Re: MAPS: endogenous DMT Re: New University Course

["M. Bryan" <cpnutmeg@xxxxxxxxx>]

Firstly, thanks, everyone, for all of the kind comments and excitement
about the university course...

Secondly, a few astute readers noticed that in my introduction to the
outline I made an inexcusably unsubstantiated claim about the link between
DMT and the dream state:

"...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."

My apologies - I'm feeling rather sheepish about letting that one slip by!
Being a philosophy major, I tend to be rather picky about the presentation
of conjecture as fact, and am thus humbled by having fallen prey to making
that mistake myself... It is over six months since I wrote the text in
question (portions of the course outline appeared in my course proposal),
and to be honest, I am not sure whether (a) I actually meant to say that it
was the case ("it is now considered to be the cause..."), even though in a
quick search, I admit I have no sources stating this as fact; or perhaps
(b) that I intended to say that it had been suggested that DMT might play
an important role (so: "it is considered by some to be a possible
cause...").  I think (uh-oh! warning flag!) that some time ago I may have
read a review for Rick Strassman's "DMT: The Spirit Molecule" that said he
discusses the possible link (I have yet to read the book, though).

In terms of background reading, I have only had time to take a fairly
casual look at the DMT literature over the last few years, and it is not
the area I am most familiar with - my knowledge of the arguments for and
against DMT as a sleep mediator is thus limited, and my claim (as it stands
in the outline) is thus ill-founded.  I shall inform my fellow students of
this oversight and will amend the outline.

Thank you for informing me of my mistake,

Mark Bryan



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