What Is DMT? From Ancient Beginnings to the Latest Science

Entering the field of psychedelic therapy, whether as a therapist or a client, means learning about an ever-growing, sometimes bewildering array of psychedelic substances. My friends in the field have told me repeatedly about the potential of N,N-dimethyltryptamine, better known as DMT, a psychedelic substance only recently legalized in Oregon and Colorado and otherwise considered illegal in the United States. Let’s look at the emerging science of DMT to understand how it relates to other psychedelics and how it’s been used to treat mental illness so far.

What Is DMT?

DMT is both a naturally occurring tryptamine—a class of neuromodulating substances, which includes serotonin, that can be found in many plant species—and a synthetic compound, discovered in a chemist’s lab in 1931 and shown to have psychedelic properties by a research study two decades later (Szara, 1956). DMT turns out to be the primary psychoactive ingredient in ayahuasca (dos Santos & Hallak, 2024), as well as other hallucination-inducing plant substances used in indigenous rituals in Latin America. Thus, while the synthetic form of DMT used in clinical research is relatively new, the use of DMT in indigenous medicine traditions likely goes back millennia.

Like other classic psychedelics, such as LSD and psilocybin, DMT in plants and as a synthetic compound is known to induce hallucinations and dream-like states (dos Santos & Hallak, 2024). However, experiences with DMT tend to be even more intense, often involving near-death experiences or more intense psychological breakthroughs (Michael et al., 2023). DMT packs all that experience into a much shorter timeframe than other classic psychedelics—for most people, a standard experience with DMT lasts all of 15 minutes.

What Is This Experience Like?

When DMT is administered to the body—in medical settings, through injection, but also often through inhalation—the user loses contact with their regular experience in a matter of seconds, unlike the gradual onset that accompanies most other psychedelics (Michael et al., 2023). After this point, people typically are no longer limited to their own self—they undergo a period of expanded consciousness, experiencing themselves as intimately connected to a wider consciousness.

The intense hallucinations and otherworldly visuals people experience are often hard to put into words. Sometimes, they come paired with what has been called an “entity experience” or an encounter with a godlike or supernatural force, which may reveal an important message to the user. About 15 minutes later—not that it will feel this brief—the user is back to full and regular consciousness.

In a recent review, Chaves and colleagues (2024) highlighted the unique features of DMT. First of all, DMT is a naturally occurring substance in our brains, so using DMT for psychedelic purposes means artificially and temporarily increasing a preexisting chemical in our brains to facilitate neuroplasticity. Second, DMT much more reliably induces ego dissolution and mystical experiences and seems much closer to a near-death experience. Third, whereas people can develop a tolerance for other psychedelics, especially if taken on consecutive days, this does not appear to be the case for DMT. Perhaps for all of these reasons, DMT may be an even more efficient tool for neuroplasticity than some other psychedelics.

At this time, we don’t know a great deal about the effects of synthetic DMT on mental health. Recent studies suggest it can reduce depressive symptoms, neuroticism, and anxiety (Timmermann et al., 2024) and increase psychological insight (Meling et al., 2024), especially among people who have peak experiences during administration.

While these results continue to accumulate, we can look to evidence from studies with ayahuasca, which has been used to treat trauma-related mood, anxiety, and substance-use disorders (dos Santos et al., 2016; Nunes et al., 2016), as an indicator of the potential of synthetic DMT. Outside of effects on mental illness, across the DMT and ayahuasca studies, people report enduring insights and connections to a greater life force or higher power, describing the encounters and increased awareness as life-changing.

Taken together, recent research suggests DMT holds enormous promise as a short-acting tool for insight and neuroplasticity, with the capacity to rapidly expand boundaries and heal inner wounds. With time and an increasing scientific evidence base, we can probably expect federal regulations to continue to loosen, allowing more people access to this transformative experience.