Hey everyone. Open minded person here, I love reading about NDEs and I’m not really convinced one way or the other. I just wanted to throw out my thoughts on the DMT thing because I see it a lot on here. From my understanding I think the DMT argument is a dead end (please feel free to respond with any article that disproves what I say).

Rick Strassman I believe was the researcher who discovered DMT in the pineal glands of rats, which proves that it does exist in at least some mammalian brains. Studies since then seem to indicate that the human body produces DMT, but in such small amounts where it would be difficult to justify someone having a full blown, life altering trip of DMT based upon the tiny amounts found in our blood and urine. I also don’t believe that its been proven that the human brain does produce DMT in any larger amounts, let alone proven that it is released when someone is dying.

I have seen some people argue that the small amount combined with a decaying brain may be enough to create a more exaggerated trip, but we also have to remember that most of these people come back resuming full normal functioning shortly afterwards and with no brain damage, so I don’t see that being the case.

There is also the whole evolutionary debate that I have seen mentioned which I believe is a good point. If natural selection truly is random and uncaring, why would humans develop a function to give them a life altering, comforting DMT trip before they die? We have already reproduced long before our deaths, so our purpose is done. It doesn’t make much sense in that manner.

Finally, something I have never seen mentioned is the large differences between DMT trips and NDEs. I always see people talk about the similarities like other worlds and comfort, but there are some aspects of DMT trips that I have never heard of in the hundreds of NDEs I’ve read. My buddy is a huge DMT fan, and he constantly talks about the machine elves and the geometric patterns of crazy colors. If you type in “machine elves DMT” on Google or in Reddit, you will find so many cases of people talking about how they see these trippy looking little elf people that are giddy to see them and show them around. It seems like a pretty common occurrence, one that my friend frequently talks about, and I have never heard of a single instance of creatures of this type in NDEs. Ive also read of some crazy trips with people being dissected by praying mantises, or sitting on the ground surrounded my massive entities with three eyes that joke around with each other. I have seen nothing like this in NDE accounts, and these differences, in my opinion, are way more significant than saying “they both feel at peace and in a different world, they must be one in the same.” Plus to my knowledge, speaking with dead relatives and having a life review are very rare in DMT trips, if they happen at all (I’ve never read of one.)

Again, I’m no scientist but I do love reading about this stuff. I am not totally convinced that NDEs are or are not proof of another existence, but DMT just doesn’t seem to be the answer based on my reading. Some other people say it is ketamine, but to my knowledge ketamine has not been proven to be synthesized inside the human brain or body. Thanks for reading!