DMT's role in the brain, all speculation...

[Uberlight69]

I feel like this could cause some controversy however I always thought that the DMT being released every single night when asleep and when you die was a fact, however it is actually speculation. I am sure many know this btw but Im sure theres a good few that dont. It does exists in the human brain and that is fact but right now it is the only fact on DMT in humans. Its role is pretty undetermined. I see there is logical basis for the theory that DMT plays a role in dreaming and near death experience and Im not saying its bull shit all Im saying is does it sound a little to cool to be true and people just like the idea so they accept it as true and tell the world but it hasnt been figured out what DMT does. I think its logical to think its in some way related to dreaming and could very well turn out to be true (if anybody fucking does any new studies on it) and I tend to say what the hell else would something like DMT do in the brain. My question is how much of this whole DMT released every night in REM sleep and when one dies theory proposed by strassman do you think will turn out to be true if new studies are done in the future ?? Id love to see more science on the subject. If anybody has any information on more recent DMT studies please send I link i just havnt rly herd of any done sense the early early 90's

 

[swilow]

^Its not actual fact that DMT is within the brain (of the living at least, muhahahah )-

-DMT doesn't feel like death, or if so, KILL ME NOW!!!!!!11

I don't think any of it will be proved to be honest. Mainly because I think its really really far-fetched; as you say, it sounds cool, but is almost certainly not the case. Death (in physical terms) is the cessation of electrical activity in the body/brain for an extended time (like, forver dude), so there would be very little means for the brain to actually use DMT ie. open up ion channels etc.

http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/dmt/dmt_article2.shtml Pretty good article...

Personally, I would say that DMT is probably a natural anxiolytic, due to the high probabbility that it exists in very small concentrations (the pineal itself has shown itself to contain micrograms of serotonin and melatonin in corpses) which MIGHT bing to sigma recpptors.

Or its the result of degrading 5HT or melatonin or bufotenine (well, the latter is probably what leads to 5-MeO-DMT being apparently present in the brain...)

Either way, DMT is a top notch psychedelic, the food of the gods, changa, elfspice, rocket-ship ride, all things good

An endonegonous ketamine-like substance would be interesting....

 

[LysergicEpiphany]

When i go to bed i get sleep paralysis most nights, this means i am still partially awake and able to interact while dreaming. My whole body numbs and its like as you say 'all of the electrical activity in my body is turned to 0' except that working away in my brain that is. If all a dream encorporates is how we perceive things while asleep, then surely this is a hallucination to some respects, using the information your senses take in and making a story out of it to keep you occupied ? Just a little stoned theory... Peace

 

[swilow]

^I'm not sure I get you really; electrical activity is happeninng constantly, asleep or not. Dead- no

The thing with dreams (I have lucid dreams at least 4 nights a week) is that they have very little to connect them to the general setting off them ie. your bed. External things (sound, speech, lights, smells) can be incorporated into dreams IME, but they usually emerge as the same sensation as presented by sensory organs normally. I know I can sleep through my alarm, or incorproate it into my dreams- it usually sounds a lot lower pitched though- but the stimulus and sensory reaction are the same as being awake.

Dreams are fucking weird; I don't really buy into the notion that they are a means of integrating waking experience, at least not all the time.

I believe Carl Jung proposed that we are dreaming constantly; its just that, when asleep, we can experience these dreams.

Which raises the notion of wheteher there is anything above semantics that actually distinguish dreams from waking-life...

 

[any major dude]

^ or just arbitrarily deciding which states of consciousness are the most valid.

I'd personally put my money on DMT being a chemical intermediary or by product of production/metabolism of neurotransmitters in the brain, but just like the dream theory, its speculation

just happended to run across this article regarding the subject today.