What Really Happens in the Brain During a DMT Experience?

Ricardo Moutinho
6 days ago
4 min read

Updated: 4 days ago

A Scientific Journey into Emotion, Memory, and Healing

For generations, people have described the effects of Ayahuasca and DMT with words like vision, expansion, clarity, and rebirth.Yet modern neuroscience is now uncovering what lies beneath these poetic descriptions.

What happens in the mind during a DMT experience is not random, mystical chaos — it is a profound neurological reorganization.It is the temporary softening of rigid mental structures and the restoration of pathways that psychological suffering often constricts.

This article explores what actually unfolds in the brain under the influence of DMT, how this relates to emotional and traumatic healing, and why these discoveries matter for the future of mental-health treatment — including our own upcoming clinical study.

Why DMT Creates Such a Unique State of Consciousness

DMT is a naturally occurring molecule found in plants, animals, and even in small amounts within the human body.But what truly distinguishes DMT is its extraordinary affinity for serotonin receptors — especially 5-HT2A, which plays a central role in perception, mood, and meaning-making.

When DMT activates these receptors, several things happen simultaneously:

perceptual boundaries dissolve,
emotional processing becomes more fluid,
the mind accesses deeper symbolic layers,
internal narratives become more flexible,
trauma-related patterns loosen,
and individuals often encounter insights that feel more true than everyday awareness.

Far from being hallucination or fantasy, these experiences reflect a profound interaction between biology and meaning.

Neuroplasticity: The Brain Reopens Doors That Trauma Closed

One of the most significant findings in psychedelic science comes from research by Ly et al. (2018), which demonstrated that DMT — and other psychedelics — promote structural and functional neuroplasticity.

In simple terms, neuroplasticity refers to the brain's ability to reorganize itself.

Under conditions of chronic stress, depression, or unresolved trauma, the brain often becomes rigid, repeating the same emotional and cognitive loops.DMT appears to temporarily interrupt these loops, creating the possibility for new connections to form.

This may explain why many individuals report:

relief from depressive rumination,
deeper emotional clarity,
an increased sense of possibility,
and the ability to approach difficult memories with compassion rather than fear.

In this state, psychotherapy can become exponentially more effective.

What Happens to Trauma During a DMT Experience?

Trauma often becomes embedded in the nervous system as a kind of “frozen story” — highly charged, emotionally overwhelming, and difficult to integrate.

During a DMT experience, two key processes seem to occur:

1. Emotional Memory Becomes More Accessible

Brain regions involved in emotional memory — such as the amygdala and hippocampus — communicate more fluidly.Memories once avoided or suppressed may surface, but often in a form that feels manageable, supported, or symbolically softened.

2. The Default Mode Network (DMN) Loosens Its Grip

The DMN is the network associated with:

self-talk,
identity,
narrative thinking,
rumination.

Excessive rigidity in this network is linked to depression and anxiety.DMT temporarily reduces DMN activity, allowing individuals to step outside their habitual thoughts and see their lives through a different lens.

This shift makes room for:

emotional release,
self-compassion,
cognitive reframing,
and integration of painful memories.

It is this combination of emotional access and reduced mental rigidity that makes DMT such a powerful catalyst for trauma processing.

The Bridge Between Science and Spiritual Insight

Although science focuses on measurable brain changes, many people describe DMT experiences in terms of:

connection,
understanding,
forgiveness,
meaning,
or even encounters with transcendence.

These interpretations are not at odds with neuroscience — they coexist with it.Meaning-making is itself a profound psychological mechanism.

Modern research is now acknowledging that spiritual experiences can have measurable therapeutic effects, especially when integrated in psychotherapy.

In this sense, DMT does not merely alter chemistry — it alters perspective.And perspective is one of the most powerful agents of healing.

Why This Matters: The Therapeutic Implications

The neurological effects of DMT point to several clinical possibilities:

it may offer rapid relief from depressive symptoms,
it may support individuals with anxiety by loosening cognitive rigidity,
it may give trauma survivors access to memories in a safe, guided way,
it may enhance openness and psychological flexibility,
it may strengthen the impact of psychotherapy.

This does not mean DMT is a treatment on its own.Rather, it is a therapeutic amplifier — a catalyst that enhances what psychotherapy can achieve when the mind is open, flexible, and emotionally available.

How Our Study Builds on This Scientific Foundation

Our upcoming clinical investigation — developed through Global Psychedelic Health — seeks to evaluate whether these neurological and psychological insights translate into meaningful, measurable healing in real patients.

Our study asks:

Can psychotherapy combined with supervised DMT-assisted sessions produce deeper, more sustained improvements in depression, anxiety, and trauma compared to psychotherapy with placebo?

We aim to assess:

emotional improvement,
cognitive flexibility,
trauma processing,
long-term stability of results,
and the overall therapeutic impact of integrating DMT into a structured psychotherapeutic process.

By comparing DMT-assisted sessions with placebo in a controlled trial, we hope to contribute real evidence to a question that has never been studied at this level of rigor in Portugal.

A New Understanding of the Human Mind

What happens in the brain during a DMT experience is more than neuronal firing — it is a reconfiguration of how we feel, think, remember, and relate to ourselves.

It offers a glimpse into the possibility that healing is not linear, not purely cognitive, and not limited to the frameworks we have used until now.

As science progresses, we may discover that the mind has tools for healing that we are only beginning to understand — and DMT may be one of the keys that opens that door.

Our research aims to help illuminate this path.

A Call to the Community

Ayahuasca has crossed centuries as a medicine of insight and transformation. Now, it enters a new chapter — one guided by scientific inquiry, clinical responsibility, and a deeper understanding of human healing.

We invite you to: