DMT vs Death

Medical

Is DMT hyperspace the afterlife and do we become an ‘entity’ when we die?

Mary Jacoob ‘Nexus 02’ via Gallery 46

DMT is produced in the body at the moment our physical existence ends.

And, according to a recent paper by proper brainbox Dr Christopher Timmerman, DMT replicates the near death experience (NDE). So is DMT intended only for that final event in our lives? And is a DMT trip a ticket to the realm beyond?

Judging by his own enthusiastic research “the truth is “going to be more complex,” says Dr Luke, who has studied more than one shamanistic tradition first hand in detail.

“There are features of the DMT experience you don’t get with NDE,” says Dr Luke, “Intense geometric patterns and colours for example, which are fundamental. Encounters with deceased relatives, and premonition [predicting the future] are less common in DMT. But 4-5% of people who take DMT have a ‘deceased encounter’ – but no ‘life review’ or ‘tunnel’.”

‘DMT entities’ are also unique to substance, Dr Luke adds. “Then there are the encounters with little people that have been around for a long time,” he says, “Graham Hancock made a direct comparison with them to modern-day alien abduction experiences. Although traditionally they were associated with the world of the dead. There’s many layers - the two not the same, I would say. They may be related. DMT may be ‘released’ at death. It may be created in the pineal gland. But we don’t have enough hard evidence.”

There are many other hypotheses: “I have colleagues who believe DMT entities are ‘intro-ceptive.’ You’re encountering your own micro-biome, mitochondria or other internal structures,” says Dr Luke, “Interesting theory, but it doesn’t account for the 25 -foot tall preying mantises.”

DMT is prevalent at much higher levels in the human body than previously believed. Maybe to the same extent as serotonin, to which it is increasingly compared

So should we, like our mate says, avoid taking DMT in case it uses up all our death high, and our eventual moment of union with the cosmic whole is, like, a dud?

According to hardcore research where scientists monitored the brain activity in rats while they died, DMT is produced at six times the normal level at the moment of extermination. But other chemicals, including serotonin, noradrenaline and dopamine are blasted at many more times the normal levels.

“There’s very good reasons to think DMT is produced in the human pineal gland,” says Dr Luke, “but it could be made in the body.” In 2019 a heavyweight paper from the DMT Quest organisation concluded DMT is prevalent at much higher levels in the human body than previously believed; even to the same extent as serotonin, to which it is increasingly compared. The pineal gland is tiny, points out Dr Luke, and said experiments on rats were also conducted on another set of rats who’d had their pineal glands removed. DMT was still produced at large quantities upon death.

While we’re asking questions like ‘are entities real?’ in the pub, more ambitious brains are looking into the relationship between the pineal gland, DMT and autism (upon which Dr Luke has conducted surveys suggesting “extremely promising data”). While dudes like Andrew Gilmore and Anton Bilton are talking about setting up a DMT hyperspace station for extended exploration and communion.

Guess who’s back?

Medical

Everything you need to now about this season’s essential LSD revivial trend

Dolce & Gabbana men’s spring/summer ‘22 collection catwalk show

The psychedelic renaissance wrote LSD off as impractical, fuddy-duddy, and just so, like long as to be downright subversive.

But tastemakers are trumpeting LSD’s versatility, while trendsetters are mining its aesthetic.

“To my mind, LSD is the best, the purest” declared Beckley Foundation’s Lady Amanda Fielding at the 2022 Psych Summit held at London’s National Gallery.

After all only the bohemian elite would have the time, right? And time is money more than ever before (usual disclaimers re: existence and/or nature of time).

One shudders to think that LSD is the new jet set drug of choice. Beckley are actually conducting the first serious test into microdosing with LSD. The old fave has also found favour with the restless rabble. MindMed’s stage two tests for ADHD are underway at 20µg of LSD twice a week, hot on the heels of its success with LSD for anxiety. MindMed’s base of Switzerland is the home of LSD after all.

Meanwhile, Milanese glamour powerhouse Dolce & Gabbana offers the trip-wear of choice for sartorial psychonauts in its spring/summer 2022 menswear collection. See you at the sample sale.

Dolce & Gabbana men’s spring/summer ‘22 collection catwalk show

The Microdose Age

Medical

LSD’s versatility is wildly underestimated say thought leaders Beckley Psytech

Lady Amanda Fielding of The Beckley Foundation and now Beckley Psytech

“Microdosing is a step forward for humankind.”

Beckley Psytech’s Lady Amanda Fielding (for it is she) declared so at Psych Symposium. If psychedelics can be for the everyman, can they be for every day?

While it’s less spectacular than ‘spiritual doses’, DMT, or ayahuasca, and an ongoing science to say the least, microdosing’s arguably taken a stronger foothold in popular culture than the next-level psychedelics. Users report similar effects to integrated major experiences, like enthusiasm, geniality, consideration and walking in the woods while listening to Jon Hopkins. Famously though microdosing – which Beckley are researching throughly – is one of the few contemporary psychedelic phenomena to fail the placebo test. Small doses are being tested on some conditions: MindMed are on stage two for 20µg of LSD twice a week, while sticking someone in a room and giving them a proper tab (200µg) did okay for GAD . The likes of New Health Club are poised to bring acid to the workplace (at last). Lenny Gibson’s observation was that ‘psyche’ also means ‘breath’, and Stanislav Grof’s holotropic breathwork could be the only option – and also a better one – for many.

Professor David Nutt pointed out in his Psych presentation that it’s the ‘wellbeing’ scores that are really impressive in psychedelic therapy’s efficacy results. But according to a neuroscientist I spoke to outside when the fire alarm went off, “there are no criteria for developing drugs for ‘wellbeing’ like there might be for mental health conditions already treated pharmacologically. So everybody’s trying to make drugs, which is ruinously expensive as it is, without knowing precisely what to aim at, certainly in terms of approval.” The Mushroom Nation is at once already here, and still so far away.

NB Psychedelics are prohibited in most places even if labelled ‘cacao’ and sent in gaudy packaging. You can still get busted for them like this guy.

Spiritual healing could help cure epigenetic disease and transform treatment

Medical

“Ultimately we’re reopening metaphysics. The research is in review now and we’re looking forward to sharing it with the world,” says Dr Tafur

Plant medicine fan favourite Pablo Amringo

Dr Tafur believes that mystical experiences can help cure epigenetic diseases from PTSD to psoriasis… and maybe even the Big C.

Modern Spirit, Dr Tafur’s non-profit org has collected genetic samples from some of the 107 patients in MAPS’ 12-month MDMA therapy trial (see above) where a stunning 68% of patients had statistically recovered from chronic, treatment resistant PTSD after three treatments. They’d been suffering for an average of 17.8 years.

“To a doctor, the sacred isn’t important. But to close your mind is a hiding place. People need to see something. Mental health? It’s competitive. But cancer is largely epigenetic and that’s one of the fields they’re saying they want to put more energy and understanding into.”

The research could also validate other holistic practices ranging from somatic experiencing to reiki.

“Ultimately we’re reopening metaphysics. The research is in review now and we’re looking forward to sharing it with the world,” he says.

He recounts a pivotal moment in his shamanic career, when ayahuasca visions insisted that a penitent’s disease was “on” as opposed to “in” her genes as medical consensus assumes.

This tall with the compelling field of epigenetics, which examines changes in our DNA (nature) brought about by environment (nurture). These can be passed down the generations, and include traumatic experiences. This was proven by landmark surveys using data assembled from descendants of Holocaust survivors. Of course it also works for colonialism, industrialised warfare, poverty, patriarchy and lovelessness. It’s a new and complex but far from fringe area: my mother is an identical twin who has been taking part in NHS epigenetic research funded by good old Wellcome Trust for decades.

This blog is not affiliated to Vital beyond my study on the course. The content shouldn’t be taken as representative as it’s a personal reflection and includes my own lived experience of the sector too.

Psychedelic substances are prohibited in the UK, other countries and most US states. I do not condone their use, neither am I evangelising for, or recommending them to you. There are more qualified people you can turn to in the Resources section but if you are considering psychedelic treatments the best person to speak to is probably your own therapist, counsellor, or doctor.

Public opinion had a huge effect on research back then. It still does.

Medical

Social disapproval – not legislation – wiped out LSD testing in the 20th Century

Poison

‘The first lady of LSD history’ Dr Ericka Dyck’s Vital presentation began with a curved ball.

The Canadian historian pointed out that pharmaceuticals were bang on-trend during the 1950s after the successful roll-out of anti-psychotic chlorpromazine (Thorazine). This generated goodwill for tests on more ‘wonder drugs’.

However, in the early1960s the startling effects of thalidomide on pregnancy came to light. “Images of deformed children caused outcry and a moral panic over testing ethics,” plus the emerging anti-modernity movement fuelled a backlash that brought LSD – brand name ‘Delysid’ – testing to a halt in Canada by 1962.

Leary was fired from Harvard in April 1962. FDA-sanctioned research continued until 1977, but funding and support rapidly became non-existent.