Rick Strassman's account of his 1990s University of New Mexico clinical study — the first DEA-approved psychedelic research in the US in decades — administering N,N-DMT to 60 volunteers and recording their experiences. The book pairs the clinical write-up with Strassman's speculative framework about the pineal gland and DMT's possible role in birth, death and 'mystical' states.
First lines
One morning in December 1990, I gave both Philip and Nils an injection of a large dose of intravenous DMT. These two men were the first people in the study to receive DMT, and they were helping me determine the best dose and manner of injecting it. They were our "human guinea pigs."
Contents
Psychedelic Drugs: Science and Society
What DMT Is
The Pineal: Meet the Spirit Gland
The Psychedelic Pineal
89-001
Labyrinth
Being a Volunteer
Getting DMT
Under the Influence
Introduction to the Case Reports
Feeling and Thinking
Unseen Worlds
Contact Through the Veil: 1
Contact Through the Veil: 2
Death and Dying
Mystical States
Pain and Fear
If So, So What?
Winding Down
Stepping on Holy Toes
DMT: The Spirit Molecule
The Futures of Psychedelic Research
Reception
The defining popular text of the modern psychedelic-renaissance reading list — it is, with Pollan's How to Change Your Mind, the book most often named as the entry point. The clinical material is uncontroversial within psychedelic-research circles. The pineal-gland speculation is contested: the endogenous-DMT hypothesis remains unverified, and Strassman has been clear that those chapters were always speculative rather than established. The 2010 documentary adaptation broadened the audience considerably. Revered inside its scene; treated more cautiously by working psychedelic researchers (Carhart-Harris, Griffiths) than the speculative framing.
Frequently asked
What is DMT: The Spirit Molecule about?
It is Rick Strassman's account of his 1990–1995 University of New Mexico clinical study, the first DEA-approved psychedelic research in the US in decades. He administered N,N-DMT to 60 volunteers and recorded their experiences. The book pairs the clinical write-up with a speculative framework on the pineal gland and DMT's possible role in birth, death and mystical states.
Is the pineal-gland / endogenous-DMT hypothesis established science?
No. The endogenous-DMT hypothesis remains unverified, and Strassman himself has been clear that those chapters were always speculative rather than established. Working psychedelic researchers such as Robin Carhart-Harris and Roland Griffiths treat the clinical chapters as solid but the pineal speculation as a working hypothesis, not a finding.
What is the relationship between the book and the documentary?
A 2010 documentary of the same name, directed by Mitch Schultz and narrated by Joe Rogan, was based on the book. The film broadened the audience considerably and is part of why the book sits at the centre of the modern psychedelic-renaissance reading list, alongside Michael Pollan’s How to Change Your Mind.