The Distortion of Music By Dr. Alexander T. Shulgin

Generally the effect of psychedelic drugs on the perceived quality of music is a positive one. Psyche- N,N DHSOPROPYLTRYPTAMINE delic drugs usually promote eyes-closed imagery fur- nished with figures, structures, patterns, and designs that create a synthesis with the mu- sic. ___ in bass tones. Musical sounds One family of such drugs is rep- are also distorted. Subjects volunteer resented by the dialkyl tryptamines. such comments as: "Do you have a These indole bases are all relatives The subjective bad cold?" or, "How strange they of DMT (N,N-dimethyltryptamine), decrease in would put such a poor recording on the simplest and best studied of the the radio." The subjective decrease group and a component of toad ven- frequency of in the frequency of sounds is a fixed om and several South American value rather than proportional, which snuffs. DMT, like its close allies sounds is a fixed leads to jarring distortions of har- DET (N,N-diethyltryptamine) and monic intervals. Subjects vary in the DPT (N,N-dipropyltryptamine), is in- value which leads degree to which this auditory phe- active when taken orally: it must be to jarring nomenon occurs, but there is a con- absorbed parenterally [outside the sistently complete return to normal intestine]. A well-known exception distortion of perception coincident with the disap- is psilocin (4-hydroxy-N, N- pearance of the other symptoms de- dimethyltryptamine) and its phos- harmonic scribed. Subjects report little or no phate ester, psilocybin — the major euphoria and are curiously neutral active components of Mexico's mag- intervals. when asked whether the experience ic mushrooms — which are orally active. These drugs are noted facili- ^^^^ was unpleasant or pleasant. A single ^ trial conducted at 80 mg revealed tators of visual imagery in conjunc- only a greater intensity of the same tion with music. activity. DIPT (N,N-diisopropyltryptamine), the structural One classical distinction between the "natural" isomer of DPT with branched chains on the nitrogen, schizophrenic state and that induced by drugs ( the is exceptional among the DMT congeners in that it is so-called "psychotomimetic" state) is that in the for- orally active. Visual effects are non-existent. Its most mer, hallucinations are largely auditory, while in the remarkable effect is to produce distortion in the hear- latter, they are visual. DIPT produces changes only at ing or perception of sound, whether voice or music. ' the auditory level. Whether this occurs by affecting The effective level of DIPT is from 20 to 50 mg. the musculature of the ear or the integrity of the audi- Onset of symptoms occurs about half an hour after in- tory association areas remains unclear. What is clear gestion; the full effects last from one to two hours; however, is that this unusual indolic drug, DIPT, could with recovery to a symptom-free state by the fourth be uniquely useful in helping us map out the distinc- hour. Side effects can include mild nausea and tion between endogenous and chemically-induced mydriasis. sensory distortion. It is the subjective effect of DIPT that is most unu- sual — that being a consistent disturbance in the audi- (1) See:"N,N-Diisopropyltryptamine (DIPT) and 5-Methoxy-N,N- tory process. Most subjects note that observers' voices diisopropyltryptamine(5-MeO DIPT). Two Orally Active Tryptamine sound much lower in pitch. Women's voices are heard Analogs with CNS Activity." .Shulgin, A.T. and Carter, M. F. Com- mun. Psychopharmacol. 4 363-369 (1981)

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