MAPS: endogenous DMT Re: New University Course

["Jon Frederick, Ph.D." <smiile@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Congratulations to Mark Bryan for his remarkable success bringing this
excellent and important curriculum to his school. If a "mere" student can
achieve this kind of impact, imagine what could be achieved by faculty
members willing to follow his courageous example (and what about other
students reading this list... do you have opportunities to create
student-lead seminars at your school? Sounds like Mr. Bryan has activated
a great support network through MAPS. Makes me very proud of this
community.)

I had a question about this statement from the course description:

"...dimethyl tryptamine (DMT) - one of the most potent psychedelics, also
used in the South American shamanic ayahuasca brews - is released into the
brain by the pineal gland, and is now considered to be the cause of our
shift from waking consciousness to that of the dream state, wherein the
rules and boundaries encountered in normal day-to-day physical reality do
not necessarily continue to operate."

I always considered the connection between endogenous DMT and dreaming to
be fanciful and speculative. Are there some publications documenting
physiological evidence that pineal DMT release is necessary/sufficient or
correlated with dreaming? What kinds of observations or experiments would
show this?

JON





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