What Happens to Your Brain on the World's Strongest Psychedelic

People who have experienced 5-MeO-DMT struggle to describe it. "The void." "Ego death." "Becoming everything and nothing." These descriptions sound mystical, possibly exaggerated. A study from University College London just captured what actually happens inside the brain during these experiences. It is unlike anything researchers have recorded before.

The study

Published in Cell Reports in August 2025, this research is the first to capture real-time brain activity during a 5-MeO-DMT experience. The UCL team, led by Dr. Christopher Timmermann at the Centre for Psychedelic Research, monitored 22 healthy volunteers with high-density EEG as they received intramuscular doses.

The data shows something unexpected: 5-MeO-DMT does not just alter consciousness. It reorganizes how the brain operates.

Normal brain patterns collapse

Under normal conditions, your brain runs on predictable rhythms. Alpha waves dominate when you are awake and relaxed. Beta waves kick in during focused thinking. These patterns have been consistent across thousands of studies.

5-MeO-DMT disrupts all of it.

Within minutes of administration, the researchers saw alpha wave activity collapse. Alpha waves are associated with your sense of self and ordinary waking awareness. At the same time, slower delta and theta waves surged, patterns typically seen only during deep sleep or unconsciousness.

The difference from sleep: participants were not unconscious. They were having the most intense experiences of their lives.

The neuroscience of ego dissolution

The study offers a neurological explanation for what users call "the void" or "ego dissolution."

When alpha rhythms collapse, the brain's default mode network goes quiet. This is the system responsible for your sense of being a separate self. The usual boundaries between "you" and "everything else" stop being maintained at the neural level.

Timmermann's team found that the depth of this disruption correlated directly with the intensity of mystical experiences. The more complete the alpha collapse, the more profound the sense of unity.

This suggests 5-MeO-DMT may access states of consciousness that other psychedelics only approximate.

Why integration matters

If you have worked with 5-MeO-DMT, this research offers validation. The experiences people report are not hallucinations in the usual sense. They reflect genuine, measurable changes in brain function.

The study also explains why preparation and support matter. When your brain's basic operating patterns get temporarily rewritten, having guidance before, during, and after makes a difference.

How it differs from other psychedelics

This research suggests 5-MeO-DMT works differently from psilocybin or LSD. Rather than primarily increasing neural connectivity and flexibility, 5-MeO-DMT appears to temporarily dissolve the brain's normal hierarchical processing altogether.

For researchers, this opens questions about consciousness itself. For practitioners, it confirms what the experience feels like: not a trip, but a reset.

For practice

The intensity of neural disruption means preparation matters. The reorganization of fundamental brain activity means integration is not optional. Tracking how these experiences affect you over time, your mood, anxiety, sense of connection, provides data for understanding what is actually changing.

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If you are working with 5-MeO-DMT and want integration support, reach out.

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Reference: Timmermann et al., Cell Reports, August 2025. UCL Centre for Psychedelic Research.