After speaking to a bunch of strangers at a party, and hearing way too much misinformation, I'm planning on writing a literature review on DMT in my down time. I've had a look at a lot of studies, but they mainly focus on the possible medicinal effects of DMT. Consequently, they use insane doses (4mg/kg of bodyweight? Ho. Lee. Shit) (File, 1977) on lab rats. But that was in the 70's, so recent studies have to be better. Right? Nope. Nope nopeitty nope nope nope. "To investigate the thermoregulatory effects of individual drugs, mice were given an intraperitoneal (i.p.) dose of harmaline (0, 2, 5 or 15 mg/kg) or 5-MeO-DMT (0, 2, 10 or 20 mg/kg)" (Jiang, Shen and Yu, 2015). To play devils advocate here, the purpose of their study was not neuroscience. It was neuropharmacology. And they did run tests with 0.3mg/kg, which is a lot more reasonable. They also questioned themselves here: "The study of psychoactive drugs in animals gives rise to questions of interpretation and extrapolation to the human condition. However, with the demonstration that the hallucinogens, LSD and mescaline, can function as discriminative stimuli in rats (Hirschhorn and Winter, 1971), it was suggested that drug-induced stimulus control in non-verbal species might provide insight into their mechanisms of action (Winter, 1974; for recent reviews, see Nichols, 2004, Fantegrossi et al., 2008 and Winter, 2009)". At this stage, all we can ask is how do these substances work. The big question is why they work.
The cultural use of DMT has been ignored. I work in the medicinal science industry, and I detest the material-reductionist way of thinking that science has been treading on since the birth of humanity. All the medical authorities will do when assessing DMT as "useful", they will look at a few things, mainly toxicity (which is essentially non-existent) and psychophysiological effects/symptoms. And by psychophysiological effects/symptoms, they will write something like: hallucinations, paranoia, loss of self, dizziness, loss of consciousness (meaning knocked the fuck out, not from a spiritual sense) etc..
The way we describe all of these symptoms to each other is completely relatable. We all know what DMT is actually like. However when an person inexperienced with anything to with psychedelics reads these symptoms, they will see them as bad. Perhaps the word "symptoms" is accelerating this line of thinking. Attributing all of the effects of DMT to an outsiders observation is not conducive to the spiritual exploration of psychedelics. Strassman's original article touches on these apsects, but are present as quotes rather than full trip reports. Even then, the gravitas of DMT is not fully appreciated. This extremely succinct quote, to me, describes DMT quite well. But nothing compares to the real thing. "The higher dose effects completely replaced ongoing mental experience, and usually was described as more compelling and convincing than 'ordinary' reality or dreams." (Strassman, 1995).
Typically, story telling in a scientific journal article is not often used. In fact, it's probably looked down upon. "Leave the creativity to the artists, only cold hard facts in science" is a general rule of thumb when presenting data. The number of times I've been bogged down by jargon is staggering, and I understand what the jargon means. But in the case of altered states of consciousness, the best data is trip reports. The best trip reports are ones where the reader can relate to it. Heck, the best creative writing is based on relatability.
So here is where I need your help. I aim to dissect everything about DMT, as Snozzlebery once said: Botany, Chemistry (adding neuroscience to this) and Anthropology. I have talked to a senior neuroscience professor at my university, and will try to get a project up and running. But she said the ethics approval will be a nightmare.
So here's what I need from you guys.
Username:
Gender:
Age range:
Location:
Childhood: (Abusive, loving, strict, boring etc. Any words to accurately describe your upbringing.)
Cultural upbringing: (Religion is a culture, so it falls under this category)
Jung/Briggs Meyer Personality Type (OPTIONAL): (Test can be done here: Personality test based on Jung and Briggs Myers typology)
Age when you first took psychedelics (and name what it was):
Purpose for taking it:
Purpose for continuing to take it (if applicable):
Benefits that psychedelics has brought to your life:
Detriments that psychedelics has brought to your life:
Would you recommend psychedelics to another person? If so, what type of person:
Link to your trip report that you would like to share:
I want to get a glimpse of the story behind the trip report. Who are you and why do you trip? Any suggestions or feedback would be greatly appreciated.
References:
Fantegrossi, W., Murnane, K. and Reissig, C. (2008 ). The behavioral pharmacology of hallucinogens. Biochemical Pharmacology, 75(1), pp.17-33.
File, S. (1977). Effects of N, N-Dimethyltryptamine on behavioural habituation in the rat. Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, 6(2), pp.163-168.
Hirschhorn, I. and Winter, J. (1971). Mescaline and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) as discriminative stimuli. Psychopharmacologia, 22(1), pp.64-71.
Jiang, X., Shen, H. and Yu, A. (2015). Potentiation of 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine-induced hyperthermia by harmaline and the involvement of activation of 5-HT1A and 5-HT2A receptors. Neuropharmacology, 89, pp.342-351.
Nichols, D. (2004). Hallucinogens. Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 101(2), pp.131-181.
Strassman, R. (1995). Human psychopharmacology of N,N-dimethyltryptamine. Behavioural Brain Research, 73(1-2), pp.121-124.
Winter, J. (2008 ). Hallucinogens as discriminative stimuli in animals: LSD, phenethylamines, and tryptamines. Psychopharmacology, 203(2), pp.251-263.
The cultural use of DMT has been ignored. I work in the medicinal science industry, and I detest the material-reductionist way of thinking that science has been treading on since the birth of humanity. All the medical authorities will do when assessing DMT as "useful", they will look at a few things, mainly toxicity (which is essentially non-existent) and psychophysiological effects/symptoms. And by psychophysiological effects/symptoms, they will write something like: hallucinations, paranoia, loss of self, dizziness, loss of consciousness (meaning knocked the fuck out, not from a spiritual sense) etc..
The way we describe all of these symptoms to each other is completely relatable. We all know what DMT is actually like. However when an person inexperienced with anything to with psychedelics reads these symptoms, they will see them as bad. Perhaps the word "symptoms" is accelerating this line of thinking. Attributing all of the effects of DMT to an outsiders observation is not conducive to the spiritual exploration of psychedelics. Strassman's original article touches on these apsects, but are present as quotes rather than full trip reports. Even then, the gravitas of DMT is not fully appreciated. This extremely succinct quote, to me, describes DMT quite well. But nothing compares to the real thing. "The higher dose effects completely replaced ongoing mental experience, and usually was described as more compelling and convincing than 'ordinary' reality or dreams." (Strassman, 1995).
Typically, story telling in a scientific journal article is not often used. In fact, it's probably looked down upon. "Leave the creativity to the artists, only cold hard facts in science" is a general rule of thumb when presenting data. The number of times I've been bogged down by jargon is staggering, and I understand what the jargon means. But in the case of altered states of consciousness, the best data is trip reports. The best trip reports are ones where the reader can relate to it. Heck, the best creative writing is based on relatability.
So here is where I need your help. I aim to dissect everything about DMT, as Snozzlebery once said: Botany, Chemistry (adding neuroscience to this) and Anthropology. I have talked to a senior neuroscience professor at my university, and will try to get a project up and running. But she said the ethics approval will be a nightmare.
So here's what I need from you guys.
Username:
Gender:
Age range:
Location:
Childhood: (Abusive, loving, strict, boring etc. Any words to accurately describe your upbringing.)
Cultural upbringing: (Religion is a culture, so it falls under this category)
Jung/Briggs Meyer Personality Type (OPTIONAL): (Test can be done here: Personality test based on Jung and Briggs Myers typology)
Age when you first took psychedelics (and name what it was):
Purpose for taking it:
Purpose for continuing to take it (if applicable):
Benefits that psychedelics has brought to your life:
Detriments that psychedelics has brought to your life:
Would you recommend psychedelics to another person? If so, what type of person:
Link to your trip report that you would like to share:
I want to get a glimpse of the story behind the trip report. Who are you and why do you trip? Any suggestions or feedback would be greatly appreciated.
References:
Fantegrossi, W., Murnane, K. and Reissig, C. (2008 ). The behavioral pharmacology of hallucinogens. Biochemical Pharmacology, 75(1), pp.17-33.
File, S. (1977). Effects of N, N-Dimethyltryptamine on behavioural habituation in the rat. Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, 6(2), pp.163-168.
Hirschhorn, I. and Winter, J. (1971). Mescaline and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) as discriminative stimuli. Psychopharmacologia, 22(1), pp.64-71.
Jiang, X., Shen, H. and Yu, A. (2015). Potentiation of 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine-induced hyperthermia by harmaline and the involvement of activation of 5-HT1A and 5-HT2A receptors. Neuropharmacology, 89, pp.342-351.
Nichols, D. (2004). Hallucinogens. Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 101(2), pp.131-181.
Strassman, R. (1995). Human psychopharmacology of N,N-dimethyltryptamine. Behavioural Brain Research, 73(1-2), pp.121-124.
Winter, J. (2008 ). Hallucinogens as discriminative stimuli in animals: LSD, phenethylamines, and tryptamines. Psychopharmacology, 203(2), pp.251-263.
