Editing Dimethyltryptamine (section)

====Entity encounters====

Entities perceived during DMT inebriation have been represented in diverse forms of psychedelic art. The term ''machine elf'' was coined by ethnobotanist [[Terence McKenna]] for the entities he encountered in DMT "hyperspace", also using terms like ''fractal elves'', or ''self-transforming machine elves''.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Strassman R |title= DMT: the Spirit Molecule: A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of near-Death and Mystical Experiences |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-89281-927-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/dmtspiritmolecul00rick/page/187 187–188, also pp.173–174] |quote=I had expected to hear about some of these types of experiences once we began giving DMT. I was familiar with Terence McKenna's tales of the "self-transforming machine elves" he encountered after smoking high doses of the drug. Interviews conducted with twenty experienced DMT smokers before beginning the New Mexico research also yielded some tales of similar meetings with such entities. Since most of these people were from California, I admittedly chalked up these stories to some kind of West Coast eccentricity |url=https://archive.org/details/dmtspiritmolecul00rick/page/187 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens and the I Ching | vauthors = Oeric ON, McKenna T |year=1975 | publisher = Seabury Press | isbn = 978-0-8164-9249-7 }}</ref> McKenna first encountered the "machine elves" after smoking DMT in Berkeley in 1965. His subsequent speculations regarding the hyperdimensional space in which they were encountered have inspired a great many artists and musicians, and the meaning of DMT entities has been a subject of considerable debate among participants in a networked cultural underground, enthused by McKenna's effusive accounts of DMT hyperspace.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = St John G | chapter = Chapters 4, 8, and 12 |title=Mystery School in Hyperspace: A Cultural History of DMT |date=2015 |publisher= North Atlantic Books / Evolver Editions |location=Berkeley, California |isbn=978-1-58394-732-6}}</ref> [[Cliff Pickover]] has also written about the "machine elf" experience, in the book ''Sex, Drugs, Einstein, & Elves''.<ref name="Pickover 2005" /> Strassman noted similarities between self-reports of his DMT study participants' encounters with these "entities", and mythological descriptions of figures such as [[living creatures (Bible)|Ḥayyot haq-Qodesh]] in ancient religions, including both angels and demons.<ref name="Prophecy 2014">{{cite book | title = DMT and the Soul of Prophecy: A New Science of Spiritual Revelation in the Hebrew Bible | vauthors = Strassman R | publisher = Simon and Schuster | date = 2014 | isbn = 978-1-62055-168-4 }}</ref> Strassman also argues for a similarity in his study participants' descriptions of mechanized wheels, gears and machinery in these encounters, with those described in visions of encounters with the [[Living creatures (Bible)|Living Creatures]] and [[Ophanim]] of the Hebrew Bible, noting they may stem from a common [[Neuropsychopharmacology|neuropsychopharmacological]] experience.<ref name="Prophecy 2014"/>

Strassman argues that the more positive of the "external entities" encountered in DMT experiences should be understood as analogous to certain forms of angels: {{blockquote|The medieval Jewish philosophers whom I rely upon for understanding the [[Hebrew Bible]] text and its concept of prophecy portray angels as God's intermediaries. That is, they perform a certain function for God. Within the context of my DMT research, I believe that the beings that volunteers see could be conceived of as angelic – that is, previously invisible, incorporeal spiritual forces that are engarbed or enclothed in a particular form – determined by the psychological and spiritual development of the volunteers – bringing a particular message or experience to that volunteer.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://boingboing.net/2011/05/03/strassman.html | title = Interview: Dr. Rick Strassman | vauthors = Solomon A | date = 3 May 2011 | work = Boing Boing | access-date = 11 November 2018 | archive-date = 26 May 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240526041615/https://boingboing.net/2011/05/03/strassman.html | url-status = live }}</ref>}}
Strassman's experimental participants also note that some other entities can subjectively resemble creatures more like insects and aliens.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Strassman R |title=DMT: the Spirit Molecule: A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-89281-927-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/dmtspiritmolecul00rick/page/206 206–208] |url=https://archive.org/details/dmtspiritmolecul00rick/page/206 }}</ref> As a result, Strassman writes these experiences among his experimental participants "also left me feeling confused and concerned about where the spirit molecule was leading us. It was at this point that I began to wonder if I was getting in over my head with this research."<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Strassman R |title=DMT: the Spirit Molecule: A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of near-Death and Mystical Experiences |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-89281-927-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/dmtspiritmolecul00rick/page/202 202] |url=https://archive.org/details/dmtspiritmolecul00rick/page/202 }}</ref>

Hallucinations of strange creatures had been reported by Stephen Szara in a 1958 study in psychotic patients, in which he described how one of his subjects under the influence of DMT had experienced "strange creatures, dwarves or something" at the beginning of a DMT trip.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=12496 |title=Causal Multiplicity: The Science Behind Schizophrenia |date=10 September 2010 |vauthors=Hanks MA |access-date=18 November 2014 |archive-date=29 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129020944/http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=12496 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.buildingalienworlds.com/uploads/5/7/9/9/57999785/dmt_research_1956_edge_time_arg_dpl_final.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324035110/http://www.buildingalienworlds.com/uploads/5/7/9/9/57999785/dmt_research_1956_edge_time_arg_dpl_final.pdf |archive-date=2016-03-24 |url-status=live |title=DMT research from 1956 to the edge of time |date=15 December 2015 | vauthors = Gallimore AR, Luke DP }}</ref>

Other researchers of the entities seemingly encountered by DMT users describe them as "entities" or "beings" in humanoid as well as animal form, with descriptions of "little people" being common (non-human [[gnomes]], elves, [[imps]], etc.).<ref name="Gallimore">{{cite journal |vauthors=Gallimore, A |title=Evolutionary Implications of the Astonishing Psychoactive Effects of ''N'',''N''-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) |journal=[[Journal of Scientific Exploration]] |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=455–503 |date=2013 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277281153 |access-date=2016-08-15 |archive-date=2024-05-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240526041619/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277281153_ESSAY_Building_Alien_Worlds-_The_Neuropsychological_and_Evolutionary_Implications_of_the_Astonishing_Psychoactive_Effects_of_NN-Dimethyltryptamine_DMT |url-status=live }}{{unreliable source?|date=February 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-02-21 |title=New study offers a detailed glimpse into the otherworldly encounters produced by the psychedelic drug DMT |url=https://www.psypost.org/2022/02/new-study-offers-a-detailed-glimpse-into-the-otherworldly-encounters-produced-by-the-psychedelic-drug-dmt-62617 |access-date=2022-05-25 |website=PsyPost |language=en-US }}</ref> Strassman and others have speculated that this form of hallucination may be the cause of [[alien abduction]] and extraterrestrial encounter experiences, which may occur through [[Endogeny (biology)|endogenously]]-occurring DMT.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Luke DP |year=2011 |title=Discarnate entities and dimethyltryptamine (DMT): Psychopharmacology, phenomenology and ontology |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/70007742/Discarnate-Entities |journal=Journal of the Society for Psychical Research |volume=75 |number=902 |pages=26–42 |access-date=2017-09-10 |archive-date=2016-04-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160409215620/https://www.scribd.com/doc/70007742/Discarnate-Entities |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Luke DP |year=2012 |title=Psychoactive substances and paranormal phenomena: A comprehensive review |journal=International Journal of Transpersonal Studies |volume=31 |pages=97–156 |doi=10.24972/ijts.2012.31.1.97 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

Likening them to descriptions of rattling and chattering auditory phenomena described in encounters with the [[Angels in Judaism#Angelic hierarchy|Hayyoth]] in the [[Book of Ezekiel]], Rick Strassman notes that participants in his studies, when reporting encounters with the alleged entities, have also described loud auditory hallucinations, such as one subject reporting typically "the elves laughing or talking at high volume, chattering, twittering".<ref name="Prophecy 2014"/>