Dreaming DMT Addict

DMT grants access to otherwise invisible realms of universal consciousness, where extraterrestrial communication and confrontations with death commonly occur. When taken properly, the user launches into an ethereal journey of disembodiment, on a hyperdimensional round trip from couch to cosmic consciousness and back, all in less than 20 minutes. But mysteriously, this enigmatic substance is naturally (endogenously) produced by the human body. Sixty years after this discovery, modern science has yet to answer what may be the ultimate psychedelic question: Why do our bodies readily manufacture this potent psychedelic substance? 

Hungarian chemist and psychiatrist Stephen Szara became the first person to experience the subjective effects of synthetic DMT in 1956 through self administration. Following Szara’s discovery of DMT’s subjective effects, the leading hypothesis was that endogenous DMT may act as a 'schizotoxin'—an internal substance that causes symptoms of schizophrenia and other hallucinatory psychiatric conditions. But efforts to advance this hypothesis were abruptly halted following the sweeping legislation of The Controlled Substance Act of 1970, and research on endogenous DMT entered into a decades long silence.

DMT is present under ordinary conditions, however, which suggests that it may play a role in more every-day, non-hallucinatory functions. The revival of research has revealed that endogenous DMT may be involved in various physiological processes including hypoxic stress protection, anti-inflammation, immune responses, neuroplasticity, or dream consciousness. The truth, however, is that research on the function of endogenous DMT remains in its infancy, and we’re far from a clear understanding of its biological role(s). 

The majority of psychedelic research today focusing on therapeutic application and mechanistic action of administered psychedelics overlooks the potential DMT-mediated psychedelic system present within us all. Probing deeper into DMT’s endogenous function may shed light on how other psychedelics exert their effects, and also provide a framework to better understand aspects of naturally occurring psychedelic-like states. 

Nicolas Glynos is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Michigan in the department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology. His thesis work is focused on investigating the biology and function of endogenous (naturally produced) DMT in the mammalian brain, along with uncovering the neural correlates of the DMT experience. He is vice president of the Student Association for Psychedelic Studies at U of M, and co-founder of the interdisciplinary group Psychedelic Neuroscience & Therapy, which hosts monthly seminars from leading psychedelic researchers. Born in Kansas City, MO, he moved to Montana as an adult, and worked for several years on a backcountry trail crew in Glacier National Park. After deciding to return to school, he completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Botany from Cornell University in 2017, where he was recognized in the Cornell Chronicle for receiving the Young Botanist Award from the Botanical Society of America while pursuing an interest in the intersection between psychedelics and ethnobotany. He is set to complete his Ph.D. in 2023, and he plans to continue contributing to the psychedelic renaissance thereafter as a researcher and advocate. You can learn more about his recent research on DMT from the documentary DMT Quest.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/vPf1EvAdEVk



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dreaming Is A DMT Experience

Image
Dimethyltryptamine, or DMT , is a potent psychedelic drug commonly found in nature. DMT is also produced by our brains and contribute to a wide variety of experiences. Scientists have also been intrigued by the possibility that DMT would be involved in, for example, the generation of psychedelic experiences or dreamlike states. This video will briefly examine the physiological function of endogenous DMT from a pharmacological perspective. You can get a chemical version of course, and the resulting trip or hallucination is very profound and many would say life changing. But there's a problem with reading loads of peoples stories about DMT and I think by reading and hearing about peoples stories, you're actually changing what might have happened to you if you'd never heard the stories. The same can be said of lucid dreaming, if you constantly hear things like 'when you lucid dream, you'll be met by the terrifying sleep paralysis demon' then you start to believe it
Read more

Dark Matter Transducer

Image
Scientists are on a quest to solve one of physics’ biggest mysteries: What exactly is dark matter – the invisible substance that accounts for 85 percent of all the matter in the universe but can’t be seen even with our most advanced scientific instruments? Most scientists believe it’s made of ghostly particles that rarely bump into their surroundings; that’s why billions of dark matter particles might zip right through our bodies every second without us even noticing. Leading candidates for dark matter particles are WIMPs, or weakly interacting massive particles. SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center) National Accelerator Laboratory is helping to build and test the LUX-ZEPLIN or LZ detector, one of the biggest and most sensitive detectors ever designed to catch hypothetical dark matter particles known as WIMPs. Identifying the building blocks of dark matter is one of the highest priorities of modern physics. Most scientists believe it’s made of ghostly particles that rarely bump int
Read more

The Conscious Electromagnetic Information (CEMI) Field Theory

Image
Consider driving along a familiar road. You may be listening to the radio, thinking about some problem at work, but your brain is busy performing all the complex computations necessary to control your limb movements and maintain your car on the busy road, unconsciously. You spot a hazard sign 'Roadworks Major Congestion Ahead' and immediately your conscious mind takes control, to slow the car and perhaps try to find an alternative route home. What is it that is taking control in these situations? What we need to look for is something that is a product of the brains activity, that integrates information but which also has the power to influence that activity. Surprisingly, we have known for years that such an entity exists within our brain. The neurons in our brain transmit electrical signals along and between nerve fibers. It is always assumed that the electrons and neurotransmitters moving down these nerves are the movers and shakers of neuronal computation. However, all elect
Read more