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This is one of the most fascinating books I have ever read. In 1990, Dr. Rick Strassman succeeded in reinstating the first federally-approved study on a psychedelic substance in the U.S. since the 1960s. Not only did Dr. Strassman find a way through the impossibly long and thorny maze of contradicting laws and regulations, but the psychedelic compound he selected for his study was none other than dimethyltyptamine (DMT), one of the most powerful psychedelics ever known. In addition to his scientific, psychotherapeutic, and spiritual experience, it is Dr. Strassman’s remarkable evenhandedness that made him one of the few people who could have pulled this off.

DMT is confounding for a number of reasons. Not only is it commonly found in many plants and animals, but DMT is also produced within our brains. DMT is a neurotransmitter manufactured in the pineal gland, which is located right in the center of our brains. The pineal has a long and mysterious history of being considered the “seat of the soul”—if you believe in such a thing. On that, Dr. Strassman has this to say about the possibility of a soul:

Compare life and death: the state of being alive to that of being dead. One moment we are thinking, moving, and feeling. Cells are dividing, replacing dying ones with fresh recruits for the liver, lung, skin, and heart. The next moment we are no longer breathing; our heart has pumped its last beat. What is the difference? What’s gone that was just there? There is something that “enlivens�� us when joined with our body. When present in matter, it shows itself by way of movement and heat. In the brain, it provides the power to receive, and transform into awareness, our thoughts, feelings, and perceptions. When it is gone, the light is extinguished and the engine stops. Whatever it is, the presence of this enlivening force provides us the opportunity to interact with this time and place.

Dr. Strassman hypothesizes that the pineal gland produces DMT at critical moments in our brains, not least of all, at our time of birth and death. Does DMT usher the soul into and out of the body? DMT might also play a role in naturally occurring mystical and near-death experiences. While Dr. Strassman was expecting to encounter both psychotherapeutic and mystical experiences in his volunteers, he was not prepared for the overwhelmingly high frequency of contact they made with alien entities. The overlap of many DMT experiences with those reported by alien abductees is stunning.

One volunteer had this to say about his alien contact during repeated DMT experiences within the tolerance study (of which there is remarkably no known human tolerance to DMT):

It may not be so simple as that there are alien planets with their own societies. This is too proximal. It’s not like some kind of drug. It’s more like an experience of a new technology than a drug. You can choose to attend to this or not. It will continue to progress without you paying attention. You return not where you left off, but to where things have gone since you left. It’s not a hallucination, but an observation. When I’m there, I’m not intoxicated. I’m lucid and sober.

So what exactly is going on? DMT, a molecule manufactured within each and every one of us, not only separates consciousness from our bodies, but commonly brings people into contact with alien entities. Unlike other psychedelics, such as LSD and psilocybin which suppress the individual ego while under their influence, DMT leaves the ego intact, making the DMT experience all the more shocking and bizarre. The nature of these alien contacts, what these “aliens�� actually are, is only one of many questions that arise around DMT.

Since DMT is an intrinsic and inseparable part of our bodies, its mysteries pertain to everyone. And even though DMT’s mysteries are so strange that they often prove difficult to accept, let alone understand, we must continue trying to understand them. A better understanding of DMT will hopefully lead to a better understanding of who we are. Since DMT currently raises more questions than answers, more research and attention are obviously needed. That DMT is illegal -- a molecule found inside each and every one of us -- is a ridiculous farce. We are all, in essence, carrying around an illicit substance in our heads.

I am not advocating that everyone rush out and try DMT, far from it. Instead my intention is to bring DMT and its little-understood relation to the body to the attention of those who have not yet heard of it. If I have succeeded in piquing anyone’s interest in learning more about DMT, this book is a great place to start. With that I leave you with one last excerpt highlighting Dr. Strassman’s hope in future psychedelic research:

In addition to the treatment of clinical disorders, psychedelics could be used to enhance characteristics of our normal state of being, such as creativity, problem-solving abilities, spirituality, and so on. DMT elicited ideas, feelings, thoughts, and images our volunteers said they never could have imagined. Psychedelics stimulate the imagination, and thus they are logical tools to enhance creativity. The problems facing our society and planet require the use of novel ideas as much as new and more powerful technology. It’s impossible to overstate the urgent need to improve our imaginative abilities.