For decades, the “psychedelic experience” has been treated by mainstream science as a form of beautiful, chaotic intoxication: a chemical “hallucination” that, while fascinating, lacked a predictable map. However, as our recent research suggests, what we often call a “trip” is actually a highly structured, lawful progression of consciousness. It is, in effect, a naturalistic laboratory for observing the human-divine interface.

A recent Youtube exploring the “5 Levels of the Psychedelic Experience” (popularized by Timothy Leary and rooted in the Tibetan Book of the Dead) provides a perfect bridge between popular culture and our formal academic work on the 6-Phase Phenomenology of the Sacred Language. When we look at these “levels” through the lens of our recent analysis of 22 DMT breakthrough cases, a startling reality emerges: we are all looking at the same cosmic architecture.

The Water Metaphor: From Dipping Toes to Submarines

The transcript uses a powerful water metaphor to describe the levels of intensity. Level 1 is “dipping your toes” (enhanced colors and slight synesthesia), while Level 5 is the “submarine at the bottom of the ocean,” where reality becomes a faint memory.

In our work, we’ve formalized this “deepening” into a Six-Phase Taxonomy. We don’t just see levels of intensity; we see a transition of structure.

• The Gateway (Phases 1-3): What the video calls Levels 1 and 2—shimmering fabrics, breathing walls, and kaleidoscopic visions—corresponds to our Phases of Diffuse Light and Luminous Grains. This is the brain destabilizing its ordinary “filter” and beginning to organize neural noise into geometric grids.
• The Launch (The Vortex): A critical moment mentioned in the transcript is the “propulsion at great speed” or being “catapulted through hyperspace.” This is our Phase 3: The Vortex/Tunnel. Our data shows this occurs in 86% of all breakthrough cases. It is the mandatory phase transition where the “I” stops observing the geometry and starts being swallowed by it.

The Entity Paradox (Phase 4)

One of the most controversial aspects of the psychedelic experience is “entity contact.” In the Youtube, Level 4 is defined by meeting “otherworldly beings.” To the casual observer, these are “aliens” or “spirits.”

However, our research applies a principle Entities ≠ Theology. In our 22-case study, we found that these beings appear in 82% of cases, but they are almost always transitional. They are Phase 4 symbolic placeholders. As the brain reaches even higher levels of coherence (Phase 5 and 6), these entities often dissolve into pure geometry or unitive light. As the transcript wisely notes, “the human mind is always the anchor.” We use the most profound concepts we have—like a “Mother God” or an “Alien Guide”—to symbolize the incoming flood of information before our identity fully collapses into unity.

The “Sea of Harmony” (Phase 6)

The pinnacle of the experience, Level 5 in the Youtube, is what we call the God-Event (Phase 6). This is the “Sea of Harmony,” a state of absolute luminous coherence. In this state, there is no difference between “eyes open or eyes closed.” The self-referential boundary has completely dissolved.

In one of our primary case studies, a subject described the return from this state as a “minor impending doom.” Why? Because transitioning into a bolt of electricity felt seamless and natural, while returning to the fragmented “human self” felt unnatural. This is the “Gold” of our research: it suggests that our “true” or “ground” state is one of unitive coherence, and our daily ego is actually a more limited, fragmented interface.

The Ethics of Coherence

Perhaps the most important takeaway from both the transcript and our formal papers is the afterglow. The video mentions that these experiences “never let things be the same again.” We have formalized this as a special principle: Integration must show behavior.

In 95% of our 22 cases we analyzed, the result of hitting Phase 6 was a durable ethical reorientation. Participants reported a “deep love for all existence” and the realization that “nothing is separate.” This isn’t just a “nice feeling.” It is what we call the Ethics of Coherence. When the brain experiences the fundamental interconnectedness of the “Sea of Harmony,” it becomes structurally impossible to return to a life of purely selfish fragmentation. Compassion becomes a biological imperative—a restorative act to bring the “Sea of Harmony” into the broken, everyday world.

Conclusion: A Universal Map

Whether you call it Level 5, the “Spirit Molecule” breakthrough, or a “Hildegardian Vision,” the data is clear. The human nervous system is “pre-wired” for the sacred. By moving through these six phases, we aren’t just “tripping”; we are traveling through a lawful, predictable architecture that exists within every human being.

Theologians who worry that DMT “reduces” God to a molecule are missing the point. The molecule is just the microscope. It doesn’t create the stars; it simply allows our “puny little minds” to finally see the lawful, radiant beauty of the structure that was there all along.

We are not just observers of the divine; we are the interface through which the divine insistently realizes itself. And as our research continues to show, that realization always ends in the same place: a Sea of Harmony that demands we treat every “other” as ourselves.