DMT, Dreams and Near Death Experiences

[Zeuzzz]

Has anyone seen the work of Dr Rick Strassman? I recently read his book the spirit molecule after reading the long list of academics in that field that have recommended it. Its very interesting. This short video outlines some of the aspects behind his research at the univeristy of Mexico. He and others have found that DMT is a naturally produced in the blood of most animals, and many scientists have attributed it to be the chemical that produces the visual imagery of dreams.

http://www.rickstrassman.com/pages/dmt/

In 1990, I began the first new human research with psychedelic, or hallucinogenic, drugs in the United States in over 20 years. These studies investigated the effects of N,N-dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, an extremely short-acting and powerful psychedelic. During the project's five years, I administered approximately 400 doses of DMT to 60 human volunteers. This research took place at the University of New Mexico's School of Medicine in Albuquerque, where I was tenured Associate Professor of Psychiatry.

I was drawn to DMT because of its presence in all of our bodies. Perhaps excessive DMT production, coming from the mysterious pineal gland, was involved in naturally occurring "psychedelic" states. These might include birth, death and near-death, psychosis, and mystical experiences. Only later, while the study was well under way, did I also begin considering DMT's role in the "alien abduction" experience.

The DMT project was founded on cutting edge brain science, especially the psychopharmacology of serotonin. [...]

DMT is a naturally produced in the blood of most animals, and many scientists have attributed it to be the chemical that produces the visual imagery of dreams. There are certain stricking similarities between Strassmans subjects experiences and those experiences people report after near death experiences. Strassman, et al, postulate that when someone is dying the brain produces copious amounts of this chemical, which is what causes the blinding flash of light and the visual experience that so many people report when near death. The Pineal seems to be the perfect contendor for DMT production at night, it is light sensitive and made of the correct compounds to create DMT, which may exaplin why people dream. Something lacking past conventional random neural firing explanations.

A couple of papers on endogenous DMT;
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed&list_uids=6792104&cmd=Retrieve&indexed=google
http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=3071296
http://leda.lycaeum.org/?ID=16837

And this paper from the School of Pharmacy, University of California, looks at the possibility of DMT, or similar triptamine derivatives, causing dreams; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=3412201

The visions of dream sleep are suggested to occur through a dream mechanism which implicates tryptamine derivatives as endogenous paychedelics. The hallucinations that occur in some schizophrenic syndromes are also proposed to occur through a similar, though desynchronized, mechanism. These compounds occur in the human pineal gland and are regarded as neurotransmitters or neuroregulators. A protocol for experimental verification is suggested.

And this paper is from the University of Berkely, which also makes some interesting contributions to this subject; Visions produced by dreaming and entheogenic drugs


The pineal gland contains the necessary building blocks to make DMT. For example, it possesses the highest levels of serotonin anywhere in the body, and serotonin is a crucial precursor for pineal melatonin. The pineal also has the ability to convert serotonin to tryptamine, a critical step in DMT formation. The unique enzymes that convert serotonin, melatonin, or tryptamine into psychedelic compounds also are present in extraordinarily high concentrations in the pineal. These enzymes, the methyltransferases, attach a methyl group—that is, one carbon and three hydrogens—onto other molecules, thus methylating them. Simply methylate tryptamine twice, and we have di-methyl-tryptamine, or DMT. Because it possesses the high levels of the necessary enzymes and precursors, the pineal gland is the most reasonable place for DMT formation to occur.

Surprisingly, no one has looked for DMT in the pineal, mainly because to test this a person whould have to be alive when the pineal was tested, which ethical practises do not allow.


What are peoples thoughts on this idea of DMT producing altered states of consciousness like sleep?

 

[Zeuzzz]

When you dream that is an altered state of consiousness, meditation is another, REM sleep another, according to Strassman and others it is most likely that various triptamine derivatives produced in the brain are what cause these altered states.

http://sulcus.berkeley.edu/mcb/165_001/papers/manuscripts/_794.html - Univertsity of Berkeley

This data suggests a need for REM sleep but does not suggest what that need is. The most interesting findings are the symptoms of REM sleep deprivation (note that these subjects had full nights of sleep, but no REM sleep): Anxiety, irritability, difficulty concentrating, increased appetite, and even daytime hallucinations.

The data at this point is admittedly modest. It is provocative enough, however, to encourage further research on the subject. The relaxing of legal restrictions on entheogen research would contribute to the collection of quality data on the subject. Dreaming studies that administer entheogens and other powerful 5HT-2 agonists should prove useful in explaining dream/entheogen induced visions. Additionally, methods that allow for complete dream deprivation studies and scanning studies that monitor the activity of 5-HT pathways while the subject is dreaming could prove useful.

I also find it interesting that if you are deprived of REM sleep your brain will always make up what you have missed when you next fall asleep. This again indicates that the brain, for whatever reason, regards dreaming as a very important stage in sleep. Infact when people are deprived of sleep, they often start to hallucinate, which implies that the Brain needs dreaming to such an extent that you start to dream while fully awake!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/A276257

Experiments carried out by Professor Patrick and Dr J A Gilbert of the University of Iowa on sleep deprivation showed interesting results. One of their subjects even began to hallucinate on the third night of deprivation. When allowed to sleep after ninety hours, the subjects did so readily and slept very deeply, showing increased time in REM sleep. The need of a sleep deprived person is not just for sleep, but for the two types of sleep that compromise it. This is shown by studies on selective sleep deprivation (Cohen, 1972). If a subject is deprived of REM sleep, for example, by waking him/her every time he comes near to it, then the subject will spend more time in REM the next time they sleep. Although sleep deprivation is not as permanently injurious in humans as in young dogs, it still has serious effects.

The question is, why is specifically dreaming so important? every time someone is deprived of REM sleep they will always make up for what they lost when they next fall asleep, so why is this regarded as being so important by the body? every animal on the planet sleeps, we spend a third of our lives asleep, and we dont have a clue why. It just seems weird to me. One of the science's great unsolved mysteries.

 

[Zeuzzz]

I also found this very interesting clip from a discovery documentary on sleep. They interview leading sleep researcher prof Rosalind Cartwright Rush of Presbyterian Hostpital, Chicago and she explain what happened when they deprived people of sleep. She said that after a few days they could notice that the visual imagery of dreaming was beginning to intrude into the persons view, and people started hallucinating. Your body is sort of forcing you to dream even when awake by releasing the chemical that produces dreams. Weird.

 

[Soapy Sam]

I have not read Strassman. I was at a lecture last year by Graham Hancock in which he suggested a possible connection between patterned visual hallucinations due to DMT and other hallucinogens as used by shamans and the similarity of both ancient cave and rock art to similar modern drawings done under controlled use of hallucinogens.

The idea that similar drugs evince similar nervous system effects and similar sensations in people ancient and modern seems to me unobjectionable, even banal. However, Hancock seemed to be asserting that the hallucinations are an actual glimpse of genuine alternate universes or otherwise unreachable parts of this universe.
At that point, his argument , to my mind, simply stopped making sense.

Do hallucinogens have uses? No doubt.

Can "information" perceived under their influence be trusted? Surely, if later tests confirm it.
I would be upset however, to find the pilot of an airliner I was on was chewing mushrooms because it gave him karmic insight into how to land.

 

[Zeuzzz]

Another fascinating perspective on this, the pineal gland seems to have a rich metaphysical history;

Endogenous DMT, produced in the human brain, is involved in certain psychological and neurological states. As DMT is naturally produced in small amounts in the brains and other tissues of humans, and other mammals, some believe it plays a role in promoting the visual effects of natural dreaming, and also near-death experiences and other mystical states.

Western and Eastern mystical traditions are replete with descriptions of a blinding bright white light accompanying deep spiritual realization. This "enlightenment" usually is the result of a progression of consciousness through various levels of spiritual, psychological, and ethical development. All mystical traditions describe the process and its stages.

The pineal gland is unique in its solitary status within the brain. All other brain sites are paired, meaning that they have left and right counterparts; for example, there are left and right frontal lobes and left and right temporal lobes. As the only unpaired organ deep within the brain, the pineal gland remained an anatomical curiosity for nearly two thousand years. No one in the West had any idea what its function was.
Interest in the pineal accelerated after it attracted Rene Descartes's attention. This seventeenth-century French philosopher and mathematician, who said, "I think, therefore I am," needed a source for those thoughts. Introspection showed him that it was possible to think only one thought at a time. From where in the brain might these unpaired, solitary thoughts arise? Descartes proposed that the pineal, the only singleton organ of the brain, generated thoughts. In addition, Descartes believed the pineal's location, directly above one of the crucial byways for the cerebrospinal fluid, made this function even more likely.

The pineal gland of evolutionarily older animals, such as lizards and amphibians, is also called the "third" eye. Just like the two seeing eyes, the third eye possesses a lens, cornea, and retina. It is light-sensitive and helps regulate body temperature and skin coloration—two basic survival functions intimately related to environmental light. Melatonin, the primary pineal hormone, is present in primitive pineal glands.
As animals climbed the evolutionary ladder, the pineal moved inward, deeper into the brain, more hidden and removed from outside influences.

These hypotheses are not proven, mainly due to ethical concerns and anti-drug legistlation, but they derive from scientifically valid data. Many of these ideas are testable using available tools and methods.

The most general hypothesis is that the pineal gland produces psychedelic amounts of DMT at extraordinary times in our lives. Pineal DMT production is the physical representation of non-material, or energetic, processes. It provides us with the vehicle to consciously experience the movement of our life-force in its most extreme manifestations. Specific examples of this phenomenon are the following: When our individual life force enters our fetal body, the moment in which we become truly human, it passes through the pineal and triggers the first primordial flood of DMT. Later, at birth, the pineal releases more DMT. THE PSYCHEDELIC PINEAL • 69 In some of us, pineal DMT mediates the pivotal experiences of deep meditation, psychosis, and near-death experiences. As we die, the life-force leaves the body through the pineal gland, releasing another flood of this psychedelic spirit molecule.

 

[thesyntaxera]

I have read strassman's book a few times. It was certainly interesting, but I don't know if I agree with all of his theories...particularly the ones toward the end where he begins to speculate that the alternate dimensions one experiences under the influence of dmt might possibly be real. As others here might say, it assumes facts that re not in evidence. I also wonder how much his personal spiritual leanings tainted his perception of his findings. Regardless, his experimentation is quite profound, I feel because the human psychedelic experience is certainly a phenomena worth exploring despite the potential psychological dangers involved...like hallucinating that you are being raped by lizards, for example, which one of his patients reported.

After reading it I began looking online for other studies related to dmt, and found several related to schizophrenia. Apparently the test groups of schizophrenics who were currently experiencing a relapse showed measurably higher levels of dmt in their urine. The conclusions though, were that it wasn't significant enough to be considered a causal factor in inducing schizophrenia. It did make me wonder if it could be a symptom associated with it, or possibly responsible for a persons ability to experience visual hallucinations. Beyond that, I seem to remember reading something about the pineal being a magnetoreceptor. If memory serves, it was determined that the pineal contains a large amount of magnetite, and that magnetite might be involved in our magnetoreception ability and that of other animals. Allowing my imagination to run with it a bit, I considered the types of sensations associated with schizophrenia...namely the sensation that many of them report of external invisible forces effecting their ability to think normally. I feel that it is at least possible that those sensations they describe aren't so much delusional as they are a rationalization of what is physically happening to them. Being unable to explain what they are feeling they leap to idea's of god, or the devil, or aliens...etc

All of those sensations and hallucinations can be induced by dmt, not to mention certain religious aspects that permeates the experience as well.

An interesting side note: What is considered to be the first documented case of paranoid schizophrenia involved a guy named James Tilly Matthews...he reported that there were magnetic spies controlling the minds of important people so as to effect the outcomes of events on the earth. They were able to do this using a device he called an Air Loom which he believed beamed magnetic rays a people allowing the spies to hear and inject thoughts into other people.

In short, perhaps certain mental states are related to an oversensitivity to the natural magnetic properties of the earth, and this oversensitivity causes certain brain chemicals to be released effecting the persons perception of the world around him.

In the realm of not science fiction...I think it is interesting that alien abductions are reported by people involving the same aliens experienced under dmt. Now consider how many abduction stories begin with..."I was asleep in bed...when I woke I saw aliens around the edge of the bed...then I was whisked away to their ship...".

However, Hancock seemed to be asserting that the hallucinations are an actual glimpse of genuine alternate universes or otherwise unreachable parts of this universe.
At that point, his argument , to my mind, simply stopped making sense.

This pretty much defines my point of view on the subject. Hancock while promoting the use of entheogens, has fallen victim to one of their greatest qualities. If one considers how easy it is to digest large amounts of psychological information under the influence of high doses of psychedelics, and how one can easily rewrite their way of thinking about the world with them, perhaps it then is easy to see how a person could begin to accept any number of seemingly bizarre realities. I think by consuming them in the quantities that he has, he has in effect made himself an unreliable reporter on anything to do with them. To him the DMT experience is probably the answer to the whole "mystery of the universe" that mystics have been professing knowledge of for ages.


Thanks for bringing this up!

 

[INRM]

MSG Deleted
(Duplicate Message)

 

[INRM]

Interesting to say the least...

I kind of had a theory for awhile that an NDE was a kind of dream, or at least dream-like.

Regarding the statements about the Pineal Gland, are they sure that's the only place it's produced? Although position wise, it couldn't be more perfect, right next to the back of the corpus-callossom, an area of it which handles large amounts of visual data from the left and right occipital lobes, and tucked into the left and right thalamic hemispheres which is a huge hub in the brain. Also is the author trying to additionally suggest that the "soul", or the core of consciousness is in the pineal?


To thesyntaxera,

Actually, many sightings of UFO's occurred in areas where seismic anomalies were occurring.

 

[thesyntaxera]

Interesting to say the least...

I kind of had a theory for awhile that an NDE was a kind of dream, or at least dream-like.

Regarding the statements about the Pineal Gland, are they sure that's the only place it's produced? Although position wise, it couldn't be more perfect, right next to the back of the corpus-callossom, an area of it which handles large amounts of visual data from the left and right occipital lobes, and tucked into the left and right thalamic hemispheres which is a huge hub in the brain. Also is the author trying to additionally suggest that the "soul", or the core of consciousness is in the pineal?

I am relatively sure they only can verify that it is made in the blood and lungs. However, I believe that the function of the pineal is to secrete melatonin. I can't find any reliable information from such a superficial search, but it wouldn't suprise me if it was found to also play some role related to DMT. I have also heard that serotonin is involved in there some where, but I would need more time to research in earnest to make any verifications.

I think the author, who is an MD in the field of psychiatry, is suggesting the possibility that it could be like an eye, except one that "sees" interdimensionally, or possibly like an antenna that picks up the logos. While that could be true....my suspicion is that he is trying to rectify the testimony of the participants(and probably his own experience) with the available data. Not that it matters much, but he is a practicing buddhist and I am sure that is also a factor that could be clouding his objectivity. On the other hand, he could be totally open to the idea that there isn't any metaphysical implication to it at all.

To thesyntaxera,

Actually, many sightings of UFO's occurred in areas where seismic anomalies were occurring.

That's quite interesting. I was familiar with a similar story regarding ghost debunking. Apparently, when the debunker(whom I cannot remember) was summoned to investigate he would have the family leave for a while, and in most cases would find that the geomagnetism of that area of land was measurably higher, and the people who were experiencing 'disturbances' no longer experienced them once they left, and would re-experience similar symptoms upon returning...of course, they claimed it was because the house was haunted...

Personally, I find the implications of explaining ghosts, ufo's, NDE's, OBE's, and the human spiritual experience, as well as dream states with chemistry...well, fascinating.

 

[INRM]

Yeah, I've heard of haunting sensations being triggered by a number of things. Geomagnetic Activity, and Infrasound being the ones I remember the most.

Regarding the DMT producing all NDE symptoms I'm not entirely sure actually. It does seem like an excellent candidate, especially if the pineal gland produces it being located so close to the splenium (the rear most section of the corpus collossum, which mostly handles visual data from the occipital cortices), but OBE's can probably be produced without it as that involves (I think it's called...) proprioception -- actual data being received by the body. The right-angular gyrus, parietal and occiptal lobes are involved with that particular phenomenon.

Could be wrong though. I think this topic merits further discussion!

INRM

 

[Dancing David]

Hiya Zeuzz!

Could you explain something to me?

This passage here:

He and others have found that DMT is a naturally produced in the blood of most animals, and many scientists have attributed it to be the chemical that produces the visual imagery of dreams.

What is it that Strassman is claiming?

1. That the release of DMT is associated with dreams states?
2. That the release of DMT rises and falls with the onset of sleep?
3. Is there any evidence of a neurological chemical nature to support the association.

I am not poo-pooing the idea just asking for a simple reason:

The visual experience of dreaming is most likely related to the perceptual processing and creation that goes on in the brian every moment of every day. the only difference is that the visual perceptions of dreaming do not have sensory input that contribute to the manufacturing of the perceptions.

So if we assume (with some evidence) that the visual perceptions are manufactured from the sensory inputs and in fact that the brain confabulates most of the visual field from very limited data, what is the relevance of this DMT theory?

The mechanism that leads to the production of perceptions could be the same in both cases, since most perception is faked out by the brain any way.

So what is important about this idea?

If DMT is a possible (not confimed just suggested) regulator of a part of the sleep cycle, why would it be any more special than all the other neurochemicals involved in the circadian cycle?

 

[thesyntaxera]

Yeah, I've heard of haunting sensations being triggered by a number of things. Geomagnetic Activity, and Infrasound being the ones I remember the most.

Regarding the DMT producing all NDE symptoms I'm not entirely sure actually. It does seem like an excellent candidate, especially if the pineal gland produces it being located so close to the splenium (the rear most section of the corpus collossum, which mostly handles visual data from the occipital cortices), but OBE's can probably be produced without it as that involves (I think it's called...) proprioception -- actual data being received by the body. The right-angular gyrus, parietal and occiptal lobes are involved with that particular phenomenon.

Could be wrong though. I think this topic merits further discussion!

INRM

Definitely food for thought. I think chalking it all up to one chemical might be a bit presumptuous, however DMT by itself does initiate all of those things even if the dmt experience is dissimilar to other reported experiences. For example, it can generate fully 3 dimensional alternate "realities" that contain what appear to be living creatures that interact with you. Your sense of self tends to disappear, and this is accompanied by a sense of interconnectedness to the universe in a manner of speaking.

My feeling is that the experience is essentially neutral, and that some peoples predispositions tend to effect the outcome in a sort of cultural contamination. Some have alien abduction scenario's, others may feel like they are peering into heaven, still more people have more traditional shamanistic experiences filled with animistic archetypes. In the case of Strassmans study, he had people in a safe research environment, inside of a medical setting where they were being studied. Is it any wonder a large number of them reported similar alien settings where they were also being studied?

 

[thesyntaxera]

What is it that Strassman is claiming?

1. That the release of DMT is associated with dreams states?
2. That the release of DMT rises and falls with the onset of sleep?
3. Is there any evidence of a neurological chemical nature to support the association.

Not to step on the toes of Zeuzz, but if I may interject and answer here...

I would say he views the first 2 idea's as possible suggestions. I don't recall exactly, but I don't think he made any hard claims about it in any way. He just demonstrated that there was a chemical in the brain, that is also found just about every where in nature, and that this chemical is able generate by itself complete auditory/visual experiences replete with dream like characters that interact with the experiencer on a personal level. Simply, he suggests that since this chemical can do that, it may possibly have other supporting roles given it's propensity to induce visionary type experiences in the test subjects.

 

[INRM]

thesyntaxera,

OBE's are sometimes innacurate... as in the person sees something from above that isn't there... Maybe DMT is involved in the process at least some of the time if not always (after all, we always have proprioception, but DMT might be able to put the "image" and "visuals" on what is normally just a sensation of spatial-orientation)

Is DMT required for visually imagining things? As they have called the pineal gland "the minds eye"

INRM

 

[latent aaaack]

If that's true then what is your explanation for why people often hallucinate when sleep deprived for long periods of time? These people have sensory input to contribute to the manufactoring of the perceptions yet they still start hallucinating after long enough time without sleep.

I was recently sleep deprived for a few days and my brain started to interpret various sights that one sees on a regular basis as disturbing faces and something I was worried about keeping an eye on suddenly seemed to turn to smoke for a second. I thought this meant that my brain was trying to do what it does while sleeping - make sense of the day and make it into a story or something significant, but it was trying to do so where there was no significance.

I am not poo-pooing the idea just asking for a simple reason:

The visual experience of dreaming is most likely related to the perceptual processing and creation that goes on in the brian every moment of every day. the only difference is that the visual perceptions of dreaming do not have sensory input that contribute to the manufacturing of the perceptions.

So if we assume (with some evidence) that the visual perceptions are manufactured from the sensory inputs and in fact that the brain confabulates most of the visual field from very limited data, what is the relevance of this DMT theory?

 

[Zeuzzz]

Could you explain something to me?

This passage here:

He and others have found that DMT is a naturally produced in the blood of most animals, and many scientists have attributed it to be the chemical that produces the visual imagery of dreams.

After re-reading i didn't word that very well. Strassman already knew that it was produced endogenously by humans, which I think is pretty well established, his work was purely on recording the ways that DMT effected people.

What is it that Strassman is claiming?

1. That the release of DMT is associated with dreams states?

yes

2. That the release of DMT rises and falls with the onset of sleep?

Yep

3. Is there any evidence of a neurological chemical nature to support the association.

I believe so;

The pineal gland contains the necessary building blocks to make DMT. For example, it possesses the highest levels of serotonin anywhere in the body, and serotonin is a crucial precursor for pineal melatonin. The pineal also has the ability to convert serotonin to tryptamine, a critical step in DMT formation. The unique enzymes that convert serotonin, melatonin, or tryptamine into psychedelic compounds also are present in extraordinarily high concentrations in the pineal. These enzymes, the methyltransferases, attach a methyl group—that is, one carbon and three hydrogens—onto other molecules, thus methylating them. Simply methylate tryptamine twice, and we have di-methyl-tryptamine, or DMT. Because it possesses the high levels of the necessary enzymes and precursors, the pineal gland is the most reasonable place for DMT formation to occur.

It is very hard to directly test as DMT is produced in very small amounts as it is absorbed into the blood stream extremely quickly. Ethical concerns do not allow for testing of living brain tissue that deep inside the brain. By the time someone is dead, even if you get to the pineal to test for it, all the DMT that would have been there will have been absorbed. Apparently no-one has yet tried to look for it. I suppose that DMT does not appear in your standard neuroscience textbook, so not many surgeons would be even aware of it existing, let alone being produced endogenously.

So what is important about this idea?

By experimenting with DMT scientists will better beable to understand what casues people who have NDE's to report the spectaculour visual images, flashbacks, tunnel of light, seeing deceased family members, etc. The reasons why all these people seem to have the exact same type of experience, at a time when the brain should be dying, has not had any adequate answer in science so far past random neural firing. DMT may be the reason why peoples experiences are similar, they are all achieveing this altered state of consciousness from the same neurochemical, and so you would expect similarities between the accounts.

If DMT is a possible (not confimed just suggested) regulator of a part of the sleep cycle, why would it be any more special than all the other neurochemicals involved in the circadian cycle?

Because it is one of the worlds strongest natural entheogens, and its effects are very profound, not like any other neurochemicals.

 

[Dancing David]

After re-reading i didn't word that very well. Strassman already knew that it was produced endogenously by humans, which I think is pretty well established, his work was purely on recording the ways that DMT effected people.



yes



Yep



I believe so;



It is very hard to directly test as DMT is produced in very small amounts as it is absorbed into the blood stream extremely quickly. Ethical concerns do not allow for testing of living brain tissue that deep inside the brain. By the time someone is dead, even if you get to the pineal to test for it, all the DMT that would have been there will have been absorbed. Apparently no-one has yet tried to look for it. I suppose that DMT does not appear in your standard neuroscience textbook, so not many surgeons would be even aware of it existing, let alone being produced endogenously.



By experimenting with DMT scientists will better beable to understand what casues people who have NDE's to report the spectaculour visual images, flashbacks, tunnel of light, seeing deceased family members, etc. The reasons why all these people seem to have the exact same type of experience, at a time when the brain should be dying, has not had any adequate answer in science so far past random neural firing. DMT may be the reason why peoples experiences are similar, they are all achieveing this altered state of consciousness from the same neurochemical, and so you would expect similarities between the accounts.



Because it is one of the worlds strongest natural entheogens, and its effects are very profound, not like any other neurochemicals.

Yowza, you haven't really cited your source. The fact that a neurochemical can alter brain functioning does not make it special. (IMNSHO)

LSD is a chemical that locks onto the serotonin receptors, psylocibin floats on and off of it.

(Antagonist and agonist if I recall correctly)

The reason that you have illusions on LSD and psylocibin is because of a neurotansmitter serotonin being flooded into the the synapse or the chemical mimicing that effect.

I can also produce some of the hallucinations that DMT produces by pressing on my eyeball.

So I am not saying that DMT might not be imporatant but that is an unsupported assertion.

1. Other neurochemical might be involved and in fact have to be involved.
2. It is not established that DMT causes dreaming, just that maybe it is associated with dreaming (Show me some reserach and I will glasly agree)
3. there are plenty of other neurochemicals and systems that are involved in dreaming and to just single out DMT is not meaningful.

I want to also state that i am not saying that it is impossible: but there has not yet been evidence presented here that would make me think that DMT is not one of many neurochemical associated with the circadian cycle and the dream cycle.

If DMT rises right before REM sleep then that migh be meaningful.

And also studies show that people report dreams throughout the night regardless of REM sleep, it is the nature of the dreams that changes.

 

[INRM]

Dancing David,

I thought people only reported dreams during REM-cycle?

 

[Dancing David]

No, there was some creul study where the work people up at different times of the night and sleep cycle. People reorted dreams in most of the situations, but the ones in the lower sleep stages were mainly just emotions and not dialogue. i will see if I can find it.

 

[Zeuzzz]

People nearly always remember what was happening when woken from REM sleep, but very rarely will remember much of a dream from the other phases. They will often have very vague recollections of thinking about something, but rarely a definitive story like is created in REM sleep.

This is a very hard field to be conclusive about anything though, as all accounts are ultimately subjective, there is no way to measure what a person is dreaming.