Dr. Andrew Gallimore is a computational neurobiologist, pharmacologist, chemist, and writer who has been interested in the neural basis of psychedelic drug action for many years. His current interests focus on DMT as a tool for gaining access to extra-dimensional realities and how this remarkable drug can be used to establish stable communication with alien intelligences beyond this universe.
He’s a well-known writer and speaker on the powerful psychedelic drug, N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), and the author of the book Alien Information Theory: Psychedelic Drug Technologies and the Cosmic Game (which came out in April 2019). He recently collaborated with DMT pioneer Dr. Rick Strassman to develop a target-controlled intravenous infusion protocol for extended journeys in DMT space. Dr. Gallimore is currently based at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in Japan.
In addition to discussing his book, Alien Information Theory, in which Dr. Gallimore helps the reader explore the mysterious DMT molecule, the effects it has on our brain, and how we experience reality—we covered how the brain creates our reality in the world we inhabit, how DMT functions as a ‘reality switch,’ the wonderful and strange worlds the user is transported to, and the intelligent entities one encounters there. We also ask the question: how real is the DMT reality, and how real is our own?
Below is a partial transcript from our interview with Dr. Andrew Gallimore—it has been edited for clarity and readability. For the full interview, click the YouTube link at the top of this page.
We asked Dr. Gallimore what was his goal when he set out to write the book on the subject of DMT, he answered:
“I’d been thinking about, and studying DMT for 20 years before I began writing the book. The book is kind of a culmination of all of that thinking over time—trying to work out, writing about, and thinking about DMT, and what is actually going on in the brain. How is it possible that this simple plant alkaloid can instantaneously transport you to this bizarre, hyper-technological, alien reality.
The aim of the book was to create what I call a vision of reality: this is how it could be. This is based upon everything I’ve thought about over the preceding 20 years—this is my vision of what actually is happening with DMT when it enters the brain. How does it actually cause the brain to suddenly be able to perceive and, in fact, become immersed within this entirely new, and completely novel but crystalline-clear complex reality filled with intelligent entities. Where did that reality come from? How does it relate to our reality?
So I’m trying to create a coherent narrative to how this may work. It’s not a worldview, it’s not a bible of DMT. I’m not claiming to have discovered the ultimate truth of what DMT is, and how it works. It’s just my take on what DMT is, how it works, where it comes from, and what is it’s ultimate meaning.”
For such a mysterious, yet powerful molecule, some will be surprised to know where DMT can be found—as Dr Gallimore explains:
2D structure of N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT)
“Everywhere is the one-word answer. Its mainly found in high concentrations in a variety of plants. The number of plants that contain DMT is in the tens of thousands, but there are a certain number of plants that contain very high concentrations of DMT. For example mimosa hostilis is the go-to source of DMT—it’s root bark contains very high concentrations of DMT.
In animals it’s also found, but generally it’s been detected in very low concentrations, so mainly it’s plants. If you look out your window now, you can probably see half a dozen plants that contain at least some concentration of DMT.”
In his book, Dr. Gallimore mentions “The Big Four” of psychedelics: LSD, Psilocybin (magic mushrooms), Mescaline, and DMT—when asked what sets DMT apart from the other three, Andrew replied:
“A number of things: DMT is this weird molecule from a number of perspectives: first of all, it’s the most efficient and cleanest tool that we have for transportation, or switching of the brain’s reality channel, from the normal waking world, into this other bizarre DMT reality. No other drug does that as cleanly.
What I normally say, it’s like one of those old radio sets where you have the dial, and you twist the dial between channels. Normally the dial is set to what we may call ‘channel consensus reality’ (the normal, waking world reality). What psychedelics do (LSD, mushrooms, and mescaline) at regular doses, is like twisting that dial slightly out of tune.
You’re creating an alternate version of the normal, waking world. The world becomes more fluid, less predictable, more dynamic, more meaningful—all the characteristics of the psychedelics state. You’re creating an alternate version of the normal waking world.
Whereas DMT is as if you twisted the tuning dial further, and found an entirely new channel. So you’re not creating an alternate version of this reality; you’re switching to a completely different [reality]. Terence McKenna used to call it a ‘100% reality channel switch,’ and that’s what sets DMT apart in terms of its effects.
Also, it has these unique pharmacological peculiarities. It’s very fast acting, it gets into the brain very, very quickly, it’s cleared from the brain in a few minutes (which is why it only lasts for a few minutes). The brain is very at-home, very comfortable with DMT, it knows how to deal with it.
Additionally, it doesn’t exhibit what’s called ‘subjective tolerance.’ You can inject someone with DMT in closely-spaced doses every 15 minutes or so, and even with the same dose, they will have the same intensity of experience. Where as with the other psychedelics, if you try to repeat dose, you tend to get diminished returns over time.
So it’s kind of a curious molecule in that it’s almost feels like (using this term very guardedly), it feels almost like it’s designed. It’s like a technology that’s designed to switch your brain’s reality channel.”
People see different types of entities in DMT space, and some of them do appear malicious—we asked Andrew if that means those entities are of a ‘lower level’? He replied:
An artwork of a DMT realm entity, known as Jester / Machine Elf. "Heyokah The Light Bearer" by Pavel Souviron
“It’s not all sweetness and light in there, I mean for people thinking of going into the DMT space, it seems to be extremely safe. Nobody has gotten trapped there, or failed to return, or had any type of permanent damage as far as I’m aware of.
Malicious? yes. Often, extremely mischievous/trickster kind of characters that like to play with your emotions, rather than outright evil. I’m not saying that you won’t meet outright evil within the DMT space. But you’re more likely to get mocked—people often described being mocked by beings within the space. At the same time, you’re far more likely to meet benevolent, guide-type beings who will show you around and often are extremely excited that you’re there. They seem to take great joy, and pleasure in showing you around this whacky circus that they inhabit.
Terence McKenna often speculated that often, they may not be fully aware of their own power. There is a possibility that often they don’t know their limits—they are not quite aware of the effect that it’s having on you emotionally. You have to be very careful/be aware in that space, and don’t assume that you’re going to be bouncing around with machine elves and having a great time necessarily. Most of the time you will, but there is the possibility of more darker experiences for sure.”
Based on what a large number of people have reported when taking DMT, it would seem DMT allows an individual to visit these strange, alien worlds inhabited by a variety of entities—so, is it possible for some of these entities to travel from those worlds to ours? Dr. Gallimore answered:
“Possibly. The question is, how would they manifest? One can speculate about certain UFOs (or UAPs they prefer to call them these days), or other kinds of visions people have. Are these beings that have crossed that threshold and been able to reveal themselves/materialize in some way—at least perceptually within our reality? That’s possible. We don’t really know.
For the most part, it seems they are often quite surprised to see us. So I don’t think we’re a major concern for them. They’re part of a much larger, more complex structure. I don’t necessarily see us as a ‘gold fish bowl,’ where we’re constantly being observed by them. I don’t get that impression. I feel most of the time we’re absolutely no concern to them. So, whether they would be interested, or there would be any value for them in revealing themselves in our reality, I don’t know. It’s an open question, basically.”
Something that had not been mentioned, up until this point in the interview (and readers will notice is not found in Dr. Gallimore’s book), is the pineal gland. We asked Dr. Gallimore why he does not cover it in his book, and whether the pineal gland plays any role in the DMT experience:
“I’m not convinced at all that the pineal gland has any role in DMT. The pineal gland has this long and interesting/exotic history and mysticism. It was once thought to be ‘the seat of consciousness,’ and we’ve kind of dragged these rather outdated ideas, and tried to shoehorn them into the DMT experience.
People still hold on to the idea that when you go to bed at night, the pineal gland floods your brain with DMT and that causes dreaming. That when you die, it increases even more and you’re fired off into the DMT space permanently.
We know what the pineal gland does: it secretes melatonin—its important in the sleep-wake cycle. There’s no evidence that it produces high concentrations of DMT at any time. There is no evidence that it would even be capable. It produces very, very small quantities of melatonin, its a very small gland. It’s not set up to be flooding the brain with 20, 30, 40 milligrams of DMT at any point in time.
People who have their pineal gland removed don’t become unconscious, they’re not ripped from this reality; they continue to dream and all. The pineal gland is interesting, but I don’t think its a particularly pertinent gland when it comes to DMT. I think it’s just been one of these myths that’s been propagated by the internet.”
The layout of Dr. Gallimore’s book is as unique as the insights on DMT it contains—when asked if the information that fill the pages of his book was perhaps, “given” to him by another intelligence(s), he replied:
“In the introduction to the book I write that I am not 100% sure where the book came from. When I look at the book now its like: how did I produce that? I’m not trying to big myself up or anything. I incubated an idea if you like over a couple of decades, and developed it and it kind of fell together into this narrative which I then put together in as clear and coherent, intelligent manner as I could.
I certainly don’t claim that it’s divine inspiration—I am not one of these David Wilcock-types who claims to be channeling aliens or something like that. It’s my own vision of reality that I constructed based upon modern neuroscience, physics, and pharmacology.
It is a narrative—I am trying to create a coherent vision of reality, so there’s a lot of speculation in there, and everything is smoothed out. I call it a text book from the future. Imagine if this was true 100%, what would a textbook form the future look like that was describing the nature of our reality? I imagined that it might look something like the book that I’ve written.
One of the reviewers referred to it it’s not as science fiction, it’s fictionalized science—it’s not Sci-Fi, it’s Fi-Sci: it reads like a textbook, it reads like a work of non-fiction.”
You can order your copy of Dr. Andrew Gallimore’s Alien Information Theory: Psychedelic Drug Technologies and the Cosmic Game on Amazon. To learn more about Andrew visit his website, and to keep up-to-date with his up-coming projects, be sure to follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
