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