Infographic: What a Trip

The human body also produces DMT. Endogenous psychedelics may perform the following physiological roles:

• Protect the brain from hypoxic injury
• Act as neurotransmitters
• Play a role in an endogenous antidepression system, much like the endogenous opioid system acts against pain

Fungi serve as the digestive and nervous systems
of the forest floor. Their sprawling subterranean mycelia decompose organic detritus into usable nutrients. Mycelia also communicate with soil microorganisms and the root systems of plants and trees. They sense and integrate information using electrical signals and some of the same neurotransmitters as in the human brain and gut.