DMT and the Psychedelic Renaissance

as a kid

i’d always joke with my friends and

family about being born in the wrong

generation

i’m a child of the 60s i would say a

modern hippie

i listen to jimi hendrix and the

grateful dead i wore tie-dye shirts and

had hair down to my shoulders

to my teenage self the 1960s seemed like

a vibrant age of creativity and free

expression

a time of novel ideas fueled by

hallucinogenic drugs

that challenged the norm and questioned

the status quo

and at that point in my life there were

two possible life outcomes

to either become a traveling musician in

a rock and roll band

or to pitch a tent in the wilderness and

live off the land

well i gave both of those things a real

shot and made the most of them while

they lasted

but at some point my hippie dreams faded

and they were replaced with more

traditional goals

like a career a salary and a home that

wasn’t made out of nylon fabric

it wasn’t until making the transition to

graduate school here at michigan

when i realized a potential connection

between my teenage dreams

and a real job in 2015 i was introduced

to psychedelic research

in this article by michael pollan in the

new yorker

he described how researchers had given

magic mushrooms to patients with

life-threatening cancer

in an effort to reduce their anxiety

surrounding death

and the and the overwhelmingly positive

results of that study

helped fuel what is now being called the

psychedelic renaissance

a rebirth of the substances that played

such an integral role in what made the

1960s so unique

were now legitimate topics of study in

science

and at that moment i said to myself

far out man and i started looking for

phd programs in psychedelic science

but before we get too off track let’s

make sure we understand what this

psychedelic renaissance is all about

the word psychedelic is derived from the

greek word psyche meaning mind

and delos meaning to make visible

psychedelic thus translates

to mind manifesting or to reveal the

mind

and psychedelics make up a class of

drugs that reliably

and drastically alter human

consciousness or free your mind as they

might have said in the 1960s

the classic psychedelics include

substances like lsd

magic mushrooms and dmt

this renaissance of psychedelic research

is showing us that psychedelics

are able to ease symptoms of depression

and anxiety for months

in individuals who are previously

thought to be treatment resistant

many participants in these studies

attest that their psychedelic

experiences

are among the top five most meaningful

experiences of their entire lives

on par with the birth of a child or

death of a family member

so today the substances that freed the

minds of an entire generation in the

1960s

are now helping to free the minds of

individuals with crippling

mental health conditions but as you

might guess

psychedelics can also free the mind of

healthy individuals too

and the psychedelic renaissance is

revealing to us that these substances

are extraordinary tools for scientists

like me

to study the mind and understand the

mechanisms of consciousness itself

in order to understand how psychedelics

can be useful here we first have to

attempt to understand consciousness

which is a big challenge not just for

you and me but for all of science

because collectively science lacks an

explanation

for how the molecules cells and organs

of our body

synergistically combine to generate this

all-encompassing experience

that we call consciousness and it’s not

just our mind’s eye

consciousness is the essence of what it

means to be human

it is the stage for any and all

experiences that will ever happen in our

entire lives

and without it everything we know ceases

to exist

yet despite its fundamental importance

the mysteries of consciousness

remain as the ultimate unsolved mystery

of science

so where does psychedelics fit in well

as a scientist

you learn that a good way to improve

your understanding of something

is to alter it and psychedelics are

among the most powerful tools

for altering consciousness that we know

of with modern neuroscience

tools we can now measure exactly what’s

happening in the brain of an individual

over the course of a controlled but

radical shift in consciousness

and this shift in consciousness is also

coupled

with a profound meaningful and personal

subjective experience so we now have the

ability

to precisely quantify the physiological

and neurological changes that are

associated with this intensely

subjective altered state which provides

a fascinating new path

towards studying the studying

consciousness in entirely new ways

long-time researcher dr stanislav groff

once said

psychedelics are for the mind what the

microscope is for biology

and the telescope is for astronomy

he was suggesting that psychedelics like

the microscope or telescope

have the potential to reveal realms of

reality that were previously invisible

to the naked eye they provide a powerful

lens

for us to study and examine the mind in

entirely new ways

but what if our bodies readily and

naturally

produced its own psychedelic substance

might you be interested in how that

substance relates to consciousness

well for the last several decades

scientists have known that to be true

your body my body and all mammals for

that matter

naturally produce a psychedelic

substance called n-n-dimethyltryptamine

or dmt dmt is a small molecule in our

body

whose molecular structure is incredibly

similar

to the structure of the neurotransmitter

serotonin

and the fascinating thing is that even

though we know so much about how

critical serotonin is

for the regulation of mood and brain

function

science knows next to nothing about the

role that dmt might be playing in the

body

and what’s more dmt seems to be nearly

ubiquitous in nature

not only is it present across the animal

kingdom dmt is naturally produced by

hundreds

if not thousands of species of plants

and when i first learned that

my inner flower child transcended

so that’s where i come back my dreams of

becoming a traveling hippie

and selling out music festivals didn’t

exactly pan out but i found a job

researching psychedelics

and studying one of the most fascinating

topics i could have ever imagined

my phd work is focused on the study of

dmt in the body

and the role that it may play in brain

function and consciousness

in other words what is this psychedelic

compound doing floating around in our

body

and can it provide clues as to the

mysteries of the mind

to answer that we should look at how dmt

affects consciousness

when taken in its pure form dmt brings

about altered states of consciousness

reminiscent of other psychedelics visual

hallucinations

distortions of reality altered

perception of time and space

but the dmt experience is said to exist

in an entirely separate domain

relative to those of the other

psychedelics

within usually less than 30 seconds of

dmt ingestion

the user is catapulted through a

visually immersive kaleidoscopic

labyrinth of vibrant and shifting

geometry

and then plunged into a seemingly

alternate and otherworldly dimension

a realm of space that was previously

unfathomable to the mind

and this coincides with the feeling of

complete and utter

disembodiment from their physical self

oftentimes forgetting that their body

even exists

and during that brief stint in this

alien realm users report communication

with higher intelligences

confrontations with death and an

overwhelming feeling

of the experience being more real than

real

but within a matter of about 10 minutes

the effects will have almost completely

subsided

and normal waking consciousness resumes

so that just begs the question

if that’s what happens when we consume

dmt then what in the world

is it doing in our body early guesses

propose that dmt might act as a

schizotoxin

or substance responsible for the

hallucinatory effects of schizophrenia

other guesses suggested that dmt might

be involved in dreaming consciousness

states of spiritual or religious

mysticism or near-death experiences

our work here at michigan is aiming to

not only understand

the brain effects of the dmt experience

but also to understand the basic role

that dmt might play

in day-to-day physiological functions

but the short answer is

science currently has almost no grasp

about what dmt might be doing in the

body

but the fact that it’s withstood

generations of human evolution

and remained a part of our own

physiology to this day suggests that

it’s here for a reason

and of all the psychedelics being

investigated for their consciousness

altering effects

and therapeutic benefits dmt is the most

widespread in nature

and the only psychedelic known to be

endogenous to humans

are naturally produced by us

and since it’s produced by us it may be

a part of a yet undiscovered

natural hallucinogenic system within our

body

a system that becomes activated at

certain times to regulate perception

or bring about altered states of

consciousness

or perhaps this system plays some role

in our ability to receive

or experience the effects of other

psychedelics like

lsd or magic mushrooms or perhaps dmt is

in fact involved in our normal

perception of reality

and its dysfunction contributes to

psychiatric hallucinatory disorders

all of these are possible but nothing is

yet proven

but i believe that the mystery of dmt

deserves the attention of scientists

philosophers psychologists therapists

and anyone interested in trying to make

sense of the situation

we call reality so i’d like to summarize

with a quote

by the founder of american psychology

william james

who over a century ago advocated for the

importance

of studying altered states of

consciousness he said that our normal

waking consciousness

is but one special type of consciousness

whilst all about it parted from it by

the filmiest of screens

there lie potential forms of

consciousness entirely different

no account of the universe in its

totality can be final

which leaves these other forms of

consciousness quite disregarded

through self-experimentation william

james realized that the reality we’re

currently experiencing

waking reality is merely a fraction of

possible conscious states that exist

and if we prevent ourselves from

studying these altered states of

consciousness

we will never have a complete

understanding of the universe

the psychedelic renaissance is revealing

to us the vast

amount of power and potential that

psychedelics have

and the presence of naturally occurring

dmt in the body represents a great

unsolved mystery and a tangible link

between altered states of consciousness

and human physiology so i suggest we

take the advice of william james

let’s adopt the psychedelic experience

as a tool to study consciousness

and let’s determine if dmt the only

psychedelic known to be produced by

humans

plays a role in the most fundamental and

important mystery of science

human consciousness thank you

you