The Spirit Molecule
![Image](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-Cx8_w7PUnsqT-n4DngneFEHBeV-JrlXO0cfoPtylsuAgnJC_0XvtfRWVbLefDuptLYN5Tua6yUC7jm7GCMEV48PFoKe7gRF0Sb8jq7vueSGiFK72pGmn_mFE1rJUgKVdoTlwEfwibqfeFKUmxRd9zfIFPUntlvwQb2-IHVBfVGvFjjVkTX2Qvahfaw/s320/DMT.jpg)
This book is a highly readable, intriguing, provocative description of Rick Strassman’s theories and research concerning the effects of N, N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT)—a short-acting and powerful plant-derived psychedelic chemical that is endogenously produced in the human brain—and what its evolutionary and psychological function might be. In this intellectually courageous book, which reads more like a novel than a scientific text, Strassman, Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, recounts the history of psychedelic research; the bureaucratic labyrinth he had to navigate to begin the first clinical research with psychedelic substances approved by the Drug Enforcement Administration in more than 20 years; his methods and results (including case descriptions of what his volunteers encountered while taking the drug); the dangers of experimentation with psychedelics as well as possible beneficial effects; and speculations regarding the