PsyArXiv
May 14, 2025
James W. Sanders, Raphaël Millière, Ema Demšar et al.
4 citations
preprint
Under DMT, immersive experiences and perceived presences follow a consistent structural pattern: bodily sensations arise first, then visual and auditory elements, and only after multisensory integration and 3D spatial characteristics develop do perceived sentient presences emerge. Micro-phenomenological interviews with 23 participants who received intravenous DMT (20mg) during fMRI-EEG recordings identified 125 phenomenological categories structuring immersion, including modal sensory dimensions, amodal feelings, self/world configurations, and social engagement modes. Perceived presences varied in sensory manifestation, semantic complexity, and social interaction modes. The findings advance understanding of non-ordinary states of consciousness and support future neurophenomenological research.
PsyArXiv
December 29, 2024
James W. Sanders, Raphaël Millière, Zachary G. Daily et al.
3 citations
preprint
DMT reliably produces profound experiences of immersion in other worlds and encounters with seemingly autonomous presences, but the lived qualities and unfolding of these experiences remain poorly understood. Micro-phenomenological interviews with twenty-three healthy participants who received DMT during fMRI scanning revealed rich dimensions of immersive experience—from multisensory engagement to radical reconfigurations of self and world—and illuminated varied ways presences can be seen, felt, or otherwise sensed. The analysis identified structural features and temporal dynamics, particularly the layering of sensory effects followed by spatial, self-related, and social effects, extending beyond traditional constructs like ego dissolution or mystical experience. This mapping advances understanding of DMT's effects and conscious experience, inviting comparisons with meditation, lucid dreaming, and presence phenomena in lab-induced hallucinations or Parkinson's disease.