Maya Bracknell Watson

The phenomenon of psychedelic entity encounters is attracting growing fascination across scientific, academic, spiritual, and psychonautic communities in the West. These experiences, where individuals report contact with seemingly autonomous, non-human intelligences during deep altered states induced by substances such as DMT, ayahuasca, or psilocybin, invite profound questions about consciousness, communication, and ontology.

This talk moves beyond questioning the ontological status of disembodied sentient others, to deconstruct the concept of DMT entities and communication to explore how we might effectively relate with them. Recognising DMT as merely one of many technologies for accessing “spirit realms,” we consciously uncouple discarnate entities from the means through which they are encountered.

Examining these encounters through the lenses of science, shamanism, and performance, we will explore modes of interdimensional communication: What can we learn from these beings? How can we refine our capacity to receive and interpret their messages? And what shared languages might allow us to integrate these beyond-words experiences—both with them and with each other—within the Interdimensional Embassy.

Maya Bracknell Watson is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher, retired cult leader, and professional DMT entity working at the intersection of art, psychedelic research, and shamanic practice.
For over a decade, she has studied shamanism through collaborations with Amerindian Indigenous communities—particularly the Wixarika of northern Mexico—and Western neoshamanic groups. With a background in psychedelic parapsychology at Greenwich University, Maya specialised in exceptional human experiences and DMT entity encounters.
Her research informs an artistic practice spanning film, performance, poetry, and immersive environments. She has exhibited and performed at Tate Britain and Breaking Convention, lectures and exhibits internationally on the subject of entities, altered states, and interdimensional communication, and facilitates the introduction of animistic and shamanic ontologies and practises to Western audiences.
Walking between the worlds of art, science, and the occult, Maya’s work bridges these domains—using each as investigatory tools to inform and articulate each other.

Instagram: @Maya_themessiah