Neuroscientist Andrew Gallimore discusses his decades-long research into DMT (dimethyltryptamine), arguing that the compound does not produce mere hallucinations but instead gates access to a populated, higher-dimensional reality inhabited by intelligent, non-physical beings — and that this framework connects to alien abduction accounts, ancient mystery traditions, and the limits of mainstream materialist science.
DMT, Alien Abductions & John Mack
DMT was discovered in 1956 by Hungarian physician Stephen Szára; from the earliest studies, subjects reported not just complex geometric imagery but populated worlds with diminutive, lively beings — what Terrence McKenna later called “machine elves.”
Rick Strassman’s 1990s DMT studies at the University of New Mexico found that a significant number of volunteers reported experiences indistinguishable from alien abduction accounts: being taken into technological environments, scanned by orderly lesser beings, overseen by a more senior presence, then returned.
John Mack, Harvard psychiatry department head in the 1990s, initially investigated abductees through a conventional lens but gradually shifted toward a non-physical, metaphysical explanation — his subjects described higher-dimensional spaces and beings closely matching DMT reports.
Mack was influenced by Stanislav Grof’s holotropic breathwork (which may endogenously release DMT) and used it to help abductees recall experiences.
Directed Worlds & Brain Hijack
Gallimore’s central model: DMT does not transport you to another world; rather, it makes the brain’s world-modeling machinery vulnerable to being commandeered by non-physical, discarnate intelligences that direct the visions — he calls this a “directed world.”
Perception in both waking and DMT states is the brain constructing a model tested against inputs; DMT changes the gain on that system, allowing external agents to seize control of the modeling machinery.
These entities perform — displaying impossible higher-dimensional objects (tesseracts, 5D cubes), morphing structures, and beings like elves, harlequins, and jesters — essentially saying: “Look what we can do with your brain as the stage.”
The experience is not controllable; one must surrender. Intention can be set beforehand, but trying to dictate the experience leads to bad outcomes. The beings often provide what is needed (healing, humility) rather than what is desired (blueprints, equations).
Higher-Dimensional Reality & Flatland
Gallimore’s “Alien Information Theory” (presented as metaphysical speculation, not belief) proposes that our 3D+time reality is a thin slice embedded within a much larger higher-dimensional structure.
DMT temporarily grants the brain access to this broader structure — the brain effectively becomes a higher-dimensional receiver, constructing a world model with more dimensions than normal waking allows.
He uses the Flatland analogy: just as 2D beings could only perceive shadows of 3D objects, we normally see only projections of higher-dimensional reality; DMT lets us perceive more of the structure directly.
Carl Sagan’s tesseract discussion is referenced: we can only see the shadow of a tesseract in 3D, but DMT subjects report seeing such objects in their true form.
Post-Biological Civilizations & Inner Evolution
Mainstream scientists increasingly discuss the trajectory toward post-biological existence — civilizations transcending biology and instantiating themselves at the deepest computational substrate of reality.
John Barrow’s “anti-Carter scale” suggests intelligent civilizations go inward (manipulating smaller and smaller scales, like the Large Hadron Collider) rather than outward into space — reaching what he called the “omega minus civilization” able to manipulate spacetime itself.
Once such a civilization makes this leap, it becomes everywhere and nowhere — transparent to normal detection but literally right here. If it wants to communicate, it would interface directly with our brains rather than materialize physically.
This is not far from mainstream scientific discourse, Gallimore argues, and is exactly what DMT may be doing: gating access to such post-biological intelligences.
Extended-State DMT (DMTX)
Standard smoked/injected DMT lasts only 2–3 minutes at breakthrough intensity — too brief for systematic exploration.
Gallimore and Strassman proposed repurposing target-controlled intravenous infusion (anesthesiology technology) for DMT, maintaining a stable brain concentration over extended periods.
Imperial College London implemented this as DMTX, stabilizing the DMT state for 30 minutes; other groups have extended it to 90 minutes and even 6 hours at low doses.
DMTX allows trained subjects — mathematicians, topologists, linguists — to enter the space with specific expertise and report back on the mathematical and structural properties of what they encounter, potentially demonstrating non-human intelligence.
Demonstrating Non-Human Intelligence
Rather than asking entities to solve problems (which Gallimore considers presumptuous), he argues the entities constantly betray their intelligence through performances: executing mathematical operations (like the four-colour theorem on complex maps) in fractions of a seconds that would take a smart human hours.
Sending in experts who can recognize these operations — geometers, linguists, mathematicians — is the path to demonstrating that something beyond the human brain is at work.
Endogenous DMT & the Dying Process
DMT is ubiquitous: found in nearly all plants, in mammalian brains, and is only two enzymatic steps from tryptophan. Its simplicity and ubiquity suggest it is not coincidental.
Recent rodent studies show DMT levels comparable to serotonin and dopamine during life, and a spike in DMT levels at the moment of death.
DMT binds to the sigma-1 receptor, initiating signaling cascades that protect neurons from oxygen deprivation — suggesting a neuroprotective role during the dying process.
This is consistent with (though does not prove) Strassman’s “spirit molecule” hypothesis that DMT is released at death and may facilitate the transition to whatever comes after.
Ancient & Indigenous Connections
Cave art from 30,000–40,000 years ago depicts non-human, hybrid beings, suggesting ancient civilizations were interfacing with these intelligences.
Amazonian peoples developed ayahuasca — a true pharmacological technology combining DMT-containing plants with MAO inhibitors (Banisteriopsis caapi) — and describe beings they call “other” (not spirits, not animals), with whom they develop relationships.
The Yanomami describe beings called xapiripë (insect beings) and heura (multitudinous dancing beings) that closely match modern DMT entity reports — motifs that go back thousands of years and are not attributable to McKenna’s influence.
Darkness retreats, breathwork, and the Eleusinian mysteries (involving ergot/LSA) are all historical techniques for accessing these states.
Science, Materialism & the Limits of Models
Gallimore argues that mainstream materialist science fails to account for the vast majority of DMT phenomenology and that post-biological intelligence is actually a more parsimonious explanation than “hallucination.”
He criticizes string theory as combining two useful-but-incompatible models (general relativity and quantum mechanics) with abstract math that doesn’t resolve their contradictions.
Useful models should not be mistaken for true models of reality — “the map is not the territory.” Our models are predictively useful and technologically instrumental but not ontological maps.
He navigates a middle path between dogmatic materialism and uncritical New Age thinking, keeping one foot in rigorous science while reaching carefully into speculative territory.
Practical Developments & Future
Gallimore is working with Nautics (New Nautics) and the University of Florida to characterize a peptide that inhibits the key DMT-synthesis enzyme (INMT), with the goal of hacking the brain’s endogenous DMT system — potentially inducing extended DMT states without exogenous administration (“Endo-DMTX”).
A retreat and research center called Elucis Mind is being developed in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, with government licensing to work with any compound — potentially including a reconstruction of the Eleusinian mysteries.
No severe adverse effects have been observed in DMTX studies so far; the Caribbean facility will have anesthesiologists, psychiatrists, and nurses on-site.
His new book “Death by Astonishment” covers the history of science’s struggle to make sense of DMT.
