Dennis McKenna - Is DMT A Neurotransmitter For The Gaian Brain?

[Bancopuma]

Dennis McKenna's presentation from Breaking Convention. More to come.

Dennis McKenna - Is DMT A Neurotransmitter For The Gaian Brain?

[YOUTUBE]

The possible functions of endogenous DMT as a neurotransmitter or regulatory neurohormone in mammalian physiology are incompletely understood, and a matter of controversy. Its ubiquity in nature, however, suggests it may function at the biospheric level as a messenger molecule. The planetary ecosystem – sometimes romantically likened to Gaia, the feminine Mother of all life in Greek mythology – is a complex homeostatic system that is regulated and stabilised by complex feedback loops and symbiosis. These processes operate via signal transduction, the exchange of information mediated by molecular messengers. Neurotransmitters are one of many kinds of signal-transducing molecules in the body, but in ecosystems, photosynthetic plants produce a vast array of secondary products that mediate their interactions with virtually all organisms in the environment, including humans. In this talk I will suggest that DMT and the ‘family’ of related tryptamines – may specifically target the big-brained primates to trigger cognitive evolution.

 

[Aum_Shanti]

Lol, that's quite another perspective than that of Dr Nichols.

BTW Offtopic:
In Lancelotta's talk he speaks of quite low 5-MeO-DMT levels they have used. I'm really wondering why they didn't use higher levels.

 

[Bancopuma]

Lol, that's quite another perspective than that of Dr Nichols.

BTW Offtopic:
In Lancelotta's talk he speaks of quite low 5-MeO-DMT levels they have used. I'm really wondering why they didn't use higher levels.

Indeed! So I shared an Air B & B with Rafael for Breaking Convention so had the opportunity to discuss his work with 5-MeO-DMT at length. His preferred ROA is IM injection. It's efficient, allows one more time to settle into the experience, and the experience sounds a little slowed down in comparison to vapourising.

Rafael has the view that some 5-MeO providers (such as few quite well known Mexican MD's doing the rounds with it) are in competition with each other and so use unnecessarily high doses so people "get their money's worth" and have a very deep experience. However his view is that more is not better (he also claims to have worked with people who have had sessions with Martin Ball who have had issues with integration following excessive doses being used), and lower doses can be just as effective at inducing a mystical experience, with the added bonus you may be able to remember the experience. As the dose increases, so does the chance of amnesia and white outs, so even if you experience something amazing, you may have a very time remembering it. So he advocates using lower doses with this in mind. It is also worth keeping in mind these study participants were experiencing 5-MeO following an ibogaine experience, so there systems were likely a fair bit more sensitive to the 5-MeO than they otherwise would be. Dr "Gerry" Gerardo Sandoval Isaac in his book 'The God Molecule" mentions a retrospective study involving 1600 5-MeO experiencers spanning over a decade, and describes 85% of experiencers reporting a mystical or transcendent experience, and 60% experiencing a form of death or dying. While the measures he used are likely much less stringent than the MEQ used by the Griffiths team at Johns Hopkins and adopted by Rafael as part of his study, Dr Gerry reports much higher incidences of these experiences than Rafael does in their study, at least hinting that difference in dosage could be a factor.

 

[Aum_Shanti]

Interesting.

AFAIR I read somewhere that Gerry mainly uses dosages around 100mg of toad venom, equaling about 15mg 5-MeO-DMT. (About what OROC suggests)
Although I personally find without prior analysis one doesn't really know the activity of toad venom.

I was just amazed because as has been reported by quite some people the range Lancelotta is talking about seems to be right in the "uncomfortable" zone.
I sure think too much gives you amnesia. But too low OTOH often seem to induce utter horror.
Was this never really a problem with this study?
Did you also talk about this?

 

[Bancopuma]

Yeah for my experiences with Dr Gerry I had a dose of 100mg of dried Bufo secretion. Meant to equate to approximately 15mg of 5-MeO-DMT, but I suspect there could be some variation in amounts.

Speaking to someone who has their own toads, he stated:

I have synthetic 5-MeO on hand, so I can say that their secretion (if not milked more than every 8 weeks and if they are fed enough) is VERY potent, I’d say more than the average of 20% it’s more the max of 25% of overall material. A full dose (15mgs) is usually achieved with 70mgs toad secretion only.

So it does seem like this figure can vary. Rafael and Anny, an ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT treatment provider both stated that 70mg should be sufficient to produce a deep breakthrough experience. Personally, I'm really glad I experienced the 100mg dose, but it did take the second experience for me to "get the message" so to speak, due to amnesia from the first experience (James Oroc mentions amnesia can be a factor with one's first experience, and I had a psychedelic microdose of LSD and mushrooms that day which probably didn't help matters). So we did have different views on this, but Rafael has the view that there is tremendous untapped psychotherapeutic potential to 5-MeO that people only experiencing breakthrough doses are going to miss out on...I've not had experience in this domain, so can't really comment or pass judgement. (I was hoping to have an IM 5-MeO session but we didn't have the time for this).

He did not mention any profoundly negative experiences through his study. Keep in mind the ibogaine in people's systems though, this likely modulates the experience to some degree.