Dr. Rick Strassman interview: DMT and near-death experiences shed light on spirit-brain relationship

Excerpt of interview by Alan Hippleheuser for the Examiner:

Examiner.com: What is the focus of your current research?

Dr. Strassman: I’m not doing clinical research. I’m writing a book on prophecy from the Old Testament point of view, using the lens of endogenous hallucinogens to make sense out of both the descriptions of prophetic consciousness in the Bible, as well as the prophetic message brought back by the prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah. I set up the Cottonwood Research Foundation as an entity by which I would like to establish a “university of consciousness research,” but this is biding its time while I am working on my book.

Examiner.com: How did you get involved with your DMT study?

Dr. Strassman: I have had a long-standing interest in the biology of mystical states, and when I found out about the presence of DMT as an endogenous hallucinogen, this seemed to be the most likely candidate for a biological basis of spiritual experience. I had begun my clinical research career hoping to determine psychoactivity of the pineal gland, but an exhaustive analysis of melatonin’s effects failed to demonstrate much in the way of endogenous hallucinogenicity.

Examiner.com: Summarize for me the most significant findings of that research?

Dr. Strassman: A slew of biological markers went up in a dose-dependent manner when we administered pure intravenous DMT to a group of healthy experienced hallucinogen users – including prolactin, cortisol, beta-endorphin, heart rate, body temperature, oxytocin, core temperature. We also developing a new rating scale to quantify the subjective effects, based on Buddhist psychology, and this was quite sensitive and efficient.

Subjectively, the most interesting results were that high doses of DMT seemed to allow the consciousness of our volunteers to enter into non-corporeal, free-standing, independent realms of existence inhabited by beings of light who oftentimes were expecting the “volunteers,” and with whom the volunteers interacted. While “typical” near-death and mystical states occurred, they were relatively rare.

Examiner.com: Can you explain your comment in DMT -- " in some ways I was, and in others I wasn't, ready for where the spirit molecule would lead us. We succeeded in opening a door that had remained tightly locked for a generation. However, the box, like Pandora's, once opened, let out its force with its own agenda and language. It was a power that healed, hurt, startled, and was indifferent in wild and unpredictable ways. At every turn, I heard it call out in a voice that was tender, challenging, engaging, and frightening." I guess this experience changed your life and the lives of others involved in the project?

Dr. Strassman: I have a background and training in psychoanalysis, psychopharmacology, psychiatry, Zen Buddhism – and had the idea that DMT would lead to the sorts of states I believed it played a role in producing naturally – such as near-death and mystical states – ones that were rather “unitive” in their spiritual orientation. What was surprising to me was how “relational” the experiences were. I think I was suffering from the preconception that the psychedelic state shared more with Buddhist models of spirituality than Western ones – the latter being more relational, while the former are more unitive.

I don’t come out strongly in the DMT book for a beneficial effect of volunteers’ participation – more that it was a wash. But, in the course of filming our DMT documentary, I had the opportunity to interview over a half-dozen of the volunteers, some nearly 20 years after their participation in the study. I was quite impressed with the powerful positive effects their participation had on their lives, and realized that the effects needed a much longer time to manifest than I had originally believed.

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