Discarnate Entities and Dimethyltryptamine (Dmt): Psychopharmacology, Phenomenology and Ontology

Journal of the Society for Psychical Research [Vol. 75.1, No. 902 DISCARNATE ENTITIES AND DIMETHYLTRYPTAMINE (DMT): PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY, PHENOMENOLOGY AND ONTOLOGY by DAVID LUKE ABSTRACT The highly psychoactive molecule A^.iV-dimethyltryptamine (or simply DMT), is found naturally occurring in the brains of humans, mammals, and some other animals, as well as in a broad range of species of the plant kingdom. Although speculative, neurochemical research suggests that DMT may be made in the pineal gland, and it is hypothesised that, as much as melatonin helps activate sleep cycles, DMT activates- dreaming, and may also be implicated in other natural visionary states such as mystical experience, near-death experience (NDE), spontaneous psi and psychosis. Amazonian shamans may have made use of this chemical for its visionary properties for thousands of years, and take it as part of a decoction frequently called ayahuasca, which translates from Quechua as "vine of the spirits" or "vine of the dead". The psychedelic brew is taken because it gives rise to extraordinary mental phenomena that have shamanic and supposed healing qualities, such as synaesthesia, ostensible extra-dimensional percepts, out-of-body experiences, psi experiences and, perhaps most commonly, encounters with discarnate entities. When described by independent and seemingly naïve DMT participants the entities encountered tend to vary in detail hut often helong to one of a very few similar types, with similar behavioural characteristics. For instance, mischievous shapeshifting elves, praying mantis alien brain surgeons and jewel-encrusted reptilian beings, who all seem to appear with baffling predictability. This opens up a wealth of questions as to the ontology of these entities. The discussion of the phenomenology and ontology of these entities mixes research from parapsychology, ethnobotany amd psychopharmacology — the fruits of science — with the foamy custard of folklore, anthropology, mythology, cultural studies and related disciplines. Hopefully, however, given the varied readership of this journal, it won't prove to be a trifie too interdisciplinary. INTRODUCTION Rarely does any one molecule excite as much sense of intellectual possibility as that of N.A^-dimethyl tryptamine (styled N,N-'DMT, or simply DMT): a psychedelic Índole alkaloid of the tryptamine family, much like its more notorious cousin LSD, but one which is found to occur naturally in trace quantities in the human body, as well as in many plants and animals, and— unlike LSD—also has a long history of shamanic use among many indigenous cultures, particularly in South America. When administered by Amazonian shamans it is usually ingested orally from stewed plant-matter and gives rise to an intoxication that lasts for 4-6 hours (Shanon, 2002). When smoked, DMT is generally more intense and extremely fast-acting—taking only a matter of seconds—and makes extremely profound temporary changes to consciousness, lasting about 12-15 minutes (Strassman, 2001), Zen philosopher Alan Watts smoked DMT to demonstrate his ability as a monk to maintain rational control and verbal fluency in the most exotic states of consciousness, but failed and 26 January 2011] Discarnate Entities and Dimethyltryptamine commented afterwards that it was like attempting to give "a moment-to- moment description of one's reactions while being fired out the muzzle of an atomic cannon with neon-byzantine barrelling" (Leary, 1966, p. 84). Similarly, someone recently suggested to me that smoking DMT was "like God punching a hole in the back of your head". The extraordinary phenomena reported by users include extra-dimensional geometric visions, synaesthesia, out-of-body experiences, psi (particularly telepathy and clairvoyance), and encounters with discarnate entities. The para- psychological and transpersonal experiences reported by users are increasingly becoming the focus of research and DMT neurochemistry has been called on in the explanation of phenomena such as psi (e.g. Roney-Dougal, 1991) and NDEs (Strassman, 2001). Currently, however, there exists no published review of DMT in relation to encounters with ostensibly discarnate entities, so the current paper is overdue in presenting an — albeit brief—overview of the psychopharmacology, phenomenology and ontology of such DMT encounters. HISTORY OF DMT BIOCHEMISTRY First synthesised in the laboratory in 1931 by the Canadian chemist Jeremy Manske, DMT was isolated from a plant source {Mimosa hostilis) in 1946 by the Brazilian chemist and ethnobotanist Gonçlaves de Lima (Shulgin & Shulgin, 1997). In 1965 a German team published an article in Nature announcing the discovery of DMT in human blood, and in 1972 the Nobel-prize-winner Julius Axelrod reported finding DMT in human brain tissue (Strassman, 2001), clearly establishing DMT as an endogenous chemical (i.e. made within the body). Its identity as an endogenous 'psychedelic' was discovered by the Hungarian chemist and psychiatrist Stephen Szára, who synthesised DMT in his lab and injected it into himself in 1956, afterwards describing his "hallucinations", which "consisted of moving, brilliantly coloured oriental motifs" that completely filled his consciousness (Szára, 1957, cited in Strassman, 2001). Szára went on to give DMT to his medical colleagues, one of whom reported that, "the whole room is filled with spirits ... I feel exactly as if I were flying", while another noted that, "in front of me are two quiet, sunlit Gods". THE SPECULATED PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY OF DMT, ITS RELATED COMPOUNDS AND THE PINEAL GLAND The production of DMT in the body is speculated to occur through the conversion of the simpler molecule tryptophan into tryptamine and then into DMT (Mandel, Prasad, Lopez-Ramos & Walker, 1977), the tryptophan being available from the diet as an essential amino acid. Such biosynthesis has been observed in plants and is speculated to occur in humans (Mandel et al., 1977) given that all the necessary chemical building blocks and enzymes are available, but it remains unknown where, for certain, this biosynthesis occurs. One hypothesis holds that DMT manufacture occurs at the pineal gland (e.g. Strassman, 2001), although Hanna (2010) reminds us that the pineal-DMT hypothesis remains unproven despite the tendency of many, less informed, psychedelic commentators to assume it to be true. The common neurotransmitter serotonin (5 hydroxy tryptamine, or 5HT), crucial in higher cognitive processes, is known to be highly concentrated in 27 Journal of the Society for Psychical Research [Vol. 75.l. No. 902 the pineal gland, where it follows a circadian rhythm and is converted at night into melatonin (5-methoxy tryptamine, or 5MT) and the /?-earboline, pinoline (6-methoxy tetrahydro-/5-earboline, or 6-MeO-TH/îC) (Callaway, 1988), the former of whieh regulates sleep cycles, thought to occur primarily through the reduetion of body temperature (Dawson & Encel, 2007). The human pineal gland also creates other y3-earbolines, such as 6-methoxyharmalan, a harmala alkaloid. These yff-earbolines inhibit the enzyme monoamine oxydase (MAO), which breaks down tryptamines such as serotonin, DMT, and its close psychedelic cousin 5-methoxy A^.iV-dimethyl tryptamine (5-MeO-DMT). Another function of these MAO inhibitors (MAOIs), sueh as pinoline or any of the harmala alkaloids, is to make serotonin available at the pineal (Ho, 1977), where, according to Strassman (2001), it ean be easily converted into tryptamine. Any tryptamine at the pineal, according to Callaway (1988), with the aid of pineal enzymes (methyl transferases, such as S-adrenosyl-methionine, or SAM), can be eonverted to DMT, and, by the same methylisation process, the serotonin available at the pineal gland can also be eonverted into 5-MeO-DMT and bufotenin (5- hydroxy-N,N-dimethyltyptamine, 5-HO-DMT) (Shulgin & Shulgin, 1997). These latter two substances are also endogenous visionary molecules, similar in chemical strueture and effect to DMT and are also found in certain ingredients of the visionary shamanie deeoetion used in the Americas, ayahuasca, and in other shamanie substances. Some of these visionary substances are even of animal origin, such as the venomous secretions of the Sonoran desert toad (Bufo alvarius), which are rich in bufotenin that can be dried and smoked (Rudgley, 2000). Sueh an abundance of DMT in nature has led Shulgin and Shulgin (1997) to conclude that it is almost easier to list the species in which DMT does not occur than the ones in which it does. According to Strassman (2001), although the lungs, liver, blood and eye all contain the enzymes necessary to convert tryptamine to DMT, the pineal gland is especially rich in them and also has high concentrations of serotonin, ready to convert to tryptamine. So while the pineal-DMT hypothesis is currently unproven (Hanna, 2010) it is certainly feasible, especially when it is considered that the chemical conversion of tryptamine to DMT can be demonstrated in vitro. The only attempt thus far to support the hypothesis directly has been Strassman's attempt to isolate DMT from 10 human pineal glands extracted from eadavers. No DMT was detected in the glands; however, neither the bodies nor the glands were freshly frozen and any chemicals present may have degraded before analysis (Strassman, 2001). THE AYAHUASCA CAULDRON AS NOCTURNAL PINEAL MIMICRY Supporting the hypothesis that the supposed psyehedelie chemistry of the pineal gland is central to the expression of psi, Roney-Dougal (e.g. 1991) also points to the

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