Wednesday, April 10, 2013

DMT "The Spirit Molecule" 4/10/13

It was all very, very impersonal. Until I got to the space where I realized I was in the area where the souls await rebirth and I was there, and I had been there so many times before. I recognized it, and this transcendent peace came over me. I had never experienced such peace. Everything was stripped away. Every hope, every fear, every attachment to the material world was completely stripped of me. I was free to just be the essence of a soul. -Susan Blumenthal M.D.
 
DMT, or as most people call it, "The Spirit Molecule" was synthesized in 1931 by Richard Manske, and it's chemical name is N, N-dimethyltryptamine. According to Rick Strassman, DMT is produced in the pineal gland of the brain during birth and death.  It can also be produced during periods of extreme stress or near death experiences and in intense meditation. DMT is also the hormone that facilitates the entering and exiting of the soul. It is such a simple molecule, and there are only 4 positions you can attach other chemicals to. DMT is also two enzymes from the amino acid tyrptiphan. Tryptiphan is in all living organisms, and all organisms have the two enzymes that lead to the synthesis of DMT.

DMT is the most powerful psychedelic known to man, hands down. That's why it is difficult to ask research subjects to describe their trip on DMT because it is incredibly intense in most cases. A DMT trip has a very rapid onset and a short duration, so the experience happens so fast it is hard to process all of the information learned at once.

Centuries ago the Amazonian natives discovered Ayahuasca brews, which has been used in many spiritual rituals to this day. It is a brew of the DMT plant and an enzyme inhibitor that slows down the experience. Ayahuasca begins to take effect after about 30 minutes and lasts for about 3 or 4 hours. This brew is most commonly used in spiritual rituals for "spiritual healing" and bonding with other humans or souls. It is also a more comfortable way to experience DMT because it isn't as intense and it is easier to maneuver through your psychedelic thoughts. It's quite interesting to me that the Amazonians were able to discover this recipe. How did they figure it out without any scientific research? It makes you wonder: were they told to do this through some sort of spiritual experience? Maybe through intense meditation?

When a person takes enough DMT they experience what is called a "breakthrough". Now, it's hard for someone that hasn't experienced it to describe it, but from what I've researched I would describe it as coming full circle in life, or becoming one with the soul. That may be hard to wrap you're head around if you've never actually researched this experience or heard first hand stories about it (which would definitely put it into perspective). DMT research subject Susan Blumenthal M.D. described her breakthrough as this: "It was all very, very impersonal. Until I got to the space where I realized I was in the area where the souls await rebirth and I was there, and I had been there so many times before. I recognized it, and this transcendent peace came over me. I had never experienced such peace. Everything was stripped away. Every hope, every fear, every attachment to the material world was completely stripped of me. I was free to just be the essence of a soul. -Susan Blumenthal M.D." The thing that catches my eye about this aspect of DMT is that it could be a look into what death is like. Especially since the brain excerpts large amounts of DMT when you die.

So much information is gained from these psychedelic experiences. Professor Rick Strassman stated, "Using psychedelic drugs or other types of pharmacological substances can help to enduce a state where people feel that they touch a deeper sense of reality. Where they understand reality on a more fundamental level and they gain a great deal of insight and knowledge into the ways in which the world works and how they as human beings are supposed to relate to the world". My biggest interest on this topic is: Why are our central nervous systems wired to receive these experiences? Is there important information to be learned from this psychedelic? If we all experienced a DMT trip and compared all of the knowledge we gained, could we change the entire universe? Considering DMT is the way in which all plants communicate, could DMT be the common molecular language between all living organisms?

When a person a large amount of DMT everything becomes very psychedelic, and when there is not enough DMT in the brain everything is very black and white. Do we produce just the right amount of DMT to experience life the way we do? In traumatic states (isolation, starvation, loss of main senses) our brain creates its own hallucinations through DMT. With that said: is the DMT that is produced in our brain the reason behind our imagination, hopes, fears, dreams, etc.?

Works Cited:

Erowid.org

"From the Newsletter of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies"
www.maps.org/news-letters/v07n1/07122str.html

"DMT: The Spirit Molecule" by Rick Strassman



4 comments:

  1. DMT sounds so interesting. In my speech class, a student discussed this drug.It sounds so crazy to think that a molecule can cause your brain to react in such a way. My question is, is it harmful? What is the long term effect? Your post was very insightful, I don't have the knowledge of many drugs so it was interesting to learn from your post.

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  2. This certainly sounds tripy, to say the very least! I think it's interesting that you, like many others, look to hallucinatory drugs/events to explore the answers to humanity's unanswerable questions. That's what makes drug use so appealing.

    Why are we wired to respond to any type of drug? A new post, perhaps?

    Could you post more information on Rick Strassman's text? Is it a web article? Add information to both sources so they fill out the required academic documentation standards.

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  3. This is a very interesting post! I've heard a couple of things about DMT in the past but not in depth like this. The fact that the Amazonian natives used the DMT plant in their brews is pretty cool because its not like anyone told them what the plant does. They simply discovered it themselves. The connection between DMT produced in our brains, to our minds is a very complex subject. I hope to see a post about it.

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  4. Terence Mckenna once said "you should only fear DMT if you fear death by astonishment" ... DMT cant hurt you, unless you have severe problems with your heart, but then you shouldn't be experimenting with anything that would elevate your heart rate... but i say this because you are experiencing the most exciting exploration that is possible, nothing else can disconnect your consciousness from your mind and body and allow you to feel 'i' as no form, with a deep connectedness, much deeper than anything you can articulate or think in this physical realm. this feeling will get your heart racing. One thing with DMT which separates it from all other "drugs" is that it leaves your actual mind unaffected, you are still you and in the day to day sense of you... your mind is still intact... you just get to experience what makes you really you, enjoy the freedoms of escaping the constraints of the human body, almost a nostalgia for your soul to return to a space with no physicality and no time... but in this state, there is guidance from something that is the biggest mystery, the ancient shamanic cultures believed that these were there ancestors, some believe there spirits or higher dimensional beings. But whatever you may believe, there is an intelligence to the space that you enter under DMT that is separate from you.

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