Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22057 in Books
• Published on: 2001-06-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Alissa Hirshfeld-Flores, M.A., LMFT, The American Journal of Psychiatry, August 2002
This book is a highly readable, intriguing, provocative description of Rick Strassman's theories and research concerning the effects of DMT.

Paul Von Ward, The AHP Perspective, June/July 2002
The account of the project is an excellent inside view of human drug studies, especially those with psychedelics.

Vicki Ecker, UFO Magazine, December-January 2002
. . . an enriching journey into one scientist's courageous attempt to solve a bit more of the brain/mind/spirit mystery.

Customer Reviews

EXTRAORDINARY RESEARCH INTO CONSCIOUSNESS
This is a report of the author’s clinical research into the psychedelic substance DMT, a plant derived substance that is also produced by the brain. The volunteers reported a variety of positive mystical or frightening hallucinatory experiences including encounters with intelligent entities.

The research connects DMT with the pineal gland and the esoteric belief that the pineal, connected as it is with the crown or sahasrara chakra, eases the spirit’s movement into different states of consciousness or different dimensions of existence. It is clear from the book that further DMT research could lead to major progress in the study of consciousness.

Part One deals with psychedelic substances in science and society, describes the chemical qualities and molecular structure of DMT and discusses the pineal gland and its role in the psychedelic experience. Part Two relates the history of the author’s research, from the actual research proposal and the process of obtaining permission; this section may be skipped by the average reader.

Part Three describes the process of selecting volunteers, obtaining DMT and the first experiments, whilst Part Four details the case reports: what the volunteers said and did, their behaviour, etc. This makes for strange and fascinating reading. Some experiences were positive and illuminating like genuine mystical experiences obtained during meditation, others were eerie or deeply unpleasant.

Pat Five takes stock of the experiences and considers the question of whether it was worth it for each individual. There is an attempt to determine the ultimate benefit derived from the experience for the individual concerned. Definitions come into play but it seems to me that the experiments did benefit each individual in some or other way.

Part Six is a very interesting discussion of the psyche and different states of consciousness. It would seem that spontaneously occurring psychedelic experiences are mediated by elevated levels of endogenous DMT. This spiritual molecule thus provides access to unknown parts of the psyche. If the analogy of brain as receiver may be used, the substance finetunes the brain so that the individual consciousness moves beyond familiar awareness into invisible realms, most of which are inhabited.

There is a difference between this expanded awareness and normal dreaming and the current psychological methods do not satisfactorily explain the phenomenon or the peculiar experiences, especiall as regards the entities encountered. This leads to a speculative discussion on cosmology, the possibility of parallel universes, a multiverse and dark matter, with reference to David Deutsch’s book The Fabric Of Reality.

The author concludes this brilliant work with a discussion on the practical use of psychedelics as therapy, to stimulate creativity or as entheogens. In this regard I would like to recommend Huston Smith’s Cleansing The Doors Of Perception: The Religious Significance of Entheogentic Plants and Chemicals, William James’ Varieties Of Religious Experience, Stephan Hoeller’s The Gnostic Jung And The Seven Sermons To The Dead and the book Chaos, Creativity and Cosmic Consciousness by Abraham, McKenna and Sheldrake.

NEW RESEARCH CONCERNING PSYCHEDELICS IN THE 90'S
The theories that Rick Strassman has concerning the D.M.T. molecule as being the "Spirit Molecule" are astounding!!! Readers will be amazed at the information this book contains, Rick brings the story of his research alive with his straight forward and scientific approach on a type of research that is considered "Tabboo" in the normal stream of everyday life. I found his speculations about the production of D.M.T. in the penial gland of a fetus 49 days into it's development and how he considers this as the vehicle of the soul moving into the body before birth astounding!! Also in the same chapter he mentions that upon dying D.M.T. is produced in large amounts in the human brain,,(the soul leaving the body) This book is the history of his research, injecting humans with D.M.T. the most powerful, and short acting psychedelic known to man. he includes detailed information about "what's on the otherside" from test members in this project, describing their experiences in their own words. The book represents a possability that through the clinical use of this chemical we can actually experience what it is like to die and travel to new dimensions in 15 minutes with no adverse effects!! Amazing factual data on this subject which brings forth the possibbility of researching this and other chemicals for the benifit of mankind, in a proper time for such research to begin again,,,not as it had begun during the war torn times of vietnam when the counterculture tried to find "Enlightenment" through just taking these drugs. Their enthusiasim got the best of them and therefore led to the problems that interfeard with further research in the scientific community. These are valuable chemical keys to the nature of the human mind and how it works, and i feel it is time that we wipe our bloodied noses and start again in this exploration of "inner space." Thank you Doctor Rick Strassman for this wonderful book, and opening the doors for future scientists to work with psychedelics again, unhindered by negative publicity and bias!!

Speculative but Fascinating
In this book Strassman describes a number of research projects he has undertaken into the effects of DMT (one of the most potent hallucinogens/entheogens known to man) on human volunteers. Rather than merely presenting a bunch of trip reports, he gives plenty of relevant background, and details the research methods used and the hassles he went through to get approval for the trials.

The book is both written and arranged in an easy-to-handle manner, and I found it highly readable. The experiences documented are fascinating, and much of Strassman's commentary about them is interesting and insightful.

My only reservation is that some of the ideas he presents are initially pure speculation, by the next page have turned into a fundamental assumption on which other speculations may be based, and for the rest of the book appear as solid fact.
This is true of the central theme, that DMT is the "spirit molecule", somehow representing or intimately connected with human spiritual experience. Strassman misses a couple of opportunities to make his case more robustly, I feel. But that doesn't mean he's wrong, and it doesn't negate the overall value of the book.