This article, guest written by Sagan Bollinger is a guide to what 5-MeO-DMT is, how it differs from DMT and other psychedelics, and why the integration matters as much as the session.
For an experience that is brief compared to other psychedelics, 5-MeO-DMT can produce profound and lasting shifts in people’s relationships to themselves and the world. Most people interested in our retreats are surprised when my partner and I recommend that they take the entire week after the retreat off work. It can be a bumpy ride, which is why preparation and integration are crucial.
Most people come to 5-MeO-DMT experience, expecting long nights of visuals, visions, and inner narrative, but much of that doesn’t apply to this medicine.
Here is what we tell people who are feeling called toward their first 5-MeO-DMT retreat.
Know which “DMT” you’re taking
The name “DMT” can refer to two related but very different molecules: N,N-DMT and 5-MeO-DMT. Despite their similar names, they produce incredibly different experiences. N,N-DMT, one of the active ingredients in Ayahuasca, is known for producing colourful visions, fractal geometry, and encounters with otherworldly entities.
For many people seeking healing, presence, and insight into the deeper nature of reality, 5-MeO-DMT provides an experience unlike any other psychedelic. Originally derived from the secretions of the Sonoran Desert toad and nicknamed the God molecule, it produces a more somatic, and far more ego-dissolving journey. Recent trials of 5-MeO-DMT have even shown promising early results in treatment-resistant depression and other mental health conditions.
Your thinking mind doesn’t always need an answer
Sometimes people arrive with specific questions—about childhood experiences, how to resolve a career or relationship challenge, or other cognitive inquiries—believing that finding the answer is the key to their inner peace. Sometimes people do get answers, but often what they find instead is far more impactful. Through a deeply somatic process that can involve releasing tightly bottled-up emotions, letting tears flow, shaking out their trauma, letting their primal self growl, and finding their own inner divinity, people often walk away with a sense of lightness and interconnectedness that they didn’t know was possible.
In fact, coming out of their high-dose experience, many journeyers report that they have no memory of it at all—just that, in the profound words of one journeyer, “a thousand-pound gorilla was lifted off my back.”
Intention, intention, intention
The medicine is only part of the picture; what you bring to it is every bit as important. I like to tell people that being open to the possibility of change requires courage and trust and your own intentions are powerfully generative. So, as you approach what many people describe as the most profound experience of their life, it’s helpful to bring your focus to the bigger questions:
What is holding me back from the fullest experience of life?
Coming to the retreat with solid intentions will set you up for the greatest outcomes.
The dose isn’t the goal
Ask five different facilitators about their dosage philosophy, and you’ll get five different answers. Some facilitators only work at very low doses, allowing the medicine to serve as a gentle aid to the person’s own process of letting go. Others believe in offering a single high dose, intended, as they would put it, to “blast the person open”. Also common is the three-dose model, where the increasing doses are named the “handshake,” “hug,” and “full release”—often served over a period of a couple of hours. In talking to incoming journeyers who have had 5-MeO-DMT experiences before, we’ve also been surprised by how many of them were never informed of what doses they took, or even whether it was a low or a high dose.
At Earthlings Institute, our philosophy is to start low and take a whole day slowly building up the dose, with ample time for checking in and quiet contemplation in between doses. The number of doses is not fixed; the increments are decided in consultation with the journeyer; and there is no goal of a particular high dose—the session ends when the journeyer’s intention feels complete.
We find that every dose has something to teach: low doses are often energetic and somatic, medium doses can be more about relationships and how we show up in the world, and high doses give us a profound glimpse of the infinite. Each person has different needs and a different sensitivity to the medicine. And if you’re considering a 5-MeO-DMT retreat, definitely ask about the dose you’re receiving and why.
Safety is the foundation
To get the most out of your journey, it’s important to feel safe enough to let go. Safety has many dimensions. Part of the sense of safety often comes from being with facilitators who understand and are able to accept you as you are, without imposing their own agenda on you. Be sure to always meet with your facilitators before you register for a retreat and never ignore gut if something inside you is saying no.
Safety also includes medical screening for conditions and medications that can be dangerous when combined with 5-MeO-DMT—a good facilitator will have a thorough written and verbal intake before accepting you.
A retreat should also have, clear protocols around responding to medical emergencies, informed consent around doses and support offered, accurate dosing and third-party testing of all medicine.
It’s also worth asking whether the medicine is synthetic or comes from the toad. We work with synthetic, partly for purity and consistency of dosing, and partly because wild toad populations are under pressure from increasing demand.
Your 5-MeO-DMT retreat is just the beginning of your journey
It’s a common misconception that because a single 5-MeO-DMT dose is so short—20 to 45 minutes depending on dose—the integration will be short too. While a lot can shift during your 5-MeO-DMT experience, they’re often an energetic opening, which means the effects will continue to reveal themselves in the weeks that follow.
Common experiences in the integration period include:
- Strong emotions arising
- Unusual bodily sensations, such as full-body tingling
- Reactivations, in which you feel as though you are re-entering the medicine, most commonly while you’re falling asleep
- Vivid dreams
- A sense of wonder and presence
- A greater sense of agency and non-reactivity in which bad habits are easier to break, and new habits feel easier to establish
For many people, the weeks after their journey are both rewarding and tumultuous, with waves of emotion, insight, and discovery. This time of integration is the soil for the new life that you will be growing. Going back to work too soon after your retreat can be jarring, both cutting yourself off from a necessary process, and inviting a reactivation in the middle of a meeting or a flood of tears before a deadline. This is why we ask for the week off work. If a full week isn’t possible, we encourage journeyers to protect at least the first few days. We recommend creating unstructured time for yourself, being in nature, journaling, and being with those who can hold your heart with both hands.
There’s no need to rush when choosing your 5-MeO-DMT retreat. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, and listen to your gut for the right fit.
About Sagan Bollinger & Earthlings Institute
Sagan Bolliger is a 5-MeO-DMT facilitator and co-founder of Earthlings Institute, a retreat centre located a 20-minute ferry ride from Vancouver, Canada, where 5-MeO-DMT is an unscheduled substance. He and his partner Helena, with their team, have served the medicine to over 600 people across community sound baths and deep-dive retreats. They welcome you to reach out if their work speaks to you, and they’re open to opportunities for guest writing and podcast conversations.
