I haven't given up on this journal, don't worry. So I started school last week and am doing a research project on DMT for English. I've decide my next section will be dedicated to DMT.
Divine Moments of Truth
Part 1
To be honest, I don't have anything written yet. But I recently interviewed Dr. Rick Strassman, a pioneer of DMT research, and I'd like to make that my first entry.
Me: Do you agree with recreational use of DMT?
Rick: No. DMT is a powerful and potentially disorienting drug experience and its recreationally use is full of difficulties, or least possible ones. Be that as it may, people use drugs and the best possible way to use them is to be as well prepared as possible.
Me: Do you believe DMT to simply be another mind altering drug, or do you believe in the spiritual aspect of it?
Rick: I don't think that the two descriptors are necessarily mutually exclusive. In other words, mind altering drugs may allow access to spiritual experiences. If by spiritual experience you mean the apprehension of something outside of ourselves, I do believe that this is a strong possibility with respect to DMT. In other words, DMT by changing how the brain works may alter our ability to perceive external things which are normally invisible.
Me: The term entheogen(ic) means “Generating the divine within”. Do you find this a fitting term for DMT? Would you believe users to have religious experiences, or have found god, per se?
Rick: I don't like the term entheogen. What if somebody does not believe in divinity or God? And not everybody experiences these types of effects. Thus, I think it is too exclusive the term. I think psychedelic is the best term because it incorporates the widest range of possible experiences. Despite the fact that it has accumulated a lot of baggage from the cultural turmoil of the 1960s, that doesn't mean we can't use it. For example, a lot of people have misused the word "love," but that has not precluded us continuing to use it. I think psychedelic is a good term for DMT. Psychedelic may mean mind-manifesting or mind-disclosing. Even here, the term is broad enough to incorporate either the effects of the drugs on allowing us to access things within our mind, or providing the garb that enclothes external verities if they indeed do exist outside of ourselves.
Me: DMT is chemically similar to psilocin, one of the active psychedelic compounds found in psychedelic mushrooms. But while under the effects of psilocin, users can still function (walking, talking, etc. (for the most part)), but while under the effects of DMT, a user may be found completely immobilized, not able to articulate thoughts. Of course the effects are similar, and higher doses of psilocin will cause more powerful effects (though it varies from person to person), what causes DMT to be so much more powerful?
Rick: I think a lot of this has to do with dose effects. People can still walk and talk on low doses of DMT, and as you note high doses of psilocybin can be totally immobilizing. For example with respect to smaller doses of DMT, one of the Brazilian ayahuasca using churches, the Santo Daime, drinks the tea all night and dances and sings the entire night.
Me: DMT is not to be taken lightly, but many people, intronauts as well as those without experience, are on the lookout for it. What may have been some causes for its rise in popularity?
Rick: Probably that the three most salient reasons are Terence McKenna's work popularizing the drug in the early 1990s, my research and subsequent book, and the increasing popularity of ayahuasca.
Me: Has it yet been scientifically proven that DMT is produced in your pineal gland? And/or psilocin?
Rick: I collaborated with the two groups at LSU and the University of Michigan in the publication recently of a paper demonstrating that DMT is found in rodent pineal gland in living animals. We still don't know about humans. Psilocin is not endogenous in humans or other mammals.
Me: Is DMT always effective? I myself have had an experience in which absolutely nothing happened. It was indeed DMT, as it worked at later times.
Rick: We had two volunteers with no or nearly no reaction to DMT. However, this was consistent. That is, it was not the case that they were resistant once and then the next time not. What you describe is a little difficult to make sense of. One might suggest that there were other medications or drugs on board, technical problems in inhaling, or other delivery and/or metabolism issues.
Me: Related to the question above, when vaporizing DMT, is it essential to hold it in for as long as possible? My experience where nothing happened may have been a result of not holding it in, I inhaled and immediately exhaled.
Rick: See my answer to the above question.
Me: Does DMT have any proven therapeutic effects? LSD and psilocybin mushrooms have been shown to cure/help such ailments as alcoholism, cluster headaches, cigarette addiction, and depression/anxiety. Can DMT be used in a medical sense?
Rick: I don't know of any well-controlled studies using DMT by itself to treat any medical conditions. I have heard a number of anecdotal reports regarding ayahuasca being of help as well as pure DMT in a variety of conditions but there are no data from any medical research teams out there.
Me: Do you agree/disagree with DMT's current legal status?
Rick: When I began my DMT work in 1990, I wrote to the then Attorney General of the US suggesting that she consider rescheduling DMT because the criteria for its placement into Schedule I no longer held. Those three criteria are: highly abusable, unsafe even under medical supervision, and no known medical use. The fact that I was beginning research with this drug obviated the second two criteria; that is, they were being used safely under medical supervision and they did have utility for explicating certain features of brain function in a research setting. One of her assistants wrote back suggesting that this would require an act of Congress. A similar argument could be made in the case of psilocybin. I think what may turn out to be the case is that a new schedule needs to be developed. This might be something like schedule I A which would restrict the sale, manufacture, distribution, etc. of these drugs but allow qualified researchers and practitioners to use them after having obtained specialized training and certification without having to reinvent the wheel every time he or she desires to use these compounds.
September, 15 2013