As psychedelics come back into mainstream awareness there is a growing understanding that the benefits of these substances occur as part of their integration into your life. Some of the deepest healing can occur when we have an ego-dissolving experience that connects us back into a larger reality, what has also been called a ‘mystical experience’. Out of all the psychedelic substances 5-MeO-DMT is arguably the most powerful. It can be made in a lab or found in nature – and it is also produced in the human body.
5-MeO-DMT lowers the Default Mode Network (DMN) and the electrical activity in the frontal lobes of the brain, helping to dissolve the ego and reveal the “Divine” within. Unlike other entheogens and psychedelics, 5-MeO-DMT doesn’t create an external journey, but the deepest internal one – the journey of revealing who you truly are beyond the ego structure. Other cultures have pathways to lower the egoic mind – the East is full of meditations, breathworks and maps on how to do this, and terms like “samadhi” that mean merging back with a single point of focus into the awareness of Oneness, or non-duality.
5-MeO-DMT from an external source can instantly arrive at what has previously taken years of struggle to reveal: what’s behind the mind. And then, the homework is to discover how you can access and be in relationship with this deeper aspect of your nature.
You’re Not Who You Think You Are
In almost all cases, the 5-MeO-DMT mystical experience comes with deep revelations about the meaning of life, your place in the world, and your true divine nature.
So it goes without saying that integration is a very important step in this initiation process. It’s especially important with 5-MeO because long after the external catalyst is absorbed and dissipated in your system, the pathways remain clear and open. Many people experience what are called “reactivations” back into the egolessness state, which can either be frightening or exhilarating, according to your attachment to the ego and the identity construct you think you are!
5-MeO is differentiated from the other shamanic medicines because it's alive within you, it's not something you take – it's something which you reveal and activate … So when people have a 5-MeO experience it will be potentially the most incredible and profound and powerful experience you will have this side of the grave – essentially it’s hot wiring [an ego] ‘death experience’.
It’s not really about an actual death, don’t worry. The ego doesn’t die, it’s just invited to quieten and go into the “back seat” of your being for a short while. But it is the most immediate and powerful way to experience ego dissolution, and along with it the true connection to who you are as a divine being.
It also means that preparing for the experience, and integrating afterwards is crucially important. To get a glimpse of what lies behind the mind – and perhaps behind the wireframes of reality itself – can shift your reality paradigm. It’s not something to rush into unprepared, or even alone.
A large percentage of cultures throughout history have had a sacrament that connects them to the divine. So a tradition, or a practice, a modality like yoga, breathwork, or meditation is invaluable for the integration of the [5-MeO-DMT] experience precisely because it complements the experience.
What Does Integrating the 5-MeO-DMT Revelation Really Mean?
When we talk about integration, we should understand that it starts before you take the medicine and how you cleanse, purify or prepare for it. You should also know that the experience in itself is a huge way of releasing old baggage, of purging anxieties, traumas, patterns of the mind that you don’t need anymore.
Sometimes, this can take the form of the body shaking, crying, laughing, rolling and spasming – the ego acting out. As we go into this space within ourselves, we start to release a lot of trapped energies that have built up in our emotional body, or imprinted in our energetic body.
During this process of dissolution of the ego you may encounter either fear or acceptance – and here we should stop and note that a good facilitator is going to make a difference. You should, at a minimum, be in a safe, sound and sacred set and setting, have consulted about your physical and physiological health (Bufo toad secretions contain 5-MeO but are a bufotoxin and can put extra stress on weak hearts, or people with high blood pressure, or contraindications with SSRIs/antidepressants), and have an internal commitment that this is something you want to try. It really can be life-changing – and confronting.
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Reactivations – the Gift Which Keeps on Giving
After the experience, the ego mind comes back, but the pathways it cleans and reveals can remain open. Reactivations generally happen at night in the days after the 5-MeO experience, around 3-4 AM when your blood sugars are lowest and your natural 5-MeO is highest. This is no longer about the thing you “took”; you have initialized your hard drive to hold the memory of what’s behind the mind, and it’s all about building a relationship now.
A relationship with your deepest self, your spiritual self, and to remember from within who we really are, our divine essence.
You could say the ‘drop has remembered it is the ocean’, and that oceanic consciousness is, after a 5-MeO experience, in an active relationship with the God within us. And this can feel initially like a big shock, a very powerful and rapid change in our internal ideology. It’s what all the mystical traditions point to: that God is actually a geography within the human soul. We are connected to that space.
Note: some people are triggered by the cultural baggage of the word “God”. It’s just a word. You could call it Source, Samadhi, Satori, Enlightenment, The Universe, etc. The important thing is to understand it’s a reality that can be immediately revealed.
The most important part of this experience is actually learning more about your inner divine being where you’re holding onto the past, different mental programs that are not serving you and how to release it all.
If you have a meditation practice, a yogic practice, a breathwork practice – any practice that actually just relaxes your mind, you may find after a full release on 5-MeO-DMT experience that that space within you is accessible ongoingly, every day of your life – and that makes it completely different from all the other medicines when we talk about integration.
The Importance of a Safe, Sound, and Sacred Set and Setting
A good facilitator is going to create the best set and setting, a supportive environment that will help the person feel safe, enabling them to engage with the medicine, to greet this experience with openness, whatever it may bring. A good facilitator is also going to hold the space for us to grow, to have our experience and awaken in their presence.
Once you first discover this relationship with the God within, it will continue to grow, like a seed that has been germinated. In one of the Indian holy texts, the Upanishads, they describe this as the ‘seed of God’ everyone has within them blossoming and developing a relationship, expanding your perceptions and connection. If you continue to give it your time and attention by relaxing the mind (yoga, meditation, breathwork, etc.) and giving permission to explore, some yogis feel the relationship anchors in a more permanent way. They can connect to the Divine essence within – without the external 5-MeO.
This is the most important part of 5-MeO integration and it happens by offering yourself the time and the space to grow this new awareness.
There is a whole generation now of people that have experienced 5-MeO–DMT, especially with the rise of the Bufo alvarius toad medicine coming out of Mexico in the last decade. There's basically a network all across the planet of people that have had this experience and the next step is working together to keep that space open within.
It’s like a “samadhi” mesh-network, a growing bandwidth of consciousness that gets stronger the more people open that space within themselves.
Key takeaways
- 5-MeO-DMT can provide a life changing mystical experience by revealing to ourselves our true divine nature.
- Integrating our mystical experiences is one of the most important steps of our healing and awakening journey.
- You can integrate your psychedelic experiences by practicing meditation, breathing techniques, yoga, or anything else that helps you relax the ego structure and focus on your inner being.
- The journey to our true self implies that we discover that the Divine is not something that comes from outside, but from the deepest core of our being.