New interview with Mitch Schultz re 'Spirit Molecule' documentary

Austin Chronicle: How were you introduced to DMT?

Mitch Schultz: It was in New York right before my last year of grad school. A friend of mine was going back to Brazil, and they had a small group of people get together at their house and one of them brought some smokable DMT. I had never heard about it before, although I had had plenty of other psychedelic experiences to that point. I just hadn't heard anything about DMT, which surprised me. They said: "I can't tell you what's going to happen, but I can tell you it's going to come on really quick. Do you want to do it?" I thought, well, I'll give it a shot. I smoked it, and within 30 seconds it was full-on. The guy that had administered it told me later [that] "I've never seen a look of fear on somebody's face like I saw on yours for the first two minutes."

AC: That doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun.

MS: I had a full dying experience. I literally felt like I was dying, but then once I settled into the experience, it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life. It completely changed how I look at the world, how I look at other people walking down the street, how I treat other people and the world in general. It gave me a complete sense of connectedness.