🫠 Psychonaut POV

PRESENTED BY ALTHEA & FOUNDATIONS 🤝

Welcome to Tricycle Day. To any interdimensional beings who may be reading this newsletter, we mean you no respect. (Please be kind when we meet again in hyperspace.) 🧝‍♀️

Zeus Tipado loves to trip. And despite his academic pedigree, he’s not ashamed to admit it. Instead of trying to cure depression or anxiety, Zeus is reverse-engineering how psychedelics invite us into immersive alternate realities, so we can design even better ones to journey and play in.

We asked Zeus how he's using brain imaging to study DMT and VR, why he thinks DMT entities are utter BS, and how the future might bring us designer psychedelic experiences that are indistinguishable from reality.

FROM OUR SPONSORS

25 days left. That’s it.

The premier psychedelic industry trade show is almost here, and if you're still on the fence, now's the time to decide.

Every year, PsyCon attracts thousands of practitioners, researchers, and entrepreneurs who are actively building this $10+ billion industry. Their next two-day event in Las Vegas will be no exception.

So stop dreaming about getting involved in psychedelics, and start connecting with the people who could unlock your future.

Last call. Speak now or forever hold your FOMO.

Take 25% off your ticket with code TRICYCLE25.

What made you leave LA for the Netherlands to go study DMT in virtual reality? How did you land on this research focus?

I was living in Los Angeles in 2017, working for Snoop Dogg's company, which is still crazy to say out loud. I had this concept where I wanted to do psychedelics in wild places and then talk about them. Snoop was like, "Yes, let's do it." One episode was going to E3 and taking five grams of shrooms at the biggest gaming conference on the planet.

On that trip, I found an indie arcade area with VR in a teepee. I went inside, and it blew me away because it felt like I was in this deep cave with plants and lights and glowing fungus. I walked out and saw this giant mandala in the sky over a beautiful lake. I'm at the peak of my trip thinking, "My God, this place doesn't exist, but I'm experiencing this."

Everything was enhanced. It felt like these objects were tangible and the place I was inhabiting truly existed. Everything I was seeing took up a bigger amount of space inside my reality than it did physically. That experience changed my entire perception of what can be done with VR and psychedelics.

Then, boom, COVID hits, and everyone's locked inside. People are falling for conspiracy theories, everyone's baking bread, and I'm like, “bro, I don't want to bake bread.” So I started reading every single paper published from 2017 to 2021 on psychedelics. I loved the pandemic because everything stopped and all I could do was read. I kept seeing Maastricht University coming up in all these wild studies. They were putting out incredible psychedelic science, so I reached out. After twelve Zoom calls presenting my ideas about incorporating VR and DMT, they were like, "That's crazy, but let's make it even crazier." I began my PhD in August 2022.

Walk us through what happens when someone takes DMT while wearing a VR headset. What are you seeing in their brain?

DMT is quite different from any other substance out there. When you take LSD or psilocybin, you have to wait for things to shift. Once they do, the visuals are more additive, like augmented reality or mixed reality. DMT is completely different. You inhale probably 30 mg, and within seconds, before you even finish the hit, you're already tripping. Your entire vision gets replaced with the wackiest things you could possibly imagine. You're inside this psychopharmacological virtualized space, just like putting on a VR headset.

Both DMT and VR share this quality called “visual immersion”—basically, how much you feel inside of a place. It’s a combined function of your visual system and your vestibular system, which tells you your body's position inside the world. When you feel like your environment is indistinguishable from an actual place, that's called immersion.

There are three main areas, one of which I’m focused on in my research, that appear to be activated when a person is inside VR and when they're on DMT. When you combine VR and DMT, activity increases even further in that one area of interest. I can't tell you where that area is yet because everyone wants to scoop that research.

What's your take on DMT entities? Are they neurological artifacts or something else entirely?

Ah, DMT entities. Yes, people call them elves, aliens, tricksters, and all sorts of things. In any case, we’re talking about autonomous beings you might encounter in the DMT world. I have to give credit to the late Terence McKenna who really put this idea on the map. Ever since he talked about it, people have been having those experiences.

So, do I believe that when you do DMT, you go to a different reality populated with creatures that have their own lives and language? I do not think that at all. Of course not. You've taken a powerful psychedelic. You are tripping. Just because it feels like you're talking to a creature doesn't mean this creature is part of an alien species.

It's so wild to me that people actually believe this, but I understand why. People want the mundaneness of their lives to be shaken up by something that science can't explain. There's already so much beauty and mystery in science by itself, though. You just have to understand the science to appreciate it.

There’s a lot of BS out there. I even tested that red laser light thing where people claim you can see "the code of the universe" if you look at a diffracted laser while on DMT. I went to Amsterdam, took four giant hits of DMT, and stared at this red laser on the wall. I didn't see any code at all, and I really tried. I was like, "What a waste of DMT. If I just close my eyes, whatever I see is going to be way better than some stupid code on a wall anyway.”

If you crack the code on how DMT alters perception and consciousness, where does this research lead? What becomes possible?

Well, my goal is to crack the code of how DMT gives us visual hallucinations. If I figure that out, we could deviate away from psychedelics being only these substances for therapy. We could focus on the reason why many people first do psychedelics at all.

Let's not beat around the bush. Most people don't do psychedelics to help with anxiety and depression. You want to trip. You want to have a visual experience. You want to be immersed in something grand and beautiful and bizarre and alien. If we can better understand the mechanics of the brain and what happens when a person has these immersive experiences, then perhaps we can better craft such experiences.

Instead of a shotgun at consciousness where you get whatever comes up, we could have a precision-guided tool to get the exact experience that we want. That would be remarkable for humanity.

In the future, I believe psychopharmacology will no longer be separate from “tech.” The space between VR and pills is going to decrease as technology gets smaller. First, we need to understand how to activate targeted brain areas to produce specific visual experiences. Then, you’ll be able to tailor an experience however you want and go anywhere you like. Tripping will be indistinguishable from actual reality.

Even in VR's primitive state today, we see people using spatial brain areas as if they're in an actual space. The brain is already being tricked into believing what you’re seeing is true. Now let's push it further with psychopharmacology.

You're studying how the brain constructs reality, you're into gaming, and you're literally putting people in virtual worlds while they trip. Do you think we're living in a simulation?

Simulation theory is the belief that our entire reality is basically a computer simulation orchestrated by some other super intelligent civilization. Maybe we're characters in someone's PlayStation 42. Nah, I don't believe in it.

Before I explain myself, I do think there are functional ways to use computer metaphors to talk about reality. If you think about life like you're leveling up abilities and getting skill points, that's helpful because it encourages you when things get difficult. You've seen examples when you grind in games and become a more capable character. That makes sense and it has some utility.

But here’s why I don’t buy simulation theory. First of all, it's an unfalsifiable hypothesis, which means it's impossible to be proven wrong. It's just a philosophical toy that people get stoned and talk about. What's the point?

Secondly, these terms we’re using to describe reality are just the current terms we have for modern technology. Here’s a fun fact. Back in the day, people believed the universe was a giant clock because at that time, clocks were the most advanced tech. Now we say it's a computer. Don't downgrade reality to a computer simulation, bro. Reality is way crazier than you could imagine.

Want more from Zeus?

Check out his YouTube channel, Your Drug on Brains, for more of his colorful takes on psychedelics, VR, and consciousness.

UNTIL NEXT TIME

That’s all for today, Cyclists! Whenever you’re ready, here’s how we can help.

ONE CYCLIST’S REVIEW

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here.

DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice. The use, possession, and distribution of psychedelic drugs are illegal in most countries and may result in criminal prosecution.