Rick Strassman, M.D. ( http://www.rickstrassman.com/ )
Rick Strassman was permitted to embark on the first human research with psychedelic, hallucinogenic, or entheogenic substances in the 1990s in the United States after 20 years' intermission in the field. In the intermission period it has only been legally possible to research on animals.
Strassman's studies investigated the effects of N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a powerful entheogen, or psychedelic, that he theorizes is a substance produced by the human brain in the pineal gland (without any conclusive proof), and an active ingredient in ayahuasca. Ayahuasca is any of the various psychoactive infusions or decoctions prepared from the Banisteriopsis spp. vine, native to the Amazon Rainforest (which is also called ayahuasca). The resulting drinks are pharmacologically complex and used for shamanic, folk-medicinal, and religious purposes. Occidental ethno-biologists have noted a variety of 200-300 plants used in the different brews made by the Ayahuasceras. It is an open question whether Ayahuasca should be noted as one particular shamanic medicinal brew, or that it should be noted as an entire medicinal tradition alongside, for instance, Ayurveda or Tibetan Medicine.
During the project's five years, he administered approximately 400 doses of DMT to 60 human volunteers. This research took place at the University of New Mexico's School of Medicine in Albuquerque, New Mexico where he was tenured Associate Professor of Psychiatry. Strassman has conjectured that when a person is approaching death, the pineal gland releases DMT, accounting for much of the imagery reported by survivors of near-death experiences.
Strassan wrote about the research program in his book DMT: The Sprit Molecule. A documentary movie based on this book is currently in production.
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Cottonwood Research Foundation ( http://cottonwoodresearch.org/ )
The Cottonwood Research Foundation, Inc.
PO Box 1100, Taos, New Mexico, 87571
cottonwood@cottonwoodresearch.org
Rick Strassman MD, President
Steve Barker PhD, Vice-President
Andrew Stone, Treasurer
Dear Friends:
Consciousness is a subject of increasing scientific inquiry in the West. One particular aspect of this research involves how psychoactive medicines affect consciousness. We at the Cottonwood Research Foundation will begin to address some of the most perplexing mysteries of the human mind with the aid of plant-based psychoactive compounds. For example, What are the varieties of human consciousness, and their genetic, biochemical and physiological bases? What are the medical, social, and spiritual implications of these different states, and how can we best apply these states towards healing, creativity, and greater wisdom?
For thousands of years, historical and indigenous cultures have used plant medicines to reliably induce extraordinarily compelling non-ordinary and mystical states of consciousness. Western science has only begun to tap the vast resources of traditional knowledge regarding these plants and their effects. By bringing to bear multiple scientific, anthropological, and spiritual perspectives, we will pursue several important goals: 1) develop a more thorough understanding of these plants’ psychological and physical healing properties; 2) explore the states they elicit, in order to gain a deeper and broader understanding of the range of human consciousness; 3) determine how plant-based psychoactive medicines affect consciousness; and 4) clarify the role these compounds, found in our own bodies, play in dreams, mystical and near-death states, creativity, and mental illness.
The work I performed during the early-1990’s at the University of New Mexico with DMT, a naturally occurring psychoactive, was the first new clinical research with these compounds in the US in two decades. Our founding of Cottonwood is intend
Rating: User: ConspiracyCentral 2008-03-15T18:26:42.173Z
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