DMT and Your Consciousness at the Moment of Death

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NB: DMT is responsible for those crazy dreams, I theorise - Chipper

Feb 18, 2025

In Greek mythology, it was Charon, the scrawny ferryman, who paddled souls across the River Styx to the underworld. But the real-life ferryman transporting our human souls between the realms of the living and the dead may have been inside of us all along, science suggests.

DMT (N,N-Dimethyltryptamine)—the mysterious psychedelic molecule that occurs naturally in plants, animals, and possibly our own brains—plays an intriguing role in guiding consciousness at the moment of death, research shows.

A 2018 study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, for instance, hypothesized that DMT could be the neurochemical responsible for near-death experiences (NDEs); that would explain the euphoric visions, otherworldly sensations, and encounters with the ineffable that many patients report at the threshold between life and death.

In a more recent study published in 2023 in the same journal compared the experiences of a person who had both a near-death experience and a trip on 5-MeO-DMT, a powerful psychedelic cousin of DMT that the Colorado River toad secretes through its glands.

The researchers’ goal? To find out whether the two experiences overlapped—and, if so, whether DMT could be the brain’s own way of rowing us into the great beyond.

There is good indirect evidence to suggest that DMT is released in greater quantities at the point of death in the human brain.

We have evidence from animal brains, but we don’t have any direct evidence from humans.

However, we can infer that this also happens,” says David Luke, Ph.D., a co-author of the 2023 study and an associate professor of psychology at the University of Greenwich in London.

The scientists found experiences with the psychedelic drugs and NDE encounters had a lot in common, “offering insights into altered states of consciousness,” explains Pascal Michael, Ph.D., another co-author of the 2023 study and a psychology lecturer at the University of Greenwich. “These include mystical experiences characterized by feelings of unity and timelessness, ego dissolution where a sense of self merges with a larger reality, and encounters with entities or presences.”

While the idea of DMT as the chemical behind NDEs is compelling, it’s just one part of a much larger puzzle. According to Luke, the brain at the point of death is undergoing a cascade of neurochemical changes, including massive releases of serotonin and noradrenaline, which are brain chemicals that help regulate mood, emotions, and stress. In other words, DMT could indeed be a psychopomp—a creature, spirit, or deity that transports the newly deceased to the afterlife—Luke suggests. But the story of death doesn’t end there.

Michael explains that the brain’s biological state during NDEs might shape these experiences differently than psychedelics do.

“The neurobiological context of NDEs—potentially involving hypoxia [lack of oxygen in the body or brain], hypercapnia [too much carbon dioxide in the blood], and endogenous neurochemical release—might differ from the effects of 5-MeO-DMT,” he says.

This distinction could influence the experiential content, with NDEs more likely to evoke autobiographical and relational memories tied to loved ones. “By contrast, 5-MeO-DMT tends to induce archetypal or abstract encounters, perhaps due to its intense focus on ego dissolution and the broader existential dimensions of experience,” Michael says.

In his seminal book, "DMT: The Spirit Molecule (2000)", Dr. Rick Strassman, a psychiatrist and clinical researcher, attributed spiritual connotations to DMT by virtue of the engrossing and transcendent experiences it induces.

Since then, some scientists have ramped up the conversation by finding DMT may be released in large quantities at death. Others, though, say we know nothing about the role of endogenous DMT.

Enter the pineal gland hypothesis. It states the brain’s pineal gland—a tiny, pea-shaped gland that produces melatonin, the sleep-regulating hormone—produces DMT in large amounts before death.
That idea remains controversial, but I don't think so - Chipper

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