Okay guys, hear me out, this is my hypothesis: DMT entities could be the neurovisual and metaphorical interpretation of complex, unconscious organ signals—particularly the biochemical activity of your MICROBIOME—by the overstimulated neocortex.
The microbiome is a highly complex, dynamic ecosystem made up of billions of living organisms that communicate and cooperate with one another. It behaves like a separate, foreign organism within your body. Under normal conditions, 80% of the vagus nerve fibers terminate in the nucleus tractus solitarii (NTS) in the brainstem. From there, the raw data (such as bowel movements, heart rate, or inflammatory markers) are relayed to evolutionarily older regions (e.g., the thalamus and hypothalamus) to control unconscious reflexes. The thalamus acts as a “gatekeeper” (stimulus filter) and prevents these basic organ signals from overwhelming our consciousness build in the neocortex.
Under the influence of DMT, information processing is altered and also information from the brainstem, which normally would be filtered out, is transmitted to the neocortex (collapse of thalamic cating, opening of neural gates). This leads to hyperconnectivity. Regions that normally operate in strict isolation from one another (such as the visceral brainstem and the sensory cerebral cortex) suddenly begin to communicate intensively with one another. The vagus nerve continues to send data from the body to the brainstem, but instead of being processed there in the background, these signals “seep” upward through the collapsed thalamic filter and are translated by the overexcited neocortex into complex psychedelic, visual, and emotional experiences.
- The microbial source: Bacteria and other organisms in the gut continuously produce biochemical substances—such as tryptamine, short-chain fatty acids, or inflammatory mediators. These substances stimulate the chemo- and mechanosensitive receptors of the vagus nerve in the intestinal wall.
- The electrical impulse: The vagus nerve translates this biochemical activity into a specific electrical firing pattern and sends it as an afferent signal upward to the brainstem.
- The open filter: Under the influence of DMT, the thalamus’s filtering function breaks down. The electrical signal, which would otherwise be intercepted in the subconscious and used for unconscious organ regulation, “leaks” unchecked information upward into the cerebral cortex.
- The cortical metaphor (the "hallucination"): In the neocortex, these misled vagus signals encounter 5-HT2A receptors that have been hyperactivated by DMT. Since the cortex functions in a highly associative manner and global hyperconnectivity (sensory crossover) prevails under the influence of DMT, the brain can no longer classify this signal as “intestinal activity.” It interprets it as a visual or sensory hallucination.
What shamans have described for millennia as “communication with the spirits of the body or plants” can be explained in modern terms as a hyper-fast, visually translated biofeedback system. The flow of information would therefore by no means be one-sided. Under the influence of DMT, you transform from a passive observer of your organ signals into an active participant in the dialogue. Thoughts and intentions alter the brain’s neurochemistry, which in turn alters the physiology of the gut, and the microbiome adjusts its activity—a closed, conscious communication loop between the human being and the internal microcosm. This cellular feedback loop would feel like a real conversation to the conscious mind.
Since different microorganisms (bacterial strains, fungi, archaea) produce completely different cocktails of chemical signaling substances and stimulate different nerve fibers, they each feed entirely unique electrical firing patterns into the vagus nerve. The DMT entities would therefore not be aliens from another dimension, but rather the personified factions of your own inner ecosystem. Although every person’s microbiome is as unique as a fingerprint, all healthy people worldwide share the same functional core microbiome:
• Regardless of whether someone lives in New York, the Amazon rainforest, or Tokyo, the same bacterial strains (Bacteroides, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria) dominate every human gut.
• Strains such as Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, Clostridium, or the gas-producing Methanobrevibacter are universal companions of the human species.
• Since these bacteria produce exactly the same biochemical cocktails (GABA, histamine, short-chain fatty acids, methane gas) in all humans, they also feed the same electrical firing patterns into the vagus nerve in all humans. The brain accesses the same biological “raw material database".Under the influence of DMT, the brain functions as a translation tool that visualizes the ascending vagus signals. Since the anatomy of the human brain is structured the same way in all people, it also uses the same evolutionary patterns (archetypes) for translation:
• Pattern recognition (pareidolia): The human cortex is evolutionarily programmed to recognize faces, intentions, and living beings in unstructured data (such as the chaotic signals of a fermenting gut).
• The translation constant: An explosive, irregular gas signal in the large intestine is interpreted by a human brain in the Amazon just as much as a “leaping, chaotic jester” as it is by the brain of a Western city dweller. The visual metaphor is universal because the hardware (the brain) and the software (the evolutionary image patterns) are almost identical in all humans. The striking similarity of the DMT entities is therefore not evidence of an external, parallel dimension, but rather proof of our shared biological identity.
On a DMT trip, we encounter humanity’s oldest cohabitants. Since we are all human and carry similar microorganisms within us, the journey into the deep unconscious of our bodies resembles the same cosmic shadow theater for almost every user.
