I've smoked n,n-DMT several times at varying doses, and the effects described above really vary on a sliding scale from dose to dose. While many hallucinogins offer similar effects, I still note variability between it, LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, and whatever awful active compound is in salvia (salvinorin A, apparently).

If I recall correctly, as far as mechanisms/experiences go, the difference really is that Ayahuasca is root bark containing DMT combined with a vine that has a MAO inhibitor, which otherwise degrades n,n,-DMT rather quickly, prolonging the experience. I've heard of a few people taking a MAO inhibitor and smoking it, but only in a "friend of a friend" way. That sounds intense.

When doing a larger amount, there is a complete suspension of the self to the degree that applying a taxonomy of symptoms of the effects afterwards feels totally foolhardy, at least to me. Like, the perceptual distortions are not a succinct product of a particular mechanism, so it feels, but more so just complete alien sensory experience that is sort of outside normal description. For instance, yes there is time dilation and calibration abberations, but these are absolutely taking backseat to the fact that you have just exited your body (not literally, as in a out-of-body experience where you are still aware of your physical existence), consciousness and everything you felt at least some degree of comfort inhabiting and are lost in the stratosphere for 15 minutes or so.

For me, the best way to describe it is in subjective, descriptive terms, and in comparison to other hallucinogens, as they really are a experience that is only understood by actually doing it.