Pharmacology - DMT and its potential role in the effects of all psilocybe mushrooms

[Synesthesiac]

I recently posted some info about the relationship between DMT and psilocybe mushrooms in the DMT section after someone asked if DMT experiences are anything like shroom experiences. Which most people agreed, they are not.

However, from a strictly chemical viewpoint dmt IS involved in shrooms activity. Which has got me wondering if maybe one of the main actual main active ingredients in Shrooms is DMT, and what peoples opinions are on what role it plays in the experience and why they are so different. Because I've thought about it so much recently and tried to work it out that my heads hurting quite a bit.

Dr. Rick Strassman, Phd, MD, say "Psilocin differs from DMT by only one oxygen. I like to think of psilocybin/psilocin as 'orally active DMT'"

Which is true in one sense, but misleading in another, as the experiences are apparently so different (Someone who isn't me has tried DMT, but not shrooms)

This is my post from that thread:

Originally Posted by Synesthesiac

This is key here. Just because Psilocybin is technically O-phosphoryl-4-hydroxy-N,N-dimethyltriptamine (or 4-PO-DMT) does not mean that someone doing it has any idea what N,N,DMT is like. I have heard a lot of ignorant people saying that they have done DMT because they have tried psylocybin mushrooms. Then when they try DMT they usually get quite a shock!

Its a simple question, with a complex answer. Probably deserves a whole thread unto itself. I short, no, they are completely different experiences.

But from a chemical/pharmacological point of view its quite complex as they are actually very similar. In summary:

Psilocybin (the ingredient in magic mushrooms), which is 4-PO-DMT, converts into psilocin (which is 4-HO-DMT) in the body after ingestion.

Just because the technical name for Psilocybin, or psilocin, contains the word DMT in the does NOT mean that its effetcs are anything like N,N,DMT.

DMT is DMT and Psilocin is Psilocin. Two different things, two different highs.

"Psilocin differs from DMT by only one oxygen. I like to think of psilocybin/psilocin as 'orally active DMT' " quote by Dr. Rick Strassman, Phd, MD, author of "DMT, The Spirit Molecule

As Routemaster Flash pointed out very well above the the two are very similer chemically. DMT (left) and Psilocin (right).



There is reason for debate about whether the DMT aspect is the element that makes all psilocybe mushrooms active. DMT is certainly as fascinating endogenous molecule. Hope that helps! Hope I haven't confused the situation further.

So do people think that the DMT aspect in shrooms plays a pivotal role to its experience? The experiences are so different (duration being the major thing from what I've read) that theres gotta be something more complex going on. What other mechanisms do people think contribute to the experience? And what role (if any) does DMT play in it?