5-MeO-DMT Boosts Brain Complexity, Rekindles Childlike Curiosity
My brain became 40% more child-like in 3 minutes. This is what it felt like. Me: “What question do we ask them next?” My daughter: “Are they scared of the dark too?” My six year old daughter and I were playing an imagination game. In this one, aliens had just landed on earth and we were asking them questions. Listening to her thoughts and exploration as we interviewed the aliens brought me endless joy. As hard as I tried, my adult brain didn’t have the same flexibility and freedom. She reached where I couldn’t. My brain was trapped in adult-patterns that felt inescapable. I'd always assumed that gap was permanent. 5-MeO-DMT proved me wrong. After my large 28 mg dose, my brain patterns became 40% more original. The technical name of the marker is Lempel-Ziv complexity. It’s a measure of how varied and distinct a brain signal’s patterns are. The lower the LZc score, the more predictable your brain patterns are. The higher the score, the more varied, distinct and neuroplastic. 5-MeO-DMT was like a magic potion transforming me from adult to child. The morning after the dose, I awoke to a feeling of giddiness. Butterflies floated in my stomach as I imagined what surprises the day may bring. The gray clouds of adult-dread that typically overcast my mind were gone. It was all sunshine. In my hotel room, I took a quick shower and then ran to a local cafe. I wanted to surprise Kate with a morning coffee before she woke up. I knocked on her door. Confused and barely able to see, she opened upon hearing my voice. I embraced her, teasing and flirting. She wrapped both her hands around the warm mug and I opened the curtains to let in the joy. We had a flight to catch so she showered and packed up. Not having time that morning to exercise, I decided to sprint down the hallway, and then skip back. Energy overflowed. The world felt light and right. It was a new me, with new patterns, and a fire for life. Kate was amused, observing and wondering what was going on. Life was like this for days. Now seven weeks post dose, it’s faded. The longing for that state has not. When I imagine the future, I remind myself that I’m now mostly blind to the power of awe and wonder. I am trapped in a 48 year old brain that is weighed down by barnacles and stuck in patterns. > I want the future more than my adult brain can see. > I hunger for life more than my adult brain can understand. > Children are wiser than we give them credit. > Intelligence may not be about what you think you know. > But in the vast, endless space of curiosity and wonder. > Unburdened by the world. Notes: 1) To our knowledge, this is the first publicly available human recording of this signal under 5-MeO-DMT. Seen before with psilocybin and N,N-DMT. 2) Thank you AWEAR for the EEG device and Joseph Chen for help with the data analysis.
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