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posted by n1 on Thursday August 11 2016, @09:58AM   Printer-friendly
from the enhanced-reality dept.

Scientists have found a way to increase the duration of DMT hallucinogenic experiences:

Known in drug lore as "the businessman's trip" for its lunch-break-size 15-minute duration, DMT (N,N-dimethyltryptamine) is infamous for blasting its users into vivid alien worlds. It's among the most literally hallucinogenic of all the psychedelics, and now a pair of veteran researchers have proposed a method to safely extend the experience beyond its normal length. Dr. Rick Strassman and Dr. Andrew Gallimore published their paper in Frontiers in Psychology last month, under the name "A Model for the Application of Target-Controlled Intravenous Infusion for a Prolonged Immersive DMT Psychedelic Experience." Its implications could turn DMT research on its head, allowing for new scientific (and potentially medical) insights into the principle ingredient in ayahuasca. Using techniques borrowed from anesthesiology, the method will regulate the amount of DMT in the body and, more important, the brain. Though still untested on no-doubt-willing psychonauts, Strassman and Gallimore's technology is all but ready for assembly.

Strassman, author of DMT: The Spirit Molecule (2001) and DMT and the Soul of Prophecy (2014) and perhaps the world's foremost clinical DMT researcher, argues the substance provides access to what users experience as mystical states, comparable to those described in the Hebrew Bible. Gallimore, a computational neurobiologist, is also a historical scholar of DMT. His overview "DMT Research from 1956 to the Edge of Time" recounts a wide range of possibilities researchers have offered over the years (including the notion that DMT is a doorway into an alternate universe). Other theories involve its role in human brain at the time of death, as well as countless South American beliefs inseparable from ayahuasca and DMT snuff traditions. But perhaps the only universal experience of smoked DMT is its brevity.

A Model for the Application of Target-Controlled Intravenous Infusion for a Prolonged Immersive DMT Psychedelic Experience (open, DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2016.00211)

[Continues...]

From the abstract:

Using pharmacokinetic modeling and DMT blood sampling data, we demonstrate that the unique pharmacological characteristics of DMT, which also include a rapid onset and lack of acute tolerance to its subjective effects, make it amenable to administration by target-controlled intravenous infusion. This is a technology developed to maintain a stable brain concentration of anesthetic drugs during surgery. Simulations of our model demonstrate that this approach will allow research subjects to be induced into a stable and prolonged DMT experience, making it possible to carefully observe its psychological contents, and provide more extensive accounts for subsequent analyses. This model would also be valuable in performing functional neuroimaging, where subjects are required to remain under the influence of the drug for extended periods. Finally, target-controlled intravenous infusion of DMT may aid the development of unique psychotherapeutic applications of this psychedelic agent.


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday August 11 2016, @09:33PM

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Thursday August 11 2016, @09:33PM (#386790) Journal

    Now, why would a *good* person have to experience that? Sounds like the kind of thing a serial murderer and rapist would be subject to...

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  • (Score: 2) by RedBear on Friday August 12 2016, @07:59AM

    by RedBear (1734) on Friday August 12 2016, @07:59AM (#386930)

    Now, why would a *good* person have to experience that? Sounds like the kind of thing a serial murderer and rapist would be subject to...

    Yes, I also found that a bit odd. I interpreted it as the speaker having some variant of a subconscious Christ complex. You know, the desire to be the sacrificial lamb that takes the world's suffering upon itself. But no one said hallucinations have to make any sense.

    In the playlist I linked, Patricio briefly mentions, almost as an afterthought, that during one phase of one of his high-dose DMT trips he experienced, to paraphrase, "an infinite amount of pain", such that he believes no matter what actual physical pain he experiences in the real world henceforth for the rest of his life it will seem only a pale shadow of what he endured during that trip. So, basically the same experience as the random commenter I was quoting. Another reason not to approach a high-dose DMT trip lightly.

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    • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday August 12 2016, @04:40PM

      by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Friday August 12 2016, @04:40PM (#387085) Journal

      By definition if he was experiencing infinite pain he'd still be experiencing it. This isn't right. He'd need to be infinitely large and have infinite power of perception including nociception to experience that too.

      --
      I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
      • (Score: 2) by RedBear on Friday August 12 2016, @06:04PM

        by RedBear (1734) on Friday August 12 2016, @06:04PM (#387105)

        By definition if he was experiencing infinite pain he'd still be experiencing it. This isn't right. He'd need to be infinitely large and have infinite power of perception including nociception to experience that too.

        First of all, I was loosely paraphrasing a subjective experience, so it makes little sense to be pedantically nitpicking it. Assuming you're joking, ha ha, amusing. Secondly, when you become one with not just the known universe but all possible cosmoses that could ever possibly exist in any possible reality, from the beginning of time to the end of time, which is infinite in and of itself, would you not by definition become infinitely large with infinite power of perception?

        Thus, I don't see the problem. *wink*

        --
        ¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
        ... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
        • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday August 12 2016, @06:32PM

          by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Friday August 12 2016, @06:32PM (#387116) Journal

          He'd still need infinite time. We're talking about an endless amount of something which takes time to perceive, hence he'd need infinite time to perceive it all. I know infinities are hard to comprehend but that one is fairly obvious.

          --
          I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...