DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences Kindle Edition

I have often heard how great this book is from many online sources. The book was a big letdown for me. If you do not want to read any spoilers, please stop reading now.There are two major problems which I can identify:First, there is a lot of tedious and unnecessary detail which is of no interest or value to almost anyone. For example, the great lengths the writer went into in order to obtain FDA and DEA approval to run his study did not need to be long. He could have written a paragraph stating these difficulties and red tape and could have stated "It took three years and many calls and paperwork etc but he went on and on and on. You might say that this would be helpful to anyone wanting to follow in his footsteps but the information presented manages to be both vague enough to not be useful for that, while also having a lot of detail which was simply uninteresting. The author also dedicated a chapter to the difficulties he had involving his faith and at times this just came across as venting his frustrations. Again, not the reason people picked up the book. We are curious about DMT. How it works, what its effects are and what cool stuff people experienced while under the influence of it.The second problem, is the overly medical descriptions. Yes I realize he is a Doctor. It felt like reading a scientific journal at times. When you present your findings, explaining in detail how you injected something and over how many seconds and how you flushed the line with saline is important to those reading and scrutinizing that research. In a book for the general public, it comes across as padding for what could have been a much shorter book. I say this as a medical professional who understood the jargon as I read it.In a book about DMT, we do not really care about his unruly grad student he had to eventually fire, the problems at the author's Buddhist temple and the politics there and government red tape. These should have been removed in editing.Do I recommend this book? Yes as long as you can muscle through some very boring and unrelated parts of it, you will find some gems. There are some incredible experiences contained within and it is quite thought provoking at times. It just feels like looking for diamonds in a muddy lake.

I purchase this in 2010 for insight into others experience with the molecule. I had inclinations of what it was and what it had opened to me. It was difficult to get into as it had a lot of "filler", for a lack of better words, to build some sort of drama that I believed would have served better laced in between other chapters.The meat of the book is in the middle and the thesis of the book is to portray this experience as objective realities; sets the progressive synopsis of the trips as such. That part is fascinating and if i was rating the book based on its subject matter it would be a 5. If i based the book on it's thesis it would be a 2. The reader is kept from many factors that would be contrary to the thesis unless they have tried it themselves. Seems the Doctor was given permission to conduct these studies but wasn't able to give us the data of the physiological changes and brain activity necessary to give us the full picture. I was surprise by the length of the study how little information we have in comparison.Overall there was a disconnect between the reason given for the cessation of the study and the reason the study was even granted.

The book has a lot of interesting information; how DMT occurs naturally in most organisms on this planet, and is actively pumped across the blood-brain barrier, which only occurs with molecules that the brain needs. It's almost as if the brain craves DMT. As others have said, the highlight of the book is the chapter detailing the accounts of the test subjects' trips.The book is bloated with unnecessary content, however. The chapter detailing the author's struggle with getting past the DEA regulations, while demonstrating just how much red tape one has to go through to get this stuff, could have easily been ommitted. The book contains a great deal of baseless speculation on the part of the author as well, and the last couple chapters were nearly impossible to slog through. Several chapters can safely be skipped without really missing out on the useful information.

I've enjoyed reading both the paper back and the kindle version of this book quite a lot. R. Strassman's writing style brings some humorous elements to the banal theater of medical experimentation. Medicine, Religion, and Psychedelics make for some odd bedfellows at the close of the 20th century.Dr. Strassman had me laughing with (or maybe "at") him during much of the book as you can feel first his surprise and then his exhaustion at the turn of events during his case studies. One can envision him reaching for a bottle of liquor as he has to listen to another "being encounter" and then talk to his subjects as if they were real.The case studies are [of course] awe inspiring and makes one ponder "what really is happening"? Why has DMT been placed on this planet in so many plants and species? What purpose does DMT serve if it does naturally occur in our brain/bodies (as well as countless plants)?The author's attempts to connect parallel universe, interplanetary travel, and dark matter to DMT at first seem so far fetched (and perhaps dated now), it almost made me stop reading; however, after absorbing it a while, and knowing humans have used these drugs to channel the "spirit plane" for thousands of years, perhaps it's not so far fetched after all.The biggest upset was Dr. Strassman "giving up" on his psychedelic research after being delivered some blows he may have predicted after seeing the early psychedelic "pioneers" suffer similar fates in their respective communities.Highly recommended reading...

First thing to say about this book is that is written superbly, and that Dr Srtassman as a psychiatrist has even dared to venture into this realm is a credit to his personality. I'm sure in years to come this research will be well read and built upon, maybe not in the USA but somewhere in the world.As I read the final chapters “what could be and might be” It came to me that we may all have different levels of DMT awareness in our brains. This could well lead to different personality traits within us.1. People with high levels of Dmt would become more spiritual , becoming shamans and the like, and want to live within nature accordingly as tribes in the rain forest do now. They would totally within their means and only take what they need.2. People with mid levels of DMT have a yearning for a spiritual understanding but are materialist to want but want security and safety. They can tolerate some injustice and destruction if they feel it's will keep them safe. I.E.: they except over seas wars and rain forest destruction as part of keeping our economy functioning.3. People with low levels of DMT will be totally materialist, will crave power over others at any cost, Destruction of people and planet will be condoned as long as it increases their power base, and will have no understanding of anything of a spiritual nature, looking at these people as weak and inferior .It will take more people like Dr Srtassman to have the courage to really look at the spiritual side of human nature and reveal the truth as they are sidelined and ignored by funding agencies.Thank you for a beautiful well written book

Really enjoyed it; the author fully embraces the metaphysical aspects here; that consciousness can leave the body, exist independently and post death and that we can visit through OBE experiences, other realities, universes and dimensions. Obviously he is coming from the angle of these experiences being aided by the DMT chemical although other explorers such as Jurgen Ziewe, William Buhlman & Bob Monroe are among thousands who can do all this without the use of chemicals. I would recommend their books too. Lots of stuff in here about the pineal gland and the notion of the departed soul reentering a new fetus at 49 days if so desired.A good companion I found to Graham Hancock's Supernatural. Also sits well with Anthony Peake's books too.

An epic read for who ever has tried DMT or Ayahuasca. I've learnt alot into what I was searching for from the experiences and have taken many useful notes which i normally wouldn't do on a book.

The research and experiments are conducted and described with precision, which contributes to the work's seriousness on substances which are still perceived quite negatively. Whether you agree or disagree with Dr. Strassman's conclusions, the testimonies of volunteers are very interesting to read, they bring to mind fantasy or science-fiction short stories. I would recommend this book to anyone heading down the hallucinogenic/psychedelic research journey.

Fascinating book which relates several tales from people who have pushed the envelope of human experience. It does feel like science and spirituality are finally chipping away at the same wall. My only criticism is that the book starts slowly, detailing all the difficulties faced in gaining permissions and the drugs themselves, before the interesting experimentation starts.