Psychoactive Substances and Paranormal Phenomena: A Comprehensive Review

This paper investigates the relationship between psychoactive substances and so-called paranormal phenomena falling within the study of parapsychology. It is primarily concerned with extrasensory perception (ESP)—telepathy, precognition, and clairvoyance—as well as out-of-body experiences (OBEs) and near-death experiences (NDEs). Psychokinesis (PK), aura vision, encounter experiences, and sleep paralysis only make a very limited contribution to this review as they are seldom related to psychoactive drugs within the parapsychological literature. It is organized into neurochemical models of paranormal experience (section 1), field reports of intentional and spontaneous phenomena incorporating anthropological, historical and clinical cases, and personal accounts (section 2), surveys of paranormal belief and experience (section 3), experimental research (section 4), and a methodological critique of the experimental research with recommendations for further work (section 5).

DMT Research from 1956 to the Edge of Time

From a representative sample of a suitably psychedelic crowd, you’d be hard pressed to find someone who couldn’t tell you all about Albert Hofmann’s enchanted bicycle ride after wallowing what turned out to be a massive dose of LSD. The world’s first acid trip (Hofmann, 1980) has since become a cherished piece of psychedelic folklore. Far fewer, however, could tell you much about the world’s first DMT (N,N-dimethyltryptamine) trip. Although less memorable than Hofmann’s story, it was no less important. The folklore would come later and reveal itself to be far weirder than anyone could have predicted. A DMT trip is certainly one of the most bizarre experiences a human can undergo and, although six decades have passed since the very first DMT trip, the experience continues to confound and remains fertile ground for speculation regarding its significance and meaning…

Book Review: A Hallucinogenic Tea, Laced with Controversy - Ayahuasca in the Amazon and the United States

“According to Dobkin de Rios and Rumrrill the psychedelic Amazonian jungle decoction, ayahuasca, has a history of continuous use spanning at least 8,000 years. After all that time non-indigenes are now developing an increasing interest in ayahuasca’s intriguing cultural, magico-religious, legal, medical and psychopharmacological dimensions. This book covers all of these aspects in varying degrees (less so the pharmacology), but is likely of most interest for its analysis of the brew’s use in shamanic and healing contexts. It is here too that the book has most to offer, with half its contents given over to anthropological insights into the native use of ayahuasca, including interviews over the course of some thirty years between the authors and several ayahuasqueros…”

AyahuascaArtful AlchemyJanuary 2, 2020Book Review, Ayahuasca, Entheogens, Religion, Psychedelics, Consciousness

Book Review: Inner Paths to Outer Space - Journeys to Alien Worlds through Psychedelics

“The Spirit Molecule documented the whole experimental process whereby over 60 participants received a combined total of 400 doses of DMT. It concluded with the theory that the near-death experience (NDE) is caused by the action of DMT in the pineal gland, where Strassman speculates it is made because DMT is known to occur naturally in the human body. The book currently under review, Inner Paths to Outer Space, is the natural sequel to that book in that it considers the DMT-induced entity encounters and alien abduction-like experiences from Strassman’s research in further depth, particularly in the contexts of quantum physics, science fiction and shamanism, proposing that access to alien worlds in outer space occurs in the inner space of the psyche…”

Reply to “Ayahuasca Turned on my Mind’s Eye”: A Case of Acquired versus Congenital Aphantasia, as Evidenced with DMT Use?

“In a recent article in this journal, Dos Santos et al. (2018) report a case of ayahuasca use by a man with aphantasia. This account is the first such report of the use of a psychedelic agent by someone with aphantasia. Surprisingly, the case, SE, reported an improvement in their visual imagery following one particular instance of ayahuasca use. In support of Dos Santos et al.’s (2018) favored psychological explanation for improvement and their suggestion that SE’s aphantasia was acquired rather than congenital, this letter reports on a case study of an individual with apparent congenital aphantasia who has experienced no visual imagery, despite reported having excessively smoked N,Ndimethyltryptamine. It is proposed that the theoretical distinction between acquired and congenital aphantasia be further explored with regard to the use of psychedelics…”

Disembodied Eyes Revisited: An investigation into the Ontology of Entheogenic Entity Encounters

“All that glitters is not gold. Such a maxim might well serve any psychic voyager on a journey into the weirder realms that psychedelics can serve up. After all, out here on the edges there is seldom firm evidence that the beatific or hellish visions beheld whilst chemically neurohacking your wetware have any basis in consensus reality. Indeed these visions are often so extravagantly strange and terrifyingly ineffable that reminding yourself they are not real can serve to keep your sanity on a short leash when madness looms. Nevertheless, as John Lilly put it, how does one recognize one’s insanity from one’s out-sanity? And in any case, how would one even begin to try and prove the ontological credibility of the psychedelic experience of visiting some other world or meet-ing some alien entity?”

DMTArtful AlchemyJanuary 2, 2020Ontology, Entities, DMT, Entheogens, Parapsychopharmacology, Mysticism, Religion

Discarnate Entities and Dimethyltryptamine (DMT): Psychopharmacology, Phenomenology and Ontology

“When described by independent and seemingly naïve DMT participants the entities encountered tend to vary in detail but often belong to one of a very few similar types, with similar behavioural characteristics. For instance, mischievous shapeshifting elves, preying mantis alien brain surgeons and jewel-encrusted reptilian beings, who all seem to appear with baffling predictability. This opens up a wealth of questions as to the reality (i.e., the ontology) of these entities. The discussion of the phenomenology and ontology of these entities mixes research from parapsychology, ethnobotany and psychopharmacology – the fruits of science – with the foamy custard of folklore, anthropology, mythology, cultural studies and related disciplines…”