DMT: The Spirit Molecule Page #3

that was very different from the more gradual approaches of other psychedelics.

Smoking DMT is sort of like the drive-by shooting of psychedelics.

You're in one place, BANG, you're in another place and then BANG, you're back down.

So it doesn't leave a whole lot of room for that narrative of

"Who am I?" "What am I doing here?" "Why am I in this space?" "What am I learning?"

It's almost like there was too much information to process in a few minute span

to integrate once you're dropped back down.

Dimethyltryptamine, when is administrated, has a very rapid onset

and a very short duration of action.

This is because it is very rapidly broken down by the body so that it can be cleared.

DMT is rapidly degraded by an enzyme in the liver called monoamine oxidase (MAO).

That is the reason why is not active when you take it by mouth.

In contrast, psilocybin

when you take it by mouth, it is not broken down by monoamine oxidase very quickly at all

so it gets through the liver and passes on into the bloodstream and into the brain.

Yea, I'm very interested in Ayahuasca.

When I begun my studies in the early 1990's,

Ayahuasca was just starting make it roads into the West.

Obviously it has become a lot more popular in the last 10, 15 years.

And the visionary ingredient in Ayahuasca is DMT.

Through some amazing feed of preliterate chemistry, the Amazonian natives

stumbled upon or combined, whatever. I don't know how they did it but they

found one plant contains DMT and one plant containes an enzyme inhibitor.

Combine them and you can drink DMT and it's orally active.

So it starts working in half an hour, last 3 or 4 hours

and you can, you know, maneuver a lot more comfortably

within that state then you can when you're just smoking it injecting it.

Orally active Ayahuasca tends to pick you up and gently carry you into the space and hug you

and embrace you and clean you and

show you all sorts of mystical visions and then it very gently brings you back

like you're floating on a feather back to the ground.

As valuable as my DMT experiences have been, I, em,

I feel there is lot more enduring value, really, in this folk technology

which streches it out and makes a navigable space.

Our whole western, you know, European-drived tradition of destilling alcohols and

isolating chemicals and making everything stronger

and taking it and out of nature and putting it into the biggest punch that we can.

I do not think that, generally, that's the most useful way.

I think there's a reason that cultures have learned to turn a 5 minute experience

into a 5 hour experience.

It seems to me that Ayahuasca has had a plan and that its reached out

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