The Mechanical Elves of the DMT World

Landon Caeli said:

I recently read an article on the psychedelic drug known as DMT, of which the ancient Amazonian elixir known ayahuasca is derived from... But pure DMT, when smoked, apparently does something very, very strange...

Apparently 47 percent of people, who report to having using DMT, come into contact with a sentient being whom which speaks to them, and many of them report this sentient being as something that looks similar to a "mechanical elf". The experience is often reported as being "more real" than our own physical world's reality. Another common theme associated with DMT use is the seeing of fractals.

The science part begins here. How is it, that different people report seeing the same kind of being communicating with them..? Even if our DNA is 99.9% similar amongst all of humanity, wouldn't our life experiences dominate what one sees on a DMT trip? But if not, then what is the significance of the "mechanical elf" in regards to our genetic makeup?

...How did it get there?

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I have heard about this and unsure if they are untrue. If many report the same visuals, then there is something about it we know very little about.

Have you heard of 5-MEO DMT? They say it induces a NDE, and many report being plunged into a void/bright light.

Let me see if I got this straight, Landon.

You ordered a mechanical elf from Amazon, and some psycho delivered drugs instead?

Landon Caeli said:

Another common theme associated with DMT use is the seeing of fractals.

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This would tend to indicate that they were tapping into areas of the brain that are unconscious. We see people with savant syndrome from a head injury. I had a friend with Savant Syndrome and it was pretty interesting. Even they made a whole movie about that.

Landon Caeli said:

I recently read an article on the psychedelic drug known as DMT, of which the ancient Amazonian elixir known ayahuasca is derived from... But pure DMT, when smoked, apparently does something very, very strange...

Apparently 47 percent of people, who report to having used DMT, come into contact with a sentient being whom which speaks to them, and many of them report this sentient being as something that looks similar to a "mechanical elf". The experience is often reported as being "more real" than our own physical world's reality. Another common theme associated with DMT use is the seeing of fractals.

The science part begins here. How is it, that different people report seeing the same kind of being communicating with them..? Even if our DNA is 99.9% similar amongst all of humanity, wouldn't our life experiences dominate what one sees on a DMT trip? But if not, then what is the significance of the "mechanical elf" in regards to our genetic makeup?

...How did it get there?

The DMT ‘elves’ people meet while tripping

Why do so many people report encounters with seemingly similar entities after taking DMT?

bigthink.com

Click to expand...

Your description of a 'mechanical elf' doesn't appear in the article you linked, nor in the paper it was reporting on.

According to the article, people see many different kinds of beings and only a small minority describe them as 'elves':

DMT's effects can vary, from what I gather.

I watched an old video series recently, Around the World in 80 Faiths, where an Anglican vicar, Peter Owen Jones, went to a Santo Daime church in Brazil. The people drank a brew of ayahuasca while they danced and sang for hours. He didn't talk about seeing elves, but talked about seeing the world very vividly and said the experience would be "familiar to any man of the cloth", so I'm guessing it induces spiritual experiences, and what you see or perceive is going to vary. It seemed to allow him to have a feeling of connection to nature.

There is some evidence that perhaps the DMT beings have some objective reality, since people can have shared experiences on DMT. Alot of people interpret them as the spirit people of shamanistic or animistic religions.

One thing I gather about ayahuasca is that it shouldn't be taken casually because it opens up your spiritual consciousness. It has to come with a commitment to religious and spiritual practices to prepare for and integrate the experiences. T

FireDragon76 said:

One thing I gather about ayahuasca is that it shouldn't be taken casually because it opens up your spiritual consciousness. It has to come with a commitment to religious and spiritual practices to prepare for and integrate the experiences. T

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I've heard the same about LSD, marijuana, and peyote.

These psychedelic drugs were scientifically justified at one time, until they were put off-limits by a moral society.

QV please:

Occasionally psychodelic, "producing expanded consciousness through heightened awareness and feeling," 1956, of drugs, suggested by British-born Canadian psychiatrist Humphry Osmond in a letter to Aldous Huxley and used by Osmond in a scientific paper published the next year; from Greek psykhē "mind" (see psyche) + dēloun "make visible, reveal" (from dēlos "visible, clear," from PIE root *dyeu- "to shine").

In popular use from 1965 with reference to anything producing effects or sensations similar to the common perception of the effects of a psychedelic drug. As a noun, "a psychedelic drug," from 1956.

SOURCE

AV1611VET said:

I've heard the same about LSD, marijuana, and peyote.

These psychedelic drugs were scientifically justified at one time, until they were put off-limits by a moral society.

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Psychedelic drugs have legitimate religious and therapeutic uses, such as for the treatment of depression. In the case of depression, the effect is markedly better than placebo, unlike existing antidepressants. Psychedelic drugs can also lead to permanent cure, something that conventional antidepressants can't do. They appear to work by restoring neuroplasticity to the brain, and decreasing hyperconnectivity of regions of the brain, such as the default mode network. Even over-the-counter drugs like dextromethorphan have some ability to increase neuroplasticity, along similar mechanisms to psychedelics.

AV1611VET said:

QV please:

Occasionally psychodelic, "producing expanded consciousness through heightened awareness and feeling," 1956, of drugs, suggested by British-born Canadian psychiatrist Humphry Osmond in a letter to Aldous Huxley and used by Osmond in a scientific paper published the next year; from Greek psykhē "mind" (see psyche) + dēloun "make visible, reveal" (from dēlos "visible, clear," from PIE root *dyeu- "to shine").

In popular use from 1965 with reference to anything producing effects or sensations similar to the common perception of the effects of a psychedelic drug. As a noun, "a psychedelic drug," from 1956.

SOURCE

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FireDragon76 said:

Psychedelic drugs have legitimate religious and therapeutic uses, such as for the treatment of depression.

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Yes ... science wants to justify it.

That's why I mainly blame science for degrading our morals.

FrumiousBandersnatch said:

Your description of a 'mechanical elf' doesn't appear in the article you linked, nor in the paper it was reporting on.

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I think he was referring to this portion of the article:

Rajni said:

I think he was referring to this portion of the article:

The late American ethnobotanist Terence McKenna believed that DMT beings — which he called “machine elves” — were real. Here’s how he once described one of his DMT experiences:​

​

“I sank to the floor. I [experienced] this hallucination of tumbling forward into these fractal geometric spaces made of light and then I found myself in the equivalent of the Pope’s private chapel and there were insect elf machines proffering strange little tablets with strange writing on them, and I was aghast, completely appalled, because [in] a matter of seconds… my entire expectation of the nature of the world was just being shredded in front of me. I’ve never actually gotten over it.​

​

These self-transforming machine elf creatures were speaking in a colored language which condensed into rotating machines that were like Fabergé eggs but crafted out of luminescent superconducting ceramics and liquid crystal gels. All this stuff was just so weird and so alien and so un-English-able that it was a complete shock — I mean, the literal turning inside out of [my] intellectual universe!”​

​

McKenna believed machine elves exist in alternate realities, which form a “raging universe of active intelligence that is transhuman, hyperdimensional, and extremely alien.” But he was far from the first to believe that DMT is a doorway to other realms.​

​

​

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​

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The setting and individual intentions, as well as individual experiences, seem to attenuate the experience.


At one time even in Christian Europe, people believed in elves and various spirits of nature. It was only with modernity that people stopped believing in them. There was a 17th-century Scottish Presbyterian clergymen, Robert Kirk, that wrote about them in his book, The Secret Commonwealth, and insisted they were real. Children and seers were the only people that could routinely see them, though they could make themselves known if they really wanted to.

Elf-like beings are reported all over the world. In North American, many north American tribes believed in a race of "little people" that lived alongside humans and imitated their ways. They were morally ambiguous and sometimes acted as tricksters, which is more or less identical to the fairies and elves of European folklore.


The behavior of modern day alien abduction stories are similar to fairy lore, such as the encounter of one Swedish young man, Jacob Jacobsen, with elves in the mid 18th century.

Landon Caeli said:

"mechanical elf"

Click to expand...

Rajni said:

These self-transforming machine elf creatures were speaking in a colored language which condensed into rotating machines that were like Fabergé eggs but crafted out of luminescent superconducting ceramics and liquid crystal gels.

Click to expand...

Rajni said:

I think he was referring to this portion of the article:

The late American ethnobotanist Terence McKenna believed that DMT beings — which he called “machine elves” — were real. Here’s how he once described one of his DMT experiences:​

​

“I sank to the floor. I [experienced] this hallucination of tumbling forward into these fractal geometric spaces made of light and then I found myself in the equivalent of the Pope’s private chapel and there were insect elf machines proffering strange little tablets with strange writing on them, and I was aghast, completely appalled, because [in] a matter of seconds… my entire expectation of the nature of the world was just being shredded in front of me. I’ve never actually gotten over it.​

​

These self-transforming machine elf creatures were speaking in a colored language which condensed into rotating machines that were like Fabergé eggs but crafted out of luminescent superconducting ceramics and liquid crystal gels. All this stuff was just so weird and so alien and so un-English-able that it was a complete shock — I mean, the literal turning inside out of [my] intellectual universe!”​

​

McKenna believed machine elves exist in alternate realities, which form a “raging universe of active intelligence that is transhuman, hyperdimensional, and extremely alien.” But he was far from the first to believe that DMT is a doorway to other realms.​

​

Click to expand...

Ah, OK. Thanks for that. I have a copy of McKenna's book 'True Hallucinations', an entertaining mash-up of travelogue, ethnobotanical treatise, and hallucinatory diary... I wouldn't take the content of his psychedelic experiences as more than imaginative examples of his psychological archetypes.

FrumiousBandersnatch said:

Your description of a 'mechanical elf' doesn't appear in the article you linked, nor in the paper it was reporting on.

According to the article, people see many different kinds of beings and only a small minority describe them as 'elves':

"The form and nature of DMT elves vary in reports:​

People described the entities in different ways. The most commonly chosen labels “were “being,” (60%) “guide,” (43%) “spirit,” (39%) “alien,” (39%) or “helper” (34%). Other labels selected by small proportions of respondents (range 10–16%), included the terms “elf,” “angel,” “religious personage,” or “plant spirit,” and very few (range 1–5%) reporting the terms “gnome,” “monster,” or a “deceased” person.”​

​

It’s also worth noting that not all people who smoke DMT see beings, and that some see beings that look nothing like elves or aliens. The diversity of these reports seems to count against the argument that DMT beings exist in some objective alternate reality."​

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Agreed. Elves are rarely reported. McKenna first mentioned "machine elves", and I think possibly some of his followers may have seen something like that because, having heard him excitedly speak of it, they expected to see something like that.

But something else which is actually very common among many users of psychedelics, is something I as a Christian would call being "convicted of sin". Psychonauts never use the word "sin", but they talk about it in other terms. I chatted privately with a former CF'er once who told me of his DMT experience. He told me of a broken relationship with a family member. For many years he attributed the broken relationship to being the fault of the other person (as most of us would). Under the influence, he perceived specifically what he had done wrong to cause the breakup. After the drug wore off, he still knew what he had learned was true. Sam Harris talked of being taken to the Mountain of Shame while on mushrooms - "Have you ever traveled, beyond all mere metaphors, to the Mountain of Shame and stayed for a thousand years? I do not recommend it." This kind of thing is very common. Don't know what to make of it, but I find it very interesting.

A side note about the elves: Joe Rogan mentioned something like elves or jesters. He said they instantly created objects for him, objects made of geometric shapes of color. The first one was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. But another was made and it was more beautiful. And they kept on making these objects, each one more beautiful than the last, until Joe wept at the beauty. This is a tough guy, former MMA fighter admitting he wept at beauty, lol. I mention this because we sometimes hear atheists say they don't want to go to heaven for eternity because it would be boring. We see only a tiny sliver of the electromagnetic spectrum. It could be we only hear, taste and feel a tiny sliver of what can be experienced. "Heaven will be boring" is a small-minded objection.

Disclaimer since I once got in a bit of trouble here - I've never done DMT, and I do not advocate it or any other psychedelics. One risks a life-changing hellish experience, as even McKenna had.

Landon Caeli said:

How is it, that different people report seeing the same kind of being communicating with them..?

Click to expand...

Tripping is a highly suggestible state. If you've heard that you can expect to see the Mechanical Elf, or Mescalito, or whatever, then it's very likely that you will. Every single time I dropped acid with friends (and that's a lot of times) we all experienced seeing the same bizarre stuff at the same time.

It's just the nature of the drug.

And yes, a bad trip is an unspeakably terrifying experience. I've had them. I strongly discourage anyone from trying hallucinogenics (or any other mind-altering drug).

Chesterton said:

But something else which is actually very common among many users of psychedelics, is something I as a Christian would call being "convicted of sin". Psychonauts never use the word "sin", but they talk about it in other terms. I chatted privately with a former CF'er once who told me of his DMT experience. He told me of a broken relationship with a family member. For many years he attributed the broken relationship to being the fault of the other person (as most of us would). Under the influence, he perceived specifically what he had done wrong to cause the breakup. After the drug wore off, he still knew what he had learned was true. Sam Harris talked of being taken to the Mountain of Shame while on mushrooms - "Have you ever traveled, beyond all mere metaphors, to the Mountain of Shame and stayed for a thousand years? I do not recommend it." This kind of thing is very common. Don't know what to make of it, but I find it very interesting.

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That's one of the reasons these plants are used as medicines in indigenous cultures. They are also being used experimentally to treat mental illness, for similar reasons. They allow people to take a different, sometimes "transjective" perspective that collapses the subject-object dichotomy.

Chesterton said:

A side note about the elves: Joe Rogan mentioned something like elves or jesters. He said they instantly created objects for him, objects made of geometric shapes of color. The first one was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. But another was made and it was more beautiful. And they kept on making these objects, each one more beautiful than the last, until Joe wept at the beauty. This is a tough guy, former MMA fighter admitting he wept at beauty, lol. I mention this because we sometimes hear atheists say they don't want to go to heaven for eternity because it would be boring. We see only a tiny sliver of the electromagnetic spectrum. It could be we only hear, taste and feel a tiny sliver of what can be experienced. "Heaven will be boring" is a small-minded objection.

Click to expand...

Something analogous to that can be experienced through meditative or flow states, as well.

It doesn't surprise me that Joe Rogan is interested in expanded states of awareness. Martial arts can be training for personal and even spiritual development, especially along the lines they are practiced traditionally in East Asian cultures, because they can involve encountering and cultivating states of flow, in a way that purely discursively intellectual activities cannot.

Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido, had three profound spiritual experiences during his life, despite having trained as a warrior in jujitsu, and later a soldier, and it shaped his philosophy and approach to martial arts (he was also influenced by the Japanese Shinto sect called Oomoto).

In my own life, studying martial arts was a doorway into appreciating spirituality, whereas I had been raised in a relatively nominal Christian home where religion was mostly about moralism and myth.

Landon Caeli said:

I recently read an article on the psychedelic drug known as DMT, of which the ancient Amazonian elixir known ayahuasca is derived from... But pure DMT, when smoked, apparently does something very, very strange...

Apparently 47 percent of people, who report to having used DMT, come into contact with a sentient being whom which speaks to them, and many of them report this sentient being as something that looks similar to a "mechanical elf". The experience is often reported as being "more real" than our own physical world's reality. Another common theme associated with DMT use is the seeing of fractals.

The science part begins here. How is it, that different people report seeing the same kind of being communicating with them..? Even if our DNA is 99.9% similar amongst all of humanity, wouldn't our life experiences dominate what one sees on a DMT trip? But if not, then what is the significance of the "mechanical elf" in regards to our genetic makeup?

...How did it get there?

The DMT ‘elves’ people meet while tripping

Why do so many people report encounters with seemingly similar entities after taking DMT?

bigthink.com

Click to expand...

I’ve seen an elf when I ate some magic mushrooms.

Jonaitis said:

They say it induces a NDE, and many report being plunged into a void/bright light.

Click to expand...

Another time I had mushrooms it was like I was being plunged into a Borg cube.