5-MeO-DMT can be used in a way that intends to overwhelm the system. With unnecessarily high doses, often the system has no choice but to submit to the incredible power. In this way, the practitioner somehow guarantees the experience of a full release via force. Much like frenetic force is typically used to achieve the release that is orgasm, for example, a submission approach uses the very high dose to force the full release.
But release can also occur using a contrary approach. Through surrender, a genuine and intentional opening allows for the release to reveal itself. After all, the direct experience of Spirit (Pure presence? Samadhi? Satori? The All? The zero point field?) reveals that it is always, already there. By using a gradual approach to find how Spirit can be revealed through a gradual process of releasing that which veils its omnipresence, the system is met with a ‘soft power’. The power of the experience is thus revealed via surrender, genuinely empowering the individual.

Submission: a developmentally regressive retreat from maturity and genuine surrender.
Surrender: a progressive step beyond egocentricity toward a fuller connection with being.

Submission is a forceful approach is to offer the direct experience of Spirit revealed via overwhelm, thus falsely empowering (disempowering) the individual. Seen in this lens, one could say that the forceful approach is a violation and that the gentler approach is a liberation. It would be another space to discuss whether or not the direct experience of Spirit is qualitatively affected by the approach or the nature/methodology of the revelation.

The Approach to the Summit
Descriptions and reports of the full release suggest that it is not always experienced the same way, much like each dip in different parts of the ocean has a different feel, or that no one foot steps into the same river twice. Ancient bodies of wisdom as well as contemporary explorers have already created a reliable-yet-iterative cartography of the psyche, the nature of existence, and the multi- dimensional and holographic aspects of reality. Moreover, the idea that there are myriad experiences of the One are apparent upon learning about different descriptions, ancient and modern, of the direct experience of singularity. For now, I’ll enjoy the reports of these intrepid voyagers as an armchair psychonaut.

My discourse here is about how the direct experience of a full release is arrived at. Reliable technologies access the direct experience of Spirit (note that I am not meaning only trance states or other explorations of expanded states of consciousness, dimensionality, but of non-duality) in a variety of ways: certain styles of meditation; dark rooms/light deprivation, the hypnagogic/flickering effect, extremely large (dissociative) quantities of certain substances (many DMTs, LSD, mescalines, etc.), sound (i.e., isochronic beats), movement (shaking, dance, etc.), and sex. Some of them are approached gently and some forcefully. The gentle approach could be argued to be the most refined one.

A good example is orgasm. Orgasm is often more easily achieved through intensified stimulation where ‘more’ is required to achieve the release desired—which leans towards submission. In Karezza or Tantric practices, however, orgasm is approached through a more subtle process, allowing the release to be revealed through relaxation—which leans towards surrender. Similarly, some meditation approaches use sharp attention, mental concentration/control/discipline; others emphasise a diffuse attention (TM, Zen, etc.). Again, the former suggest submission while the latter suggests surrender.

Generally, the gentler approaches of surrender take more time, allowing the nervous system to relax; the machinations of letting go are honed to the point where transcendence is reached consciously as opposed to a psychic dissociation that occurs unconsciously. With large doses of external, exogenous substances however, no time is needed—just more quantity of the substance. The exception, of course, is 5-MeO-DMT taken at certain quantities by certain methods (IM, inhalation, insufflation, etc.). This substance—which is perhaps the very endogenous compound that is analogous to direct experience of Spirit—reliably reveals the full release of the ego structure with a relatively small range of factors to be considered.

Factors unique to the God molecule

With such a narrow range, the approach to the direct experience of Spirit (which is perhaps the very function of this molecule) can change from genuine surrender to forceful submission in just a few hundredths of a gram, whereas with 5-MeO-DMT, the experience is relatively short—one second of infinity is all it takes to experience all of infinity. The approach—not the length of time—is of most interest in regards to the quality of the process of revealing what lays behind/beyond the veil. A few hundredths of a gram more may turn the opportunity for genuine surrender into a forceful submission.

So what happens when the desired state is not achieved? Often the remedy is an increase in the quantity of the substance, or more attempts at submission. But what about more surrender? What about the material that makes up the veil? If there were to be less of that cellular material, there would be less need for more of the substance. However, this would require more time. More time is often used with methodologies and orientations that are psycholytic, trauma-informed, etc.

I have pointed out here that using more substance generally indicates an approach I call submission. More, in this case, basically means excessive. But what is excessive? It is the power that is in excess of what is required to allow for a surrender : a minimum effective dose. Arriving at a minimum effective dose (ED), as well as a dissociative dose (DD), is a process of discovery. As one approaches the direct experience of Spirit (by transcendence or dissociation), we can discover small ’s’ self in and by degrees.

I will use an analogy to explicate. The helicopter can take us to the summit while we sleep, while we are ‘blindfolded’, or even against our will, plowing through myriad fears (heights, abrupt movement, noise, etc.). The helicopter can also take us to the summit more consciously, with open eyes and a welcoming but not insistent window view, maybe taking breaks and checking in with the passenger along the way. The latter is the empowered, intentional choice of the person—a conscious and consensual ascension. The former is the prescribed offering of a forced ascent, usually initiated by the pilot making sure you get to the top regardless of the quality of your experience on the way up and all too often without regard for the quality of your experience on the way back down.

“Submission has a narcissistic quality, in that followers seek to bask in the reflected glory of their leader as a way to inflate their self importance.”

Effective and dissociative dosage levels are unique to the individual for a variety of reasons. Discovering that unique DD requires time: less time than with other modalities of psychedelic or ‘medicine’ use, to be sure, but more time than the submission approach used by some practitioners and psychonauts. The helicopter either needs to have a bigger engine (force/dose) to get to the top or needs the load to be lighter (surrender/letting go). One solution is for the passenger to consciously lighten their load. This makes the ride up more of a conscious choice: the individual releases the material that veils the direct experience with Spirit (the summit, so to speak) and in so doing less power (dose) is required. Indeed, empowerment results from the conscious, genuine surrender.

Surrender empowers us.

As I argue for a surrender approach in the use of bufo alvarius or 5-MeO-DMT, I do not negate the value of a dosing regime that unconsciously overpowers the system by way of submission. From a non-therapeutic perspective, the emergence/dissolution of the body/form/ego consciousness—regardless of how it happens—may be ultimately what propels or accelerates humanity’s evolution. With this lens, would it matter how empowered a person is when having a full release?

“An abrupt awakening is always to be preferred above a sweet but unconscious sleep”

On an interpersonal level, it is compelling to opine, that yes, empowerment liberates the person from constricted/contracted ways of living. A liberated life probably leads to the further empowerment of others—the hundredth monkey myth. On a supra-personal level, it may be that a full release in and of itself is enough to catalyse the same effect. Yet even with the hundredth monkey hypothesis, after the rate of population growth is considered (more humans exist today than ever existed in sum before), is facilitation that emphasises empowerment (by way of arriving at the full release via genuine surrender) able to match or overtake the rate at which humans are being born?

This is where the topic potentially dovetails to epi-genetics. Those who have a full release through submission, if we are to trust/believe/hypothesise that a genetic transformation is occurring, or at least seeded, may be, just by having children, catalysing the transition toward a collective new dawn/awakening. The latter idea would then champion the submission approach. In this case, large doses (without needing to discover the DD) served indiscriminately to as many people as possible would be the fastest approach to ensuring that full release seeds are planted and the hundredth monkey myth is enacted most expediently. The former idea would champion the surrender approach, used by those offering a psycholytic methodology, perhaps in a therapy context. Empowering the individual to arrive at the full release through genuine surrender would be the most comprehensive (and time-consuming) methodology; the interpersonal field thus being the level at which humanity will thrive and evolve best.

Those practitioners betting on a submission approach may not have the time to consider these ruminations and I don’t expect that they, as I describe them, are reading this right now. Those practitioners who are interested in empowering individuals via genuine surrender in their approach may be more inclined to take the time to read this. In any case, it’s likely that there isn’t a ‘best’ way. The full release of the ego structure can happen many ways.

One of them is with surrender in mind.