Coffins, Hybrid Octopus Beings and Multiverses Within Skin

Artwork: ‘The Trickster’ by Merrilee Challis

Rachel, 35, Switzerland

As I sat on the edge of a chaise with cushions behind me, my sitter knelt on the floor in front of me holding the glass pipe with the lighter beneath it. As the vapor appeared, I closed my lips around the tube and inhaled slowly. I signalled when my lungs were full and the heat was removed while I held my breath.

Within seconds the energy in the room began to change very rapidly. It was as though the spaces within and between each atom were now perceptible, and my surroundings seemed to expand like a dolly zoom effect.

I exhaled, and my sitter prompted me to take the second hit, but as I looked at the pipe it looked like a cartoon, and appeared to be in four different places at the same time; twice it glowed yellow and twice it glowed turquoise. I found that I couldn't coordinate my movements to reach the pipe and I wasn't sure which pipe was the actual one, so i picked one and although I couldn't see it by my face or feel it on my lips I went through the motions to inhale anyway, hoping that my sitter was assisting me to get it to my mouth.

I lost awareness of my physical surroundings

I looked at my sitter, and they appeared to look like a skittle, and then they started to violently bounce around the room clockwise. When they reached 5 o'clock they returned to 12 position and bounced away clockwise again. This happened three times accompanied with a spinning sensation. Then I was no longer aware of my sitter or the room, or what I had just done.

A pink and gold mesh of highly intricate geometric patterns suddenly appeared before me and as I fell into it it ripped apart and I fell through the fissure. This was accompanied by the somatic sensation of turning inside out before melting into liquid.

On the other side was a bizarre space full of bright glowing lights of all the colors of the spectrum, backlit by a bright white light. Sharp patterns that were constantly forming fractals were morphing into ever more unique and stupefyingly brilliant shapes and patterns. The sensation was somewhat like floating on waves in the ocean but in every dimension, being pulled this way and that.

Sentient beings appeared amidst geometrical shapes

The transforming shapes also pulled around with the current, some of them appeared to be sentient beings. The closest earthly description I have for them is a hybrid of octopuses and adult female humans. They telepathically acknowledged my presence, but they were neither welcoming and comforting nor hostile and frightening.

In fact it seemed as though communication or understanding would not even be possible on my part as these beings were part of this plane in which I was as yet unable to comprehend.

Although I hadn't been aware of my self or my body since I'd seen the pink and gold mesh, I felt like a bright ball of energy was now in my throat. It felt like it was expanding as it slowly moved upwards. During normal consciousness this experience would have been acutely panic inducing as there was no room to breathe and impossible to swallow, but I had no such anxiety or concept of the human body; I just remember it as a very bizarre experience. The ball eventually moved up into my mouth and then fired out at great velocity, and as it did so I became the ball of energy itself.

I saw myself lying in a coffin

The perspective of being fired forward shifted to being fired backwards and upwards, and then slowed right down to a gentle rise up and I saw beneath me my own body lying in a white coffin, in the room I was tripping in. I concluded that I'd died, and a great sense of peace and serenity washed over me before two huge, great mandalas appeared before my eyes.

I had put on a recording of icaros before I'd smoked, and I could now hear them again as what they were, and the mandalas spun and transformed their shapes in synchronicity with the music. The mandalas gently subsided and I became aware that I was back in my own body again, and back in the room.

I sat up and began to laugh and shake my head. I leaned forward cupping my hands over my face and then leaned back onto the cushions gasping for a few moments. I was firmly back from the DMT-scape now, but I was still seeing beautiful colours glowing from everything. Predominant colors were magenta and turquoise.

I could see multiverses in my own skin

My skin felt as though it were wet, and kind of separated from my body in layers; and as I looked at my hand it looked like it had fine scales like snakeskin, it was shimmering and sparkling like diamonds. I looked at both hands in awe, I could see multiverses and epochs inside them.

I felt giddy and shaky, so I asked my sitter to fix me a drink and pass me my nicotine vape and as I calmed my nerves I began to talk about my experience. By the time I had finished talking my consciousness was completely back to normal and everything looked normal again.

I looked at the clock, I had been talking for around ten minutes and it was only 25 minutes since I had smoked the DMT. My sitter informed me that I'd been "out" for just five minutes.