A few years ago--in the course of my journey of self-discovery--I read a book called DMT: The Spirit Molecule by Dr. Rick Strassman. As I wrote in my last entry here, this book explores N,N-dimethyltryptamine or DMT, which is a naturally-occurring molecule in both plants and animals, including our own bodies. It is one of the most powerful psychoactive molecules known and is the active agent in psychedelic substances like the shamanic brew, Ayahuasca. A more complete discussion of this book, which I wrote nearly five years ago, can be found here.

Strassman co-wrote a followup book called Inner Paths to Outer Space: Journeys to Alien Worlds through Psychedelics and Other Spiritual Technologies, which discusses one of the more common features of the high-dose DMT experience: contact with "alien" entities. More about this book later.

I haven't written about my spiritual journey here for a couple of years. This is because it became increasingly difficult for me to accept the immateriality of the ideas I was studying. The scientist in me was in a constant battle for Truth against Belief. I came to realize that for me, belief can only involve Truth, and Truth can only be discovered when the irrational nature of human beings is allowed to partner with the rational and scientific.

Which is why of all the spiritual traditions, I feel most intellectually comfortable with Buddhism, specifically Tibetan Buddhism.

Arri Eisen is a professor at Emery University who has traveled to Dharamsala, India, to teach science to Tibetan Buddhist monks. In the article about his experiences, "Creationism v. Integrationism", he wrote:

"Buddhism turns modern Judeo-Christian ideas on their heads. In Buddhism, experience and reasoning come first, and then scripture. As we wandered down the path of broken rock fragments, [one of the monks] told me that when he encounters something that disagrees with his beliefs, he tests the new idea with logical evidence and approaches, and then if it holds up, he accepts it. This is what the Dalai Lama means when he says that if modern science presents good evidence that a Buddhist idea is wrong, he will accept the modern science (he gives the example of the Earth moving around the sun, which runs counter to Buddhist scripture)."

This statement by the Dalai Lama is a remarkable one considering that he is the acknowledged spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism. Yet, this is apparently an unremarkable idea for Tibetan Buddhists. The depth at which Tibetan Buddhism has studied the mind and psychology long predates Western investigation of the mind, which is only a recent focus of scientific serious study thanks to an increasing array of "mind opening" technological advances.

What Tibetan Buddhism has in common with modern and quite recent scientific investigation is the need to focus primarily on the most important--yet frustratingly inexplicable--concept in the Universe: CONSCIOUSNESS. The ultimate irony about consciousness, as it stands today is that while we have absolute certainty that consciousness exists, there is not a single shred of proof that it does, simply because there is no way science can measure it, weigh it or quantify it.
So while the entire basis of my worldview is predicated on my belief that science is the foundation of reality, the fundamental Truth of my reality is consciousness, which science cannot even begin to explain.

Perhaps it is this apparent contradiction that propels my study of consciousness which has not abated since I last wrote here. This interest long preceded the years chronicled in this blog and has been of great interest ever since. Fortunately, there are an increasing number of excellent sources on the Internet to find information about consciousness.

For the academically inclined, there is Online Papers on Consciousness, compiled by one of the world's leading researchers on the subject, Australian philosopher David Chalmers. His web page is a cornucopia of information and links to the diverse cross-section of people and organizations around the world who are also studying this subject.

One of the books I read on this subject was The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self by Thomas Metzinger, a German philosopher and current president of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness. Their website states:

The ASSC is an academic society that promotes rigorous research directed toward understanding the nature, function, and underlying mechanisms of consciousness. The ASSC includes members working in the fields of cognitive science, medicine, neuroscience, philosophy, and other relevant disciplines in the sciences and humanities.

The first paragraphs of The Ego Tunnel, I believe, concisely defines what consciousness is.

Consciousness is the appearance of a world. The essence of the phenomenon of conscious experience is that a single and unified reality becomes present: If you are conscious, a world appears to you. This is true in dreams as well as in the waking state, but in dreamless deep sleep, nothing appears: The fact that there is a reality out there and that you are present in it is unavailable to you; you do not even know that you exist.

Consciousness is a very special phenomenon, because it is part of the world and contains it at the same time. All our data indicate that consciousness is part of the physical universe and is an evolving biological phenomenon. Conscious experience, however, is much more than physics plus biology--more than a fantastically complex, dancing pattern of neural firing in your brain. What sets human consciousness apart from other biologically evolved phenomena is that it makes a reality appear within itself. It creates inwardness; the life process has become aware of itself.

Metzinger states that consciousness is "an evolving biological phenomenon". In fact, this may be the only part of our biology that continues to evolve after the rest of our physiology seems to have long-since ceased evolving. But consciousness--as they used to say--has come a long way baby.

A startling and fascinating hypothesis about the evolution of consciousness was offered by Julian Jaynes in his 1976 book, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind.

I first discussed this book here and its intriguing ideas have stayed with me. The main thesis of the book is that man's ability to introspect (literally, to see inside oneself) actually began no more than 3500 years ago. To ponder this brief span of time actually gives me hope that with all the foolishness man perpetrates on and to himself, his neighbors and to the world itself, we are mere infants in an evolution of consciousness sense. This hope, however, is tempered by the knowledge that our foolishness has gone from local to global and without a serious effort, our young species could be both perpetrator and victim of our own hubris and excess as described in an intriguing film called The Age of Stupid, (which is available on Netflix Instant Browse among other websites).

Another surprising source for information about consciousness is YouTube. YouTube, of course, is a mixed bag of divergent ideas and opinions about anything and everything. Like all things Internet, discrimination is the key to separating informational wheat from chaff.

This, then, brings me back to the book I originally started this post with, DMT: The Spirit Molecule. Since the research discussed in that book concluded in 1995, I've been interested in what Dr. Strassman has been up to.

I discovered that he founded The Cottonwood Research Foundation in New Mexico, as their website states, "to perform scientific studies into human consciousness, using the lens of naturally-occurring hallucinogenic medicines. We will apply our findings to the full spectrum of the human condition—including treatment of physical and psychological illnesses, religious and spiritual issues, and creativity studies."

Besides donations, One of the ways this foundation is funded is by Strassman's talks to groups and organizations interested in hearing about his work in this field. Fortunately, many of his talks and discussions have been recorded and can be found on YouTube.

A few days ago I watched a talk he gave in New York City late last year about his books and about his current project, which explores the Old Testament prophets in terms of the psychedelic experience; not necessarily a popular subject for many of us who reject what we consider the considerable damage done to humanity by Judeo-Christian philosophy.

Still, I wanted to listen to what he said. And when his new book about this subject is published, I'll probably read it, if only because Strassman himself has seemingly gone full circle in his personal philosophy as a person born into the Jewish faith who in 1984 received lay ordination in a Western Buddhist order. He then co-founded, and for several years administered, a lay Buddhist meditation group associated with the same order. He ended his association with the Buddhist order when controversy arose over an article he wrote in a Buddhist journal linking psychedelics to Buddhism.

Interest in psychedelics and specifically DMT can be seen by the fact that over 5 million copies of DMT: The Spirit Molecule have been sold and has been translated into 27 languages. So when I read a few years ago that a documentary movie based on the book was in the works, I looked forward to viewing it.

Late last year, the movie was finished and is now available on DVD. Below is the official trailer:



You might recognize the man in the black and white opening from television. Comic Joe Rogan was one of the stars of NewsRadio in the late 90's and more recently hosted Fear Factor, a game show in which contestants were--among other challenges--induced to eat and interact with all manner of horrible, squirmy and objectionable items for the opportunity of winning the game.

A number of years ago, however, Joe Rogan experienced DMT for himself and has since become a very vocal proponent of mind exploration using psychedelic substances as well as the non-psychedelic use of isolation tanks to explore. There are a many YouTube videos of him discussing his experiences.

I had the opportunity of viewing the DMT: The Spirit Molecule documentary and will discuss this movie and the implications of Rick Strassman's research in my next post.