DMT_The Spirit Molecule Read online

  Hallucinogen is the most common medical term for psychedelic drugs, and it emphasizes the perceptual, mostly visual effects of these drugs. However, while perceptual effects of psychedelics are usual, they are not the only effects, nor are they necessarily the most valued. The visions actually may be distractions from the more sought-after properties of the experience, such as intense euphoria, profound intellectual or spiritual insights, and the dissolving of the body’s physical boundaries.

  I prefer the term psychedelic, or mind-manifesting, over hallucinogen. Psychedelics show you what’s in and on your mind, those subconscious thoughts and feelings that are are hidden, covered up, forgotten, out of sight, maybe even completely unexpected, but nevertheless imminently present. Depending upon set and setting, the same drug, at the same dose, can cause vastly different responses in the same person. One day, very little happens; another day, you soar, full of ecstatic and insightful discoveries; the next, you struggle through a terrifying nightmare. The generic nature of psychedelic, a term wide open to interpretation, suits these effects.

  Psychedelic has taken on its own cultural and linguistic life. It now can refer to a particular style of art, clothing, or even an especially intense set of circumstances. When it comes to rational discourse about drugs, psychedelic also stirs up powerful 1960s-based emotions and conflicts over unrelated political and sociological issues. Many of us now think “counterculture,” “rebellious,” “liberal,” or “left-wing” when we see the term “psychedelic.” I will take my chances, however, and use it throughout this book. I think it is the best term we have. I hope not to offend anyone who finds the word objectionable.

  No matter what we call them, most of us agree that the psychedelic drugs are physical, chemical things. It is at this most basic level that we can begin to understand what they are and what they do.

  The diagrams accompanying the following descriptions show the chemical structure of various psychedelic compounds. The balls represent atoms, the most common of which is carbon, which is not labeled. “N” signifies nitrogen; “P,” phosphorous; and “O,” oxygen. Numerous hydrogen atoms are attached to other atoms in the molecules; however, there are so many that they would unnecessarily clutter up the diagram, so I have not included them here.

  There are two main chemical families of psychedelic drugs: the phenethylamines and the tryptamines.11

  The phenethylamines build upon the “parent compound” phenethylamine.

  The best-known phenethylamine is mescaline, which is derived from the peyote cactus of the American Southwest.

  Another famous phenethylamine is MDMA, or “Ecstasy.”

  The other main chemical family of psychedelic drugs is the tryptamines. These all possess a nucleus, or basic building block, of tryptamine. Tryptamine is a derivative of tryptophan, an amino acid present in our diet.

  Serotonin is a tryptamine—5-hydroxy-tryptamine, to be exact—but it is not psychedelic. It contains one more oxygen atom than does tryptamine.

  DMT is also a tryptamine and is the simplest psychedelic. Simply add two methyl groups to the tryptamine molecule and the result is “di-methyl-tryptamine”: DMT.12

  The “grandfather” of all modern psychedelics, LSD, contains a tryptamine core, as does ibogaine, the African psychedelic with highly publicized anti-addictive properties.

  One of the best-known tryptamine psychedelics is psilocybin, the active ingredient of “magic mushrooms.”

  When these mushrooms are ingested, the body removes a phosphorous atom from the psilocybin, converting it to psilocin.

  Psilocin differs from DMT by only one oxygen. I like to think of psilocybin/psilocin as “orally active DMT.”

  Another important tryptamine is 5-methoxy-DMT, or 5-MeO-DMT. It differs from DMT by the addition of only one methyl group and one oxygen.

  Many of the plants, fungi, and animals containing DMT also possess 5- MeO-DMT. As with DMT, those who use 5-MeO-DMT usually smoke it.13

  In addition to their chemical structure, psychedelics also possess activity. This is where chemistry becomes pharmacology, the study of drug action.

  One way to describe psychedelics’ activity is by how quickly they work and how long they last.

  DMT and 5-MeO-DMT effects are remarkably rapid in onset and brief in duration. We gave DMT through a vein, or intravenously, in which case volunteers felt it within several heartbeats. They were “highest” at 1 to 2 minutes and were “back to normal” within 20 to 30 minutes.

  LSD, mescaline, and ibogaine are longer-acting. Effects begin 30 to 60 minutes after swallowing them. The effects of LSD and mescaline may last 12 hours, ibogaine up to 24 hours. Psilocybin effects are slightly shorter; they begin within 30 minutes and last 4 to 6 hours.

  Another more basic aspect of pharmacology is “mechanism of action,” or how drugs affect brain activity. This is a crucial issue, because it is by altering brain function that psychedelics change consciousness.

  The earliest psychopharmacological experiments in humans and animals suggested that LSD, mescaline, DMT, and other psychedelic drugs exerted their primary effects on the brain’s serotonin system. Animal research, in contrast to human studies, has continued over the last thirty years and has established conclusively this neurotransmitter’s crucial role.

  Serotonin has reigned as the royal neurotransmitter for decades, and there’s little sign of change. The new, safer, and more effective antipsychotic medications all have unique effects on serotonin. The new generation of antidepressants, of which Prozac is the most famous, also specifically modify the function of this neurotransmitter.

  We now believe that psychedelics mimic the effects of serotonin in some cases and block them in others. Researchers are now concerned with determining which of the twenty or so different types of serotonin receptors psychedelics attach to. These multiple docking sites for serotonin exist in high concentrations on nerve cells in brain areas regulating a host of important psychological and physical processes: cardiovascular, hormone, and temperature regulation, as well as sleep, feeding, mood, perception, and motor control.

  Now that we’ve looked at what psychedelics “are” and “do” in the worlds of objective and measurable data, let’s turn our attention how they feel to us, for it is only in the mind that we notice their effects.

  It is important to remember that while we understand a great deal about the pharmacology of psychedelics, we know nearly nothing about how changes in brain chemistry directly relate to subjective, or inner, experience. This is as true for psychedelics as it is for Prozac. That is, we are far from comprehending how activating particular serotonin receptors translates into a new thought or emotion. We don’t “feel” a serotonin receptor blockade; rather, we feel ecstasy. We don’t “see” frontal lobe activation; instead, we observe angels or demons.

  It is impossible to predict accurately what will happen after taking a psychedelic drug on any particular day. Nevertheless, we will generalize about their subjective effects because we must gain a sense of a “typical” response. We can do this by averaging all of our own and others’ experiences, all of the “trips” that have gone before us. (By “trip” I mean the full effects of a typical psychedelic drug like LSD, mescaline, psilocybin, or DMT. A trip is difficult to define, but we certainly know when we are having one!)

  The following descriptions do not apply to “mild” psychedelics such as MDMA or usual-strength marijuana, nor do they describe responses to low doses of psychedelics, for which effects are similar to those of other non-psychedelic drugs, like amphetamine.

  Psychedelics affect all of our mental functions: perception, emotion, thinking, body awareness, and our sense of self.

  Perceptual or sensory effects often, but not always, are primary. Objects in our field of vision appear brighter or duller, larger or smaller, and seem to be shifting shape and melting. Eyes closed or open, we see things that have little to do with the outside world: swirling, colorful, geometric cloud patterns, or well-formed i
mages of both animate and inanimate objects, in various conditions of motion or activity.

  Sounds are softer or louder, harsher or gentler. We hear new rhythms in the wind. Singing or mechanical sounds appear in a previously silent environment.

  The skin is more or less sensitive to touch. Our ability to taste and smell becomes more or less acute.

  Our emotions overflow or dry up. Anxiety or fear, pleasure or relaxation, all feelings wax and wane, overpoweringly intense or frustratingly absent. At the extremes lie terror or ecstasy. Two opposite feelings may exist together at the same time. Emotional conflicts become more painful, or a new emotional acceptance takes place. We have a new appreciation of how others feel, or no longer care about them at all.

  Our thinking processes speed up or slow down. Thoughts themselves become confused or clearer. We notice the absence of thoughts, or it is impossible to contain the flood of new ideas. Fresh insights about problems come, or we become hopelessly stuck in a mental rut. The significance of things takes on more importance than the things themselves. Time collapses: in the blink of an eye, two hours pass. Or time expands: a minute contains a never-ending march of sensations and ideas.

  Our bodies are hot or cold, heavy or light; our limbs grow or shrink; we move upward or downward through space. We feel the body no longer exists, or that the mind and body have separated.

  We feel more or less in control of our “selves.” We experience others influencing our minds or bodies—in ways that are beneficial or frightening. The future is ours for the taking, or fate has determined everything and there is no point in trying.

  Psychedelics affect every aspect of our consciousness. It is this unique consciousness that separates our species from all others below, and that gives us access to what we consider the divine above. Maybe that’s another reason why the psychedelics are so frightening and so inspiring: They bend and stretch the basic pillars, the structure and defining characteristics, of our human identity.

  These are the psychedelic drugs. There exists a complex and rich context for viewing them, a perspective that few appreciate. They are not new substances, and we know an enormous amount about them. They ushered in the modern era of biological psychiatry, and their highly publicized abuse prematurely ended an extraordinarily rich human research endeavor.

  It was into this seething matrix of conflict, ambivalence, and controversy that I looked for a point of traction and a clear line of sight in order to formulate my own research agenda. Where could I get a toehold? In which direction should I look? I needed a key with which to open the lock keeping psychedelic research buried.

  Out of this virtual swamp emerged one small obscure molecule: DMT. Its call was one I could not ignore, even though I had little idea of how I might get to it. Nor could I possibly expect where it would lead me once I found it.

  2

  What DMT Is

  N, N-dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, is the remarkable main character of this book. While chemically simple, this “spirit” molecule provides our consciousness access to the most amazing and unexpected visions, thoughts, and feelings. It throws open the door to worlds beyond our imagination.

  DMT exists in all of our bodies and occurs throughout the plant and animal kingdoms. It is a part of the normal makeup of humans and other mammals; marine animals; grasses and peas; toads and frogs; mushrooms and molds; and barks, flowers, and roots.

  Psychedelic alchemist Alexander Shulgin devotes an entire chapter to DMT in TIHKAL: Tryptamines I Have Known and Loved. He aptly entitles this chapter “DMT Is Everywhere” and declares: “DMT is . . . in this flower here, in that tree over there, and in yonder animal. [It] is, most simply, almost everywhere you choose to look.” Indeed, it is getting to the point where one should report where DMT is not found, rather than where it is.1

  DMT is most abundant in plants of Latin America. There, humans have known of its amazing properties for some tens of thousands of years. However, it is only in the last 150 years that we have gained some inkling of the antiquity of DMT’s relationship with our species.

  Beginning in the mid-1800s, explorers of the Amazon, particularly Richard Spruce from England and Alexander von Humboldt from Germany, described the effects of exotic mind-altering snuffs and brews prepared from plants by indigenous tribes. In the twentieth century, the American botanist Richard Schultes continued this dangerous yet exciting line of fieldwork. Especially striking were the effects of, and the manner of administering, the psychoactive snuffs.

  Latin American indigenous tribes continue to use these snuffs and have given them many names, including yopo, epena, and jurema. They take huge doses, sometimes an ounce or more. One dramatic technique is for one’s snuffing partner to blow the powdery mixtures with considerable force through a tube or pipe into the other’s nose. The energy of the blast may be sufficient to drop the recipient to the ground.

  Spruce and von Humboldt reported that natives were immediately incapacitated by these psychedelic snuffs. Neither, however, went so far as to see for themselves what they were like. It was enough to watch the intoxicated Indians, twitching, vomiting, and babbling incoherently. These early explorers heard tales of fantastic visions, “out-of-body travel,” predictions of the future, location of lost objects, and contact with dead ancestors or other disembodied entities.

  Another plant mixture, this one consumed as a beverage, seemed to produce similar effects at a slower pace. This brew also went by several names, including ayahuasca and yagé. This drink inspired much rock art and paintings drawn on the walls of native shelters—what would be called “psychedelic” art today.

  Spruce and von Humboldt brought samples of these New World psychedelic plants back home to Europe. There the plants lay undisturbed for decades, as neither the interest nor the technology existed for further analysis of their chemical makeup or effects.

  While psychedelic plants languished in natural history museum archives, Canadian chemist R. Manske, in unrelated research, synthesized a new drug called N,N-dimethyltryptamine, or DMT. As he described in a 1931 scientific article, Manske had made several compounds derived by chemically modifying tryptamine. He was interested in these products because they occurred in a toxic North American plant, the strawberry shrub. DMT was one of these.2

  As far as anyone knows, Manske made DMT, noted its structure, and then placed his supply in some isolated corner of his laboratory, where it quietly collected dust. No one yet knew about DMT’s existence in mindaltering plants, its psychedelic properties, or its presence in the human body. There was little interest in psychedelics in scientific circles until decades later, after World War II.

  In the early 1950s, the discoveries of LSD and serotonin rocked the staid foundations of Freudian psychiatry and laid the groundwork for the new world of neuroscience. Curiosity about psychedelic drugs was intense among the growing circle of scientists who called themselves “psychopharmacologists.” Chemists began probing the barks, leaves, and seeds of plants first described as psychedelic a hundred years earlier, seeking their active ingredients. The tryptamine family was a logical place to focus, as both serotonin and LSD are tryptamines.

  Success was not long in coming. In 1946, O. Gonçalves isolated DMT from a South American tree used for psychedelic snuffs and published his findings in Spanish. In 1955, M. S. Fish, N. M. Johnson, and E. C. Horning published the first English-language paper describing DMT’s presence in another closely related snuff-producing tree. However, although they knew that DMT was a constituent of plants that produced psychedelic effects, scientists didn’t know if DMT itself was psychoactive.3

  In the 1950s, Hungarian chemist and psychiatrist Stephen Szára read about the profoundly mind-altering effects of LSD and mescaline. He ordered some LSD from Sandoz Laboratories so he could begin his own studies into the chemistry of consciousness. Since Szára was behind the Iron Curtain, the Swiss drug company was unwilling to risk letting their powerful LSD falling into Communist hands, and they turned down his request.
Undaunted, he looked up recent papers describing DMT’s presence in psychedelic Amazonian snuffs. He then synthesized some DMT in his Budapest laboratory in 1955.

  Szára swallowed ever-increasing doses of DMT, but felt nothing. He tried taking up to one full gram, hundreds of thousands of times more than an active dose of LSD. He wondered whether something in his gastrointestinal system was preventing oral DMT from working. Maybe it needed to be injected. His hunch predated the later discovery that there is a mechanism in the gut that breaks down oral DMT as quickly as it is swallowed—a mechanism South American natives found a way to bypass thousands of years ago.

  In the spirit of “who goes first,” Szára gave himself an intramuscular, or IM, injection of DMT in 1956. In this case, he used about half of what we now know to be a “full” dose:

  In three or four minutes I started to experience visual sensations that were very similar to what I had read in descriptions by Hofmann [about LSD] and Huxley [about mescaline]. . . . I got very, very excited. It was obvious this was the secret.4

  After later doubling the dose, he had this to say:

  [Physical] symptoms appeared, such as a tingling sensation, trembling, slight nausea, [widening of the pupils], elevation of the blood pressure and increase of the pulse rate. At the same time, eidetic phenomena [after-images or “trails” of visually perceived objects], optical illusions, pseudo-hallucinations, and later real hallucinations appeared. The hallucinations consisted of moving, brilliantly colored oriental motifs, and later I saw wonderful scenes altering very rapidly. The faces of the people seemed to be masks. My emotional state was elevated sometimes up to euphoria. My consciousness was completely filled by hallucinations, and my attention was firmly bound to them; therefore I could not give an account of the events happening around me. After 45 minutes to 1 hour the symptoms disappeared, and I was able to describe what had happened.5