As noted in the previous post, the book is first and foremost an account of a research project, hence it is of necessity heavy on the minutiae of research protocols. While these are of undoubted interest to other researchers, the average reader could care less, so I will just jump into some of the juicier findings.
Strassman describes these under three overarching rubrics: personal, transpersonal, and invisible.
Personal effects dealt with the volunteer's own mental and physical processes, i.e., the individual's thoughts and feelings. Most entered with some hopes or expectations of what they would encounter but, as is true with most trips, DMT gave them "...the trip they needed, rather than the one they wanted."
Not that that would come as a surprise to them -- all subjects had had at least some experience with psychedelics in the past and most had had considerable experience. This included dozens, if not hundreds, of experiences on LSD (over four hundred trips for one subject alone!), psilocybin, mushrooms, MDMA, mescaline, ayahuasca and marijuana.
And you thought California was the drug user's state of choice!
Visual imagery was common -- and extremely varied, including kaleidoscopic images, shimmering colors, Taj Mahal-like structures, cartoon characters, clowns, mannequins dressed in clothes reminiscent of the gay 90's, and even Mayan hieroglyphics. Subjects also sometimes gained insight into vexing personal issues, unraveled past traumas, and experienced positive changes in perspective. They could also experience debilitating anxiety, fear bordering on terror, and physical discomfort -- although for the most part these were short lived.
Transpersonal experiences tended to deal with death and dying and often shared characteristics reminiscent of reports of near-death experiences (NDE's). They also included spiritual and/or mystical experiences.
NDE-like experiences were of special interest to Strassman because one of his theories was that DMT is released by the pineal gland when we die or come close to dying. Several subjects had experiences that reminded them of passages from The Tibetan Book of the Dead with its descriptions of passing through various bardos. They also experienced a separation from their body, dissolution of the ego, moving through a tunnel of bright light, and hearing ethereal sounds.
As a serious and lifelong Zen Buddhist practitioner Strassman had more than a passing interest in, and familiarity with, mystical states. In fact, it is one of the reasons he pursued his work with DMT and, therefore, it is hardly surprising to learn that those sessions in which mystical experiences predominated "...were some of the most satisfying...." of the whole project for him.
As an example, he quotes one of the subjects, "Cleo," reporting:
...I was feeling it, totally open to it, and I kept opening to it more and I just took it in....more like a knowing that was happening in my cells. That God is in everything and that we are all connected, and that God dances in every cell of life, and that every cell of life dances in God.
And "Elena" reporting:
...there arose in me an energy so forceful that no words could describe it. It drove my heart....The darkness opened to light, and on the other side...all was utterly still....The great power sought to fill all possibilities....it was love, and it just was.
The invisible category included the most far out experiences and I will be devoting the entire next post to them.
