DMT: Brain Hallucination or Interdimensional Technology?
Is DMT just a hallucination—or a gateway to another reality? Andrew Gallimore’s research suggests we may be touching the alien unknown.
A Lifelong Curiosity About the Hidden Architecture of Reality - A Personal Note
I have read Andrew Gallimore's first two books, watched his interviews, and followed his work for years. I’ve found his explorations profoundly compelling and consistently thought-provoking. His approach blends rigorous science with an openness to the unknown, offering rare insight into some of the most mind-bending phenomena of our time. I recently watched his interview, "Are DMT experiences spiritual journeys or mind hallucinations?" on the Matt Beall Limitless Podcast (see video recommendation at the bottom), and it left me contemplating some profound implications.
Gallimore’s investigations into DMT push us to confront a question that sits at the edge of science and metaphysics: Are these experiences internal hallucinations, or is DMT a kind of interdimensional technology that allows human consciousness to interface with external intelligences?
Let’s take a closer look.
DMT: Not Just a Drug, But a Technology?
Dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, is often labelled as a psychedelic, but Gallimore argues this definition barely scratches the surface. What we’re dealing with, he suggests, isn’t just a chemical catalyst for visual hallucinations—it’s more akin to a technology that temporarily rewires the brain to receive and interpret signals from a reality that exists beyond our normal waking perception.
Gallimore describes how indigenous cultures have long understood this, treating DMT not as a recreational substance, but as a sacred tool. Ayahuasca, a brew that combines DMT-containing plants with MAO inhibitors to make the experience longer and more immersive, is perhaps the most well-known traditional use of this molecular gateway. This wasn't stumbled upon by accident; it’s a form of biochemical engineering that speaks to a long lineage of interaction with intelligences beyond the veil.
In this view, DMT becomes not a drug, but a vehicle—a consciousness interface device. And the question then becomes: What, or who, are we interfacing with?
The Encounter: Entering the Hyperdimensional Realm
Gallimore’s first DMT experience happened more than 20 years ago. For him, the sense that he had encountered an external intelligence was immediate and overwhelming. He describes a realm of "inordinate complexity," an "inorganic and technological" landscape that bore no resemblance to dreams or hallucinations as understood by current neuroscience.
Unlike dreamscapes or even other psychedelic visions that borrow heavily from memory and waking-world motifs, the DMT space is populated by entirely alien intelligences. These are not distorted echoes of our reality. They are sentient beings operating in a reality that appears designed, interactive, and sophisticated—a kind of hyperdimensional architecture that feels more constructed than imagined.
He recounts being immersed in a world where these entities not only appeared conscious but were performing complex tasks: manipulating space, creating higher-dimensional objects, and interacting with him in ways that suggested purpose and intelligence.
This catalysed Gallimore’s lifelong pursuit: to understand what DMT is doing to the brain, and more importantly, what kind of information system it might be connecting us to.
Rewriting the Brain’s Reality Model
From a neuroscientific standpoint, Gallimore builds on the idea that our waking reality is a constructed model—one built by the brain from continuous streams of sensory input. Our sense of self, time, and the physical world is a kind of stable hallucination maintained by predictable inputs.
But DMT throws this into chaos.
Unlike psychosis or dreams, which still rely on the brain's learned models of the physical world, DMT induces a total collapse of that model. According to Gallimore, the brain doesn’t descend into noise or randomness—instead, it reassembles itself into an entirely new, ordered state. This alternate reality is filled with beings and symbols that seem too coherent, too structured, to be spontaneously generated.
He suggests the brain under DMT is not just making things up, but receiving data from a new source. It's as though the brain's cognitive systems are being hijacked by an external signal—one that rewires its world-building apparatus to construct a new model of reality in real time.
Gallimore offers a provocative analogy: it's as if the brain is suddenly fluent in a language it has never studied. That alone, he argues, points to the presence of an external, intelligent agent actively communicating through the neurological interface.
The Evidence: Seeing with Eyes Shut
Scientific research supports the strangeness of this experience. fMRI scans of individuals under the influence of DMT show something astonishing: the primary visual cortex becomes as active as if the individual were seeing with their eyes open, even though their eyes are shut.
This pattern is not consistent with spontaneous neural activity or dreams. The visual cortex behaves as if it is processing actual sensory data. Gallimore points out that the images, scenes, and beings encountered are not passive or abstract—they are interactive, dynamic, and often initiate contact.
This is why he rejects the "brain noise" explanation. When you see entities solving geometric puzzles in real-time, constructing four-dimensional objects, or demonstrating insights beyond your knowledge, it’s difficult to classify the experience as a self-generated fantasy.
The Entities: Machine Elves, Mantids, and Reptilian Beings
Encounters with intelligent beings are one of the hallmarks of the DMT experience. These are not dreamlike figures or archetypes. Users consistently report interactions with non-human, non-animal intelligences. Descriptions range from machine elves to insectoid mantids and even reptilian forms.
Gallimore posits that these beings may not possess an intrinsic visual form. Instead, they use the brain’s visual processing systems to present a form humans can interpret. In essence, they act as interfaces, adjusting themselves to match our perceptual vocabulary.
In one of his encounters, he recounts the overwhelming sense that these entities were managing aspects of reality itself, operating at a scale so vast that humans barely registered on their radar. The takeaway message was humbling: "You don’t know shit about what’s actually going on."
Pushing the Edge: DMTX and the Scientific Frontier
Proving the externality of these experiences remains one of the greatest challenges. Gallimore proposes an experimental approach: ask the entities to solve advanced mathematical problems that are computationally difficult for humans, such as factoring massive prime numbers. If such answers could be retrieved reliably, it would provide empirical evidence that the DMT space is accessing a non-human intelligence.
The difficulty, of course, is in duration. Standard DMT trips are short-lived, often under 15 minutes. That’s where Gallimore and Rick Strassman’s concept of DMTX comes in: a continuous intravenous infusion that maintains the DMT state for extended periods, potentially hours.
This could transform the DMT experience from a fleeting glimpse into a full-blown expedition. Imagine researchers entering the space, posing questions, engaging in dialogue, and returning with coherent reports. Gallimore envisions a future where we can even stimulate endogenous DMT production, enabling extended states that last days or even weeks. In this altered state, the sense of being human might dissolve entirely.
Time, Memory, and the Feeling of Home
One of the most uncanny aspects of the DMT experience is the familiarity. Many users report a feeling of returning home, a sense of profound déjà vu, or the conviction that they’ve been there before.
Time, too, behaves differently. Unlike other psychedelics, which stretch or warp time, DMT seems to eliminate it altogether. The experience is often described as timeless, as though one is suspended outside the normal flow of temporal reality.
Gallimore reflects on this quality as something that points toward origin. Not just biologically or personally, but cosmically. The feeling is not one of escapism, but of return.
The UAP Connection: A Shared Signal?
In what might be one of the most controversial yet intriguing parts of Gallimore’s work, he draws parallels between DMT experiences and the UFO/UAP phenomenon. Abduction accounts often involve similar themes: hyperdimensional space, time distortion, non-human intelligences, and a sense of being observed or tested.
Could it be that these phenomena are not separate, but different expressions of the same interface? Perhaps DMT is simply the clearest way to voluntarily access a signal that sometimes intrudes into our world spontaneously.
Whether through pharmacology or contact events, the result is eerily consistent: a confrontation with the Other.
A New Book for a New Age
Gallimore’s latest book, Death by Astonishment: Confronting the Mystery of the World’s Strangest Drug, brings together all these threads. It’s an epic narrative that spans ancient Amazonian rituals, modern neuroscience, and the enduring mystery of reality itself.
With a foreword by Graham Hancock and read by Gallimore himself in the audiobook edition, the book invites readers to question everything we think we know about consciousness, perception, and what it means to be human.
This is not just about DMT. It’s about the future of human understanding.
Companion Watch
🎥 Recommended Video:
▶︎ Are DMT experiences spiritual journeys or mind hallucinations? | #63 Andrew Gallimore.
Have you experienced something similar?
Do you think DMT is showing us a deeper layer of reality, or is it all a brilliant illusion? Join the conversation and let me know your thoughts.
Follow my journey on Notes and 𝕏 @frankdasilva for real-time insights and bold ideas, and explore my broader work at Frank Da Silva – Living the Future.
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Interesting, thanks, restacked.
I'm convinced something is going on over our heads, which isn't really that speculative a claim when we realize that this is also true for every species on the planet.
I'm less convinced we'll ever really figure out what the "something" is. A dog can see and hear the Internet, but there's no chance they'll every understand it because they just don't have the equipment needed for grasping that level of abstraction. We may be in that same situation in relation to UFOs and DMT beings.