Rick Strassman
Rick Strassman | |
|---|---|
| Born | Los Angeles, California |
Dr. Rick Strassman (born February 8, 1952 in Los Angeles, California, United States [1]) is a medical doctor specialized in psychiatry with a fellowship in clinical psychopharmacology research.[1] Strassman was the first person in the United States after twenty years of intermission to embark in human research with psychedelic, hallucinogenic, or entheogenic substances. During the intermission period, research was restricted by law to animals studies only.
Clinical research in Psychoactives
Dr Strassman's studies aimed to investigate the effects of N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a powerful entheogen, or psychedelic, that he hypothesizes is produced by the human brain in the pineal gland. DMT is found naturally in various natural sources, and is related to human neurotransmitters such as serotonin and melatonin.
There is speculation involving the role DMT may play in the dream state. Upon entering the R.E.M stage of sleep, minute amounts of DMT are most likely released into the bloodstream after one has fallen asleep. Strassman refers to DMT as the "god molecule" or "spirit molecule" due to many users claiming of contacting non-human or god-like beings under the alkaloid's influence. During the project's five years, he administered approximately 400 doses of DMT to 60 human volunteers. Of the 60 human volunteers who've ingested DMT under Strassman's watch, more than half reported similar experiences. These experiences ranged from profound encounters/interaction with non-human beings to observing highly detailed, self-transforming geometric patterns and other things of similar nature. This research took place at the University of New Mexico's School of Medicine in Albuquerque, New Mexico where he was then tenured Associate Professor of Psychiatry. Dr. Strassman has conjectured that when a person is approaching death or possibly when in a dream state, the pineal gland releases DMT in a relatively large amount, accounting for much of the imagery reported by survivors of near-death experiences.
However, Strassman has not provided much of the explanation for the mechanism's mysterious qualities by which this synthesis could produce levels of DMT that would lead to such effects. Although the necessary constituents (see methyltransferases) needed to make DMT are found in the pineal gland, the enzyme's stereo-specificity only allows for the conversion of serotonin to melatonin and vice versa. Others in the field of neurochemistry have not accepted this explanation of DMT's role in this function due to the absence of supporting evidence (i.e. a plausible synthesis mechanism or direct evidence that DMT is found in higher concentration in the body under these circumstances). Dr Strassman has also observed and noted that DMT is first produced by the human fetus on the forty-ninth day of development[citation needed], something he has attributed to being the "beginning of the soul". He has detailed his research in his book DMT: The Spirit Molecule; and a documentary film by the same name, based on this book has also been produced. Dr. Strassman has also conducted similar research using psilocybin, a psychedelic alkaloid found in hallucinogenic mushrooms.
See also
Further reading
- Rick Strassman (with Slawek Wojtowicz, Luis Eduardo Luna and Ede Frecska), "Inner Paths to Outer Space: Journeys to Alien Worlds through Psychedelics and Other Spiritual Technologies" , 376 pages, Park Street Press, 2008, ISBN 978-1594772245
- Rick Strassman, DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences, 320 pages, Park Street Press, 2001, ISBN 0-89281-927-8
- Rick Strassman, Hallucinogens (chapter), in Mind-Altering Drugs: The Science Of Subjective Experience, 402 pages, Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-19-516531-4
References
- ^ a b "Rick Strassman".