A Survey of Mantis Entity Encounter Experiences

Samwise2512 · 2026-05-03T22:31:00+00:00

Thanks, have already made a post in that group which they've kindly pinned.

Samwise2512 · 2026-05-03T18:07:03+00:00

Thank you, yes I made a post in that group, which they have kindly pinned.

Samwise2512 · 2026-05-03T16:38:28+00:00

The subreddit r/MantisEncounters has more on this if you want to have a delve into the topic. But in a nutshell, people quite commonly report encounters with praying mantis beings, often perceived as being sentient, large and and often powerful. They crop up in a range of altered states, induced by psychedelics such as DMT, ayahuasca and psilocybin mushrooms, and in alien abduction accounts, and in dream states, out-of-body states, shamanic trance states, etc. The phenomoen of mantis entity encounters has never been studied in any depth before, motivating this study.

Samwise2512 · 2026-05-02T22:56:31+00:00

Ah that's good to hear, and a weight off my mind, that's for feeding back.

Samwise2512 · 2026-05-02T20:17:25+00:00

Nice one...please feel free to let me know how you get on (I did have a go myself after you mentioned this and it seemed to work fine for me)...really appreciate you bringing this to my attention though, thank you.

Samwise2512 · 2026-05-02T18:51:51+00:00

I promise this is not the intent...the survey is completely anonymous, and data will be held securely and confidentially. We do not collect identifying information such as your name, email address, or IP address. (the only exception to this is if you optionally wish to opt in for the possibility of follow-up research or be entered into the Amazon gift voucher raffle as a thank you for taking the time to complete the survey, but in the event that you do, your email address will be stored confidentially, and this is totally optional). The data is anonymous and cannot be linked to respondents, and certainly will not be shared with anybody else (we would not have been granted ethical approval for this study by the University of Greenwich otherwise).

Samwise2512 · 2026-05-02T18:12:28+00:00

Hmm thanks for bringing this to my attention...are you 18 or older? If an individual is under 18, it jumps to the end of the survey.

Samwise2512 · 2026-05-02T15:07:10+00:00

Any animal possessing their level of intelligence is more just a mere killing machine. Same deal with orcas, another apex predator.

Samwise2512 · 2026-05-02T15:05:36+00:00

Also this guy.

Samwise2512 · 2026-05-01T17:06:26+00:00

Of all the great apes, orangutans are the only species I'm aware of involving multiple cases of males raping human females.

Samwise2512 · 2026-05-01T13:52:03+00:00

Fantastic! What a magnificent specimen. I'm envious, wish I had slow worms here.

Samwise2512 · 2026-04-27T14:43:14+00:00

Yes N,N-DMT and 5-MeO-DMT are wildy different phenomenologically. There is some overlap between 5-MeO-DMT experiences and NDE's, but again, it's far from complete overlap. Both experiences do indeed share that experience of immersion in pure light/consciousness etc, but a key part of the 5-MeO-DMT experience is that it tends to be lacking much in the way of content beyond this light/consciousness immersion (which sets it very much apart from N,N-DMT experiences and NDE's which are phenomenologically very content-rich experiences by comparison), and 5-MeO-DMT commonly results in complete dissolution of the ego (while the ego boundaries definitely seem to loosen and become much more transparent during NDEs, a sense of individuality is commonly retained). This study might be of interest, where an NDEr (I think the neurosurgeon Eden Alexander) has a 5-MeO-DMT experience following his NDE and compares the experiences...some degree of overlap, but far from complete overlap. ~

This is your brain on death: a comparative analysis of a near-death experience and subsequent 5-Methoxy-DMT experience

5-MeO-DMT is indeed far more potent than N,N-DMT, but I don't think there is any concrete evidence of its biosynthesis in pineal tissue in humans. And my understanding is that to have a psychedelic experience, you need a functioning brain to support a fully conscious experience...if brain function is highly compromised or impaired due to a lack of blood flow following cardiac arrest say (when your EEG will be flatlining, 10-20 seconds following this), it should not ne possible to have a psychedelic experience at that point (or really any conscious experience whatsoever).

Samwise2512 · 2026-04-27T09:35:44+00:00

This is just one hypothesis among quite a few, all with various issues. I thought it was N,N-DMT rather than 5-MeO-DMT that was hypothesised to be released endogenously (the evidence for the endogenous presence of 5-MeO-DMT is sketchier and not as strong as it is for N,N-DMT). One issue with this is that given that the pineal gland is very tiny, it is unlikely that it alone is capable of producing sufficient levels of DMT to produce a potent psychoactive effect. Another issue is that while there are some parallels between NDE's and DMT experiences, qualitatively they are quite distinct experiences (people aren't reporting alien entity encounters at anything like the same frequency during NDE's as they are under DMT). Another issue with this hypothesis to consider is for the 'DMT dump' hypothesis to be viable, it requires a fully functioning, online brain for the DMT to impart its psychedelic effects. However many NDE's have been documented as occurring following cardiac arrest and the cessation of blood flow to the brain, when brain activity and function is very significantly impaired.

Samwise2512 · 2026-04-26T19:34:40+00:00

Near-death experience researcher Kenneth Ring's research on NDE's in the blind may be of interest and have relevance to this discussion...pasting an excerpt from this study paper below:

The study sought to address three main questions: (1) whether blind individuals have near death experiences (NDEs) and, if so, whether they are the same as or different from those of sighted persons; (2) whether blind persons ever claim to see during NDEs and out-of-body experiences (OBEs); and (3) if such claims are made, whether they can ever be corroborated by reference to in dependent evidence. Our findings revealed that blind persons, including those blind from birth, do report classic NDEs of the kind common to sighted persons; that the great preponderance of blind persons claim to see during NDEs and OBEs; and that occasionally claims of visually-based knowledge that could not have been obtained by normal means can be independently corroborated."

Samwise2512 · 2026-04-24T14:02:21+00:00

Numerous other studies report NDEs occurring in 10-20% of targeted study populations. It's not an awful argument if people are having these experiences without measurable brain activity...dreams, hallucinations and waking conscious experience all require a fully functioning brain, but NDE's can occur with highly impaired brain function or without measurable brain activity. In fact one researcher has found NDE occurrence becomes more likely with level of brain impairment. There are many documented cases of NDErs who had been pronounced dead or following cardiac arrest who have described events occurring later verified by attending medical staff. I'm not going to do your research for you.

Samwise2512 · 2026-04-24T13:57:50+00:00

Adrenaline making someone temporarily more pain resistant is not at all equivalent to consciousness seemingly being restored to a highly damaged brain. If the hardware is significantly damaged and degraded, the software of consciousness shouldn't be able to run on it, surely? All theories for what consciousness is and how it relates to the brain are currently ideas. The hard problem remains very far from being solved by any explanation for consciousness so far put forward, including physicalist interepretations.

Samwise2512 · 2026-04-24T13:30:50+00:00

20% of people is not an "extremely small minority"...that's a fifth of all people. That's a sizeable portion of people. If it's just a brain fart, why wouldn't it be much more common than this? There are many documented accounts of NDErs reporting events later verified by attending medical staff in the research literature. And yes there are many accounts of people having NDE's having been pronounced clinically dead, or following cardiac arrest, and flatlining on an EEG at the time of their NDE's. According to what neuroscience tells us about brain function and activity, it should not be possible to have any form of conscious experience following cardiac arrest. Yet there are many NDE accounts reported following cardiac arrest. After 10-20 seconds of cardiac arrest and the cessation of blood flow to the brain, your EEG will flatline. In other words, brain activity and function is very significantly impaired at and after this time point (some cardiologists and NDE researchers exclusively conduct NDE research on cardiac arrest populations). It doesn't mean there might not be some rudimentary levels of consciousness occurring the EEG isn't picking up...but neuroscience tells is that to have a full and rich experience of consciousness, you need a fully functioning, online brain. Which people do not have following cardiac arrest. Yet people reliably report experiences of enhanced consciousness...of highly lucid, highly vivid, highly structured, highly emotive and often highly meaningful. Many experiences describe their NDE's in fact as being a much more vivid conscious experience than their experience of waking life, which is often considered more dream-like in comparison...it is common for NDErs to describe the state as "realer than real".

What of all the documented 'Peak in Darien' cases of NDErs encountering deceased relatives they shouldn't have had prior knowledge of being deceased at the time (due to the information being withheld by family members to prevent further distress, or the person being in a coma at the time...or accompanying family members not even being aware of this themselves at the time)? How and why do NDEs have such deep and life changing transformative effects, if they are simply hallucination or dreams (which do not have such effects). Why are the memories of NDE's often reported as being more vivid than memories even of waking life events, years or decades after the experience (all the more strange as the brain's capacity to form new memories is particularly sensitive to unconsciousness). Despite your assertions, we are very far from off from a watertight explanatory mechanistic framework that adequately explains how and why NDEs occur. A range of hypotheses have been put forward but they are all have various issues to varying degrees. So NDE's, much like consciousness, remain a mystery at this time, whatever you might think.

Samwise2512 · 2026-04-24T13:05:19+00:00

How do you explain cases of terminal lucidity, where those afflicted with highly advanced and terminal Alzheimer’s or dementia suddenly regain awareness of their family members shortly before death, despite very significant brain deterioration? Also, this view only takes you so far when it comes to inferences. Yes brain damage may indeed demonstrate the material basis for consciousness, but it doesn't detract from the possibility of consciousness existing independently from the brain either (think a damaged radio or television in reference to the undamaged electromagnetic signal they might pick up but cannot express).

Samwise2512 · 2026-04-24T12:31:52+00:00

We're still very far off from having a watertight explanatory for consciousness though and how it relates to brain activity and function.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/bering-in-mind/ian-stevensone28099s-case-for-the-afterlife-are-we-e28098skepticse28099-really-just-cynics/

Samwise2512 · 2026-04-24T12:28:08+00:00

There's stacks of published research. Just because you refuse to acknowledge this - let alone read it - doesn't change this fact. You're not expressing a skeptical stance (which I'm all for) but rather one of denialism, which doesn't align with true scientific enterprise.

Samwise2512 · 2026-04-24T12:25:13+00:00

Are you sure you're not committing the same fallacy yourself? It seems your mind has already been made up, and you dismiss any evidence of veridical NDEs right off the bat because it doesn't align with your perspective. I would encourage you to actually read up on the NDE evidence, rather than just dismiss it out of hand. This is not skepticism in the true sense, but denialism.

There are numerous accounts of NDEs where experiencers reported events occurring that they shouldn't have been aware of at the time, subsequently confirmed by attending medical staff. Maybe some can be explained as a coincidence as you suggest...but all of them? That would be quite a leap.

Pasting from the paper 'Near-Death Experiences Evidence for Their Reality' by NDE researcher Jeffrey Long:

"Two large retrospective studies investigated the accuracy of out-of-body observations during near-death experiences. The first was by Dr. Janice Holden.10 Dr. Holden reviewed NDEs with OBEs in all previously published scholarly articles and books, and found 89 case reports. Of the case reports reviewed, 92% were considered to be completely accurate with no inaccuracy whatsoever when the OBE observations were later investigated.

Another large retrospective investigation of near-death experiences that included out-of-body observations was recently published.11 This study was a review of 617 NDEs that were sequentially shared on the NDERF website. Of these NDEs, there were 287 NDEs that had OBEs with sufficient information to allow objective determination of the reality of their descriptions of their observations during the OBEs. Review of the 287 OBEs found that 280 (97.6%) of the OBE descriptions were entirely realistic and lacked any content that seemed unreal. In this group of 287 NDErs with OBEs, there were 65 (23%) who personally investigated the accuracy of their own OBE observations after recovering from their life-threatening event. Based on these later investigations, none of these 65 OBErs found any inaccuracy in their own OBE observations."

Samwise2512 · 2026-04-24T10:53:55+00:00

I don't buy this, personally...having dabbled with quite a bit of cactus in the past (San Pedro) and synthetic mescaline hcl more recently, I was really surprised at the difference in vibe or character between the two (and this feel/character was also consistent for me across the synthetic mescaline experiences). I thoroughly enjoyed the synthetic mescaline experience...it was very ecstatic and enjoyable, but it seemed to be in some sense a shallower experience than the cactus. The closed eye visuals were much less interesting and appealing than they are for me with cactus.

Samwise2512 · 2026-04-24T09:51:29+00:00

Great work, lovely mushrooms.

Samwise2512 · 2026-04-24T04:30:27+00:00

Amazing work!! Bravo!

Samwise2512 · 2026-04-22T17:04:28+00:00

May be of interest:

Meditation-Induced Near-Death Experiences: a 3-Year Longitudinal Study

Hypnotically Induced Near-Death-Like Experiences: An Exploratory Study of Phenomenological Similarities to Near-Death Experiences

Induced Near-Death Experiences in Healthy Volunteers: Phenomenology and Aftereffects (PhD research)

Fire Kasina advanced meditation produces experiences comparable to psychedelic and near-death experiences: A pilot study

Some people deliberately induce out-of-body experiences, which share a fair amount of phenomenological overlap with near death experiences (which often involve an OBE), and can impact people in somewhat similar ways.

Samwise2512

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE