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What do you think are the potential scientific applications of DMT?

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clouds

clouds

Human
Supposing that a laboratory or an independent foundation is interested in financing a scientific investigation about DMT. They would give you the money to hire researchers, chemists, biologists, medical doctors and other scientists. Also, they would give you the equipment you ask to perform a high quality investigation. You are now the research Director (and you have the money to ask for assistants, doctors, help in general). Don't worry about the legal aspect, they have it under control. But there is only one request: You need to deliver a valid application in less than 5 years.


What do you think would be a valid application?

Would you do what Strassman did again?
 
There is no point in trying to understand how this all works, as long we don't have any idea how the mind works.

Psychedelics will always be a mystery!
 
Hehe, I'm not saying its about understanding how this all works. I'm just asking here for some kind of potential application (maybe medical, educational, etc...). I ask this because even Strassman and Shulgin themselves don't see it as a potential therapeutic tool (like Psilocybin, lsd, MDMA, etc).

If you had the money, what would you focus the research to? Maybe it enhances creativity? Maybe it can heal physical problems?
I'm not saying its the only use...

You have the money... you take a shot. Where would you aim? That's it.

Tumors, Cancer, Autism, Neurology, Cognition, even Physics or some other original perspective! Where would you LIKE to try your hypothesis?
 
If I were a scientist I'd just make it available and let people decide how it could best be used.
With DMT, you dont know until you try it.

Like anything out there governments would first think up military aplications for example, as a chemical warfare agent against radical islamic extremists or a brainwashing agent at Guantanamo. disperse it in very large doses in a vapor form or bundle it with an maoi and another chem like DMSO so it can be sprayed on the skin. I think the experience may change they way these crazy minds see the world.

It could also be used against the extreme far right and left wing wakkos in America like Neo Nazis or Rush Limbaugh, Jerry Falwell, Louis Farakahn, Al Sharpton, Sara Palin, etc, etc. in order to cleanse their minds a bit.

It could be used on violent criminals to help change the way they see society, possibly making them less violent?


lol

if there were any aplications for DMT other than self exploration I'm sure the American government would decide whats best, lol.
 
First thing you will need to do is learn a great deal more about the modes of action when DMT hits the brain. If I had the gear I would love to take MRI's or other brain scans to see the activity in the brain while under the influence of DMT. It would give us a good clue what regions are being stimulated etc.. Also I would definately study the chemistry behind DMT such as what other chems may effect it and to what degree. Simply put I would build a foundation of understanding get the basics of the chemical down which is something that really hasnt been done. Just about any experiement or study at this point done in a real scientific environment would be a good thing. So little is know right now any info is good info.
 
First off, I dont think 5 years would be long enough to really get a full understanding of the molecule and its effects; it would require a quantum leap in terms of neurophysiology at a receptor level to get anywhere near such an understanding.History has shown we plod forward very slowly in this regard.

Its also the case that determining its site of action say by fMRI scanning is only a crude starting point for the work that follows; the brain and its neural pathways are so intricate and one part may effect another in ways which boggle the mind.For example, a tumour in one cerebellar lobe will give incoordination on that side of the body but a lesion just behind the frontal lobe on the same side can give an identical clinical picture.

This doesnt mean nefarious brainwashing/thought-altering applications couldnt be devised by the military but I doubt that Islamic radicals would be turned away from their belief in God by this.I am a practising Muslim (beard, hat, Afghan visa in my passport) and my experiences with ALL psychedelics have only reinforced my beliefs.The guys in Gitmo are more committed than me hence I doubt they would be made to doubt their essential religious (not political) beliefs.
 
corpus callosum said:
First off, I dont think 5 years would be long enough to really get a full understanding of the molecule and its effects; it would require a quantum leap in terms of neurophysiology at a receptor level to get anywhere near such an understanding.
Click to expand...

Who knows, maybe further study of psychedelics will be the key to unlocking a greater understanding of our own physicality.
Perhaps DMT is the catalyst in bringing about such a quantum leap.

Either current theories wil be supported, or new observations will destroy them.
In any case, progress is progress...I'm not sure what scale can even be used to measure such a thing.
 
Well from the theory that complexity begetts greater complexity, as it certainly appears to do so, such progression may not be completely unrealistic.
Humanity's "knowledge" continues to advance at an increased rate...building on itself as it achieves more in the past 10 years than the 50 years before it, etc.

Five years may be inadequate time, but all is speculation until actual work is done. Breakthroughs are never certain, truly they are most always uncertain.
The best time to begin is now, as the saying goes?
 
Well to be honest, they did think it could be explained. The tears of the gods was their explanation.

In any case, I truly hope psychedelics are never explained. Sure, maybe we will progress in our understanding of how they work, but I don't see how we can ever discover why they work...
The mystery simply compounds....how is it that we contain the potential to interact with these molecules?
That is what blows my mind. We have a unique relationship with these plants, one that borders on the spiritual.

So maybe psychedelics will someday be fully understood, but I remain content not knowing. The experience is enough, I am not sure I want to know why.
There is beauty in mystery.
 
Well, since we know dmt is present in the body, and throughout the natural world, then I'd want to know why, ie: what function does dmt play in the body. There isn't an answer for this yet. But there isn't an answer for a lot of things in life. They don't know why people dream, and yet we know that everyone does it, and everyone has dmt.

Psychedelics don't necessarily have a "scientific" application, the user is given a personal experience. Your question in like asking, "could you find a scientific application for dreams". Or, basically, it's like asking, what is the scientific application of consciousness. Or a scientific application for different experiences. What does that mean? How do you scientifically apply dreams, or consciousness? You say a potential application of dmt is "enhanced creativity". Of course it enhances "creativity". Just look at all the trip reports. I don't think all these people would be having such interesting thoughts, otherwise. I don't know how people define creativity, but certainly, psychedelics cause a shift in perception. Is there a scientific application for a shift in perception? I don't know. Is there a scientific application for a republican becoming a democrat? It's just a shift in perception, a shift in thought process, it's not a scientific thing. Your question doesn't really compute.
 
Uh... a shift in perception is not a shift in the thought process. That would be a shift in cognition.

Anyway, schizophrenics have more elevated levels of endogenous DMT than healthy people. So, for example, that could probably be a clue to a practical scientific application. Maybe the study of DMT, could help cognitive scientists to understand better the (quite mysterious) neurophysiology of diverse types of schizophrenia. You get the point.

Again, I'm not saying that we will understand the scientific application of consciousness or anything like that.
 
clouds said:
Uh... a shift in perception is not a shift in the thought process. That would be a shift in cognition.

Anyway, schizophrenics have more elevated levels of endogenous DMT than healthy people. So, for example, that could probably be a clue to a practical scientific application. Maybe the study of DMT, could help cognitive scientists to understand better the (quite mysterious) neurophysiology of diverse types of schizophrenia. You get the point.
Click to expand...

No, I don't get the point anymore. The title is "what do you think are the potential scientific application of dmt?". The answer for everyone here is, "I don't know". Since it is not even known what dmt does, the only answer I could give to the question is "to find out what role dmt has in people." In order to know, I would have to actually study it scientifically, and find the answer, but since I can't study it, why even bother theorizing? I don't get why you're asking this question, or what you're looking for. Since we don't really know what dmt does, any answer could be given. Maybe the scientific application for dmt is that they will find it slows aging by 20%, or maybe speeds it up. Who knows.

Maybe dmt has something to do with schizophrenia. As far as I know, schizophrenics have elevated, and/or lower levels of several neurotransmitters. Also, I was stating that dmt causes a shift in perception, and thought process. Separate points.
 
A pre-existing Schizophrenic condition is exacerbated by elevated levels of endogenous DMT, but not all schizophrenics have higher levels of DMT.

If you want to know more this is where the information is from:
Murray, R.M., Oon, M.C., Rodnight, R., Birley J.L., & Smith A., 'Increased excretion of dimethyltryptamine and certain features of psychosis : a possible association' in Arch Gen Psychiat, 36, (1979) pp.644-649.

I'd personally like to see a study into correlations between elevated endogenous DMT levels and alleged psychic ability.
Not very scientific but there seems to be a connection there.

xx
 
The neurochemistry of psychoses and psychotic experiences is fascinating and can be brought about by a number of different neurotransmitters including those acting on serotonin receptors (LSD/psilocybin/DMT act here).PCP intoxication has quite a few features which resemble schizophrenia but this acts on NMDA receptors. Tropane alkaloids as found in Datura/Brugmansia species can also cause psychoses by way of their interaction with the acetylcholine-utilising neuronal pathways.

That lump of grey matter which occupies our skulls is ridiculously complex and it wouldnt surprise me if we never get a comprehensive understanding of it:? .
 
There are many possible fields of science where DMT could be aplied.

Bridging the gap between neuroscience and psychology would be the most interesting part if you'd ask me.

DMT could be interesting here, with other psychedelic's, because it would allow you to focus on the link between specific neural mechanisms and how they are being experienced subjectively.

If you would have a range of molecules with all slightly different receptor affinity's and you would objectively know wich molecule binds to wich receptors in what ratio, than you could let a group of testpersons take each one of them and note the differences in subjective experience between the different substances.

That would give you an indication of wich receptors are responsible for wich subjective effect and from there on you could link specific neural mechanisms with specific sensations.

You'd be literally investigating the building blocks of the counscious mind.
 
One thing I would like to study is DMT's potential for increasing creativity. Could proper DMT consumption help a storyteller tell a better story, an artist draw a more interesting picture, or a musician write better music? Could the psychedelic experience catalyze the synthesize innovative new ideas, like it supposedly did for Nobel laureates Francis Crick and Kary Mullis?

It could also help us get a better understanding of the etiology of schizophrenia. It turns out that schizophrenics have a similar dopamine system to that of creative people.

One other thing I would like to study regarding DMT is the origin of delusional thoughts. Thoughts that made perfect sense and seemed like absolute truth at the time the thought was constructed. Thoughts that seem to be true that turn out to be false. How do we come up with those? Like the idea that the world is flat. Or that the Earth is the center of the universe. Sometimes when we are forced to make decisions in situations where we have insufficient information, we have to fill in our uncertainties with predictions and make plans based on this incomplete model. We don't know, so we have to guess. Sometimes our guesses our right, sometimes our guesses are wrong. It seems like delusional thoughts are just the wrong guesses.


That, and if DMT has anything to do with dreams or dreaming. Why do we dream, anyway? Is it to defragment our minds and re-arrange our neural connections into a more stable conformation?
 
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