Human beings have known of the psychedelic effects of dimethyltryptamine (DMT) millennia before the discovery of the molecule itself. The indigenous people of South and Central America have created various DMT containing snuffs and mixtures, and the more notable ayahuasca brew (Strassman 33).
Ayahuasca combines a DMT containing plant with an enzyme inhibitor which allows the DMT to be taken orally. In contemporary Western culture, extracted crystalline DMT is smoked for a short mystical trip through the veil of time and space.
DMT is no rarity of nature. In fact, it has been found in the bodies of all mammals in which scientists have searched for its presence. DMT is present in an enormous number of plants from every ecosystem. DMT has been found in human urine and blood, and many speculate, based on precursors and enzymes among other reasons, that DMT has an endogenous connection with the brains pineal gland. (Strassman 38)
The pineal gland, or third eye, is an unpaired brain organ shaped like a pine cone. Its location is the direct center of the brain, right above the brow center, or the crown chakra. The spiritual significance of the pineal gland spans throughout world religious tradition, as pointed out in David Wilcock’s ‘The 2012 Enigma’ documentary. As Wilcock points out, even today people of the Hindu faith wear the pottu on their forehead, indicating the pineal gland.
Many speculate the pineal is allowed to excrete DMT based on the theory of resonance. Just as certain sound frequencies can shatter glass, certain “‘sacred’ words, chants, visual images and mental exercise” can generate specific fields, causing the brain to vibrate and pulse at certain frequencies (Strassman 76). The change of consciousness is best illustrated by the “receiver of reality” brain model. Working with this model, Strassman compares the brain to a TV receiver, which can turn to different channels of consciousness, such as those induced by DMT (Strassman 311).
The effects of consumed DMT are remarkable. Joe Rogan articulates a typical DMT experience: “Literally, you are transported into another fucking dimension. I don’t mean like you feel you’re in another dimension, you’re in another dimension. There’s fucking complex geometric patterns moving in synchronies order through the air all around you in three dimensional space. It’s like they’re arteries, but there isn’t blood pumping through them, there’s light, pulsating light with no boundaries. And there’s an alien communicating with me who looks sort of like a Tai Buddha, except he’s entirely made of energy and there’s no outline to him. He’s concentrating and telling me not to give into astonishment, relax and try and experience this.”
After inducing and recording 60 clinical DMT sessions, Dr. Rick Strassman breaks the experiences into 3 different, yet overlapping categories. Joe Rogan’s would be considered an “invisible world” session, where users report “freestanding autonomous realities” coexisting with our own, often inhabited by aware and interactive alien beings. “Personal” sessions were psychologically oriented and “yield deeper awareness and acceptance of personal issues.” Lastly are the “transpersonal” sessions, including mystical and near death experiences, which go “beyond the individual’s historical life experience.” (Strassman 55)
Author Graham Hancock hypothesizes that the discovery of psychoactive substances by human beings some 40,000 years ago would have “exploded like incendiary bombs in the dull, somnolent, utilitarian minds of the anatomically modern but behaviorally archaic humans… demolishing rigid mental structures… jumpstarting the intellectual and cultural evolution of our species” (228).
Hancock also notes the statistical evidence that a small percentage, 1-2% of the human population, has the ability to spontaneous fall into trance and mystical states without the aid of “psychoactive plants or the physical methods of trance induction such as rhythmic dancing or drumming” (229). The weight of such experiences would have had little influence on society, just as their medieval and modern counterparts did, fairies and alien abduction phenomenon respectively (Hancock 229). Ergo, although some humans were having such experiences for perhaps hundreds of thousands of years, it wasn’t until these experiences went mainstream in the form of ingested and smoked plants that the profound shift in consciousness occurred. It is important to note that these mystical states of consciousness can be achieved by anyone entirely without the aid of psychedelics, through meditation, trance, and other means such as shamanic ecstasy.
Psychedelic substances are among the most natural substances on earth, nearly molecularly identical to our brains natural neural transmitters, and in the case of DMT – endogenous to the human body. Yet, governments around the world criminalize and run propaganda campaigns against these substances, placing shackles on the human mind. Isn’t the exploration of one’s own consciousness an inalienable human right? I believe the study of DMT and other psychedelics will lead to many answers regarding human evolution, consciousness, and life itself. To quote Joe Rogan once more, “Life is a massive fucking mystery, and there’s really only a few different ways to crack below the surface of that mystery, and the best way is psychedelics.”
By c0sm0nautt
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