dimethyltryptamine

Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), also called N,N-dimethyltryptamine, is a rapid-onset, intense, short-acting psychedelic compound found in many plants and animals. Its role in ayahuasca connects a molecule with a sacramental preparation, while the narrator’s account makes its effects bodily and unsettlingly vivid; why it occurs so widely in nature remains unclear.

Chemical Profile and Duration

DMT is described as a tryptamine molecule whose effects arrive rapidly, reach high intensity, and last briefly. Its short duration has earned it the nickname the businessman’s trip. The book notes that DMT occurs in many plants and animals, but says the reasons for this distribution are not well understood.

DMT in Ayahuasca

Ayahuasca is a psychedelic tea traditionally made from plants native to the Amazon Basin, typically Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis, also known as chacruna. Chacruna contains DMT, but digestive enzymes deactivate the compound unless it is taken with a monoamine oxidase inhibitor such as Banisteriopsis. The combination therefore matters: the tea brings DMT into a form in which it can produce psychedelic effects after ingestion.

The book also situates ayahuasca within sacramental practice among Indigenous peoples of South America. In 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the Brazil-based União do Vegetal Church’s right to use the tea as a sacrament, giving its use a legal as well as religious context.

The Compound as Bodily Experience

During the narrator’s ayahuasca journey, the thick, acrid, unexpectedly sweet tea was felt moving through the stomach and intestines. As DMT’s effects came on, the narrator imagined the compound as a vine winding through the intestines and working its way upward into the head. This image makes the molecule more than an abstract chemical ingredient in the account: its effects are rendered as an occupation of the body, figured through the plant life from which the tea is made.