DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences by Rick Strassman MD Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences
Book Review: A Terence Mckenna sandwich!
Summary: 2 Stars
I will like to comment on the artwork in this book and its sequel.
Terence Mckenna used to say than in the future (he was speaking in the 90's), the psychedelic community will be able to model the hyper-dimensional objects they claim to encounter on DMT. Just as quantum mechanics led to the silicon chip and the home computer, the DMT flash will take form and be made visible via powerfull computer software.
The real-ness of DMT could then be shown it to rest of the world with a "look at this" truth. And so the long heralded alternative to scientific reductionism will be upon us!
Only a person who has witnessed the DMT thing can talk like this! Was Terence Mckenna another Newton or was he nuts?
There is allot of excitement hanging on the DMT experience. There are claims of repeatability i.e, people seeing the same things every time. And objectivity, that is, DMT opens a door to another place. The molecule is the door frame and we step beyond and see wonderfull things. Things that have an ontological validity independent of our thoughts and feelings about it. "More like shifting fantasy land than good old positivist rock n roll"(Mckenna).
Even reputable scientists are claiming (with a straight face) that the DMT phenomenon is not just another New-Age cult. Its real. Take a strong enough dose and visionary scenarios will come bounding out of the speakers! There are reports of alien beings, impossible objects and space-stations orbiting alien worlds. You will be greeted by three dimensional elf machines of syntactical information that are extraordinary complex, connected and ordered. Thus, another reality is a dose away! These are fantastic claims indeed.
How then do experienced DMT-heads bring back proof to show the rest of us?
Does the technology exist to animate or as least paint these places? With powerful computers it should be possible to create artwork of psychedelic power that will truly silence the doubters and convince the sceptics.
The bench test will be to design virtual reality software that can model the worlds described here. A multifaceted simulation of a DMT flash. Computer generated vistas of psychedelic space-time if you will. These realities could then be printed onto paper and shown to the rest of the world. It will be art as has never been seen before.
The pictures in this book give a glimpse of what can be done with a mouse and little imagination.
The artwork in this book is very impressive, but alas, I wasn't converted. The pictures here are obviously the creations of very talented and enthusiastic people, but they didn't mirror the reality of alien worlds to me.
It is claimed that the psychedelic experience is a catalyst for the imagination. So psychedelic art should have an original flavour that will be literally out of this world. The kind of artwork I'm thinking about should be able to blow away the competition and by shear extraordinary-ness, overthrow the dominance of scientific materialism. It would then make front page headlines with letters ten food high (Mckenna).
So it is sad that the artwork in this book boils down to reptilian humanoids, grey faced aliens, plants and trees and illuminous men on fire! The artwork is indeed brilliant, but art created by experienced psychonauts should posses impossible properties that 'normal' artists cannot possibly match. After all, do they not make fantastic claims?
I doubt whether these comic sci-fi scenarios will be enough to convince the sceptics.
This is why, to my mind, psychedelic artwork doesn't come close to say, Hieronymus Bosch or Salvador Dali in imagination and weirdness. Bosch and Dali had something boundary dissolving about their imaginings. They resembled travellers with access to places only they could see. Indeed, Timothy Leary once described Salvador Dali as "the only person who can paint LSD without having taken LSD."
I doubt whether Bosch or Dali had access to magic mushrooms, LSD or ayahuasca. So what is going on? This is just my personal bias though. What do others think?
Book Review: Gripping Reading
Summary: 5 Stars
This book definitely met my expectations if not more. The detailed accounts of Rick Strassman's experiments with DMT are truely amazing to read and leaves you wanting more. I was totally surprised by the sheer amount of hoops and red tape that Rick had to get through in order to initiate the experiments, but thankfully his dedication pulled off. If you're interested in "out of bod experiences", hallucinogens and have spiritual beliefs you; will find this book an eye opener.Book Review: Important research
Summary: 4 Stars
This is an important book but, like much that is revolutionary, I think there is a lot that is wrong here. But if the author is just 20% right he deserves congratulations. I am not sure that there were sound grounds for restricting subjects to those who have a history of recreational drug use. This could effect the results as there is a definite personality type that takes drugs. My current view is that Strassman is absolutely right about the importance of the pineal gland but possibly places too much emphasis on the DMT molecule in isolation. This is due to the fact that he started out with an assumption regarding psychedelics - and it seems likely to me that the hallucinations are more likely to be unfortunate side effects of the brutal approach rather than the purpose and essence of the natural effect. However, people only learned about the physiology of scuba diving by jumping in and overdosing on depth. Slowly, the patterns did emerge and so they will here.
Great work and a well written book!
Book Review: Good Book
Summary: 5 Stars
Great Book, very informative, defiantly worth reading before anyone takes the plunge into the spirit worldBook Review: Libro muy interesante
Summary: 5 Stars
Este libro es muy interesante y trata sobre esta sustancia DMT, que se encuntra en numerosas plantas de todo el mundo, y lo que es más importante es una sustancia que los seres humanos producimos en el cerebro en la glandula pineal. El libro detalla muy bien las investigaciones que este doctor ha realizado con dicha sustancia en bastantes voluntarios y las increibles experiencias que ellos señalan tienen al tomarla. Es un libro imprescindible para quienes estudian chamanismo, sustancia psicotrópicas y también para aquellos que quieren descubrir nuevos caminos para sentir y comprender este mundo.