DMT and Entity Encounters
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People often dismiss psychedelic drug experiences as “hallucinations,” but users of DMT - a naturally-occurring psychoactive compound - claim a very particular kind of experience, that often feels as real to them as waking life. What’s more, users often have encounters with strange, sentient beings that seem to be more than mental fabrications. Further research on DMT promises to shed light on the mechanics of consciousness, and may even contribute to our understanding of other anomalous experiences, including UFO abductions and ancient Hebrew prophetism.
The Substance
N,N-dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, is a naturally-occurring psychoactive compound that is widely prevalent in nature. It is found in the biochemistry of all humans, as well as in every reptilian and mammalian species whose tissues have been analyzed for it.(1) It’s also been found in hundreds of plants, and is likely present in tens of thousands more.(2) Despite all this, DMT’s function in biology is still essentially a mystery. Tellingly, it’s one of the few compounds that our brains allow through the blood-brain barrier, which filters out all but a few essential substances.(3) What the brain does with this compound is still unknown, but studies of animals’ brains have shown increased levels under stress.(4)
DMT can be derived from various natural or synthetic sources and distilled to a crystalline form.(5) When either smoked, snorted, injected, or ingested with certain enzyme inhibitors, DMT is intensely psychoactive, producing a powerful altered state of consciousness. At higher doses, most users claim to leave their bodies and interact with strange beings in fantastical settings. This has led a range of writers and researchers to propose that the compound must play some role in producing visionary, spiritual, and other altered states of consciousness, such as dreams and near-death experiences.(6)
Other plants, fungi, and animals contain compounds with DMT in their structure that also have powerful psychoactive qualities.(7) After ingestion, psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in “magic” mushrooms, becomes psilocin, or 4-hydroxy-DMT.(8) The Bufo alvarius, also called the Colorado River toad or Sonoran Desert toad, secretes a venom from its skin containing 5-methoxy-DMT, or 5-MeO-DMT, and bufotenin, or 5-Hydroxy-DMT, which is also present in mushrooms, plants, and mammals.(9)
People have been using DMT for its medicinal and psychoactive properties for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Rock paintings from pre-neolithic people living in the Sahara Desert provide evidence for the religious use of psychoactive mushrooms up to 9000 years ago.(10) In the ancient world, DMT was sourced from the bark and leaves of Acacia trees,(11) the roots or leaves of Reed Grass,(12) and in the powdered seeds of Cowhage, in India.(13) The Chinese have been distilling 5-Hydroxy-DMT from toad venom for at least a few hundred years.(14) Indigenous peoples in North and South America have long used DMT-containing plants for hunting, healing, and recreation, and to help induce spiritual experiences.(15) Christopher Columbus was the first to record the use of DMT for psychoactive effect in a letter from 1496, discussing a snuff used by the Taínos natives of the West Indies to commune with spirits. The snuff, now called Yopo, among other names, contains both DMT and 5-Hydroxy-DMT.(16) Several different tribes in South America drink a tea called ayahuasca that usually gets its DMT from the leaves of the Psychotria viridis plant. Shamans consume and administer the brew as a means of divination, and as a way to communicate with dead ancestors, and heal members of the tribe.(17)
Scientific Study
In 1931, the Canadian chemist Richard Manske first synthesized DMT in a laboratory setting, but no one experimented with its psychoactive effects for another quarter-century.(18) In 1955, Gordon Wasson, an amateur ethnomycologist from New York City, traveled to Oaxaca, Mexico to partake in a psilocybin mushroom ceremony with the indigenous Mazatecs. Wasson detailed his experiences in Life magazine in 1957, and helped bring psilocybin to popular attention.(19) Around the same time, many in the scientific community began experimenting with DMT. Its psychoactive effects were first scientifically documented in a study by Hungarian psychiatrists in 1956 and published two years later.(20) After 1961, scientists confirmed DMT’s presence in the human brain, blood, and urine, with later studies finding DMT and 5-MeO-DMT elsewhere in the body.(21)
Research into psychoactive drugs flourished throughout the 1960s, with hundreds of scientific papers and several books published on the topic.(22) Psychotherapists studied a number of compounds for their potential in relieving chronic mental disorders, and others took interest in their ability to invoke mystical and religious experiences.(23) In the now-famous “Good Friday Experiment” at Boston University in 1962, Walter Pahnke gave 10 of 20 divinity students capsules containing psilocybin before having them listen to a Protestant church service over loudspeakers. Most of the volunteers who received the psilocybin reported having a more mystical experience than those who were given the active placebo.(24)
This boom in research came to a halt when the U.S. government passed the Controlled Substances Act in 1970 and immediately prohibited all human trials for DMT and other schedule I drugs. Many similar laws were passed in other countries, making it nearly impossible for scientists anywhere to even find, let alone study, DMT. Still, black markets continued to fuel use around the world.(25) The Harvard Psychologist, Timothy Leary, who had studied psilocybin in the lab when it was legal, famously experimented with a range of psychedelic drugs, including DMT, and advocated for them publicly.(26) American brothers Terence and Dennis McKenna used DMT and other substances in the 1960s, and later wrote a book about psilocybin mushroom cultivation. Dennis then obtained his PhD in botanical sciences and now studies psychedelic compounds. In the 1980s, Terence began giving public lectures on consciousness and psychedelics, helping to popularize both DMT and psilocybin mushrooms in the english-speaking world.(27)
In the summer of 1988, Terrence had a "brainstorming session" with Dr. Rick Strassman, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, which Strassman credits with helping him focus his research on DMT.(28) After spending two years clearing regulatory requirements, Strassman began human trials on the compound in December of 1990: the first U.S. government-approved and funded research into a psychedelic in over 20 years.(29) He aimed to measure and describe the biological and psychological effects of DMT, and to document peoples’ qualitative descriptions of their experiences. His team administered 400 injections of DMT to roughly 60 volunteers at the University of New Mexico Hospital, taking only volunteers with previous psychedelic experiences.(30)
In 2001 Strassman published his research in DMT: The Spirit Molecule, in which he concluded that the DMT experience “led to an awareness of what we currently call spiritual levels of existence.”(31) Since Strassman began his study, there has been a renaissance in psychedelic research, and a dramatic shift in the way that psychoactive substances are portrayed in the news and other media.(32) In 2010, director Mitch Shultz produced a popular documentary on DMT, adopting the same name as Strassman’s book.(33) Strassman, Dennis Mckenna, and other leading researchers met for a DMT conference in 2015, and published the proceedings as the DMT Dialogues in 2018.(34) Scientists such as Christopher Timmermann of the Psychedelic Research Group at Imperial College London, Dr. David Luke of the University of Greenwich, and Ede Frecska, chairman of the psychiatry department of Hungary’s University of Debrecen, are just a few who are actively researching DMT today.(35) Timmerman and others did EEG scans on the brains of DMT users, and found a decrease in alpha waves in the brain, as well as an increase in signal complexity, consistent with users of other psychedelic compounds.(36) However, they also found an increase in delta and theta waves, normally most prevalent in sleep. Many other scholars around the world are studying psilocybin, 5-MeO-DMT, and ayahuasca as well, especially for their applications in healing and mental health.(37) Psilocybin has been found to be very effective in reducing cluster headaches, and helping people beat their tobacco addictions, and ceremonial use of ayahuasca, too, can help users end substance dependence.(38) The therapeutic potential of pure DMT is less clear.(39) New research aims to extend the DMT experience so as to allow for easier study.(40)
The DMT Experience
The human experience of smoking, injecting, or ingesting pure DMT varies by the dosage, and differs from person to person, and roughly 5% of users experience little or no effects at all. The experience is also heavily influenced by the environment, as well as the mindset and expectations of the user.(41) Among Strassman’s participants who responded to the injection, the effects were felt immediately. Shortly after injection, the participants said that they felt physically lighter, as though their consciousness had left their body. Some reported feelings of hot or cold, or the sensation of a crushing weight. Most of them remarked that colors became more intense, and reported hearing unusual sounds, such as an oscillating “wa-wa” noise, a ringing, or a crackling. Later in the experience, some reported hearing musical or “heavenly” sounds, and others reported spoken voices and even a cartoonish “sproing” sound.(42)
Within about a minute of intensifying sensations, nearly all participants said that they experienced an intense “rush” that peaked around the two-to-three minute mark, and soon found themselves in an entirely new setting. Many saw kaleidoscopic patterns of geometry that morphed into fantastical scenes. Some participants saw star fields and planets, while others saw sprawling buildings and intricate machines, as well as plants and animals.(43) One volunteer described seeing a “large orangish sphere” that flashed and sparkled.(44) A minority of people experienced instances of telepathy, out-of-body experiences, and clairvoyance. After eight to ten minutes, users felt that the altered state was in decline, and most had fully returned to their normal state of consciousness after 30 to 45 minutes.(45)
Despite the fantastical content, most of the participants did not feel that their trips were hallucinations, but real world experiences. Most participants explicitly distinguished their trips from previous experiences of dreams and other drugs, and many felt as though they had perceived another dimension of reality. Some volunteers even called the DMT world, “more real than real.”(46) Users reported that they felt mentally alert and aware throughout the entire experience, and had retained full memory of the events.(47) Strassman identified marked changes in the users’ bodies, including increased heart rate, blood pressure, pupil diameter, and body temperature.(48) A minority of participants had some negative experiences, including shakiness, heart palpitations, and nausea, and a few felt that it was the most frightening experience of their lives.(49) Many felt anxiety, but those that were able to “let go” and relax had the best outcomes.(50)
The Beings
Over half of Strassman’s volunteers reported encounters with strange, sentient humanoids or animals. Later research by David Luke found that at higher doses nearly all participants encounter these beings.(51)
The first record of an entity encounter on a DMT-related compound comes from the world’s first recorded use of ayahuasca by an Ecuadorian geographer in 1858. Manuel Villavincencio said that he was flying over a panorama of cities, parks, and towers, before finding himself in a forest having to defend himself from “terrible beings.”(52) The Hungarian psychiatrist Stephen Szára reported that one of the participants in his 1956 study said that the room was “full of spirits,” and a schizophrenic patient claimed to see “strange [black] creatures” that resembled dwarves. Another volunteer encountered what she described as "two quiet, sunlit Gods" who nodded in her direction.(53) Around the same time, a U.S. research team was studying the effects of DMT on psychotic patients, and reported a volunteer who found herself being hurt by “horrible” orange beings that were clearly not human.(54) In his lectures in the late 80s and 90s, Terence McKenna shared his experiences with beings he called “self-transforming machine elves,” a term that has since become very popular in psychedelic circles.(55)
But Strassman’s participants described a wide range of different beings. Many saw therianthropes, or animal-human hybrids, as well as human-machine hybrids, and animal hybrids.(56) Some described the beings as “insectoid” or “reptilian,” while others described them as mechanical or robotic.(57) Others were made of nothing but light. One participant saw two entangled serpents that were both covered in eyes.(58) One described being in a space station and guided by “android-like creatures” that were a mix of crash-test dummies and Star Wars stormtroopers, many of which were busy with some unknown task.(59) Some participants perceived only parts of beings, while others saw only silhouettes or shadow forms. Still others only heard voices, or felt a presence.(60) Dr. Luke has found that even participants with no prior knowledge of the compound encountered the same kinds of entities.(61)
Often, the beings engaged the participant in communication, in the form of speech, telepathy, or visual symbols. Some beings gave warnings, while others offered help. Some healed participants, while others harmed them. Still others engaged in sexual acts with experiencers, or performed unfamiliar surgical procedures on their bodies. Many participants felt that the beings were there to teach, protect, or support them.(62) One participant described small “gremlins” with tails and wings alongside larger beings that she felt were there to “sustain and support” her.(63)
Participants frequently claimed that the beings caused them to feel or think certain things, often by directly engaging with their bodies. One participant described being pulled through a maze by a band of “jokers” with big noses and bells on their hats. She felt loved by the beings, and sensed that she had a “new body” in that moment that was “much more aware.”(64) Another participant found himself overlooking a cityscape that started toggling through different colours. He noticed a middle-aged female with light-green skin sitting beside him who was turning a dial that seemed to control the color of the scene. After asking the volunteer what he’d like, the woman stood up, walked over and touched his forehead, then used a sharp object to open up a panel in his temple which released a tremendous amount of pressure from his head.(65)
Significance
DMT is only one compound among a range of other psychedelics that all produce dazzling and mysterious effects. Users of LSD, mescaline, and salvia divinorum sometimes report similar transportative experiences and encounters with alien-like entities. People can also have similar experiences without drugs, through hypnosis, chanting, hyperventilation, fasting, and sleep deprivation.(66) In light of this fact, researchers have argued that it’s the body that produces the experience, and not the DMT, or any other drug.(67) Perhaps DMT and related compounds function like keys to locks inside the mind, granting us access to different networks in the brain.(68) Repeated DMT experiences do not build a tolerance in the user, unlike all other drugs which have a diminishing effect with each use.(69)
Many have hypothesized that altering the levels of DMT in one’s brain would result in an effect similar to adjusting the dials on a radio, allowing people to “tune in” to another wavelength of external information.(70) Computational neurobiologist and pharmacologist, Andrew Gallimore, argues that DMT appears to switch us into another “world-building mode” to perceive a different plane of reality.(71) Ede Frecska hypothesizes that DMT and other altered states of consciousness allows the brain to act as a type of “quantum array antenna” to receive nonlocal information.(72) Drawing on indiginous and shamanistic perspectives, Dennis McKenna feels that DMT and related compounds are “catalysts for cognitive evolution” created by an intelligence in nature to reconnect us with the natural world.(73)
In 2014’s DMT and the Soul of Prophecy, Strassman drew connections between the DMT experience and descriptions of prophetic visions in the Hebrew Bible, arguing that these connections suggest common underlying mechanisms.(74) Like the DMT beings, the angels and other entities encountered by the prophets demonstrated will, intellect, and awareness, and engaged in interactions that involved healing, harming, protecting, or communicating information. However, the canonical prophets placed much more importance on the messages conveyed by these beings, and less importance on the phenomenology of their experiences. DMT users, by contrast, tend to be overwhelmed by the experience itself, and receive no clear message or revelation.(75)
Some of Strassman’s participants referred to the beings as “aliens,” though none of the descriptions matched the short, almond-eyed “greys” whose image was then quite prevalent in U.S. culture.(76) Still, Strassman noticed a lot of similarities to the abduction experiences documented by the Harvard psychiatrist, John Mack. Both kinds of experiences typically began with bright lights, strange sounds, and vibrations in the body, and frequently involved feelings of paralysis. These beings, too, often gave warnings to experiencers, and did surgical-type work on their bodies.(77)
Strassman noted that nearly all medieval Jewish philosophers taught that the contents of the prophetic state - the visions of angels, demons, and apocalyptic scenery - were reflections of our own imaginations. Faced with the impossibility of representing the supernatural in physical form, it was thought that our minds drew on imagery from our memories and experiences to render the ineffable in a way that was coherent to the human senses.(78) Similarly, ufologist John Keel felt that the physical forms that the UFOs and aliens took in peoples’ experiences were cobbled together from the images available in their own memories and expectations.(79) In other words, the way that “they” appear may say more about ourselves than it does about them, whatever they are.
Conclusion
There is still a lot to learn about the role of DMT: what it does in nature, what it does in the human brain, and why it produces such fantastical psychoactive effects. But the places users go to, and the entities that they encounter there, have become a particular focus of inquiry. Maybe these beings are spirits, demons, angels, or aliens, or maybe they’re just projections of our subconscious minds. But studying them may reveal something about the workings of consciousness, and the nature of abductions, prophecy, and other anomalous experiences.
Notes:
1) National Center for Biotechnology Information, "PubChem Compound Summary for CID 6089, N,N-Dimethyltryptamine," PubChem, https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/N_N-Dimethyltryptamine; Rick Strassman, DMT and the Soul of Prophecy: A New Science of Spiritual Revelation in the Hebrew Bible (Rochester, Vermont, USA, Toronto, Canada: Park Street Press, 2014), 32, cites Steven A Barker, Ethan H McIlhenny, and Rick Strassman, “A critical review of reports of endogenous psychedelic N,N-Dimethyltrytamines in Humans: 1955-2010,” Drug Testing and Analysis 4, no. 7-8 (Jul-Aug 2012): 617-35, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22371425; Rick Strassman in Rick Strassman, Slawek Wojtowicz, Luis Eduardo Luna, and Ede Frecska, Inner Paths to Outer Space: Journeys to Alien Worlds through Psychedelics and Other Spiritual Technologies (Rochester, Vermont, USA: Park Street Press, 2008), 21, 38, 41, DMT has been detected in human blood, urine, spinal fluid, and brain and lung tissue.
2) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 32, cites Christian Ratsch, Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications (Rochester, Vermont: Park Street Press, 2005); Dennis McKenna in David Luke, Rory Spowers, and Anton Bilton, eds., DMT Dialogues: Encounters with the Divine Molecule (Rochester, Vermont, USA: Park Street Press, 2018), 47 - 48, McKenna goes as far to speculate that every plant could contain DMT, even if only small amounts.
3) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 33, cites Toshihiro Takahashi, Kazuhiro Takahashi, Tatsuo Ido, et al., “11C-Labeling of Indolealkylamine Alkaloids and the Comparative Study of Their Tissue Distributions,” International Journal of Applied Radiation and Isotopes 36 (1985): 965 - 69, https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0020708X85902571; Kazuhiko Yanai, Tatsuo Ido, Kiichi Ishiwata et al., “In Vivo Kinetics and Displacement Study of Carbon-11-Labeled Hallucinogen, N,N-[11C] Dimethyltryptamine,” European Journal of Nuclear Medicine 12, no. 3 (July 1986): 141-46, https://researchgate.net/publication/226047139_In_vivo_kinetics_and_displacement_study_of_a_carbon-11-labeled_hallucinogen_NN-11Cdimethyltryptamine; Strassman, Inner Paths, 37.
4) Strassman, Inner Paths, 73 - 74; Strassman, DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences (Rochester, Vermont, USA: Park Street Press, 2001), 216 - 19.
5) Synthetic method mentioned in Nicholas V. Cozzi and Paul F. Daley, “Synthesis and characterization of high‐purity N,N‐dimethyltryptamine hemifumarate for human clinical trials,” Drug Testing and Analysis (July 2020) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/dta.2889.
6) Strassman says although “good” circumstantial evidence exists, it is unknown if endogenous DMT increases at birth, death, or nondrug states such as sleep, meditation, and entity contact, in DMT Dialogues, 275; “DMT: Myths and Facts,” The Drug Classroom, June 24, 2016, YouTube video, 5:58, https://youtu.be/37rrIelisjc.
7) David Nichols explains that psilocybin is DMT with an oxygen atom and phosphate group attached in “David Nichols - Relationship between DMT and Psilocybin,” DMT: The Spirit Molecule, July 31, 2011, YouTube video, 1:04, https://youtu.be/eWKsDxv4L4I; Similarity in structure between DMT and 5-MeO-DMT: Roger R., “What Is the Difference between 5-MeO DMT and DMT? Choosing a DMT Therapy,” Psychedelic Times, February 26, 2016, https://psychedelictimes.com/what-is-the-difference-between-5-meo-dmt-and-dmt-choosing-a-dmt-therapy.
8) Strassman, Inner Paths, 21, 39; National Center for Biotechnology Information, "PubChem Compound Summary for CID 10624, Psilocybine," PubChem, https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Psilocybine; National Center for Biotechnology Information, "PubChem Compound Summary for CID 4980, Psilocin," PubChem, https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Psilocin; “Psilocybin and psilocin are found in at least 15 species of mushrooms,” from N.N. Daéid, in ”FORENSIC SCIENCES | Illicit Drugs,” Encyclopedia of Analytical Science, Second Edition (Elsevier Ltd., 2005), https://sciencedirect.com/topics/pharmacology-toxicology-and-pharmaceutical-science/tryptamine-derivative.
9) National Center for Biotechnology Information, "PubChem Compound Summary for CID 1832, N,N-Dimethyl-5-methoxytryptamine," PubChem, https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/N_N-Dimethyl-5-methoxytryptamine; National Center for Biotechnology Information, "PubChem Compound Summary for CID 10257, Bufotenine," PubChem, https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Bufotenine; Strassman, Inner Paths, 21, 39, 79.
10) Giorgio Samorini, “The oldest Representations of Hallucinogenic Mushrooms in the World (Sahara Desert, 9000-7000 B.P.),” Integration, no. 2 & 3 (1992), 69-78, http://psilosophy.info/resources/sam-1992-sahara.pdf; Strassman, Inner Paths, 11.
11) Richard Evans Schultes, Albert Hofmann, Christian Rätsch, Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers, English translation, second edition (Rochester, Vermont, USA: Healing Arts Press, (1992) 2001) 34, 72 - 73, Acacia maidenii and Acacia phlebophylla also used in traditional medicine, used by Australian Aborigines.
12) Schultes, Hofmann, and Rätsch, Plants of the Gods, 76 - 77, Phalaris arundinacea contains DMT, 5-MeO-DMT, and sometimes toxic gramine.
13) Schultes, Hofmann, and Rätsch, Plants of the Gods, 68 - 69, Nucuna pruriens, the authors also state Cowhage “may” have been used by Indian peoples for psychoactive use, however the effects are not considered hallucinogenic by comparison to other forms of DMT.
14) National Center for Biotechnology Information, "PubChem Compound Summary for CID 10257, Bufotenine," PubChem.
15) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 32, cites Ratsch, Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants; Luis Eduardo Luna in Strassman, et al., Inner Paths, 88.
16) Schultes, Hofmann, and Rätsch, Plants of the Gods, 35, 66 - 67,116 - 117; National Center for Biotechnology Information, "PubChem Compound Summary for CID 10257, Bufotenine," PubChem; Strassman, Inner Paths, 33; Laurence Bergreen, Columbus: The Four Voyages, 1492-1504 (Viking Penguin, 2011),
“CHAPTER 7 Among the Taínos,” https://erenow.net/biographies/columbus-the-four-voyages-1492-1504/8.php; Paul Devereux, The Long Trip: A Prehistory of Psychedelia (New York, NY, USA: Penguin Group, 1997), 135 - 36.
17) Schultes, Hofmann, and Rätsch, Plants of the Gods, 66 - 67, 124 - 135; Luis Eduardo Luna in Strassman, et al., Inner Paths, 81; Kashmira Gander, “Ayahuasca: The Lawyer Fighting for those who take the Hallucinogenic Drug for Religious Reasons,” Independent.co.uk, February 28, 2017, https://independent.co.uk/life-style/ayahuasca-lawyer-j-hamilton-hudson-hallucinogenic-drug-religious-reasons-south-america-amazon-tribes-a7603341.html.
18) DMT was discovered as one of a series of tryptamine derivatives related to his research on the toxic North American strawberry shrub, Strassman, DMT:tSM, 44; Strassman, Inner Paths, 33, sources R. H. F. Manske, “A Synthesis of the Methyl-tryptamines and Some Derivatives,” Canadian Journal of Research 5 (1931): 592-600.
19) Strassman, Inner Paths, 12; Wesley Thoricatha, “History of Psychedelics: How the Mazatec Tribe Brought Entheogens to the World,” Psychedelic Times, October 28, 2015, https://psychedelictimes.com/history-of-psychedelics-how-the-mazatec-tribe-brought-entheogens-to-the-world; Gordon Wasson’s Life magazine article, “Seeking the Magic Mushroom,” May 13, 1957, https://books.google.com/books?id=Jj8EAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA100&pg=PA100#v=onepage&q&f=false.
20) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 32, sources A. Sai-Halász, G. Brunecker, and S. Szára, “Dimethyltryptamine: Ein Neues Psychoticum,” “Dimethyltryptamine: a New Psycho-active Drug” (unpublished English translation) Psychiatria et Neurologia 135 (1958): 285-301; Stephen Szára, “DMT at 50,” Neuropsychopharmacol Hung 9, no. 4 (Dec 2007): 201-5, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18510265; Andrew R. Gallimore and David P. Luke, “DMT Research from 1956 to the Edge of Time,” Neurotransmissions: Psychedelic Essays from Breaking Convention (Strange Attractor Press, 2015), 3, http://buildingalienworlds.com/uploads/5/7/9/9/57999785/dmt_research_1956_edge_time_arg_dpl_final.pdf; Strassman, Inner Paths, 17, 34, “Szára experimented on himself… soon thereafter recruited 30 volunteers, mostly physician colleagues” to experience it themselves, the research group in Hungary continued with some additional DMT studies, as did several US groups.
21) Strassman, Inner Paths, 35, sources F. Franzen and H. Gross, “Tryptamine, N,N-dimethyltryptamine, N,N-dimethyl-5-hydroxytryptamine and 5-methoxytryptamine in Human Blood and Urine,” Nature 206 (1965): 1052, doi: 10.1038/2061052a0, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/5839067; J. Axelrod, “Enzymatic Formation of Psychotomimetic Metabolites from Normally Occurring Compounds,” Science 134 (1961): 343, doi:10.1126/science.134.3475.343, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/13685339.
22) Strassman, Inner Paths, 15.
23) Strassman, Inner Paths, 18.
24) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 290, sources Walter N. Pahnke and William A. Richards, “Implications of LSD and Experimental Mysticism,” Journal of Religion and Health 5 (1966): 175-208, http://psychedelic-library.org/pahnke4.htm; Walter Pahnke’s 1963 thesis for Harvard University, "Drugs and Mysticism: An Analysis of the Relationship between Psychedelic Drugs and the Mystical Consciousness," International Journal of Parapsychology 8, no. 2 (Spring 1966): 295-313, https://erowid.org/entheogens/journals/entheogens_journal3.shtml; More recent replications of this study found similar results: Rick Doblin, "Pahnke's 'Good Friday Experiment': a long-term follow-up and methodological critique," Journal of Transpersonal Psychology 23, no. 1 (1991): 1-25, https://maps.org/articles/5414-good-friday-drugs-mysticism; R. R. Griffiths, W. A. Richards, U McCann, and R. Jesse, "Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance," Psychopharmacology 187, no. 3 (2006): 268-83, doi:10.1007/s00213-006-0457-5, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16826400.
25) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 33; Strassman, Inner Paths, 19 - 20; DMT became globally prohibited in 1971 by the United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances, 31, http://incb.org/documents/Psychotropics/conventions/convention_1971_en.pdf.
26) Tim Leary, “Programmed communication during experiences with DMT (dimethyl-tryptamine),” Psychedelic Review 8 (1966): 83-95, https://jacobsm.com/deoxy/deoxy.org/h_leary.htm.
27) First released in 1976, Terence and Dennis McKenna published Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide: A Handbook for Psilocybin Enthusiasts under the pseudonyms "O.T. Oss" and "O.N. Oeric," (Quick American Archives, 1976), http://en.psilosophy.info/pdf/psilocybin_magic_mushrooms_growers_guide_(psilosophy.info).pdf; An early lecture by Terrence McKenna discussing DMT, psilocybin, and entities include this one given in December 1982: “Podcast 270 – “Tryptamine Consciousness,’” Psychedelic Salon, Podcast audio, June 10, 2011, https://psychedelicsalon.com/podcast-270-tryptamine-consciousness; Graham St John, Mystery School in Hyperspace: A Cultural History of DMT (North Atlantic Books, 2015), chapter 4, http://worldcat.org/oclc/907295646.
28) St John, Mystery School, 114.
29) Strassman, DMT:tSM, 1, 359; Strassman, “Rick Strassman MD,” https://rickstrassman.com/biography.
30) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 35 - 37.
31) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 4; Strassman’s formal study results were published several years prior to the book’s publication but his personal conclusions (i.e. awareness of “spiritual levels of existence”) were voiced in the book; for original study results see Rick Strassman and Clifford Quails, "Dose-Response Study of N,N-Dimethyltryptamine in Humans. I: Neuroendocrine, Autonomic, and Cardiovascular Effects," Archives of General Psychiatry 51 (1994): 85-97, https://researchgate.net/publication/14902515_Dose-response_study_of_NN-dimethyltryptamine_in_humans_I_Neuroendocrine_autonomic_and_cardiovascular_effects ; and Rick Strassman, Clifford Quails, Eberhard Uhlenhuth, and Robert Kellner, "Dose-Response Study of N,NDimethyltryptamine in Humans. II: Subjective Effects and Preliminary Results of a New Rating Scale," Archives of General Psychiatry 51 (1994): 98-108, https://researchgate.net/publication/14902516_Dose-response_study_of_NN-dimethyltryptamine_in_humans_II_Subjective_effects_and_preliminary_results_of_a_new_rating_scale.
32) More on the 21st century psychedelic (research) “renaissance”: Emily Witt, “The Science of the Psychedelic Renaissance,” The New Yorker, May 28, 2019, https://newyorker.com/books/under-review/the-science-of-the-psychedelic-renaissance; Michael Pollan opens his No. 1 New York Times best-seller book with a chapter on the “renaissance,” How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence (Penguin Books, 2018).
33) Co-written by Mitch Schultz and Rick Strassman, Directed by Mitch Schultz, DMT: The Spirit Molecule (NY, USA: Spectral Alchemy and Synthetic Pictures, 2010), https://imdb.com/title/tt1340425.
34) The conference was the Entheogenic Plant Sentience Symposium; Luke, Spowers, and Bilton, eds., DMT Dialogues; Video of the event: “Entheogenic Plant Sentience Symposium 2015,” Tyringham Initiative, https://vimeo.com/156248372.
35) “Christopher Timmermann,” ResearchGate, https://researchgate.net/profile/Christopher_Timmermann; David Luke’s work on DMT includes “Discarnate entities and dimethyltryptamine (DMT): Psychopharmacology, phenomenology and ontology,” Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 75, no. 902 (January 2011): 26-42,
https://researchgate.net/publication/258051832_Discarnate_entities_and_dimethyltryptamine_DMT_Psychopharmacology_phenomenology_and_ontology; Andrew Gallimore wrote about DMT for several years, his culminating publication being Alien Information Theory: Psychedelic Drug Technologies and the Cosmic Game (UK: Strange Worlds Press, 2019); Dennis McKenna, Luke, Gallimore, and others have chapters in DMT Dialogues.
36) Christopher Timmermann, Leor Roseman, Michael Schartner, Raphael Milliere, Luke T. J. Williams, David Erritzoe, Suresh Muthukumaraswamy, Michael Ashton, Adam Bendrioua, Okdeep Kaur, Samuel Turton, Matthew M. Nour, Camilla M. Day, Robert Leech, David J. Nutt, & Robin L. Carhart-Harris, “Neural correlates of the DMT experience assessed with multivariate EEG,” Scientific Reports 9, 16324 (2019), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-51974-4, https://nature.com/articles/s41598-019-51974-4.
37) For example Roland Griffiths, et al., "Psilocybin can occasion”; Jose A. Morales-Garcia, Javier Calleja-Conde, Jose A. Lopez-Moreno, Sandra Alonso-Gil, Marina Sanz-SanCristobal, Jordi Riba & Ana Perez-Castillo, “N,N-dimethyltryptamine compound found in the hallucinogenic tea ayahuasca, regulates adult neurogenesis in vitro and in vivo,” Translational Psychiatry 10, no. 331 (2020), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-020-01011-0, https://nature.com/articles/s41398-020-01011-0; Octavio Rettig Hinojosa author of The Toad of Dawn: 5-MeO-DMT and the Rising of Cosmic Consciousness (Divine Arts, 2016); and Malin Vedøy Uthaug, https://psychedelicstoday.com/2020/07/21/dr-malin-vedoy-uthaug-ayahuasca-and-5-meo-dmt-research.
38) Emmanuelle A D Schindler, Christopher H Gottschalk, Marsha J Weil, Robert E Shapiro, Douglas A Wright, Richard Andrew Sewell, “Indoleamine Hallucinogens in Cluster Headache: Results of the Clusterbusters Medication Use Survey,” Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 47, no. 5 (Nov-Dec 2015): 372-81, doi:10.1080/02791072.2015.1107664, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26595349; Matthew W. Johnson, Albert Garcia-Romeu, and Roland R. Griffiths, “Long-term Follow-up of Psilocybin-facilitated Smoking Cessation,” The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse 43, no. 1 (2017): 55-60, doi:10.3109/00952990.2016.1170135, https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5641975; Ede Frecska, Petra Bokor, and Michael Winkelman, “The Therapeutic Potentials of Ayahuasca: Possible Effects against Various Diseases of Civilization,” Frontiers in Pharmacology 7, no. 35 (2016): 1-17, DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2016.00035, https://researchgate.net/publication/296690214_The_Therapeutic_Potentials_of_Ayahuasca_Possible_Effects_against_Various_Diseases_of_Civilization; Interview with Strassman on therapeutic potential of psychedelics: Shelby Hartman, “Rick Strassman on DMT and the Mystical State,” Double Blind, September 30, 2019, https://doubleblindmag.com/rick-strassman-dmt-mystical-state.
39) The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies has a lack of study in pure DMT for therapeutic purposes, see https://maps.org/research; John Hopkins’ Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research is studying DMT experiences but seemingly not researching therapeutic effects of pure DMT, see https://hopkinspsychedelic.org/index/#research, and Matthew Gault, “If You’ve Met Aliens While on DMT, These Scientists Would Like to Hear From You,” Motherboard, March 28, 2018, https://vice.com/en/article/bjpjxm/dmt-aliens-study-johns-hopkins; the research studying therapeutic uses of DMT-containing substances appears to be entirely on ayahuasca, psilocybin, and 5-MeO-DMT.
40) The technique of extended DMT trips was first performed by E. Gouzoulis-Mayfrank, K. Heekeren, A. Neukirch, M. Stoll, C. Stock, M. Obradovic, K. A. Kovar, “Psychological effects of (S)-ketamine and N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT): a double-blind, cross-over study in healthy volunteers,” Pharmacopsychiatry 38 (2005), 301–311, doi: 10.1055/s-2005-916185, https://thieme-connect.com/products/ejournals/abstract/10.1055/s-2005-916185; later improved upon by Andrew Gallimore and Rick Strassman, “A Model for the Application of Target-Controlled Intravenous Infusion for a Prolonged Immersive DMT Psychedelic Experience,” Frontiers in Pharmacology 7 (2016): 211, https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4944667, https://frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2016.00211/full.
41) Strassman, Inner Paths, 27 - 28.
42) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 41- 42; Strassman, Inner Paths, 53.
43) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 40 - 41.
44) Volunteer given the name “Mike” in Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 140.
45) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 39 - 40; Strassman, Inner Paths, 24.
46) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 42, 166, and another volunteer, “William,” 159, commented on his mental clarity during the experience as “not intoxicated. I’m lucid and sober.”
47) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 42.
48) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 38 - 39.
49) Strassman, Inner Paths, 72.
50) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 41, compared to those who couldn’t and experienced fear and panic resulting in unpleasant sessions.
51) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 42, 150 - 152; David Luke in interview with Jeffrey Mishlove, “Understanding DMT with David Luke,” New Thinking Allowed with Jeffrey Mishlove, November 5, 2018, YouTube video, 33:31, at 5:10, https://youtu.be/rCdLO-UP8No.
52) Paul Devereux, The Long Trip, 123, sources Michael J. Harner, Hallucinogens and Shamanism (New York, NY, USA: Oxford University Press, 1973), 155 - 56, https://archive.org/details/hallucinogenssha0000unse/mode/2up.
53) Gallimore and Luke, “DMT Research,” 4, 6, sources A. Sai-Halász, G. Brunecker, and S. Szára, “Dimethyltryptamine: Ein Neues Psychoticum,” “Dimethyltryptamine: a New Psycho-active Drug” (unpublished English translation) Psychiatria et Neurologia (Basel) 135 (1958): 285-301; Strassman, Inner Paths, 35, sources Z. Boszorményi and S. I. Szára, “Dimethyltryptamine Experiments with Psychotics,” Journal of Mental Science 104 (1958): 445-53, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/13564150.
54) Strassman, Inner Paths, 34 - 35, sources W. J. Turner Jr. and S. Merlis, “Effect of Some Indolealkylamines on Man,” Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry 81 (1959): 121-29, https://jamanetwork.com/journals/archneurpsyc/article-abstract/652833.
55) Terence McKenna discusses DMT and the “elves” in writing and talks such as this one given in December 1982: “Podcast 270 – “Tryptamine Consciousness,’” Psychedelic Salon, June 10, 2011, https://psychedelicsalon.com/podcast-270-tryptamine-consciousness; The Archaic Revival (New York, NY, USA: HarperOne), 16, 37, https://archive.org/details/ArchaicRevival; and with Dennis McKenna, The Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens, and the I Ching (San Francisco, California, USA: HarperCollins, (1975) 1993), https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/Occult_Library/Entheogens/Terence%20McKenna%20-%20Invisible%20Landscape.pdf.
56) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 42, 150 - 152.
57) Strassman, DMT:tSM, 189 - 90, 200, 206; Strassman, Inner Paths, 65 - 66, 70; Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 152 - 53, 183.
58) Luke, “Discarnate entities,” 38, Correction: source says “multiple” snakes covered in eyes are “commonly” seen by naïve DMT users, not just a single report of this entity.
59) Volunteer called “Lucas” in Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 152 - 53, 183; Strassman, DMT:tSM, 189 - 90; Strassman, Inner Paths, 65 - 66.
60) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 42 - 43, 147 - 48, 266; Strassman, DMT:tSM, 204, as an example, volunteer “Rex” saw colours surrounding the beings, creating an outline.
61) Luke, “Discarnate entities,” 26, 35, 38.
62) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 44, 188 - 93; Strassman, Inner Paths, 65.
63) The fullest account of “Willow’s” experience is in Strassman, DMT:tSM, 224 - 25; also mentioned in Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 148, 152; Strassman, Inner Paths, 59.
64) Strassman, Inner Paths, 56 - 57.
65) Experience of “Sean,” Strassman, Inner Paths, 68; Strassman, DMT:tSM, 243 - 46; Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 180 - 81.
66) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 12; Significance of hypnotism briefly mentioned by Strassman, Inner Paths, 6.
67) Paul Devereux, The Long Trip, 251 - 52, the author restates the point made by Wolfgang Coral, in “Psychedelic Drugs and Spiritual States of Consciousness in the Light of Modern Neurochemical Research,” in Gateway to Inner Space, edited by Christian Ratsch (Bridpot, England: Prism Press, 1989), 133, 141.
68) Strassman, Inner Paths, 4.
69) Strassman, Inner Paths, 37, sources B. Kovacic and E. F. Domino, “Tolerance and Limited Cross-tolerance to the Effects of N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and Lysergic Acid Diethylamide-25 (LSD) on Food-rewarded Bar Pressing in the Rat,” Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics 197 (1976): 495-502, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1064726.
70) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 31, 267.
71) Andrew Gallimore’s major publication is Alien Information Theory: Psychedelic Drug Technologies and the Cosmic Game (United Kingdom: Strange Worlds Press, 2019); Gallimore, chapter 7 in DMT Dialogues, 175 - 204, 314.
72) Ede Frecska wrote chapters 7 to 9 in Inner Paths, 162 - 254; Frecska, chapter 6 in DMT Dialogues, 154 - 174, 314.
73) Dennis McKenna, chapter 2 in DMT Dialogues, 57, or 38 - 68 for his complete thoughts, on 61 he also states “DMT shows us the future” at different intervals.
74) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 4, 14; Strassman also summarizes his work on this topic in DMT Dialogues, 279 - 92, Strassman clarifies he is not suggesting the prophets ingested DMT nor that endogenous DMT is solely responsible for prophetic events. While not a perfect match, similarities between the two states include the effects on the body such as temperature fluctuations, shakines, physical weakness, and feelings of nausea (Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 114 - 18, note that nauseous feelings in Strassman’s DMT research group were rare, however in ayahuasca it is common.) Emotions experienced in both states, such as feeling awe, fear, peace, and (only rarely in the DMT state) humiliation (122 - 31). Similarities in perception including visuals, sounds signalling the start of the experiences, and hearing a spoken voice (132 - 57). Similarities in the types of cognition experienced, including initial confusion, followed by lucidity and intact memory (158 - 167).
75) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 5, 107 - 08.
76) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 43.
77) Strassman, Inner Paths, 73 - 74; Strassman, DMT:tSM, 216 - 19, Strassman sources John Mack, Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens (New York, USA: Ballantine, 1994) and John Mack, Passport to the Cosmos: Human Transformation and Alien Encounters (New York, NY, USA: Crown Publishers, 1999).
78) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 245 - 46.
79) John Keel, Operation Trojan Horse (Lilburn, Georgia, USA: IllumiNet Press (1970) 1996), https://archive.org/details/OperationTrojanHorse/mode/2up.
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McKenna, Terence and Dennis McKenna (under the pseudonyms "O.T. Oss" and "O.N. Oeric"). Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide: A Handbook for Psilocybin Enthusiasts. Quick American Archives, 1976. http://en.psilosophy.info/pdf/psilocybin_magic_mushrooms_growers_guide_(psilosophy.info).pdf.
McKenna, Terence. “Podcast 270 – “Tryptamine Consciousness.’” Psychedelic Salon. Podcast audio, June 10, 2011. https://psychedelicsalon.com/podcast-270-tryptamine-consciousness.
Morales-Garcia, Jose A., Javier Calleja-Conde, Jose A. Lopez-Moreno, Sandra Alonso-Gil, Marina Sanz-SanCristobal, Jordi Riba, and Ana Perez-Castillo. “N,N-dimethyltryptamine compound found in the hallucinogenic tea ayahuasca, regulates adult neurogenesis in vitro and in vivo.” Translational Psychiatry 10, no. 331 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-020-01011-0. https://nature.com/articles/s41398-020-01011-0.
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Pahnke, Walter. "Drugs and Mysticism: An Analysis of the Relationship between Psychedelic Drugs and the Mystical Consciousness." International Journal of Parapsychology 8, no. 2 (Spring 1966): 295-313. https://erowid.org/entheogens/journals/entheogens_journal3.shtml.
Pahnke, Walter N. and William A. Richards. “Implications of LSD and Experimental Mysticism.” Journal of Religion and Health 5 (1966): 175-208. http://psychedelic-library.org/pahnke4.htm.
Pollan, Michael. How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. Penguin Books, 2018. https://amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transcendence-ebook/dp/B076GPJXWZ. http://worldcat.org/oclc/1158577133.
R., Roger. “What Is the Difference between 5-MeO DMT and DMT? Choosing a DMT Therapy.” Psychedelic Times. February 26, 2016. https://psychedelictimes.com/what-is-the-difference-between-5-meo-dmt-and-dmt-choosing-a-dmt-therapy.
Ratsch, Christian. Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications. Rochester, Vermont: Park Street Press, 2005. http://worldcat.org/oclc/895013480.
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Strassman, Rick, and Clifford Quails. "Dose-Response Study of N,N-Dimethyltryptamine in Humans. I: Neuroendocrine, Autonomic, and Cardiovascular Effects." Archives of General Psychiatry 51, no. 2 (March 1994): 85-97. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1994.03950020009001. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/article-abstract/496494. https://researchgate.net/publication/14902515_Dose-response_study_of_NN-dimethyltryptamine_in_humans_I_Neuroendocrine_autonomic_and_cardiovascular_effects.
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Video Sources:
New Thinking Allowed with Jeffrey Mishlove. “Researching Psychedelics and DMT with Rick Strassman.” October 30, 2019. YouTube video, 56:59. https://youtu.be/-xA5wkjsDrM.
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People often dismiss psychedelic drug experiences as “hallucinations,” but users of DMT - a naturally-occurring psychoactive compound - claim a very particular kind of experience, that often feels as real to them as waking life. What’s more, users often have encounters with strange, sentient beings that seem to be more than mental fabrications. Further research on DMT promises to shed light on the mechanics of consciousness, and may even contribute to our understanding of other anomalous experiences, including UFO abductions and ancient Hebrew prophetism.
The Substance
N,N-dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, is a naturally-occurring psychoactive compound that is widely prevalent in nature. It is found in the biochemistry of all humans, as well as in every reptilian and mammalian species whose tissues have been analyzed for it.(1) It’s also been found in hundreds of plants, and is likely present in tens of thousands more.(2) Despite all this, DMT’s function in biology is still essentially a mystery. Tellingly, it’s one of the few compounds that our brains allow through the blood-brain barrier, which filters out all but a few essential substances.(3) What the brain does with this compound is still unknown, but studies of animals’ brains have shown increased levels under stress.(4)
DMT can be derived from various natural or synthetic sources and distilled to a crystalline form.(5) When either smoked, snorted, injected, or ingested with certain enzyme inhibitors, DMT is intensely psychoactive, producing a powerful altered state of consciousness. At higher doses, most users claim to leave their bodies and interact with strange beings in fantastical settings. This has led a range of writers and researchers to propose that the compound must play some role in producing visionary, spiritual, and other altered states of consciousness, such as dreams and near-death experiences.(6)
Other plants, fungi, and animals contain compounds with DMT in their structure that also have powerful psychoactive qualities.(7) After ingestion, psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in “magic” mushrooms, becomes psilocin, or 4-hydroxy-DMT.(8) The Bufo alvarius, also called the Colorado River toad or Sonoran Desert toad, secretes a venom from its skin containing 5-methoxy-DMT, or 5-MeO-DMT, and bufotenin, or 5-Hydroxy-DMT, which is also present in mushrooms, plants, and mammals.(9)
People have been using DMT for its medicinal and psychoactive properties for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Rock paintings from pre-neolithic people living in the Sahara Desert provide evidence for the religious use of psychoactive mushrooms up to 9000 years ago.(10) In the ancient world, DMT was sourced from the bark and leaves of Acacia trees,(11) the roots or leaves of Reed Grass,(12) and in the powdered seeds of Cowhage, in India.(13) The Chinese have been distilling 5-Hydroxy-DMT from toad venom for at least a few hundred years.(14) Indigenous peoples in North and South America have long used DMT-containing plants for hunting, healing, and recreation, and to help induce spiritual experiences.(15) Christopher Columbus was the first to record the use of DMT for psychoactive effect in a letter from 1496, discussing a snuff used by the Taínos natives of the West Indies to commune with spirits. The snuff, now called Yopo, among other names, contains both DMT and 5-Hydroxy-DMT.(16) Several different tribes in South America drink a tea called ayahuasca that usually gets its DMT from the leaves of the Psychotria viridis plant. Shamans consume and administer the brew as a means of divination, and as a way to communicate with dead ancestors, and heal members of the tribe.(17)
Scientific Study
In 1931, the Canadian chemist Richard Manske first synthesized DMT in a laboratory setting, but no one experimented with its psychoactive effects for another quarter-century.(18) In 1955, Gordon Wasson, an amateur ethnomycologist from New York City, traveled to Oaxaca, Mexico to partake in a psilocybin mushroom ceremony with the indigenous Mazatecs. Wasson detailed his experiences in Life magazine in 1957, and helped bring psilocybin to popular attention.(19) Around the same time, many in the scientific community began experimenting with DMT. Its psychoactive effects were first scientifically documented in a study by Hungarian psychiatrists in 1956 and published two years later.(20) After 1961, scientists confirmed DMT’s presence in the human brain, blood, and urine, with later studies finding DMT and 5-MeO-DMT elsewhere in the body.(21)
Research into psychoactive drugs flourished throughout the 1960s, with hundreds of scientific papers and several books published on the topic.(22) Psychotherapists studied a number of compounds for their potential in relieving chronic mental disorders, and others took interest in their ability to invoke mystical and religious experiences.(23) In the now-famous “Good Friday Experiment” at Boston University in 1962, Walter Pahnke gave 10 of 20 divinity students capsules containing psilocybin before having them listen to a Protestant church service over loudspeakers. Most of the volunteers who received the psilocybin reported having a more mystical experience than those who were given the active placebo.(24)
This boom in research came to a halt when the U.S. government passed the Controlled Substances Act in 1970 and immediately prohibited all human trials for DMT and other schedule I drugs. Many similar laws were passed in other countries, making it nearly impossible for scientists anywhere to even find, let alone study, DMT. Still, black markets continued to fuel use around the world.(25) The Harvard Psychologist, Timothy Leary, who had studied psilocybin in the lab when it was legal, famously experimented with a range of psychedelic drugs, including DMT, and advocated for them publicly.(26) American brothers Terence and Dennis McKenna used DMT and other substances in the 1960s, and later wrote a book about psilocybin mushroom cultivation. Dennis then obtained his PhD in botanical sciences and now studies psychedelic compounds. In the 1980s, Terence began giving public lectures on consciousness and psychedelics, helping to popularize both DMT and psilocybin mushrooms in the english-speaking world.(27)
In the summer of 1988, Terrence had a "brainstorming session" with Dr. Rick Strassman, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, which Strassman credits with helping him focus his research on DMT.(28) After spending two years clearing regulatory requirements, Strassman began human trials on the compound in December of 1990: the first U.S. government-approved and funded research into a psychedelic in over 20 years.(29) He aimed to measure and describe the biological and psychological effects of DMT, and to document peoples’ qualitative descriptions of their experiences. His team administered 400 injections of DMT to roughly 60 volunteers at the University of New Mexico Hospital, taking only volunteers with previous psychedelic experiences.(30)
In 2001 Strassman published his research in DMT: The Spirit Molecule, in which he concluded that the DMT experience “led to an awareness of what we currently call spiritual levels of existence.”(31) Since Strassman began his study, there has been a renaissance in psychedelic research, and a dramatic shift in the way that psychoactive substances are portrayed in the news and other media.(32) In 2010, director Mitch Shultz produced a popular documentary on DMT, adopting the same name as Strassman’s book.(33) Strassman, Dennis Mckenna, and other leading researchers met for a DMT conference in 2015, and published the proceedings as the DMT Dialogues in 2018.(34) Scientists such as Christopher Timmermann of the Psychedelic Research Group at Imperial College London, Dr. David Luke of the University of Greenwich, and Ede Frecska, chairman of the psychiatry department of Hungary’s University of Debrecen, are just a few who are actively researching DMT today.(35) Timmerman and others did EEG scans on the brains of DMT users, and found a decrease in alpha waves in the brain, as well as an increase in signal complexity, consistent with users of other psychedelic compounds.(36) However, they also found an increase in delta and theta waves, normally most prevalent in sleep. Many other scholars around the world are studying psilocybin, 5-MeO-DMT, and ayahuasca as well, especially for their applications in healing and mental health.(37) Psilocybin has been found to be very effective in reducing cluster headaches, and helping people beat their tobacco addictions, and ceremonial use of ayahuasca, too, can help users end substance dependence.(38) The therapeutic potential of pure DMT is less clear.(39) New research aims to extend the DMT experience so as to allow for easier study.(40)
The DMT Experience
The human experience of smoking, injecting, or ingesting pure DMT varies by the dosage, and differs from person to person, and roughly 5% of users experience little or no effects at all. The experience is also heavily influenced by the environment, as well as the mindset and expectations of the user.(41) Among Strassman’s participants who responded to the injection, the effects were felt immediately. Shortly after injection, the participants said that they felt physically lighter, as though their consciousness had left their body. Some reported feelings of hot or cold, or the sensation of a crushing weight. Most of them remarked that colors became more intense, and reported hearing unusual sounds, such as an oscillating “wa-wa” noise, a ringing, or a crackling. Later in the experience, some reported hearing musical or “heavenly” sounds, and others reported spoken voices and even a cartoonish “sproing” sound.(42)
Within about a minute of intensifying sensations, nearly all participants said that they experienced an intense “rush” that peaked around the two-to-three minute mark, and soon found themselves in an entirely new setting. Many saw kaleidoscopic patterns of geometry that morphed into fantastical scenes. Some participants saw star fields and planets, while others saw sprawling buildings and intricate machines, as well as plants and animals.(43) One volunteer described seeing a “large orangish sphere” that flashed and sparkled.(44) A minority of people experienced instances of telepathy, out-of-body experiences, and clairvoyance. After eight to ten minutes, users felt that the altered state was in decline, and most had fully returned to their normal state of consciousness after 30 to 45 minutes.(45)
Despite the fantastical content, most of the participants did not feel that their trips were hallucinations, but real world experiences. Most participants explicitly distinguished their trips from previous experiences of dreams and other drugs, and many felt as though they had perceived another dimension of reality. Some volunteers even called the DMT world, “more real than real.”(46) Users reported that they felt mentally alert and aware throughout the entire experience, and had retained full memory of the events.(47) Strassman identified marked changes in the users’ bodies, including increased heart rate, blood pressure, pupil diameter, and body temperature.(48) A minority of participants had some negative experiences, including shakiness, heart palpitations, and nausea, and a few felt that it was the most frightening experience of their lives.(49) Many felt anxiety, but those that were able to “let go” and relax had the best outcomes.(50)
The Beings
Over half of Strassman’s volunteers reported encounters with strange, sentient humanoids or animals. Later research by David Luke found that at higher doses nearly all participants encounter these beings.(51)
The first record of an entity encounter on a DMT-related compound comes from the world’s first recorded use of ayahuasca by an Ecuadorian geographer in 1858. Manuel Villavincencio said that he was flying over a panorama of cities, parks, and towers, before finding himself in a forest having to defend himself from “terrible beings.”(52) The Hungarian psychiatrist Stephen Szára reported that one of the participants in his 1956 study said that the room was “full of spirits,” and a schizophrenic patient claimed to see “strange [black] creatures” that resembled dwarves. Another volunteer encountered what she described as "two quiet, sunlit Gods" who nodded in her direction.(53) Around the same time, a U.S. research team was studying the effects of DMT on psychotic patients, and reported a volunteer who found herself being hurt by “horrible” orange beings that were clearly not human.(54) In his lectures in the late 80s and 90s, Terence McKenna shared his experiences with beings he called “self-transforming machine elves,” a term that has since become very popular in psychedelic circles.(55)
But Strassman’s participants described a wide range of different beings. Many saw therianthropes, or animal-human hybrids, as well as human-machine hybrids, and animal hybrids.(56) Some described the beings as “insectoid” or “reptilian,” while others described them as mechanical or robotic.(57) Others were made of nothing but light. One participant saw two entangled serpents that were both covered in eyes.(58) One described being in a space station and guided by “android-like creatures” that were a mix of crash-test dummies and Star Wars stormtroopers, many of which were busy with some unknown task.(59) Some participants perceived only parts of beings, while others saw only silhouettes or shadow forms. Still others only heard voices, or felt a presence.(60) Dr. Luke has found that even participants with no prior knowledge of the compound encountered the same kinds of entities.(61)
Often, the beings engaged the participant in communication, in the form of speech, telepathy, or visual symbols. Some beings gave warnings, while others offered help. Some healed participants, while others harmed them. Still others engaged in sexual acts with experiencers, or performed unfamiliar surgical procedures on their bodies. Many participants felt that the beings were there to teach, protect, or support them.(62) One participant described small “gremlins” with tails and wings alongside larger beings that she felt were there to “sustain and support” her.(63)
Participants frequently claimed that the beings caused them to feel or think certain things, often by directly engaging with their bodies. One participant described being pulled through a maze by a band of “jokers” with big noses and bells on their hats. She felt loved by the beings, and sensed that she had a “new body” in that moment that was “much more aware.”(64) Another participant found himself overlooking a cityscape that started toggling through different colours. He noticed a middle-aged female with light-green skin sitting beside him who was turning a dial that seemed to control the color of the scene. After asking the volunteer what he’d like, the woman stood up, walked over and touched his forehead, then used a sharp object to open up a panel in his temple which released a tremendous amount of pressure from his head.(65)
Significance
DMT is only one compound among a range of other psychedelics that all produce dazzling and mysterious effects. Users of LSD, mescaline, and salvia divinorum sometimes report similar transportative experiences and encounters with alien-like entities. People can also have similar experiences without drugs, through hypnosis, chanting, hyperventilation, fasting, and sleep deprivation.(66) In light of this fact, researchers have argued that it’s the body that produces the experience, and not the DMT, or any other drug.(67) Perhaps DMT and related compounds function like keys to locks inside the mind, granting us access to different networks in the brain.(68) Repeated DMT experiences do not build a tolerance in the user, unlike all other drugs which have a diminishing effect with each use.(69)
Many have hypothesized that altering the levels of DMT in one’s brain would result in an effect similar to adjusting the dials on a radio, allowing people to “tune in” to another wavelength of external information.(70) Computational neurobiologist and pharmacologist, Andrew Gallimore, argues that DMT appears to switch us into another “world-building mode” to perceive a different plane of reality.(71) Ede Frecska hypothesizes that DMT and other altered states of consciousness allows the brain to act as a type of “quantum array antenna” to receive nonlocal information.(72) Drawing on indiginous and shamanistic perspectives, Dennis McKenna feels that DMT and related compounds are “catalysts for cognitive evolution” created by an intelligence in nature to reconnect us with the natural world.(73)
In 2014’s DMT and the Soul of Prophecy, Strassman drew connections between the DMT experience and descriptions of prophetic visions in the Hebrew Bible, arguing that these connections suggest common underlying mechanisms.(74) Like the DMT beings, the angels and other entities encountered by the prophets demonstrated will, intellect, and awareness, and engaged in interactions that involved healing, harming, protecting, or communicating information. However, the canonical prophets placed much more importance on the messages conveyed by these beings, and less importance on the phenomenology of their experiences. DMT users, by contrast, tend to be overwhelmed by the experience itself, and receive no clear message or revelation.(75)
Some of Strassman’s participants referred to the beings as “aliens,” though none of the descriptions matched the short, almond-eyed “greys” whose image was then quite prevalent in U.S. culture.(76) Still, Strassman noticed a lot of similarities to the abduction experiences documented by the Harvard psychiatrist, John Mack. Both kinds of experiences typically began with bright lights, strange sounds, and vibrations in the body, and frequently involved feelings of paralysis. These beings, too, often gave warnings to experiencers, and did surgical-type work on their bodies.(77)
Strassman noted that nearly all medieval Jewish philosophers taught that the contents of the prophetic state - the visions of angels, demons, and apocalyptic scenery - were reflections of our own imaginations. Faced with the impossibility of representing the supernatural in physical form, it was thought that our minds drew on imagery from our memories and experiences to render the ineffable in a way that was coherent to the human senses.(78) Similarly, ufologist John Keel felt that the physical forms that the UFOs and aliens took in peoples’ experiences were cobbled together from the images available in their own memories and expectations.(79) In other words, the way that “they” appear may say more about ourselves than it does about them, whatever they are.
Conclusion
There is still a lot to learn about the role of DMT: what it does in nature, what it does in the human brain, and why it produces such fantastical psychoactive effects. But the places users go to, and the entities that they encounter there, have become a particular focus of inquiry. Maybe these beings are spirits, demons, angels, or aliens, or maybe they’re just projections of our subconscious minds. But studying them may reveal something about the workings of consciousness, and the nature of abductions, prophecy, and other anomalous experiences.
Notes:
1) National Center for Biotechnology Information, "PubChem Compound Summary for CID 6089, N,N-Dimethyltryptamine," PubChem, https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/N_N-Dimethyltryptamine; Rick Strassman, DMT and the Soul of Prophecy: A New Science of Spiritual Revelation in the Hebrew Bible (Rochester, Vermont, USA, Toronto, Canada: Park Street Press, 2014), 32, cites Steven A Barker, Ethan H McIlhenny, and Rick Strassman, “A critical review of reports of endogenous psychedelic N,N-Dimethyltrytamines in Humans: 1955-2010,” Drug Testing and Analysis 4, no. 7-8 (Jul-Aug 2012): 617-35, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22371425; Rick Strassman in Rick Strassman, Slawek Wojtowicz, Luis Eduardo Luna, and Ede Frecska, Inner Paths to Outer Space: Journeys to Alien Worlds through Psychedelics and Other Spiritual Technologies (Rochester, Vermont, USA: Park Street Press, 2008), 21, 38, 41, DMT has been detected in human blood, urine, spinal fluid, and brain and lung tissue.
2) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 32, cites Christian Ratsch, Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications (Rochester, Vermont: Park Street Press, 2005); Dennis McKenna in David Luke, Rory Spowers, and Anton Bilton, eds., DMT Dialogues: Encounters with the Divine Molecule (Rochester, Vermont, USA: Park Street Press, 2018), 47 - 48, McKenna goes as far to speculate that every plant could contain DMT, even if only small amounts.
3) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 33, cites Toshihiro Takahashi, Kazuhiro Takahashi, Tatsuo Ido, et al., “11C-Labeling of Indolealkylamine Alkaloids and the Comparative Study of Their Tissue Distributions,” International Journal of Applied Radiation and Isotopes 36 (1985): 965 - 69, https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0020708X85902571; Kazuhiko Yanai, Tatsuo Ido, Kiichi Ishiwata et al., “In Vivo Kinetics and Displacement Study of Carbon-11-Labeled Hallucinogen, N,N-[11C] Dimethyltryptamine,” European Journal of Nuclear Medicine 12, no. 3 (July 1986): 141-46, https://researchgate.net/publication/226047139_In_vivo_kinetics_and_displacement_study_of_a_carbon-11-labeled_hallucinogen_NN-11Cdimethyltryptamine; Strassman, Inner Paths, 37.
4) Strassman, Inner Paths, 73 - 74; Strassman, DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences (Rochester, Vermont, USA: Park Street Press, 2001), 216 - 19.
5) Synthetic method mentioned in Nicholas V. Cozzi and Paul F. Daley, “Synthesis and characterization of high‐purity N,N‐dimethyltryptamine hemifumarate for human clinical trials,” Drug Testing and Analysis (July 2020) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/dta.2889.
6) Strassman says although “good” circumstantial evidence exists, it is unknown if endogenous DMT increases at birth, death, or nondrug states such as sleep, meditation, and entity contact, in DMT Dialogues, 275; “DMT: Myths and Facts,” The Drug Classroom, June 24, 2016, YouTube video, 5:58, https://youtu.be/37rrIelisjc.
7) David Nichols explains that psilocybin is DMT with an oxygen atom and phosphate group attached in “David Nichols - Relationship between DMT and Psilocybin,” DMT: The Spirit Molecule, July 31, 2011, YouTube video, 1:04, https://youtu.be/eWKsDxv4L4I; Similarity in structure between DMT and 5-MeO-DMT: Roger R., “What Is the Difference between 5-MeO DMT and DMT? Choosing a DMT Therapy,” Psychedelic Times, February 26, 2016, https://psychedelictimes.com/what-is-the-difference-between-5-meo-dmt-and-dmt-choosing-a-dmt-therapy.
8) Strassman, Inner Paths, 21, 39; National Center for Biotechnology Information, "PubChem Compound Summary for CID 10624, Psilocybine," PubChem, https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Psilocybine; National Center for Biotechnology Information, "PubChem Compound Summary for CID 4980, Psilocin," PubChem, https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Psilocin; “Psilocybin and psilocin are found in at least 15 species of mushrooms,” from N.N. Daéid, in ”FORENSIC SCIENCES | Illicit Drugs,” Encyclopedia of Analytical Science, Second Edition (Elsevier Ltd., 2005), https://sciencedirect.com/topics/pharmacology-toxicology-and-pharmaceutical-science/tryptamine-derivative.
9) National Center for Biotechnology Information, "PubChem Compound Summary for CID 1832, N,N-Dimethyl-5-methoxytryptamine," PubChem, https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/N_N-Dimethyl-5-methoxytryptamine; National Center for Biotechnology Information, "PubChem Compound Summary for CID 10257, Bufotenine," PubChem, https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Bufotenine; Strassman, Inner Paths, 21, 39, 79.
10) Giorgio Samorini, “The oldest Representations of Hallucinogenic Mushrooms in the World (Sahara Desert, 9000-7000 B.P.),” Integration, no. 2 & 3 (1992), 69-78, http://psilosophy.info/resources/sam-1992-sahara.pdf; Strassman, Inner Paths, 11.
11) Richard Evans Schultes, Albert Hofmann, Christian Rätsch, Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers, English translation, second edition (Rochester, Vermont, USA: Healing Arts Press, (1992) 2001) 34, 72 - 73, Acacia maidenii and Acacia phlebophylla also used in traditional medicine, used by Australian Aborigines.
12) Schultes, Hofmann, and Rätsch, Plants of the Gods, 76 - 77, Phalaris arundinacea contains DMT, 5-MeO-DMT, and sometimes toxic gramine.
13) Schultes, Hofmann, and Rätsch, Plants of the Gods, 68 - 69, Nucuna pruriens, the authors also state Cowhage “may” have been used by Indian peoples for psychoactive use, however the effects are not considered hallucinogenic by comparison to other forms of DMT.
14) National Center for Biotechnology Information, "PubChem Compound Summary for CID 10257, Bufotenine," PubChem.
15) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 32, cites Ratsch, Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants; Luis Eduardo Luna in Strassman, et al., Inner Paths, 88.
16) Schultes, Hofmann, and Rätsch, Plants of the Gods, 35, 66 - 67,116 - 117; National Center for Biotechnology Information, "PubChem Compound Summary for CID 10257, Bufotenine," PubChem; Strassman, Inner Paths, 33; Laurence Bergreen, Columbus: The Four Voyages, 1492-1504 (Viking Penguin, 2011),
“CHAPTER 7 Among the Taínos,” https://erenow.net/biographies/columbus-the-four-voyages-1492-1504/8.php; Paul Devereux, The Long Trip: A Prehistory of Psychedelia (New York, NY, USA: Penguin Group, 1997), 135 - 36.
17) Schultes, Hofmann, and Rätsch, Plants of the Gods, 66 - 67, 124 - 135; Luis Eduardo Luna in Strassman, et al., Inner Paths, 81; Kashmira Gander, “Ayahuasca: The Lawyer Fighting for those who take the Hallucinogenic Drug for Religious Reasons,” Independent.co.uk, February 28, 2017, https://independent.co.uk/life-style/ayahuasca-lawyer-j-hamilton-hudson-hallucinogenic-drug-religious-reasons-south-america-amazon-tribes-a7603341.html.
18) DMT was discovered as one of a series of tryptamine derivatives related to his research on the toxic North American strawberry shrub, Strassman, DMT:tSM, 44; Strassman, Inner Paths, 33, sources R. H. F. Manske, “A Synthesis of the Methyl-tryptamines and Some Derivatives,” Canadian Journal of Research 5 (1931): 592-600.
19) Strassman, Inner Paths, 12; Wesley Thoricatha, “History of Psychedelics: How the Mazatec Tribe Brought Entheogens to the World,” Psychedelic Times, October 28, 2015, https://psychedelictimes.com/history-of-psychedelics-how-the-mazatec-tribe-brought-entheogens-to-the-world; Gordon Wasson’s Life magazine article, “Seeking the Magic Mushroom,” May 13, 1957, https://books.google.com/books?id=Jj8EAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA100&pg=PA100#v=onepage&q&f=false.
20) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 32, sources A. Sai-Halász, G. Brunecker, and S. Szára, “Dimethyltryptamine: Ein Neues Psychoticum,” “Dimethyltryptamine: a New Psycho-active Drug” (unpublished English translation) Psychiatria et Neurologia 135 (1958): 285-301; Stephen Szára, “DMT at 50,” Neuropsychopharmacol Hung 9, no. 4 (Dec 2007): 201-5, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18510265; Andrew R. Gallimore and David P. Luke, “DMT Research from 1956 to the Edge of Time,” Neurotransmissions: Psychedelic Essays from Breaking Convention (Strange Attractor Press, 2015), 3, http://buildingalienworlds.com/uploads/5/7/9/9/57999785/dmt_research_1956_edge_time_arg_dpl_final.pdf; Strassman, Inner Paths, 17, 34, “Szára experimented on himself… soon thereafter recruited 30 volunteers, mostly physician colleagues” to experience it themselves, the research group in Hungary continued with some additional DMT studies, as did several US groups.
21) Strassman, Inner Paths, 35, sources F. Franzen and H. Gross, “Tryptamine, N,N-dimethyltryptamine, N,N-dimethyl-5-hydroxytryptamine and 5-methoxytryptamine in Human Blood and Urine,” Nature 206 (1965): 1052, doi: 10.1038/2061052a0, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/5839067; J. Axelrod, “Enzymatic Formation of Psychotomimetic Metabolites from Normally Occurring Compounds,” Science 134 (1961): 343, doi:10.1126/science.134.3475.343, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/13685339.
22) Strassman, Inner Paths, 15.
23) Strassman, Inner Paths, 18.
24) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 290, sources Walter N. Pahnke and William A. Richards, “Implications of LSD and Experimental Mysticism,” Journal of Religion and Health 5 (1966): 175-208, http://psychedelic-library.org/pahnke4.htm; Walter Pahnke’s 1963 thesis for Harvard University, "Drugs and Mysticism: An Analysis of the Relationship between Psychedelic Drugs and the Mystical Consciousness," International Journal of Parapsychology 8, no. 2 (Spring 1966): 295-313, https://erowid.org/entheogens/journals/entheogens_journal3.shtml; More recent replications of this study found similar results: Rick Doblin, "Pahnke's 'Good Friday Experiment': a long-term follow-up and methodological critique," Journal of Transpersonal Psychology 23, no. 1 (1991): 1-25, https://maps.org/articles/5414-good-friday-drugs-mysticism; R. R. Griffiths, W. A. Richards, U McCann, and R. Jesse, "Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance," Psychopharmacology 187, no. 3 (2006): 268-83, doi:10.1007/s00213-006-0457-5, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16826400.
25) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 33; Strassman, Inner Paths, 19 - 20; DMT became globally prohibited in 1971 by the United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances, 31, http://incb.org/documents/Psychotropics/conventions/convention_1971_en.pdf.
26) Tim Leary, “Programmed communication during experiences with DMT (dimethyl-tryptamine),” Psychedelic Review 8 (1966): 83-95, https://jacobsm.com/deoxy/deoxy.org/h_leary.htm.
27) First released in 1976, Terence and Dennis McKenna published Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide: A Handbook for Psilocybin Enthusiasts under the pseudonyms "O.T. Oss" and "O.N. Oeric," (Quick American Archives, 1976), http://en.psilosophy.info/pdf/psilocybin_magic_mushrooms_growers_guide_(psilosophy.info).pdf; An early lecture by Terrence McKenna discussing DMT, psilocybin, and entities include this one given in December 1982: “Podcast 270 – “Tryptamine Consciousness,’” Psychedelic Salon, Podcast audio, June 10, 2011, https://psychedelicsalon.com/podcast-270-tryptamine-consciousness; Graham St John, Mystery School in Hyperspace: A Cultural History of DMT (North Atlantic Books, 2015), chapter 4, http://worldcat.org/oclc/907295646.
28) St John, Mystery School, 114.
29) Strassman, DMT:tSM, 1, 359; Strassman, “Rick Strassman MD,” https://rickstrassman.com/biography.
30) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 35 - 37.
31) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 4; Strassman’s formal study results were published several years prior to the book’s publication but his personal conclusions (i.e. awareness of “spiritual levels of existence”) were voiced in the book; for original study results see Rick Strassman and Clifford Quails, "Dose-Response Study of N,N-Dimethyltryptamine in Humans. I: Neuroendocrine, Autonomic, and Cardiovascular Effects," Archives of General Psychiatry 51 (1994): 85-97, https://researchgate.net/publication/14902515_Dose-response_study_of_NN-dimethyltryptamine_in_humans_I_Neuroendocrine_autonomic_and_cardiovascular_effects ; and Rick Strassman, Clifford Quails, Eberhard Uhlenhuth, and Robert Kellner, "Dose-Response Study of N,NDimethyltryptamine in Humans. II: Subjective Effects and Preliminary Results of a New Rating Scale," Archives of General Psychiatry 51 (1994): 98-108, https://researchgate.net/publication/14902516_Dose-response_study_of_NN-dimethyltryptamine_in_humans_II_Subjective_effects_and_preliminary_results_of_a_new_rating_scale.
32) More on the 21st century psychedelic (research) “renaissance”: Emily Witt, “The Science of the Psychedelic Renaissance,” The New Yorker, May 28, 2019, https://newyorker.com/books/under-review/the-science-of-the-psychedelic-renaissance; Michael Pollan opens his No. 1 New York Times best-seller book with a chapter on the “renaissance,” How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence (Penguin Books, 2018).
33) Co-written by Mitch Schultz and Rick Strassman, Directed by Mitch Schultz, DMT: The Spirit Molecule (NY, USA: Spectral Alchemy and Synthetic Pictures, 2010), https://imdb.com/title/tt1340425.
34) The conference was the Entheogenic Plant Sentience Symposium; Luke, Spowers, and Bilton, eds., DMT Dialogues; Video of the event: “Entheogenic Plant Sentience Symposium 2015,” Tyringham Initiative, https://vimeo.com/156248372.
35) “Christopher Timmermann,” ResearchGate, https://researchgate.net/profile/Christopher_Timmermann; David Luke’s work on DMT includes “Discarnate entities and dimethyltryptamine (DMT): Psychopharmacology, phenomenology and ontology,” Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 75, no. 902 (January 2011): 26-42,
https://researchgate.net/publication/258051832_Discarnate_entities_and_dimethyltryptamine_DMT_Psychopharmacology_phenomenology_and_ontology; Andrew Gallimore wrote about DMT for several years, his culminating publication being Alien Information Theory: Psychedelic Drug Technologies and the Cosmic Game (UK: Strange Worlds Press, 2019); Dennis McKenna, Luke, Gallimore, and others have chapters in DMT Dialogues.
36) Christopher Timmermann, Leor Roseman, Michael Schartner, Raphael Milliere, Luke T. J. Williams, David Erritzoe, Suresh Muthukumaraswamy, Michael Ashton, Adam Bendrioua, Okdeep Kaur, Samuel Turton, Matthew M. Nour, Camilla M. Day, Robert Leech, David J. Nutt, & Robin L. Carhart-Harris, “Neural correlates of the DMT experience assessed with multivariate EEG,” Scientific Reports 9, 16324 (2019), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-51974-4, https://nature.com/articles/s41598-019-51974-4.
37) For example Roland Griffiths, et al., "Psilocybin can occasion”; Jose A. Morales-Garcia, Javier Calleja-Conde, Jose A. Lopez-Moreno, Sandra Alonso-Gil, Marina Sanz-SanCristobal, Jordi Riba & Ana Perez-Castillo, “N,N-dimethyltryptamine compound found in the hallucinogenic tea ayahuasca, regulates adult neurogenesis in vitro and in vivo,” Translational Psychiatry 10, no. 331 (2020), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-020-01011-0, https://nature.com/articles/s41398-020-01011-0; Octavio Rettig Hinojosa author of The Toad of Dawn: 5-MeO-DMT and the Rising of Cosmic Consciousness (Divine Arts, 2016); and Malin Vedøy Uthaug, https://psychedelicstoday.com/2020/07/21/dr-malin-vedoy-uthaug-ayahuasca-and-5-meo-dmt-research.
38) Emmanuelle A D Schindler, Christopher H Gottschalk, Marsha J Weil, Robert E Shapiro, Douglas A Wright, Richard Andrew Sewell, “Indoleamine Hallucinogens in Cluster Headache: Results of the Clusterbusters Medication Use Survey,” Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 47, no. 5 (Nov-Dec 2015): 372-81, doi:10.1080/02791072.2015.1107664, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26595349; Matthew W. Johnson, Albert Garcia-Romeu, and Roland R. Griffiths, “Long-term Follow-up of Psilocybin-facilitated Smoking Cessation,” The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse 43, no. 1 (2017): 55-60, doi:10.3109/00952990.2016.1170135, https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5641975; Ede Frecska, Petra Bokor, and Michael Winkelman, “The Therapeutic Potentials of Ayahuasca: Possible Effects against Various Diseases of Civilization,” Frontiers in Pharmacology 7, no. 35 (2016): 1-17, DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2016.00035, https://researchgate.net/publication/296690214_The_Therapeutic_Potentials_of_Ayahuasca_Possible_Effects_against_Various_Diseases_of_Civilization; Interview with Strassman on therapeutic potential of psychedelics: Shelby Hartman, “Rick Strassman on DMT and the Mystical State,” Double Blind, September 30, 2019, https://doubleblindmag.com/rick-strassman-dmt-mystical-state.
39) The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies has a lack of study in pure DMT for therapeutic purposes, see https://maps.org/research; John Hopkins’ Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research is studying DMT experiences but seemingly not researching therapeutic effects of pure DMT, see https://hopkinspsychedelic.org/index/#research, and Matthew Gault, “If You’ve Met Aliens While on DMT, These Scientists Would Like to Hear From You,” Motherboard, March 28, 2018, https://vice.com/en/article/bjpjxm/dmt-aliens-study-johns-hopkins; the research studying therapeutic uses of DMT-containing substances appears to be entirely on ayahuasca, psilocybin, and 5-MeO-DMT.
40) The technique of extended DMT trips was first performed by E. Gouzoulis-Mayfrank, K. Heekeren, A. Neukirch, M. Stoll, C. Stock, M. Obradovic, K. A. Kovar, “Psychological effects of (S)-ketamine and N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT): a double-blind, cross-over study in healthy volunteers,” Pharmacopsychiatry 38 (2005), 301–311, doi: 10.1055/s-2005-916185, https://thieme-connect.com/products/ejournals/abstract/10.1055/s-2005-916185; later improved upon by Andrew Gallimore and Rick Strassman, “A Model for the Application of Target-Controlled Intravenous Infusion for a Prolonged Immersive DMT Psychedelic Experience,” Frontiers in Pharmacology 7 (2016): 211, https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4944667, https://frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2016.00211/full.
41) Strassman, Inner Paths, 27 - 28.
42) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 41- 42; Strassman, Inner Paths, 53.
43) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 40 - 41.
44) Volunteer given the name “Mike” in Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 140.
45) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 39 - 40; Strassman, Inner Paths, 24.
46) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 42, 166, and another volunteer, “William,” 159, commented on his mental clarity during the experience as “not intoxicated. I’m lucid and sober.”
47) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 42.
48) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 38 - 39.
49) Strassman, Inner Paths, 72.
50) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 41, compared to those who couldn’t and experienced fear and panic resulting in unpleasant sessions.
51) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 42, 150 - 152; David Luke in interview with Jeffrey Mishlove, “Understanding DMT with David Luke,” New Thinking Allowed with Jeffrey Mishlove, November 5, 2018, YouTube video, 33:31, at 5:10, https://youtu.be/rCdLO-UP8No.
52) Paul Devereux, The Long Trip, 123, sources Michael J. Harner, Hallucinogens and Shamanism (New York, NY, USA: Oxford University Press, 1973), 155 - 56, https://archive.org/details/hallucinogenssha0000unse/mode/2up.
53) Gallimore and Luke, “DMT Research,” 4, 6, sources A. Sai-Halász, G. Brunecker, and S. Szára, “Dimethyltryptamine: Ein Neues Psychoticum,” “Dimethyltryptamine: a New Psycho-active Drug” (unpublished English translation) Psychiatria et Neurologia (Basel) 135 (1958): 285-301; Strassman, Inner Paths, 35, sources Z. Boszorményi and S. I. Szára, “Dimethyltryptamine Experiments with Psychotics,” Journal of Mental Science 104 (1958): 445-53, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/13564150.
54) Strassman, Inner Paths, 34 - 35, sources W. J. Turner Jr. and S. Merlis, “Effect of Some Indolealkylamines on Man,” Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry 81 (1959): 121-29, https://jamanetwork.com/journals/archneurpsyc/article-abstract/652833.
55) Terence McKenna discusses DMT and the “elves” in writing and talks such as this one given in December 1982: “Podcast 270 – “Tryptamine Consciousness,’” Psychedelic Salon, June 10, 2011, https://psychedelicsalon.com/podcast-270-tryptamine-consciousness; The Archaic Revival (New York, NY, USA: HarperOne), 16, 37, https://archive.org/details/ArchaicRevival; and with Dennis McKenna, The Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens, and the I Ching (San Francisco, California, USA: HarperCollins, (1975) 1993), https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/Occult_Library/Entheogens/Terence%20McKenna%20-%20Invisible%20Landscape.pdf.
56) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 42, 150 - 152.
57) Strassman, DMT:tSM, 189 - 90, 200, 206; Strassman, Inner Paths, 65 - 66, 70; Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 152 - 53, 183.
58) Luke, “Discarnate entities,” 38, Correction: source says “multiple” snakes covered in eyes are “commonly” seen by naïve DMT users, not just a single report of this entity.
59) Volunteer called “Lucas” in Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 152 - 53, 183; Strassman, DMT:tSM, 189 - 90; Strassman, Inner Paths, 65 - 66.
60) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 42 - 43, 147 - 48, 266; Strassman, DMT:tSM, 204, as an example, volunteer “Rex” saw colours surrounding the beings, creating an outline.
61) Luke, “Discarnate entities,” 26, 35, 38.
62) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 44, 188 - 93; Strassman, Inner Paths, 65.
63) The fullest account of “Willow’s” experience is in Strassman, DMT:tSM, 224 - 25; also mentioned in Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 148, 152; Strassman, Inner Paths, 59.
64) Strassman, Inner Paths, 56 - 57.
65) Experience of “Sean,” Strassman, Inner Paths, 68; Strassman, DMT:tSM, 243 - 46; Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 180 - 81.
66) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 12; Significance of hypnotism briefly mentioned by Strassman, Inner Paths, 6.
67) Paul Devereux, The Long Trip, 251 - 52, the author restates the point made by Wolfgang Coral, in “Psychedelic Drugs and Spiritual States of Consciousness in the Light of Modern Neurochemical Research,” in Gateway to Inner Space, edited by Christian Ratsch (Bridpot, England: Prism Press, 1989), 133, 141.
68) Strassman, Inner Paths, 4.
69) Strassman, Inner Paths, 37, sources B. Kovacic and E. F. Domino, “Tolerance and Limited Cross-tolerance to the Effects of N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and Lysergic Acid Diethylamide-25 (LSD) on Food-rewarded Bar Pressing in the Rat,” Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics 197 (1976): 495-502, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1064726.
70) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 31, 267.
71) Andrew Gallimore’s major publication is Alien Information Theory: Psychedelic Drug Technologies and the Cosmic Game (United Kingdom: Strange Worlds Press, 2019); Gallimore, chapter 7 in DMT Dialogues, 175 - 204, 314.
72) Ede Frecska wrote chapters 7 to 9 in Inner Paths, 162 - 254; Frecska, chapter 6 in DMT Dialogues, 154 - 174, 314.
73) Dennis McKenna, chapter 2 in DMT Dialogues, 57, or 38 - 68 for his complete thoughts, on 61 he also states “DMT shows us the future” at different intervals.
74) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 4, 14; Strassman also summarizes his work on this topic in DMT Dialogues, 279 - 92, Strassman clarifies he is not suggesting the prophets ingested DMT nor that endogenous DMT is solely responsible for prophetic events. While not a perfect match, similarities between the two states include the effects on the body such as temperature fluctuations, shakines, physical weakness, and feelings of nausea (Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 114 - 18, note that nauseous feelings in Strassman’s DMT research group were rare, however in ayahuasca it is common.) Emotions experienced in both states, such as feeling awe, fear, peace, and (only rarely in the DMT state) humiliation (122 - 31). Similarities in perception including visuals, sounds signalling the start of the experiences, and hearing a spoken voice (132 - 57). Similarities in the types of cognition experienced, including initial confusion, followed by lucidity and intact memory (158 - 167).
75) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 5, 107 - 08.
76) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 43.
77) Strassman, Inner Paths, 73 - 74; Strassman, DMT:tSM, 216 - 19, Strassman sources John Mack, Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens (New York, USA: Ballantine, 1994) and John Mack, Passport to the Cosmos: Human Transformation and Alien Encounters (New York, NY, USA: Crown Publishers, 1999).
78) Strassman, DMT & the Soul, 245 - 46.
79) John Keel, Operation Trojan Horse (Lilburn, Georgia, USA: IllumiNet Press (1970) 1996), https://archive.org/details/OperationTrojanHorse/mode/2up.
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Video Sources:
New Thinking Allowed with Jeffrey Mishlove. “Researching Psychedelics and DMT with Rick Strassman.” October 30, 2019. YouTube video, 56:59. https://youtu.be/-xA5wkjsDrM.
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