In this episode we join pioneering psychedelic neuroscientist Andrew Gallimore (Website | X | Instagram | Substack) to probe the bewildering high-dimensional horizons of DMT research and their implications for our understanding of consciousness and the structure of reality.
In his book Death by Astonishment, Gallimore argues DMT expands the brain’s “representational reach,” enabling perception of high-dimensional structures and apparent interaction with non-human “intelligent agents,” challenging standard accounts that treat the experience as mere hallucination, dreams, or Jungian archetypes. What new shapes will we—and our sciences—take as we integrate the intense strangeness of these experiences? How do we even begin to practice “truly psychedelic” science? And what insights might we be able to bring “home” to the Flatland where we spend most of our waking lives?
Andrew has talked about this work in many, many other venues (his conversations with Jesse Michels and Danny Jones were especially good), so I wanted to carry the conversation into fresh terrain. Consider this episode the “200 level course”, or at least my best attempt ask a brilliant and provocative researcher some very complicated questions.
Over our two hours together we discussed neuroimaging findings that challenge the “dream” and “archetype” interpretations of DMT phenomenology, how criticality and noise in complex systems inform our understanding of the psychedelic experience, and the methodological problems inherent in studying ontologically shocking experiences while maintaining scientific rigor. We also probed the philosophical implications of DMT research—such as the possibility that consciousness is more fundamental than matter—and the possible connections between DMT hyperspace and life in an era of advanced technology. Andrew also gave some context on the Noonautics research non-profit its partnership with the newly-launched Eleusis facility, a carefully-crafted venue for extended-state DMT work. But perhaps my favorite part of this conversation was spent in speculation, about how science and even language might evolve to meet the challenges presented by the ineffable high-dimensional reality that DMT reveals to us.
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Chapters
00:00:00 Intro
00:08:15 Gallimore’s Origin Story
00:13:00 DMT as a Technology
00:20:01 “Entities” & Methodological Problems
00:29:06 World Models and EEG Clues
00:36:57 Why The Psychedelic State is Not a Dream
00:44:11 Noise, Criticality, and New Order
00:47:50 The Temperature-Noise Motif
00:52:47 Metabolism & Dimensionality
00:53:47 The Cortex & Representational Reach
00:57:44 Do We Need New Language to Study The DMT Realm?
01:00:45 Is There Only The Subject?
01:09:31 Psychedelic Science As Altered Observation
01:17:34 DMTx & Eleusis Plans
01:21:55 The Future of Transdimensional Research
01:31:44 A Call for Humility
Cited Works
Neural correlates of the DMT experience assessed with multivariate EEG
by Christopher Timmerman et al.
The Overfitted Brain
by Erik Hoel
The evolution of syntactic communication
by Martin Nowak et al.
The Transcension Hypothesis
by John Smart
Miguel Fuentes & Marco Buongiorno Nardelli on Music, Emergence, and Society
for Complexity Podcast
Ancient Extinction Events, Apocalyptic Cults, and DMT Entities
with Michael on The Danny Jones Podcast
Other Mentions
Stephen Szára
Nick Sand
Donald Hoffman
Karl Friston
Jordi Riba
David Chalmers
William Burroughs
John Lilly
Phil Dick
Terence McKenna
Robert Anton Wilson
John D. Barrow
