Anyone read his old melatonin papers? Sorry on my phone so can't link now but would love to hear what people think about this chemical?
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Science paper Strassman science
- Thread starter Mylu
- Start date
Pure science papers to share and discuss.
I hadn't heard of this, no. I'm sure you could add a link from the mobile interface if you really tried - I know I have, so it would be great if you could. I'm not sure I have the time to dig up the links for us myself.
Mylu
Synaptic Surfer
sure thing bud, I'm at my desk now and pulled up this one: Light, melatonin and the sleep-wake cycle.
Turns out Strassman is not just a one trick pony but seems to be a verifiable Pineal Gland genius as a small peruse down his CV proves he might actually be on to something!
1985-1986 Principal Investigator, Lynn Pierson Therapeutic and Research Program, (State funded, DEA-, FDA-, NIDA-approved program to provide marijuana/THC to cancer patients for chemotherapy side effects)
1985-1987 Clinical Associate Physician, National Institute of Health, General Clinical Research Center, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, “Human Psychopharmacology of Melatonin,” Approximately $130,000 total costs
1989-1990 Principal Investigator, Scottish Rite Foundation for Schizophrenia Research, “Human Psychopharmacology and Neuroendocrinology of N, N-Dimethyltryptamine.” Approximately $30,000 total costs
1990-1992 Principal Investigator, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Small Grant (R03) Award, “Human Psychopharmacology and Neuroendocrinology of DMT,” Approximately $150,000 total costs
1993-1995 Principal Investigator, National Institute on Drug Abuse, (R01) Award, “Tryptamine Hallucinogens: Human Neuropsychopharmacology,” Approximately $350,000 total costs
The guy clearly can demonstrate a mastery of endogenous psychedelic compounds and their metabolites in the body--but it just begs the question as to why they were paying him so much money to study melatonin...
Ill have to go back through some of his papers and see what the conclusions are but I was just curious if anyone had delved into his older research before...TBH I only read the Spirit Molecule and missed all of his research papers/other books-- looks like I've got some reading materials for the next lil while...need to get another kindle! that made reading a true joy
I haven't read what you linked, but I have heard that he was the one to discover the function of endogenous melatonin, which plays a very important role in the pineal gland. I was always surprised that I didn't hear it brought up more, but I'm not sure if my description is completely accurate.
I'm also not sure why I never looked into this more, thanks for all the sources! I'd like to get into this sometime soon. Please post it if you find anything interesting in there, it's not discussed much.
I'm also not sure why I never looked into this more, thanks for all the sources! I'd like to get into this sometime soon. Please post it if you find anything interesting in there, it's not discussed much.
Since we had some kind of a bad run in with Strassman (in 2015 IIRC), where he was promoting the idea of certain entheogens only relating to one religion and race (supported by a holy book of all things), all my respect for this person has gone down the drain. He was even unable to defend his position to @SnozzleBerry who was clearly more familiar with said religious book than Strassman.
Once a time he was a true pioneer, then for reasons unknown to me he changed for the worse, for me however due to this extremist/racist ideas he is now a pariah in my eyes. I would not call him an objective scientist anymore, but a pseudoscientist with a malicious religious agenda.
Kind regards,
The Traveler
Once a time he was a true pioneer, then for reasons unknown to me he changed for the worse, for me however due to this extremist/racist ideas he is now a pariah in my eyes. I would not call him an objective scientist anymore, but a pseudoscientist with a malicious religious agenda.
Kind regards,
The Traveler
Mylu
Synaptic Surfer
I
I believe much of his expensive research was paid for by various occult groups. Groups powerful enough to allow DMT to get board approval at a time when even cannabis was still hard to study.
hypertestudo
Esteemed member
This surprises me. Please link to any info or posts indicating he is a religious bigot or racist.
hypertestudo
Esteemed member
It appears that his research was funded in the typical way via the research University of NM, which would be funded by grants, for example, from the NIH.
Are you saying the NIH is occult?
Please link any info or posts indicating he was funded by any occult source.
It would be a matter of looking rather deeper into the source of some of that grant funding. My own recollection on the matter is somewhat hazy.
for instance, shows a link with Freemasons, a known occult group.
For me, even just the whole "spirit molecule" schtick seems more aimed at the popular publication market than the scientific one, and that's at least as much an albatross on the neck of understanding DMT as McKenna's "machine elves" ever were.
I missed the 2015 'run-in', but a search of, say, @SnozzleBerry's posts from around that time might turn something up:
Search
forum.dmt-nexus.me
Recent videos from Rick Strassman
I have not seen these shared on the nexus but its very well possible I havent looked deep enough. Rick Strassman MD is known for his research in the DMT field as well as other fields in pharma-psychology. Here is a link to his YouTube channel. Looks like hes been active very recently...
forum.dmt-nexus.me
He's also known for his fallacious/insulting replies to questions about his pet theories vis a vis DMT and kabbalistic judaism.
Recent videos from Rick Strassman
I have not seen these shared on the nexus but its very well possible I havent looked deep enough. Rick Strassman MD is known for his research in the DMT field as well as other fields in pharma-psychology. Here is a link to his YouTube channel. Looks like hes been active very recently...
forum.dmt-nexus.me
Panpsychic
Titanium Teammate
I think you are being way too harsh here and off kilter with this characterization.
First up his contributions to the psychedelic renaissance cant be denied and aside from his above work, he is pivotal figure in the history of this field.
Regarding his discussions on here, I think you refer to this thread
I have had personal communications with Strassman and he is very much to the endogenous DMT theory of religious experiences.
I was surprised to here from him, the novel theory that DMT may be processed endogenously in different ways by different racial groups. However, his rationale for this theory was not one of exclusionism as you are framing it but rather why the peak experiences of Eastern traditions such as Buddhism, which he started with, are generally contentless (the Infinite Void, Emptiness) vs the apparent content of the DMT peak experience and Kabbalah (God consciousness).
This is actually a question I have also had, based on my direct experiences with DMT and Harmalas and is interesting, although I dont particularly subscribe to it being due to differences in the way endogenous psychoactive compounds are processed across enthic groups.
Lastly, yes he does seem to have gone very far down the Torah and Kabbalah route, but its natural to look to ones tradition for guidance. The DMT experience doesn't exactly fit any particular framework but that doesnt mean we can just apply any interpretation and it will be legitimate. Clearly, mystic and spiritual traditions do provide a close approximation of what is going on, and for those intersted in the Kabbalistic perspective on it Strassman is now a source.
Interestingly he just appeared on Rogan again with an update on these topics, came out 3 days ago.
This was for many people where he exited from science and the beginning of fictional story telling. The sad thing is that he didn’t make that distinction himself, thankfully his words are well criticized by many, and so the nonsense is now mostly being ignored.
It’s sad how some researchers who have had some success in past suddenly seem to lose sight of reality, Strassman is a textbook sufferer of what is known as nobel disease. A very difficult affliction that most can’t shake off and leaves the sufferer with deeper and deeper convictions about their own ideas, that slowly have become their identity.
I can't help but question how Strassman can't imagine other endogenous compounds, the most obvious being the tryptamines 5 MeO DMT and Bufotenine playing a role in human ecstatic or visionary experiences. Other than that, to me it really seems forced to ascribe different altered states to differences in racial processing of endogenous DMT. Being funded by a group associated with the freemasons is also pretty wacky.
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Pumpy
Titanium Teammate
I love these historical treasure dumps! Another story i wouldn't have read if i didn't lurk too much
There aren’t any. He just speculated that buddhists have more 5-MeO-DMT and some others more DMT. Hardly makes the guy a racist lol.
I'm not up to date on this, but AFAIK it's not about Buddhists but about Jews (and not only in the religious sense). He hasn't been a Buddhist for a long time. I don't know the specifics of his claims, only that he currently claims that Yahweh uses DMT to communicate with human beings.
I agree that just claiming differences in metabolism isn't necessarily racism, I don't know the extent of his claims. However it's quite unnecessary to resort to hypothesis with zero evidence to sustain theories based on a mix of other weak hypotheses (DMT as the organic cause for mystical experiences) and religious beliefs. As @Transform says above, he stopped being a scientist a long time ago. Which would be fine, if he didn't keep capitalizing on having been a scientist in the past to legitimize his theories as more than his personal spiritual beliefs.
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Also, I find it laughable to use biological reductionism (i.e. a hypothesis, based in no evidence, that mystical experiences reported by different cultures vary due to biological reasons) to support the idea that your tribal god created DMT and uses it to communicate. You can skip the whole biological part then, the differences may just be due to that god's will and don't need to have any basis whatsoever. But it would sound less "scientific" and more as what it actually is.
It just shows that religion and spirituality are not the same. Many people mistake fundamentalism for faith. A true devotee of any tradition moves toward openness, where all distinctions disappear and God is One. I am quite wary of any tribe of people that consider themselves chosen and special. What kind of god they worship is one hell of a debate.
Panpsychic
Titanium Teammate
DMT produces mystical experience and is naturally occurring in the brain and body. It is an extremely strong candidate for organic basis of some mystical experiences as is 5-MeO-DMT for other mystic and near death experiences.
I would say his status and position give him a platform and this is how how ideas have progressed. While some may prefer that he stayed within the sphere of objective researcher, it is natural that ones spiritual development would progress over time and he is being more open about it now without filtering his views through the need to maintain the image of a scientist doing a government funded study.