There is a disturbing sense of Infinity with these hallucinations. Most find this phase extremely grating on the soul, mentally painful, perhaps because one is perceiving objects to have totally opposite characteristics at once. Some people are familar with Lilliputian hallucinations from fevers.
8.2.2 Deja Vu and Other Memory Mishaps
Deja Vu, the feeling that one has had the exact same experiences
before, is common both during and after the DXM trip. Somewhat less
common is Jamais Vu, the sensation of being in a totally
unfamiliar environment when one is not. Other memory mishaps, such
as recognizing unfamiliar objects or people as familiar, or familiar ones
as strange and unknown, also occur. All of these are probably due to
misfiring in the neural networks responsible for recognizing and recalling
sensory input.
8.2.3 Out-of-Body Experiences (OOBEs)
OOBEs (Out-of-Body Experiences) are common at fourth plateau
doses. Typically these start with a sensation that one is being tugged
horizontally out of one's body, followed by a floating sensation.
Typically one enters what seems to be an entirely different plane of
existence, although rarely people report staying in the physical world
as a noncorporeal entity, viewing one's body from above. The various
alternate planes each have consistent physical rules, life forms, and
appearances.
Explaining OOBEs is difficult and is in my opinion currently beyond neuroscience. The rational explanation is that these are delusions, but if so, then they are delusions that we seem to be in some sense programmed to experience in a consistent fashion. The one explanation I have heard that seems to make sense is that one is experiencing one's world (or more accurately, the internal model of one's world) from a "third person" perspective, i.e., the "fly on the wall" viewpoint that many people have when dreaming or recalling memories. There may be some sort of built-in spatial transformation that allows one to perceive (consciously or not) the world from an outsider's perspective and observe one's own actions. It's possible that the posterior cingulate cortex may be involved.
8.2.4 Near-Death and Rebirth Experiences
Near-death experiences (NDEs) are less common than OOBEs, and
also usually occur only on fourth plateau trips. Again this seems
to be something that we're wired to experience when the brain is
sufficiently disrupted, either by drugs or by lack of oxygen.
Following an NDE, and sometimes after a heavy upper plateau
trip, one may experience a profound sense of rebirth, a discontinuity
in memories as if one has begun life anew. This may be some
sort of state-dependent memory phenomenon.
8.2.5 Contact with Alien and Spiritual Beings
Many people report contact with alien and spiritual beings, deities,
and free-floating consciousnesses during upper plateau trips,
notably during out-of-body experiences and the dissociative spiral.
It has been suggested by Jaynes (350), Persinger (330-349), and
others that these entities may be fragments of one's
own subconscious mind that one is suddenly perceiving consciously.
Curiously enough, deities seem to be more commonly female than
male. I have no clue why this is the case.
There is also a more complex dissociative effect involving a unique, consistent set of beliefs about, for lack of a better term, an alien conspiracy; see Section 8.3 below.
8.2.6 Clairvoyance, ESP, and Other Psi Phenomena
A few people have reported "Psi" phenomena such as ESP (extra-sensory
perception), clairvoyance (psychically seeing distant places), and
the like. Telekinesis doesn't seem to be reported, although a few
report that, while under the influence of DXM, they felt like they
could slightly influence the laws of probability. All of these can
be safely explained as simply drug-induced delusions, although
there has been to my knowledge no formal research on the subject.
It is possible that ESP and related phenomena (with DXM use or without) exist but occur entirely randomly, or only when not being observed critically. Since repeatability, and invariance under observation, are the foundations of science, it may be that questions about psychic phenomena will never yield entirely to science. At this point it becomes a matter of faith.
One interesting factor which does differentiate ESP from other paranormal phenomena is that while most paranormal experiences occur more often during heavier geomagnetic activity, ESP occurs more often during decreased geomagnetic activity (346). The true believers would probably argue that the geomagnetic field is interfering with ESP; the skeptics would most likely suggest that "ESP" is just a consequence of similar thought patterns leading to similar conclusions, and that the geomagnetic field may be capable of inducing noise into the system.
8.2.7 Memory Loops and Prescient Sensations
DXM can severely alter the sense of causality, and with upper
plateau and Plateau Sigma trips, one can lose one's sense of
causality completely. One person reported a sudden feeling that
he was contacting his own mind in the past, passing to himself
the ideas and insights he had experienced as a child. Another
person felt such a strong sense of deja vu, coupled with memory
impairment, that he believed he'd had a prescient dream of the
current events. Such occurrances are probably a consequence
of the profound alterations of memory and recognition networks.
It's hard to describe how utterly convincing these sensations can
seem while under the influence of dissociatives.
8.2.8 Dissociative Thought Patterns
In the realm of altered states of consciousness, there are several
interesting patterns of thought that occur on DXM. Typically
these include a sense of deep understanding of highly abstract
and often multi-level abstract concepts. Examples include
self-referential statements ("this statement is false"),
multi-level logic, self-creating ideas (e.g., the concept
of a self-creating, self-invoking concept), and so one. One
mathematics student was suddenly able to intuitively
understand Godel's Incompleteness Theorem (this intuitive
understanding persisted even after the DXM wore off).
Most of these concepts are in some sense self-referential, and seem to blend levels of abstraction that don't ordinarily go together. My hunch is that DXM allows the mind to create and maintain associations between increasingly far-fetched and unrelated concepts. As a result, these little "nuggets" of self-referential thought, which would ordinarily be discarded or never make it to consciousness, bubble up into the conscious mind seemingly out of nowhere.
8.3 Cosmic Coincidence Central and the Alien Conspiracy
Everyone take a deep breath, we're about to jump off into the deep end.
Many people who have frequently used DXM or other dissociatives begin
to develop consistent contact with "aliens" (with all due skepticism,
these are probably elements of one's subconscious mind that have taken
on characteristics of independent consciousness). Regardless of the
cause, one particular subset of these aliens seem to have surprisingly
consistent behaviour and intentions. Here, basically, is the message
that can be pieced together from dissociative users.
There are numerous groups of entities or aliens, but two in particular are relevant. One group, the "helpful aliens", are attempting to guide humankind towards societal and spiritual progress with the ultimate intention that we become so far advanced that we can leave behind the earth (and possibly the physical world), and join a vast, intergalactic federation of other races. In order to keep us from blowing ourselves up or slipping into societal chaos, these helpful aliens do what they can to keep us on the right track.
However, there are limits, either by some sort of convention or law, or by the nature of noncorporeal existence, to what these aliens can do. For example, they probably can't show up in big motherships and announce peace on earth; they can't suddenly make all guns and bombs disappear. They seem to be able to influence human progress only by means that appear as coincidence, such as fortuitous events, sudden insights and inspirations, luck, and that sort of thing. Some people have suggested that these "helpful aliens" are bending some sort of "law" by helping us out, and they can only do it as long as it can't be absolutely proven that they interfered with out progress.
Then there are the "not-so-helpful aliens". Not necessarily evil, but totally unconcerned with our race, and unconvinced that we are worth the trouble of helping. Some would say that they view us as we view ants, and would have no qualms about exterminating us if they felt it wise to do so. They too are restricted to operating primarily through coincidence.
Anyone who has studied the belief systems and religions of the world will of course notice that these sets of aliens are nothing new. They are also angels and devils, good and evil spirits, and that sort of thing. There is a great deal of correspondence with the Seelie and Unseelie court of the faeries.
So we are left once again with a part of human consciousness that we don't understand, that is profoundly irrational, and that keeps stubbornly making itself known regardless of how much science and reason we try to cling to. A lot of people have these experiences, on drugs or not (or maybe the ones who aren't on drugs are connected to an "inner pharmacist" of sorts, the secretion of chemicals like endopsychosin which mimic the dissociatives).
Some people have developed surprisingly complex theories about these aliens and their goals and methods. Sometimes the aliens give their names. One person was contacted by an alien named Calsutmoran who said he was from "very far away" (pers. comm.), and explained the Cosmic Coincidence Theory. What is surprising is that someone else, who had never heard this story, also reported contact with an alien of the exact same name.
In conclusion, while I don't necessarily think we're pawns in some weird game of the aliens or spirits, I do think there's a part of the human mind that we don't understand, that may be receiving, and transmitting, information in ways we do not recognize. This doesn't necessarily require any ESP or other psychic powers; it could be as simple as gestures, tone of voice, and other factors that we use in communication that we are not directly aware of. I expect the next decade or two will see some truly rigorous investigation of these topics, and I eagerly await the results.
8.4 Are These Experiences Dangerous?
Unless you suffer from temporal lobe epilepsy (see Section 8.9),
probably not. At least not physically. There is, however, always a
psychological danger, and there have been cases of ketamine users
committing suicide after forming deep mystical belief systems and desiring
to leave the physical world. Some would also argue that any time one is
forced into a spiritual contact without all of one's faculties, a spiritual
danger exists as well.
8.5 How Can These Be Explained
Okay, so why do people keep having these experiences? Where do these
spiritual entities and weird altered states come from? Could a simple
molecule be responsible for such a complex set of experiences, or is
the DXM molecule just a key that unlocks a hidden part of the brain?
Here I will summarize a few theories that I have run across attempting to
explain these phenomena.
8.5.1 Temporal Anomalies
The title is something of a pun, since many of these paranormal experiences
seem to involve curious twists of time and causality. But the intended
meaning is anomalies in the behaviour of temporal lobe limbic networks:
the hippocampus and surrounding areas. It is here that memories are stored
beyond the immediate (or short-term), and here where these intermediate-term
memories (ITM) are integrated back into the neocortex to become long-term
memory. We are still a long way from understanding how these areas work.
DXM does seem to exert profound effects on temporal lobe limbic networks. These networks may integrate sensory data from the neocortex and the current contents of intermediate term memory, keeping the results in a resonating feedback loop until it can be discarded, acted upon (by passing it to the motor cortex), or integrated permanently into long-term memory. Dissociatives seem to lower the strength of sensory input, possibly by increasing the firing of neurons which inhibit sensory networks. Similarly, the NMDA receptors which are responsible for forming intermediate-term memories are inhibited. So one is left with a resonant circuit whose other inputs have been attenuated or cut off.
These patterns (internal states) pass repeatedly through the limbic networks (and this seems to be strongly related to the production of theta waves). Eventually, the "goal" (if one wants to think of it that way) is probably to reach some sort of a decision, and then pass the information to the motor cortex where action can be taken; supporting this idea is the fact that theta wave activity drops immediately before motor cortex activation. However, with motor output reduced, one is left with a constant echoing of signals through the limbic areas (possibly bouncing back and forth among the neocortex, prefrontal lobes, and other areas). As these signals bounce back and forth without being "tied down" to sensory input or memory, they become increasingly distant in form from any normal signals you're likely to encounter.
It has been suggested that all human temporal limbic networks share a common "language", i.e., a particular pattern of neural activity in one person's limbic system and an equivalent pattern in another person's limbic system are paired with equivalent mental states (331). This is a bold assertion, and if true means that internal states (such as happiness, anger, boredom, familiarity, comfort, recognition, novelty, perhaps even as complex as "I'm being abducted by aliens") may be encoded in different individuals by the same neural patterns. Thus, the particular patterns induced by dissociatives may simply correspond to particular sensations, states, emotions, and/or beliefs, that people interpret in similar ways.
Going one step further, it may be that the reason that people encounter UFOs and aliens nowadays, whereas they encountered airships, ghosts, faeries, spirits, etc., before, was that while the internal states are the same, the memories or ideas associated with them have changed. The neural network pattern that in a modern human means "UFO" may have meant "demon" a few centuries ago. These patterns are outside the range of normal brain functioning, but may be induced by drugs, electromagnetic waves, temporal lobe seizures, and so on.
8.5.2 Complex Partial Seizures
Partial seizures involve only a subset of the brain and, if they occur
in areas without direct connection to the motor cortex, may go unnoticed.
Complex partial seizures are those which involve a loss of normal
consciousness. Some have argued that there is a continuum between normal
and epileptic, and that most people have some sort of simple or partial
seizure activity at some point in their lives (343). Some signs
of complex partial epilepsy do seem to be more common among females who
profess beliefs in the paranormal (341).
On the other hand, a significant lack of humor is one of the hallmarks of people who suffer from temporal lobe complex partial seizures and of the experiences induced by the seizures themselves. Furthermore, those with complex partial epilepsy may show increased fantasizing but often show reduced self-esteem (334). Obviously, many people with a perfectly normal or even well-developed sense of humor are having paranormal experiences (both on and off drugs).
Whether one calls it seizures or abnormal network activity, it does seem to be responsible for some interesting things. Most common are sensed presences (339,348,349) and vestibular sensations (332). The former may be an intrusion of the right hemisphere's self-concept into the left hemisphere's consciousness (335,342). Persinger found that such sensed presences also occurred during times of verbal creativity, and may explain the embodiment of creativity in the form of the Muse (348). In fact, a more general view of the right hemispheric consciousness as an "alien" or "godlike" presence has been suggested by Jaynes (350).
8.5.3 Influence of the Unseen Environment
Another idea is that while these internal neural network states are the
reason for such curious experiences, it's not the DXM (or other dissociative)
alone that's responsible for the content of the experience. Instead, the
DXM is just priming the temporal lobe limbic areas to receive information
from "extrasensory" sources.
Before you shrug this off, however, let me explain what I mean by extrasensory. Perhaps I should have used another term, as I am not calling for one to accept psychic powers; I'm merely claiming that the brain may be susceptible to the environment in ways which we don't usually acknowledge.
The most likely of these is ultra-low frequency electromagnetic and magnetic waves, which seem to be received quite well by the hippocampus and surrounding areas (330,336-337,346-347). In fact, many species have a well-defined "inner compass" which reads the magnetic field to help determine position, and in humans, magnetite particles have been detected in the hippocampus (354). These may be an evolutionary leftover, like the appendix, or they may still function, providing part of the overall feeling or zeitgeist of a particular place. Humans are susceptible to low-frequency magnetic stimulation of the temporal lobes, and do respond to geomagnetic events (330,332-333). Alien sightings increase significantly before earthquakes, and some have even suggested using these as a predictor of future geological events. In addition to direct effects on the limbic areas, geomagnetic activity also lowers the activity of melatonin; melatonin has been shown to reduce the frequency of seizures (347).
Another possibility is that information is being perceived by the senses but forgotten, or never noticed, by the conscious mind. This information could form a complex tapestry of ideas and concepts that we are not directly aware of, and could manifest itself in breakthroughs, insights, and so on.
There is a (somewhat suspect) theory called the "100th monkey phenomenon", which posits that when enough members of a society learn something, eventually everyone will become aware of it without directly coming into contact with it. Unfortunately for its adherents, the original research on monkeys acquiring skills turned out to be flawed. However, it is worth noting that slang expressions, ideas, and so on seem to arise in a culture from numerous sources at once. What is probably going on is that the conditions that lead to these expressions and ideas saturate society, and enough people are wired similarly to come up with the same ideas.
This is what I mean by the "unseen environment" -- unconscious factors, whether of sensory or unconscious origin, that can affect us and seemingly come from nowhere. Perhaps many of the experiences people have on dissociatives are a result of this unconscious data coming to conscious mind. One possibility is that with the temporal circuitry in a closed feedback loop, slowly varying geomagnetic waves can induce common sequences of internal states in people. Another possibility is that there are unrecognized influences of popular literature (e.g., science fiction novels and movies) which color the dissociative experience.
8.5.4 Spiritual Explanations
If you want to go really far out on a limb, one can even come up with a
possible theory that involves real aliens or spirits. Suppose that these
creatures do exist, and that they exist in a primarily noncorporeal form
(or, perhaps, they are corporeal, but influence us through noncorporeal
mechanisms). Let's say for example, that there are electromagnetic
entities, made up of flux lines, charged particles, and undoubtedly
things we don't know about, that are alive and sentient. These entities
generally hang out in deep space, or in the ionosphere, and can exert only
a limited influence on the human mind because sensory data normally drowns
them out.
With the senses cut off by dissociatives, however, they can apply enough energy to induce particular states in our minds. They do their best to communicate with us, but can only do so through the roughest of concepts, emotions, and ideas. Perhaps during geophysical events, when a great deal of magnetic energy is available near the ground, they can come down, feed off this energy, and contact people directly. Maybe they can even "construct" objects out of ionized particles and gases. Like ball lightning, these objects may very well tend to be radially symmetric, appearing as spheres, eggs, donuts, saucers, and the like.
Regardless of the situation enabling their contact, once they establish contact with us, they try to communicate with us. However, because of the limitations, we can only interpret their ideas in terms we are familiar with: abductions, experiments, placing microchips in our brains, or taking samples from our bodies. From their point of view they may intend to convey something totally different, but cannot bridge the language gap.
Finally, they leave, often leaving behind such physical remnants as magentized materials, curious radially symmetric patterns on the ground (indicative of a strong magnetic field and radial ion wind, perhaps?), memory gaps (which tend to happen when the brain is exposed to strong electromagnetic fields), and the like.
Of course, this is all so far off the deep end in speculation that there's nothing whatsoever scientific about it. One could just as easily say that these effects are the result of natural magnetic and electric phenomena. Until someone manages to demonstrate that alien encounters require magnetic stimuli of a more complex nature than can be explained by simple natural events, this is no more scientific than any religious faith.
One last point I'd like to bring up. In conversation with these entities throughout history, the entities (from faeries to aliens) typically report a strong aversion to iron. Now, iron has two interesting properties. One, it is at the "bottom of the well" so to speak in nuclear energy -- you can't gain energy by either fission or fusion of the iron nucleus. Two, and perhaps more intruigingly, iron is ferromagnetic, and traps magnetic flux lines. If I were an electromagnetic entity, whose very form was made out of such flux lines, I wouldn't appreciate someone dorking with them. Of course, a more reasonable explanation is that this aversion to iron is a remnant from the end of the Bronze Age, when iron was a magical metal. But the flux line theory makes a much better story, don't you think?
8.6 How do I Maximize Altered States and Paranormal Experiences?
Okay, so whether or not you believe any of this, maybe you want to
try for yourself. Many people never experience anything nearly so profound
on DXM, but I have heard from many who do. Here are some of their suggestions
for enhancing the frequency of paranormal and altered states.
8.6.1 Theta Stimulation
Many of these effects seem to be maximized when theta waves are produced,
possibly because theta waves are indicative of activity in the limbic
system. Photic (light) and sound stimulation,
using "light and sound" machines (see Section 7.4.3),
are effective; another possibility is the "Flasher" program described in
Section 7.4.5.
8.6.2 Hemisphere Synch Tapes
Similar in concept to light and sound machines, there are "hemisphere synch"
tapes which use recorded sounds to induce particular brainwave activity.
See Section 7.4.4.
8.6.3 Magnetic Stimulation
If you really want to go for the gusto, you can use direct magnetic
stimulation of the temporal lobes. Check out papers by Persinger (there
are numerous others in the field) for a start on the nature of these
devices. A lot of research is being done currently in transcranial
magnetic stimulation, so in addition to dorking with your temporal lobes
you can also try mapping your motor and sensory cortex and checking out
the potential antidepressant effect of left prefrontal cortex magnetic
stimulation. Actually, if you really are interested in any of this,
clear it with a physician first.
8.6.4 Sensory Deprivation and Ganzfeld
Refer to Section 7.4.1 and
Section 7.4.2.
8.6.5 Predosing
A few people report that taking a low "attack" dose at lower second
plateau levels four hours or so before the main dose will greatly
increase the chance for interesting altered states and paranormal
experiences. It probably also greatly increases the chance for side
effects and brain damage, so proceed with caution if at all.
8.6.6 Meditation
Meditation is of course a wonderful tool for achieving altered states,
with or without the use of drugs. Various meditation techniques exist,
and I'm in no position to describe them, but based on published reports
I would say that Transcendental Mediation is well documented as capable
of inducing these altered states (349). Persinger suggested hypothetically
that Transcendental Meditation may induce temporal lobe seizures via
a mechanism he called "cognitive kindling" (344), but another paper
disputed this, and I haven't noticed meditators convulsing with
any appreciable frequency.
8.7 Factors Affecting Susceptibility to Paranormal Experiences
Some have suggested factors which affect the susceptibility to paranormal
experiences. Some of the suggested factors (most of which remain to be
proven) include: gender (females are more susceptibility), right-handedness,
prior paranormal experiences, prior electrical shock (especially from
lightning), geomagnetic events, sleep deprivation, underlying seizure
disorder, and regular meditation.
8.8 A Warning About "Spiritual Shortcuts"
Drugs are tools and like all tools they have their limits. Whenever one
uses a drug for its mental, psychological, or even spiritual effects, one
must remember that the tool itself can never replace hard work and
committment. Some would argue that using drugs for spiritual or magickal
purposes is completely misguided, but others report great benefit from
the use of various psychoactive drugs in meditation, spiritual exploration,
and development of a personal philosophy.
Most people who are experienced with the use of drugs in this context must never take the place of sober work. Drugs may be ideal for showing one the possibilities of the mind, but once awakened to these possibilities, it is perhaps best to let memory and familiarity take the place of drug use. It is probably best to limit the use of DXM to the minimum necessary to accomplish a given goal, and with time it should become totally unnecessary. Remember, DXM can be a step along the path, but it should never become the path itself.
8.9 A Warning About Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
Many of the methods discussed above are capable of aggravating an existing
temporal lobe epilepsy condition (and probably other forms). Furthermore,
people who suffer from complex partial seizures may be more likely to
experience paranormal events (334,341), so if you're already talking fluently
with the aliens, you may want to be wary about giving yourself extra help.
This type of epilepsy can remain confined to the temporal lobes forever,
or can generalize to involve the cortex, and in extreme cases lead to
seizures severe enough to produce brain damage or even death.