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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 jasassin on Friday August 12 2016, @04:20AM

    by jasassin (3566) <jasassin@gmail.com> on Friday August 12 2016, @04:20AM (#386896) Homepage Journal

    The scariest thing for me is time dilation. The second, the the unexplainable (un)reality of it. Then, you take the two combined. There's a reason why they call it tripping out. The reason is it seems like a journey... A long good and bad (mostly overwhelming) voyage.

    I've only done shrooms. I can tell you for awhile I was asking god to make it stop. I didn't (and still don't) know what it is. I always think many times before I do that when offered. It is a huge spiritual drain. I have refused and actually been told that they were truly disappointed in me. I didn't want to trip.

    It's not like smoking some pot. These psychedelic drugs are mystical.

    I was pushing through the end, constantly pushing through into what did not exist before. That really fucked with me. There are concepts that exist that are true, but the normal human mind cannot ( or maybe chooses not to) comprehend.

    For the record, I'd try DMT once. I understand the time dilation somewhat (tripped a handful of times).

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