isolated about a reason or purpose, especially at an early stage. Nevertheless it's very interesting the roles that seem to be played by these substances.

Perhaps the relevance to sleep is not mutually exclusive to other explanations when neuroplasticity, depression (and the neuroplasticity hypothesis relating to it) are concerned.

As for what happens at death (I think for DMT release that is pure hypothesis), it's worth noting that what happens at death - especially in the brain / experientially rather than behaviorally - should have the least impact on evolution as an advantage (since there are no consequences further in life seeing as there is no life). Yet if it is something that happens with any threat of death (like protection from encitotoxicity), it could have a huge impact in case of survival. IMO this means from a scientific point of view that near-death experiences are very valid to consider and that differences with actual death experience is most likely to be coincidental.
 
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Quote from Mark Twain: "I like science because it gives one such a wholesome return of conjecture from such a trifling investment of fact." :)

I personally think DMT is a special molecule, no matter what the scientific significance shows - it has been the most significant and life changing chemical for me. It made me firmly realize that only Love and Knowledge really matter.

Which makes the purpose of DMT is to be a strong catalyst to spiritual/breakthrough transcendental experiences for intelligent life species. Which in time can prove to easily be an evolutionary trait as we go deeper and deeper in our reality recreation and modeling. Just my thoughts and speculations...8)
 
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I might really like chocolate but I'm not going to start saying that chocolate is the key to the next stage of human evolution, or some other ridiculous bullshit. This question is stupid. What is the purpose of Xenon, a psychoactive noble gas with some specific medical and technological uses but was relatively unknown and unutilised for most of human history? What is the purpose of the moon? Only with psychedelic drugs do people try to take their own preferences and try to attribute some higher meaning or purpose to them, that if only humankind all came together and investigated just how fucking amazing chocolate is, world peace would be achieved overnight!

Don't get me wrong, I have had some beautiful, transcendental experiences on psychedelic drugs as well, but I would be willing to bet that when and if we crack the key to immortality, eternal happiness, or even some kind of magical fantastical interdimensional portal to a realm filled with beings made of light and beauty, it will be the result of years of painstaking and boringly sober study in sterile, laboratory environments rather than a bunch of hippies tripping on something smoked out of a crack pipe.

If someone one day manages to bring something back from a DMT trip that will cure all disease and is evidently not of this world, I will humbly eat my words, but I think there is about as much chance of that happening as managing to take a physical object back from a dream, or of the Flying Spaghetti Monster swooping down from the sky in broad, televised daylight and eating Donald Trump whole.
 
^agree completely with that.

consumer said:
Answer this. How did the shaman in the Amazon identify two different plants that by themselves do fuck all but when combined produce something as amazing as Aya. Out of all the plants in the Amazon they found those two combined to create magic. Just another extraordinary facet of the dmt mystery.
Click to expand...

Whenever asked a question like "how did ancients discover that eating/drinking this did this" i respond with "never underestimate the power of starvation" people would have been starving and literally boiled a bunch of edible plants together in order to not die of hunger and consume their simple sugars found in their saps. This is how people discovered alcohol, having to eat rotting food and bread. When you are literally dying of hunger collecting near by plants and roots to boil them to make a calorie containing liquid so you can try to hunt makes sense.

It makes way more sense then "they knew it was there / it was aliens / the compound drew them in" nah they were dying and willing to consume anything. I dont know this for a fact but it makes a lot of sense as to why a lot of psychoactive plants are found in ancient literature almost everywhere, people starve at times all over the place.

The other side is, how do you think people found out what mushrooms are poisonous, or more likely how many people had to die before it was correlated?
 
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I've been high from DMT once. Don't like it. I like to be kinda there when I'm high, DMT takes you to that other place. From previous threads I have learned to call it 'Ass kicking territory'. I think DMT is a chemical that you really need a tripsitter on it.
 
Yeah indigenous cultures lived so closely with the land, entirely reliant on it for survival, and as pointed out above, survival was far from guaranteed, leading people to try many different plants and combinations of plants. Over thousands and thousands of years, you're gonna find stuff out. Over time, with information passed down across generations and new generations finding out more things, a culture will end up with a very complex and intimate knowledge of the local plants, it's simply inevitable.

Psychedelics are amazing, but they're not sentient beings trying to lead us to enlightenment. They're chemicals that happen to be centrally active in our brains in fascinating ways. DMT is closely related to serotonin and is in fact found in trace amounts in our bodies, so it's used for something, or perhaps is a metabolic reaction side product even. It's a pretty simple molecule, so it's not really so amazing that some plants would have evolved to contain it as a product of some of their own metabolic reactions too. Plants have evolved way more complex molecules that interact with our bodies or minds also.
 
Solipsis said:
Yes, and I do kind of consider water and also the sun gods to us... and can also experience that kind of appreciation mystically, but I also think that it's alright if as far as we know such an experience is pretty reductionist, and much of experiencing entities or faces etc can be explained by activation of parts in the visual cortex that control detection of faces or living beings in general... disregarding a big part of the mechanistic side isn't good. Sure if you choose to want to feel positive about this kind of phenomenon (DMT related stuff), err on the side of caution, but also it's healthy to be at least equally skeptical just to be fair.
At the very least I would have huge doubts about these things, even if your hopes are reigning big.
Click to expand...

What I'm trying to say is that we can be reductionist about something like DMT *and* consider it to have a purpose. It's up to us to define DMT's purpose, with no need for a mystical narrative. My view is that along with the billions of other molecules that don't get us high, DMT and other psychedelics exist, and they happen to interact with our systems. Now we get to decide or discover what purpose it has for us. So, the question remains, What is the the purpose of DMT?

Another example: it's like fire. Most modern rationalists don't consider fire to be a gift from the gods, it's just a chemical reaction. Nonetheless, we can ask: What is the purpose of fire? It has many purposes, including keeping us warm, driving turbines, internal combustion engines etc.

edit: phew that was a delayed response ;)
 
DMT exists because it can...like all of God's creatures. God (aka the Universe) experiments with all possible combinations and codes. Nothing more nothing less. DMT is not a key to anywhere because all of these states exist within and without ourselves at all times. Perhaps DMT can be a catylist but really that is reading too much into it. DMT exists because it can.
 
Op,

DMT tends to be linked with the third eye. Maybe there's a gap in our knowledge of evolution.
 
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