The concept of the Spirit Molecule and the research done opens up further questions as to whether god is simply a by-product of our consciousness. From 1990 to 1995 Dr Rick Strassman conducted DEA-approved clinical research at the University of New Mexico where he injected over sixty volunteers with DMT (N, N-Dimethyltryptamine), a powerful psychedelic drug. His account of those sessions is a detailed inquiry into the nature of the human mind and the therapeutic potential of psychedelics. DMT, is a plant-derived chemical that is also manufactured by the human brain, consistently produced near-death and mystical experiences. The volunteers reported convincing encounters with intelligent nonhuman spirits. Nearly all felt that the sessions were among the most profound experiences of their lives. Now READ ON...
If you ask the average person that says they are spiritual what they actually mean, you will get a million different answers and a million different ways to get there, but with some common core threads.
Most are convinced there is a real connection to something external, a wishful need to connect with an energy they perceive as higher.
They pursue what they believe to be a transcendental reality, or the essence of what could be called God. Most have made a conscious decision to embark upon a spiritual journey, a journey to attain some sort of spiritual fulfilment, the destination of which may never be reached, but the journey is important, the journey gives perspective and maybe some enlightenment along the way.
There are of course those who pursue the journey without a real or genuine belief in God or any celestial deity. These are the people who believe there is some sort of cosmic energy out there but reluctant to concede that it's a supernatural God.
The human mind, as we are increasingly discovering, is a powerful tool, more powerful than we will probably ever understand. The ability to access the areas of our mind that are normally inaccessible, what we could label as the spiritual realm, can be explained in a couple of ways.
Firstly you can say it's a way to access what people call God, that feeling of joy and euphoria you get when in deep prayer or taking an active part in a rousing or intoxicating church service. Alternatively, you can say that it's a heightened state of mind, one that is attainable by anyone as long as the situation, stimulus and environment are right. I’ve experienced a similar feeling watching a favourite band at the Glastonbury festival.
Whichever way you look at it, both situations can be wholly attributed to the mind. Attaining communion with God is done within the confines of our minds; there is no evidence of an external consciousness to connect to, therefore we have to conclude that the mind is our gateway to what we perceive as our own personal God, or at least the conceptual illusion of a God.
The perceptions of higher consciousness are attributed to deep religious belief. Theistic scholars from the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, all delve into arcane, esoteric and mystical teachings. These are reported to be the truths of man's union with God.
To understand those truths, you have to buy into the fact that they are more than the textual thought processes of ancient peoples, and the techniques they used to make sense of the spiritual experiences they encountered.
You have to believe that there is a hidden, whispered and occult route to understanding a transcendent God.
In reality they are millennia old, cleverly devised, mind manipulation techniques that enable those devotees to access higher levels of their own consciousness.
The rituals involved, and the acts of pursuing esoteric teachings, can be thought of as the first steps in prizing open the doorways of our minds through religious spiritualism and God belief.
In some ways, the mental step to believe is used as the first key. This positions the mind to accept a perceived open mental doorway, faith is the key to clearing the way. Our mind may need these sorts of mental tricks and triggers to enable us to access what we perceive as higher levels of consciousness. It's the essence of hypnosis; a self induced semi hypnotic state which fires up parts of the brain usually inaccessible.
In this case the medial prefrontal cortex and the posterior cingulate cortex. It's also suggested that deep meditation and meditative prayer may affect the Pineal Gland which is a small endocrine gland about the size of a grain of rice, situated deep within the brain.
We know that this tiny cone shaped gland produces melatonin, a serotonin-derived hormone which modulates sleep patterns, but over the last 20 years or so it has also been suggested that the pineal gland may have the ability to produce other psychedelic or hallucinogenic chemicals although this has never been proven.
One of those suggested chemicals is DMT. From 1990 to 1995 a Government approved and funded clinical study was carried out by Dr. Rick Strassman at the University of New Mexico. The idea was to discover the nature of the human mind and the therapeutic potential of psychedelics.
He used the potent plant derived chemical called DMT which is also used extensively in Ayahuasca (Ayawaska) a brew which dates back thousands of years, and made out of the Banisteriopsis caapi vine and other ingredients. The brew is used in ceremonies conducted by the indigenous peoples of the Amazon basin and is a traditional spiritual medicine.
The chemical N, N-Dimethyltryptamine, more commonly known as DMT, is a powerful endogenous hallucinogen which was injected into sixty volunteers during that clinical study, each of those volunteers reporting some profoundly spiritual experiences. Because of these profound effects, it has been dubbed 'The Spirit Molecule.'
Those that took part in Dr. Rick Strassman's study experienced intense auditory and visual hallucinations, a deep altered state of physical and mental awareness, altered states of space, time and body.
They reported intense life changing experiences of a spiritual journey, with many reported meeting spirit guides, angels or even God.
Over the years, many doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, anthropologists, writers and artists have experienced DMT. We also have many reports of people taking the DMT derived Ayahuasca.
The reports have many similarities with users describing their experience as otherworldly, a very real feeling of an alternative reality with a white light or illuminated cosmic tunnel that takes them to what feels like a very real spiritual world.
These experiences have similarities with another well known, or at least well reported phenomena which is commonly known as a 'Near Death Experience' or NDE.
Some people, who have a God belief, think that NDE is proof of an afterlife. They believe a person experiencing a Near Death Experience is getting a glimpse of what awaits us after death; they believe it to be a true representation of the transition between life and the glory hereafter.
This type of experience under the influence of DMT shows that NDE could simply be the release of naturally occurring chemicals into the brain and bloodstream, at times of major trauma and stress.
This, coupled with a lack of oxygen as in a near death experience, could simply be the brain's natural mechanism for coping with birth, shock and death.
DMT from a biosynthetic viewpoint is a step or two away from Tryptophan which is an amino acid needed for normal growth in infants and for nitrogen balance in adults. In fact Tryptophan naturally occurs everywhere; it's present in all plants and animals, and consequently it is possible and indeed probable that animals, including humans can synthesize DMT as a natural drug that aids in spiritual states.
The message we need to recognise and take from all of this is simply that we as a species, are profoundly tied to this planet in a very organic way. There is a symbiotic tether that cannot be ignored.
It's not some mythical God that connects us, nor is it pseudoscientific metaphysics that's spouted ad nauseum from the Gaia channel or wealthy whoo-whoo gurus like Deepak Chopra. Their explanations are simply ways they ignorantly attempt to dress up in cosmic mumbo jumbo, what they have failed to truly understand.
This swing to new age, pseudo science is sort of understandable knowing how we humans need to think we have all the answers even when we're making it up as we go along. As long as it sounds good and makes us feel special it seems everything is fair game.
Couple this with the way it can be dressed up with what is presented as hidden knowledge, or the secrets of the ancients, it takes on a thrilling narrative that makes us feel like we know something hidden from the rest of the fools who just go about their daily lives. It's a sort of spiritual snobbery that enables some, to accrue a small fortune with these wondrous stories.
The reason I say it's understandable is because something like the pineal gland is incredibly mysterious and has been speculated upon for thousands of years. Even today, people like Dr Strassman believe the pineal gland has something to do with our ability to access the spiritual mind because it's supposed secretion of natural DMT.
This sort of concept goes back to Egyptian times and beyond. The 'Eye Of Horus' for example has been reported to be a representation of a cross section of the brain focusing on the pineal gland. We know that Egyptians took on these surgical procedures and the similarity between the region of the brain that houses the pineal gland and the classic Egyptian symbol of protection, the Eye Of Horus is striking. In the Hindu religion it is associated with 'the third eye' and the god Shiva.
Helena Blavatsky, otherwise known as Madame Blavatsky, the Russian occultist and philosopher who founded the Theosophical Society in 1875 connected the pineal gland with the 'third eye' of Hindu spiritual enlightenment.
The third eye has also been called the inner eye or the mind's eye. The concept being that this mind's eye, located on the forehead offers a perception beyond the bounds of ordinary eyesight.
In Dharmic spiritual traditions, the cosmic law and order according to Hinduism, the third eye refers to the ajna, or consciousness.
As you can see, the pineal gland has always been at the heart of the spiritual movement throughout time.
The association with the pineal gland may be wishful thinking, a romantic connection with the concept of the third eye. This is mainly because all through our long history, we have somehow connected it with the mystical.
The French philosopher, scientist and mathematician, René Descartes, published several works which included reference to the pineal gland. He regarded it as the seat of the sole.
When all is considered, all the evidence points toward the mind being the source of what we call the spiritual. It is the mind that should be explored, wondered at and venerated, not the notion of an unsubstantiated external consciousness connecting us with the universe. We have to take on board that it's simply that our minds have evolved through eons of time and has a symbiotic connection to our environment. This is the exciting world we need to discover, this is the brave new frontier.
In order to pursue such lofty goals, we have to set aside superstition and the supernatural and focus our efforts on understanding the uncharted realms of the mind. If we can concentrate on the achievable and tangible, I believe we will find the natural transcendence we crave as a species, leave the ways of our ancestors behind and forge a new progressive path that can take us to new levels of human growth and understanding.
A real understanding of our place in the world, a more solid understanding of humanity's connection to the universe and will enable us to thrive in a new enlightened era for the human race. We just need to develop the tools and the will to walk that path of discovery.
Imagine a secular world where transcendence to higher levels of consciousness is simply part of our secular lived experience. A path to adulthood through cultural acceptance of the exploration of the mind.
This exploration would be carried out clinically and with an expectation to develop a deeper understanding of our humanity, clarity of vision, compassion and empathy. In other words, true god replacement through scientific methodology and an understanding of what it can mean to be human. A path that stimulates genuine psychological growth.
This may seem like something from a science fiction movie, but the growth of humanity has to have direction. We need to think seriously about the course we wish to take and we move into the future. We cannot build a mutually connected, civilised future on fairy tales and myths. We need a secular path to live open free lives with the ability to experience real wonder and enlightenment.
Reality gives us everything we need to be stimulated, to reach new states of being, to become what we have the ability to become. So far we have merely dipped our toes in the waters of possibility.
We know that morality is part of the human makeup, we know that we can achieve incredible things when we work together and we have seen the path to developing our minds and bodies through science and technology.
Real human growth, real cultural harmony and real wonders await us if we put aside the superstitions and dogmas that chain us to the past. If you discard the shackles of your religion, reject the supernatural and open your eyes to what’s really out there, we can look forward to a bright future for humanity