From DMT: The Spirit Molecule by Rick Strassman, M.D.

     The three pillars of self, time, and space all undergo profound transfiguration in a mystical experience.

     There no longer is any separation between the self and what is not the self. Personal identity and all of existence become one and the same. In fact, there is no "personal" identity because we understand at the most basic level the underlying unity and interdependence of all existence.

     Past, present and future merge together into a timeless moment, the now of eternity. Time stops, inasmuch as it no longer "passes". There is existence, but it is not dependent upon time. Now and then, before and after, all combine into this exact point. On the relative level, short periods of time encompass enormous amounts of experience.

     As our self and time lose their boundaries, space becomes vast. Like time, space is no longer here or there but everywhere, limitless, without edges. Here and there are the same. It is all here.

     In this infinitely vast time and space with no limited self, we hold up to examination all contradictions and paradoxes and see they no longer conflict. We can hold, absorb, and accept everything our mind conjures up: good and evil, suffering and happiness, small and large. We now are certain that consciousness continues after the body dies, and that it existed long before this particular physical form. We see the entire universe in a blade of grass and know what our face was like before our parents met.

     Extraordinarily powerful feelings surge through our consciousness. We are ecstatic, and the intensity of this joy is such that our body cannot contain it-it seems to need a temporarily disembodied state. While the bliss is pervasive, there's also an underlying peace and equanimity that's not affected by even this incredibly profound happiness.

     There is a searing sense of the sacred and the holy. We contact an unchanging, unborn, undying, and uncreated reality. It is a personal encounter with the "Big Bang," God, Cosmic Consciousness, the source of all being. Whatever we call it, we know we have met the fundamental bedrock and fountainhead of existence, one that emanates love, wisdom, and power on an unimaginable scale.

     We call it "enlightenment" because we encounter the white light of creation's majesty. We may meet guides, angels, or other disembodied spirits, but we pass them all as we merge with the light. Our eyes now, finally, are truly open, and we see things clearly in a "new light".

     The import and momentousness of the experience stands alone in our history. It may serve to focus the rest of our life toward the completion, filling out, and working through of the insights obtained.