Showing posts with label DMT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DMT. Show all posts

Rick Strassman, M.D. | DMT: The Bridge Between Biology and the Divine | Hour 1 | Veritas Radio

Source: veritasradio.com, rickstrassman.com



Synosis
Naturally occurring DMT may produce prophecy-like states of consciousness and thus represent a bridge between biology and religious experience

- Reveals the striking similarities between the visions of the Hebrew prophets and the DMT state described by Strassman's research volunteers
- Explains how prophetic and psychedelic states may share biological mechanisms
- Presents a new top-down "theoneurological" model of spiritual experience

After completing his groundbreaking research chronicled in DMT: The Spirit Molecule, Rick Strassman was left with one fundamental question: What does it mean that DMT, a simple chemical naturally found in all of our bodies, instantaneously opens us to an interactive spirit world that feels more real than our own world?

When his decades of clinical psychiatric research and Buddhist practice were unable to provide answers to this question, Strassman began searching for a more resonant spiritual model. He found that the visions of the Hebrew prophets--such as Ezekiel, Moses, Adam, and Daniel--were strikingly similar to those of the volunteers in his DMT studies. Carefully examining the concept of prophecy in the Hebrew Bible, he characterizes a "prophetic state of consciousness" and explains how it may share biological and metaphysical mechanisms with the DMT effect.

Examining medieval commentaries on the Hebrew Bible, Strassman reveals how Jewish metaphysics provides a top-down model for both the prophetic and DMT states, a model he calls "theoneurology." Theoneurology bridges biology and spirituality by proposing that the Divine communicates with us using the brain, and DMT--whether naturally produced or ingested--is a critical factor in such visionary experience. This model provides a counterpoint to "neurotheology," which proposes that altered brain function simply generates the impression of a Divine-human encounter.

Theoneurology addresses issues critical to the full flowering of the psychedelic drug experience. Perhaps even more important, it points the way to a renewal of classical prophetic consciousness, the soul of Hebrew Bible prophecy, as well as unexpected directions for the evolution of contemporary spiritual practice.

Bio
Rick Strassman MD performed the first new human studies with psychedelic drugs in the US in over 20 years. His research involved the powerful naturally-occurring compound, DMT - N,N-dimethyltryptamine. Led to this substance through his earlier study of the pineal gland as a potential biological locus for spiritual experiences, he administered several hundred doses of DMT to approximately 60 volunteers between 1990 and 1995.

He wrote about this research in the popular book, DMT: The Spirit Molecule, which has sold over 100,000 copies, has been translated into 12 languages, and is now available as an audio-book. It also inspired an independent documentary by the same name, picked up by Warner Bros distributing in Fall, 2011. With three distinguished collaborators, he co-authored Inner Paths to Outer Space, which looks more carefully at the common "other worlds" experience that volunteers frequently reported during his research. Since 1996, Dr. Strassman has been exploring models for the DMT effect focusing primarily on the Old Testament concept of prophecy.

Prophecy is a spiritual experience which takes into account the apparently external, free-standing nature of the DMT "worlds," in which one's sense of self is highly preserved and interactive. The Old Testament concept of prophecy provides an alternative to other models that borrow more heavily from Eastern religious systems, and those of Latin American shamanism. The notion of prophecy also deals directly with ethical and moral concerns, adding a crucial element to our ability to understand and integrate the content of the psychedelic experience.

He is developing these ideas in his next book, The Soul of Prophecy, due to appear in 2013. Dr. Strassman is currently Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. He is also President and co-founder of the Cottonwood Research Foundation, which is dedicated to consciousness research.

Rick Strassman MD, author of DMT: The Spirit Molecule, interviewed by Graham Hancock | July 14, 2019

Source: grahamhancock.com, rickstrassman.com



In his first public appearance for several years, Rick Strassman shares the background, performance, and interpretation of his 1990s groundbreaking research at the University of New Mexico.

In this series of experiments—the first new American clinical research with psychedelic drugs in a generation—dozens of human volunteers received hundreds of doses of DMT, one of the most powerful psychedelics known to science.

The story of his research project, published as DMT: The Spirit Molecule, raises intriguing questions about the mysteries of consciousness and the hidden nature of "reality."

Here, Rick discusses his own continually evolving understanding of the DMT phenomenon. Also discussed are Rick's more recent works, DMT And the Soul of Prophecy, and his first novel, largely autobiographical in nature, entitled Joseph Levy Escapes Death.
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