TY - JOUR
T1 - The Breakthrough Experience
T2 - DMT Hyperspace and its Liminal Aesthetics
AU - St John, Graham
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved
PY - 2018/3/1
Y1 - 2018/3/1
N2 - Known to produce out-of-body states and profound changes in sensory perception, mood, and thought, DMT (N,N-dimethyltryptamine) is a potent short-lasting tryptamine that has experienced growing appeal in the last decade, independent from ayahuasca, the Amazonian visionary brew in which it is an integral ingredient. Investigating user reports available online as well as a variety of other sources consulted in extended cultural research, this article focuses on the “breakthrough” event commonly associated with the DMT trance. The DMT breakthrough event coincides with significant revelatory outcomes associated with perceived contact with “entities” and the transmission of information often in the form of visual language. Examination of the breakthrough event offers insight on the liminal phenomenology of DMT and other tryptamines, a liminality that is given primary expression in reported travels in “hyperspace.” The article examines user reports of DMT “hyperspace” observing a transitional process that, unlike conventional passage rites, is private, individualized, internal, and “ritual like.” As an exploratory discussion of an under-researched phenomenon, the article enters this virtual terrain through a discussion of the gnostic, therapeutic, and recreational modalities of DMT use, before exploring ritual-like modes of transmission and concluding with comments on the ontological significance of the DMT trance.
AB - Known to produce out-of-body states and profound changes in sensory perception, mood, and thought, DMT (N,N-dimethyltryptamine) is a potent short-lasting tryptamine that has experienced growing appeal in the last decade, independent from ayahuasca, the Amazonian visionary brew in which it is an integral ingredient. Investigating user reports available online as well as a variety of other sources consulted in extended cultural research, this article focuses on the “breakthrough” event commonly associated with the DMT trance. The DMT breakthrough event coincides with significant revelatory outcomes associated with perceived contact with “entities” and the transmission of information often in the form of visual language. Examination of the breakthrough event offers insight on the liminal phenomenology of DMT and other tryptamines, a liminality that is given primary expression in reported travels in “hyperspace.” The article examines user reports of DMT “hyperspace” observing a transitional process that, unlike conventional passage rites, is private, individualized, internal, and “ritual like.” As an exploratory discussion of an under-researched phenomenon, the article enters this virtual terrain through a discussion of the gnostic, therapeutic, and recreational modalities of DMT use, before exploring ritual-like modes of transmission and concluding with comments on the ontological significance of the DMT trance.
KW - DMT
KW - entheogens
KW - gnosis
KW - hyperspace
KW - liminality
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85043313884&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/anoc.12089
DO - 10.1111/anoc.12089
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85043313884
VL - 29
SP - 57
EP - 76
JO - Anthropology of Consciousness
JF - Anthropology of Consciousness
SN - 1053-4202
IS - 1
ER -