DMT: The Spirit Molecule

by Rick Strassman, M.D.

From the Publisher: From 1990 to 1995 Dr. Rick Strassman conducted U.S. Government-approved and funded clinical research at the University of New Mexico in which he injected sixty volunteers with DMT, one of the most powerful psychedelics known. His detailed account of those sessions is an extraordinarily riveting inquiry into the nature of the human mind and the therapeutic potential of psychedelics. DMT, a plant-derived chemical found in the psychedelic Amazon brew, ayahuasca, is also manufactured by the human brain. In Strassman’s volunteers, it consistently produced near-death and mystical experiences. Many reported convincing encounters with intelligent nonhuman presences, aliens, angels, and spirits. Nearly all felt that the sessions were among the most profound experiences of their lives.

Strassman’s research connects DMT with the pineal gland, considered by Hindus to be the site of the seventh chakra and by Rene Descartes to be the seat of the soul. DMT: The Spirit Molecule makes the bold case that DMT, naturally released by the pineal gland, facilitates the soul’s movement in and out of the body and is an integral part of the birth and death experiences, as well as the highest states of meditation and even sexual transcendence. Strassman also believes that “alien abduction experiences” are brought on by accidental releases of DMT. If used wisely, DMT could trigger a period of remarkable progress in the scientific exploration of the most mystical regions of the human mind and soul.

Praise for the Book: “Rick Strassman’s pioneering research work with DMT, a natural psychedelic drug used by Amazonian Indians, raises fascinating questions about the neurochemical basis of experience and the feasibility of conducting human research with mind-altering drugs in a university medical center. Truly adventurous reading!” — Andrew Weil, M.D., author of Spontaneous Healing

“This book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the mind, philosophy, the nature of reality, and spirituality.” — Karl Jansen, M.D., Ph.D.

“DMT: The Spirit Molecule points the way beyond the present impasse of the reigning ‘drug abuse’ paradigm.” — Jonathan Ott, author of The Age of Entheogens and Hallucinogenic Plants of North America

“The most extensive scientific study of the mental and perceptual effects of a psychedelic drug since the 1960s.” — Ralph Metzner, Ph.D., author of Ayahuasca: Consciousness and the Spirits of Nature

“Strassman’s important research contributes to a growing awareness that we inhabit a multi-dimensional universe.” — John Mack, MD Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, author of Abduction and Passport to the Cosmos

“In the end, I felt the most important element of the book was the contextualization of the questions most important in psychedelic research. Strassman keenly recognizes and extrapolates the areas that appear to be most vital in the further study and theory of psychedelics.” — The Psychedelic Press UK, Sept 2009

“Highly readable, intriguing, provocative. . . . [An] intellectually courageous book. . . . Will be of great use both to researchers and clinicians, as well as to laypeople.” — American Journal of Psychiatry, 2002

About the Author: Rick Strassman, M.D., lives in Taos, New Mexico, and is Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine.

ISBN-10: 0892819278    –    ISBN-13: 9780892819270