| There’s the experience of “Dimitri”: “WHAM! I felt like I was in an alien laboratory. A sort of landing bay or recovery area. There were beings. I was trying to get a handle on what was going on. I was being carted around. It didn’t look alien, but their sense of purpose was. It was a three-dimensional space. It was unlike any other DMT experience I have ever had. They had a space ready for me. They weren’t as surprised as I was. It was incredibly un-psychedelic. There was one main creature, and he seemed to be behind it all, overseeing everything. The others were orderlies or dis-orderlies. They activated a sexual circuit, and I was flushed with an amazing orgasmic energy. A goofy chart popped up like an x-ray in a cartoon, and a yellow illumination indicated that the corresponding system was fine. They were checking my instruments, testing things. When I was coming out, I couldn’t help but think ‘aliens’.” (158) In another session “Rex” relates: “It was the same place, neon lights defined everything. I was in a huge infinite hive. There were insect-like intelligences everywhere. They were in a hypertechnological space. There was one that was with me by my side. There was the same pulsating vibration. They wanted me to join them, to stay with them. I was tempted. I was looking down a corridor that was stretching out forever. That’s maybe where I lost it. The buzzing and kaleidoscope shifting was intense and went on for a long time. There was another one helping me . . . It was very intelligent. It wasn’t at all humanoid. It wasn’t a bee, but it seemed like one. It was showing me around the hive.” (159) Aaron shares his super trippy sounding experience: “A mandala-like series of visuals, fleur-de-lis type visions. Then an insect-like thing got right into my face, hovering over me as the drug was going in. The thing sucked me out of my head into outer space. It was clearly outer space, a black sky with millions of stars. I was in a very large waiting room, or something. It was very long. I felt observed by the insect-like thing and others like it. Then they lost interest. (160) Aaron also relates: “There is sense of someone, or something else, there taking control. It’s like you have to defend yourself against them, whoever they are, but they certainly are there. I’m aware of them and they’re aware of me. It’s like they have an agenda.” (161) Another Strassman volunteer named Sara underwent a remarkable sounding experience as well: “I was in a void of darkness. Suddenly, beings appeared. They were cloaked, like silhouettes. They were glad to see me. They indicated that they had had contact with me as an individual before. They seemed pleased that we had discovered this technology. They wanted to learn more about our physical bodies. They told me humans exist on many levels.” (162) Overall, Strassman found that subjects experienced what many people would term “religious experiences.” Strassman describes the effects he witnessed in DMT subjects: “DMT reproduces many of the features of an enlightenment experience, including timelessness; |
ineffability; coexistence of opposites; contact and merging with a supremely powerful, wise, and loving presence, sometimes experienced as a white light; the certainty that consciousness continues after death of the body; and a first-hand knowledge of the basic "facts" of creation and consciousness.” (163) Recent psilocybin studies at Johns Hopkins University, have shown that entheogenic-induced visions meet all the qualifications for “complete mystical experiences.” (164) It appears that science is now discovering the secret of mysticism. I have no doubt about the sincerity of Dr. Strassman and I think he has done excellent work, but I would like to point out how the funding was derived for the research on DMT. Strassman freely admits in his book, DMT the Spirit Molecule: “In looking over some of the old DMT and schizophrenia research, it appeared that the Scottish Rite Foundation, a branch of the Freemasons, had funded some of it through their Schizophrenia Research program. I asked this program to send an application for funding. My DMT proposal already discussed the importance of understanding DMT's effects in its possible role as an endogenous schizotoxin. Therefore, it took little work to modify the grant to emphasize these issues more clearly. I wrote Dr. Freedman, telling him of my grant submission to the Scottish Rite Foundation. He replied that he was on their scientific review committee, and "maybe" they would fund a year's support. Within a month, in September 1989, a notification of award arrived announcing a one-year grant for the project.” (165) I would propose that should we see studies on DMT which suggest the “reality” of alien worlds or civilizations, or influences on this planet, we may want to take a closer look at the source of these studies and their funding. There is one such type of study currently taking place. The experience of one subject under clinical administration of DMT on April 30, 1956 by Dr. S. Szara is recorded and reproduced in the following quotes: “I saw strange creatures, dwarfs or something, they were black and moved about.” She also announced that she was flying, “as if I were floating between earth and sky.” (166) (156) Supernatural, p. 231-32; Alexander Shulgin and Anne Shulgin, Tikhal: The Continuation, Transform Press, 1997, p. 249 (157) Strassman, DMT, the Spirit Molecule, p. 42; Supernatural, 231-32 (158) DMT, Spirit Molecule, p. 196-7 (159) ibid, 209-210 (160) ibid, p. 189 (161) ibid, p. 256 (162) ibid, p. 214 (163) ibid, p. 246 (164) Alchemically Stoned, p. 120; Hughes, Michael M. Sacred Intentions: Inside the Johns Hopkins Psilocybin Studies (165) DMT, Spirit Molecule, p. 113 (166) S. Szara MD PhD and Z. Boszormenyi MD PhD, "Dimethyltryptamine Experiments with Psychotics," Journal of Mental Science, 104, 1958, p. 446 |