Tryptamine and DMT

A cluster rather than a single object

The archive uses tryptamine in several different ways. The Beyond collection introduces itself as “Tryptamine realms and captured memories of liminal spaces beyond space and time.” Individual artworks contain firsthand accounts, short identifying phrases and, in some records, words attributed to other voices. The archive’s wording, the artist’s accounts and the quoted passages belong to different source layers.

Soma, dated April 15, 2004 in Istanbul, precedes the more explicitly named tryptamine records. Its brief narrative refers to “the nectar of the gods,” wisdom, vitality and bliss; its connection list points forward to Copelandian Paradigm, Primordial Presence and Serpentine Apotheosis. Within this archive, the title and those links make Soma an early point of reference for the cluster.

Accounts and their sources

Serpentine Apotheosis, dated January 7, 2013 in Istanbul, contains the most sustained account in this cluster. Hısım writes that the scene combines visions experienced over several years in what he calls a tryptamine trance state. He describes the figure within the image using names and associations from his own account and records reading Jeremy Narby’s The Cosmic Serpent while working on it. The narrative also describes weeks of work, a move from traditional to digital media, and the image’s subsequent appearance in Alchemistas — Beyond the Veil. These details belong to the artist’s text.

Copelandian Paradigm, dated June 15 of the same year, has a different narrative scale. Its artist text names experiences with Copelandia Cyanescens mushrooms, recounts a vision of a reincarnation process, and describes working on the image over a couple of weeks at roughly one or two hours a day. The account explicitly names Yoko d’Holbachie as an influence on that work.

Primordial Presence is dated October 12, 2013. Its text calls the work the first of its kind, describes making it after a profound “spice journey,” and says it led to other works in the same style. Primordial Playroom, dated November 6, offers an extended account of an encounter in what the narrative calls the Tryptamine Hyperdimension. Its connection list names Primordial Presence, placing the two records in direct archive relation while leaving the experiences in the language of their respective narratives.

Short entries and later variations

Other records hold the subject in much fewer words. Contact is dated May 20, 2013, and its caption reads “Apparent Communication with Discarnate Entities.” BioFurnace, dated April 25, 2014, is labelled “Tryptamine realms” and belongs to both Beyond and Geometrica. Cypher records “Beyond the third toke.” These short captions establish recurring vocabulary without giving the records a single explanatory voice.

Luminous Presence, dated December 29, 2015, calls itself a vision captured from the Tryptamine Hyperdimension; its longer text also includes words attributed to Starhawk. Jungle Juice, recorded in Alaçatı on November 10, 2017, carries a Terence McKenna quotation and connects to Primordial Presence and Primordial Playroom. Venusian Cross, dated April 11, 2019 in Alanya, also uses “tryptamine hyperdimension” in its brief caption. Deceptive Mystical Temptation, dated May 20, 2022 in Fethiye, describes shimmering lights, morphing geometries and an inward conclusion in the supplied narrative.

Noetic Vortex, dated November 17, 2012, makes the attribution issue explicit: its DMT description is presented in the artwork record as a quotation attributed to Terence McKenna. The quoted passage is therefore part of the artwork record’s assembled voice, not Hısım’s own wording. Across the collection, direct artist testimony, brief labels and quoted voices sit next to each other; their different attributions are part of the archive record.