/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Anyone that has actually done DMT will tell you that the experience is no mere hallucination. In fact, they will likely insist that they quite literally visited a different realm of reality altogether. What's fascinating however, is that there are various phenomenons people encounter with DMT that runs consistent across many different accounts. Interactions with female deities and mischievous “machine elves” are the most well known of these phenomenon. However, the environment you take DMT, as well as magic mushrooms and other psychedelics, will directly influence your experience.

It's well documented that use of shrooms is a staple in multiple shamanic traditions around the world, DMT likewise is also a naturally occurring drug. The realm encountered on a DMT or Shroom trip is literally a trip to the spiritual realm. So if you go into the woods, for example, to experience a trip, there is a high chance you will run into the spirits that inhabit that forest. This ties into the Shinto influence on Gensokyo, which is a world inhabited by yokai and kami alike. Yokai and kami (and pagan deities in general) inhabit this next layer of reality above ours, and for all intents and purposes this is literally Gensokyo. Appropriate that Gensokyo often gets translated as “Land of Illusions”, as most who have never done DMT will often dismiss the experiences others have with it as illusory hallucinations. But this is not true, Gensokyo is literally real. At least, it is ZUN's understanding of that Level 2 of reality (there are multiple levels, with the highest level being the omnipotent GOD himself). Pagan and Animist deities only occupy this second layer, which is why they are unsuitable for worship. They are as likely to deceive and play around with humans as they are to help them. You see this clearly portrayed with the mischievous and conflicting personalities that embody Gensokyo. And no surprise, as Gensokyo is literally just a modern conception of the Shinto spiritual world, yokai and kami as portrayed in Shinto myths are similarly mischievous.

What I want to emphasize again is that Gensokyo isn't inspired by Shintoism, but is literally ZUNs interpretation of the spiritual world that ancient Japanese shamans explored.