Re: MAPS: endogenous DMT Re: New University Course

[Bob Wallace <bobw@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jon Frederick, Ph.D. wrote:
> Congratulations to Mark Bryan for his remarkable success bringing this
> excellent and important curriculum to his school....

Yes, looks great! I wish I had been able to help, have been busy moving...

> 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?

I don't know about DMT itself. Jace Callaway (a researcher in Finland) did his
PhD thesis on brain tryptamines, and though still speculative, had some good
reasoning that 5-MeO-DMT synthesis in the pineal happens, and may be one
part of the dream process. He also published this hypothesis, in a journal
called something like Medical Hypothesis.


- Bob Wallace (just my opinion);  reply to bobw@xxxxxxxxxxx
Books on psychedelics, Mind Books: http://www.promind.com


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