History, 309-316

Observations of New World Use of Psychoactive Snuffs, 509

Identification of Botanical and Other Sources, 311

Testing and Use of Synthetics, 313

Botany, 316-319

Anadenanthera Species and Other

Members of the Pea Family, 316 Virolas, 317

Chemistry, 319-320

Tryptamine Constituents of

the Psychedelic Snuffs, 319 Altering the Side Chains, 319

Physical Effects, 320-325

Native Use of Enormous Amounts, 320 Use and Safety of Synthetics in Ordinary Amounts, 322 Tolerance, Potentiation and MAO-Inhibition, 323 Cerebrospinal Tryptamines, 324

Mental Effects, 325-330 Effects from Cohoha and Epena Snuffs, 325 DMT Effects, 326 DET Effects, 327 DPT Effects, 328 Forms and Preparations, 330-33

CHAPTER SIX

DMT, DET, DPT

and Other

Short-Acting Tryptamines

It is unfortunate that such a unique and desirable drug as DMT is not freely available and widely used .... Not only are the effects enjoyable, but most users are astonished to learn that a drug can so rapidly produce such profound effects which have such short duration. _Jeremy Bigwood and Jonathan Ott

HISTORY

The first European observation of psychedelics-use in the New World involved cohoba snuff, a powerful mind-alterer made from seeds of theyopo tree (Anadenanthera peregrina). The main psychoactive components were identified in the early 1950s as DMT (N,N-dimethyltryptamine) and 5-methoxy-DMT. These and related compounds are present in other trees, vines and shrubs and even in mushrooms.

This compound cluster exhibits a two-ring, "open-chained," indolic chemical structure, and in contrast to other Psychedelics it is all but inactive when taken orally unless accompanied by certain other compounds. Short-acting tryptamines are closely related to neurotransmitters (such as bufo-tenine), to MDA (a major botanical source of the snuffs belongs to the nutmeg family), to tryptophan (an essential amino acid produced in human digestion of proteins) and to psilocybin and psilocin (which are tryptamines of longer duration). DMT, the simplest member, occurs normally in the blood, brain and (in higher concentrations) in the cerebrospinal fluid.

DMT, DET (N,N-diethyltryptamine) and DPT (N,N-dipropyl-tryptamine) are the compounds in this cluster that have been manufactured and distributed most over the last fifteen years. Compared with the Psychedelics already discussed, use of these tryptamines has been limited and irregular until recently. They now appear to constitute a psychedelic grouping of importance in the United States.

Observations of New World Use of Psychoactive Snuffs

The Spanish friar Ramon Paul, who accompanied Columbus on his second voyage to the New World, was the first to record native use of

309

310 DMT, DET, DPT

Psychedelics. He watched the Taino Indians of what's now called Haiti snorting "kohhobba" to communicate with the spirit world: "This powder they draw up through the nose and it intoxicates them to such an extent that when they are under its influence, they know not what they do." The snuff was made of seeds from the foot-long pods of a mimosa-like tree that grows wild only in South America. A specialist in this group of legumes has theorized that by the time of Columbus' second voyage the natives of the West Indies "may have found it easier to plant the trees than to maintain communication with the mainland for their source of supply."

A 1560 report said that Indians along the Rio Guaviare in Colombia were accustomed to taking "Yopa .... a seed or pip of a tree" together with tobacco, becoming "drowsy while the devil, in their dreams, shows them all the vanities and corruptions he wishes them to see and which they take to be true revelations in which they believe, even if told they will die. This habit of taking Yopa and Tobacco is general in the New Kingdom." Another chronicler wrote in 1599 about Indians chewing "Hayo or Coca and Jopa and Tobacco," a combination which prompted their "going out of their minds, and then the devil speaks to them." This account described the Jopa as "a tree with small pods like those of vetches, and the seeds inside are similar but smaller." In 1741, a Jesuit wrote about cohoba use by the Otomac of the Orinoco region between Colombia and Venezuela: "They have another abominable habit of intoxicating themselves through the nostrils with certain malignant powders which they call Yupa which quite takes away their reason, and they will furiously rake up arms . . . ." Describing details of the snuff's preparation, including addition of lime from snail shells, this priest reported that "before a battle, they would throw themselves into a frenzy with Yupa, wound themselves and, full of blood and rage, go forth to battle like rabid jaguars."

In 1801, the German explorer and naturalist Baron Alexander von Humboldt (after whom the Pacific current is named), identified the yopo tree botanically. While collecting flora near the Orinoco River, he watched the Maypure Indians prepare cohoba snuff by breaking the pods, moistening them and allowing them to ferment. When the pods turned black, they were kneaded with cassava meal and lime from snails into small cakes, which were eventually powdered. Humboldt noted, "it is not to be believed that the... pods are the chief cause of the ... effects of the snuff.... These effects are due to the freshly calcinated lime." The lime, in fact, adds nothing to the snuff's psychoactivity.

Fifty years later, a British explorer and naturalist, Richard Spruce, made detailed observations of the preparation and use of yopo among the Guahibo of the Orinoco basin, commenting that it was used by all the tribes of the upper tributaries. He purchased equipment for preparing and snorting their niopo seeds (a grinder, platter, wooden spatula, a container made from the leg bone of a jaguar and a Y-shaped snuffing rube). The seeds and pods

Traveler's Notes and Identification 311

he collected in 1851 for chemical studies weren't analyzed, however, until 1977.

In 1909, the German anthropologist Theodor Koch-Grunberg described another psychoactive snuff, prepared from a tree bark and inhaled during ritualistic cures by the Yekwanas at the headwaters of the Orinoco:

This is a magical snuff, exclusively used by witch doctors and prepared from the bark of a certain tree which, when pounded up, is boiled in a small earthenware pot, until all the water has evaporated and a sediment remains at the bottom of the pot. This sediment is toasted in the pot over a slight fire and is then finely powdered with the blade of a knife. Then the sorcerer blows a little of the powder through a reed .. . into the air Next, he snuffs, whilst, with the same reed, he absorbs the powder into each nostril successively. The bakudufha obviously has a strongly stimulating effect, for immediately the witch doctor begins singing and yelling wildly, all the while pitching the upper part of his body backwards and forwards.

Identification of Botanical and Other Sources

In 1916, William Safford determined that the psychoactive principles of cohoba snuff did not come from especially powerful tobacco, as was generally thought at the time, but from the beans of Anadenanthera peregrina (a member of the pea family, formerly placed in the genus of Piptadenia, then Mimosa and Acacia). In 1938 and 1939, the Brazilian botanist Ducke identified a second kind of psychoactive snuff as coming from another species. He reported that Indians of the upper Rio Negro employed leaves of Virata theiodora and Virola cuspidata in making a powder they called parsed. Ducke was wrong about the leaves; the Indians used sap from the inner bark. However, by pinpointing a species other than the leguminous trees from which cohoba is derived, Ducke prompted further investigations into plant psycho-activity where no non-native had previously thought to look.

The brownish snuff described by Ducke was known zsyakee among the Punave, as yato among the Kuripako and as epena among the Waika" tribes. His detailed account, published in 1954, described its botany, preparation and shamanistic use by the Barasana, Makuna, Tukano, Kaluyare, Puhave and other tribes in eastern Colombia. V. calophylla and V. calo-phylloidea were then considered the main psychedelic species in use, but V. theiodora has since come to be recognized as the most prevalent and highly prized.

Schultes and Hofmann write in their Plants of the Gods that Virola snuff "is used among many Indian groups in Amazonian Colombia and Venezuela, the Rio Negro, and other areas of the western Amazon of Brazil. The southernmost locality of its known use is among the Paumare' Indians of the Rio Punis in the southwestern Amazon of Brazil." In Colombia, use is usually restricted to shamans, who employ this snuff "ritualistically for diagnosis and treatment of disease, prophecy, divination, and other magico-religious purposes." \

312 DMT, DET, DPT

Among other tribes, especially those known collectively as the Waika1, epena may be used individually as well as ceremonially by any male over the age of thirteen or fourteen. Amounts as large as two to three teaspoons are blown into the nostrils through long tubes. Ingestion of large doses is

Isolation of DMT, and the "Dream Fish" $13

repeated regularly over a two- to three-day period during at least one annual ceremony.

There is no unequivocal archeological evidence showing ancient use of cohoba or epena snuffs. However, widespread shamanic use and the considerable mythology associated with both botanical sources of DMT suggest that such traditions go far into the past. Snuffing artifacts have been found all over South America, though these implements may have been used for tobacco.

Recently, the Mashco Indians of northern Argentina were reported to smoke and sniff a preparation from Anadenanthera colubrina seeds, confirming early Spanish reports of snuffs being made of this species, commonly known as vilca. According to one such account from 1571, Incan medicine men made prophecies through inebriation brought about by drinking chicha reinforced with vilca. A. colubrina snuff has since been assayed as having essentially the same psychoactive makeup as cohoba and epena snuffs.

In 1946, Goncalves deLima, a Brazilian ethnobotanist and chemist, extracted an alkaloid from roots of Mimosa hostilis, another member of the pea family, which has been used by natives of eastern Brazil to prepare a potent psychoactive drink He named this "nigerine"; later it was found to be identical to DMT, first synthesized in 1931 by the British chemist Richard Manske.

In 1954, Stomberg isolated 5-methoxy-DMT* from seeds of A. pere-grina. Later, DMT, DMT-N-oxide and 5-hydroxy-DMT-N-oxide were also found in A. peregrina. Additional components contributing to psycho-activity have been identified; these also appear in about the same proportions in the Virola species used to make parica. However, a Waika" snuff made from V. theiodora resin has an unusually high alkaloid content of up to 11 percent, consisting mainly of 5-methoxy-DMT (8 percent) and substantial amounts of DMT.

Testing and Use of Synthetics

The first experiences of pure DMT took place in 1957, when the pharmacologist Stephen Szara, who has long been chief of the National Institute of Drug Abuse's biomedical research branch, injected himself and

* This 5-rnethoxy-DMT compound had already been observed in toads and even in "dream fish" (Kyphosus fuscus) found off Norfolk Island in the South Pacific. In order to test the claim by inhabitants that this fish produces "nightmares," Joe Roberts, a photographer for National Geographic, broiled and ate some in 1960. The next morning, he reported his experience to have been "pure science fiction": he saw a new kind of car, monuments to mark humanity's first trip into space and so on. A skeptical writer with him had to admit, "I ate a dream fish supper myself. I found it tasty, but strong flavored, like mackerel. I told myself not to dream. But no. I dreamed I was at a party where everybody was nude and the band played, 'Yes, We Have No Pajamas.' "

314 DMT, DET, DPT

friends with this compound intramuscularly. He first administered 75 mg. to himself.

The onset of the experience came within three to four minutes. Szdra noted trembling, nausea, dilation of the pupils and an elevated blood pressure and pulse rate—accompanied by "brilliantly colored oriental motifs and, later, rapidly changing wonderful scenes." He became euphoric. His attention was "so firmly bound to the visual phenomena" that he was unable to describe them until the experience passed, some forty-five to sixty minutes after its start.

Szara established by further testing that intramuscular injection of 50 10 60 mg. of DMT brought about intense visual displays—with eyes open or closed—within five minutes. These reached peak effects within a quarter of an hour, diminishing and then disappearing totally within half an hour (at the longest, one hour). Subjects became catatonic or lost consciousness when given doses larger than 125 mg.

Albert Hofmann synthesized a series of DMT analogues, but little attention was paid to this work until the mid-1960s.

Ironically, interest began to develop after an adverse experience with DMT. William Burroughs, author of Naked Lunch and Junkie, had already figured prominently in the drug aspect of the beatnik movement. He had journeyed to Peru in search of yage", and in 1960 he had experimented with stroboscopic machines to produce hallucinations. During the winter of 1960-1961, Allen Ginsberg told Timothy Leary that Burroughs "knows more about drugs than anyone alive" and urged him to initiate a correspondence. Burroughs' second letter to Leary was dated May 6, 1961:

Dear Dr. Leary:

I would like to sound a word of urgent warning with regard to the hallucinogen drugs with special reference to D-Dimethyltryptamine. 1 had obtained a supply of this drug synthesized by a chemist friend in London, My first impression was that it closely resembled psilocybin in its effects.

I had taken it perhaps ten times—(this drug must be injected and die dose is about one grain [approximately 65 mg.] but I had been assured that there was a wide margin of safety)—with results sometimes unpleasant but well under control and always interesting when the horrible experience occurred which I have recorded and submitted for publication in Encounter ....

In High Priest, Leary recalls that he and his associates studied Burroughs' letter, deciding to reserve judgment until after further experiments. "We had learned enough to know that set-and-setting determined the reaction, not the drug. Bill Burroughs alias Doctor Benway had inadvertently taken an overdose [about 100 mg.] of DMT and was flung into a space-fiction paranoia."

Jeremy Bigwood and Jonathan Ott, writing in the November 1977 issue of Head magazine, noted that during his period of terror Burroughs had been "gulping down some of his 'metabolic regulator' apomorphine as an antidote." Then they pointed out the significant results of later tests:

DMT it Tested and Gains Popularity 315

Were it not for Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert, and Ralph Metzner, the terror drug would have been excluded from the Psychedelic Age. Although these three had heard nothing but negative reports about the effects of this compound, undaunted they decided to test the drug on themselves. They discovered that when one observes the rules of "set" and "setting," DMT produces a short but ecstatic experience.

The Psychedelic Review recorded a Leary experience of DMT where Ralph Metzner sat nearby taking notes, asking at regular intervals: "Where are you now?" In this collaborative article, Metzner's observations appear in a column opposite Leary's perceptions as recalled later. Immersed in the sight of giant, gold-encrusted, shimmering beetles, he heard a voice off in the distance asking, "WHERE .., ARE ,., YOU ... NOW?" Afterward, Leary proposed development of an "experiential typewriter" for recording such rapid, high-intensity experiences. Experimenters were to be trained in pressing keys, each of which represented a particular state of mind that could be recorded on a paper tape and later correlated with the passage of time. A prototype for such a machine was attempted but never reached a functioning state.

This article by Leary and Metzner caused a wave of interest in DMT among many in the counterculture. About this time came the discovery that DMT evaporated onto oregano, parsley leaves or marijuana and then smoked could produce effects similar to those from injections, except that they occurred almost immediately and disappeared more rapidly. Materials for making DMT were legal and could be procured easily then. Methods of synthesizing DMT were published in The Turn-On Book, The Psychedelic Guide to Preparation of the Eucharist and several short pamphlets.

Before long, DET was also being smoked: a longer-lasting, still-intense experience without the pronounced visual effects of DMT.

State and federal laws enacted from 1966 to 1969 made DMT illegal. Both DMT and DET were included in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Source materials for these compounds were put on a "watch" status as well. Soon supplies dried up, and both DMT and DET became rare items—a situation persisting throughout most of the 1970s. During this period, DMT was identified as a normal constituent of human blood (though its function is as yet obscure), prompting Bigwood and Ott to comment:

Public Law 91-513 specifically proscribes unauthorized possession of any material which contains DMT in any quantity. Under this law.,. any individual human being is guilty of such possession.

In the late 1970s, reports about DPT use began appearing in the psychological literature, both in connection with therapy and in efforts to ease the anxieties of dying patients. This short -acting tryptamine, bearing an even longer side-chain, induced psychedelic experiences of about three-and-a-half hours' duration that often came to an abrupt ending, a feature that

316 DMT, DET, DPT

appealed to some therapists. Many patients had "peak experiences" under DPT. Some people who administered this compound felt, however, that LSD had more memorable results, even if more tiring due to its longer duration.

DPT and 5-methoxy-DMT are still legal and have been used in certain circles for years. Atan Birnbaum, from the Native American Church of New York, wrote to the DEA about the legal status of several DMT-like compounds. In January 3980, Howard McClain of the Regulatory Control Division responded:

This is in response to your recent inquiry concerning the control status of the-substances 4 hydroxy-N,N-diethyltryptamine, dipropyltryptamine, and methyl ethyl tryptamine. They are not currently listed in the Controlled Substances Act, however, if it becomes evident that these chemicals are abused, they will be placed on Schedule I ....

BOTANY

Anadenanthera Species and Other Members of the Pea Family

Anadenanthera peregnna, a tree that reaches sixty feet in height and approximately two feet in diameter, grows naturally in and is cultivated throughout about a tenth of South America. Its primary locale is described by Schultes and Hofmann as "the plains or grasslands of the Orinoco basin of Colombia and Venezuela, in light forests in southern British Guiana [now known as Guyana], and in the Rio Branco area of the northern Amazonia of Brazil." It also appears "in isolated savanna areas" where it has been introduced by natives, notably the Rio Madeira region. Apparently this tree was also cultivated in the West Indies until about a century ago.

Another growing area for Anadenanthera is slightly smaller and centers in northern Argentina, where the seed snuff is known as cehil. Three-species native to southern Peru and Bolivia—A, macrocarpa, A. excelsa and A. colubrtna—are the source of vilca and huilca. All four Anadenanthera species seem to be used in making snuffs, usually without other plant additives.

D.V. Siva Sankar's enormous green book LSD—A Total Study lists eleven legumes that contain bufotenine and DMT. Of these, the second most widely used is Mimosa hostilis. Decoctions made from its root play a part in the ceremonies of the ancient Yurema cult of Brazil. The decoction is known as the "wine of Jurema." William Emboden describes this "miraculous drink" as

a wondrous beverage that gives visions of the spirit world. Intended for priests, warriors, and strong young men, the infusion permits a glimpse into the world where rocks destroy the souls of the dead and the Thunderbird sends lightning from his head and runs about producing thunder .... The Pankaruru Indians use a similar brew from the bark of Mimosa verrucosa or the caatmga shrub under the name Jurema branca; it too contains N-N-DMT

Seeds and an Inner Bark 317

Virolas

At least sixty species of the genus Virola, part of the Myristiceae (nutmeg) family, are known to exist in the New World, chiefly in the tropical regions of Central and South America. A dozen such species have been assayed as containing DMT-type alkaloids, but they are used for inducing visions and trances only around the western Amazon and in adjacent parts of the Orinoco basin. The most frequently used is V.theiodora. Others processed into psychoactive snuffs are V.calophylla, V. calophylloides, V.elongata and V. cuspidata. Resins of V. schifera are smoked by some Venezuelan Indians (a tew references to smoking have appeared in connection with other Virolas as well).

DMT-like compounds appear in the sap of the inner bark—not in the seeds or roots of Virolas. The making of spend therefore involves stripping Virolas of their outer bark. An almost colorless liquid then exudes from the inner bark, quickly turning to blood red (the result of enzyme activity) and

3]8 DMT, DET, DPT

hardening into a shiny, gummy resin. The tryptamines and other indoles lose potency rapidly unless heated immediately- Natives scrapeoff the inner bark and heat it or boil it after soaking the bark for about twenty minutes in cold water. Once the psychoactive compounds are stabilized, the resin is usually made into a powder.

Uncanny Indian Knowledge 319

Schultes and Hermann comment in their Plants of the Gods on the native jungle lore:

Indians who are familiar with Virala trees from (he point of view of their hallucinogenic potency exhibit uncanny knowledge of different "kinds"— which to a botanist appear to be indistinguishable as to species. Before stripping the bark from a trunk, they are able to predict how long the exudate will take to turn red, whether it will be mild or peppery to the tongue when tasted, how long it will retain its potency when made into snuff, and many other hidden characteristics .... there is no doubt about the Indian's expertness in recognizing these differences, for which he often has a terminology.

Several bushes, vines and mushrooms also contain DMT and its chemical relatives. Leaves from Psychotna viridis, a bush belonging to the coffee family, and Banisteriopsis rusbyana, an ivy-like vine, are often added to the drink called yage made from the Amazonian "visionary vine." The presence of this ayabuasca vine in the drink enables tryptamines in the leaves to produce mental effects even after they are swallowed. (Commercial and many psychoactive mushrooms contain DMT and other DMT-like compounds, These appear in tiny amounts, however, and wouldn't be activated when eaten unless catalyzed by something like ayahuasca.)

CHEMISTRY

Tryptamine Constituents of the Psychedelic Snuffs

In both Anadenanthera and Virola snuffs, the active principles are indolic alkaloids, either "open-chained" or "closed-ring" tryptamines. The "closed-ring" group will be covered in the next chapter. The "open-chained" group includes DMT and 5-methoxy-DMT,as well as bufotenine (which at present appears to be non-psychoactive). DMT predominates in the species Virola calophylla, but in other species the greatest psychic contribution comes from the very short-acting 5-methoxy-DMT.

Trace amounts of the "open-chained" DMT-N-oxide and 5-hydroxy-DMT-N-oxide, as well as "closed-ring" tryptamines 2-methyl- and 1,2-dimethyl-6-methoxytetrahydro- /3 -carboline, are present in both Anadenan-thera and Virola snuffs, adding somewhat to their effects. Virolas also contain small quantities of 6-methoxy-DMT and monoethyltryptamine.

Altering the Side-Chains

Here is a chemical family portrait of the major short-acting tryptamines;

320 DMT, DET, DPT

A full discussion of this compound-cluster's chemistry and effects appears on pp. 98-108 of Brimblecombe and Finder's Hallucinogenic Agents. Many of these compounds display little psychoactivity; others of special interest are the diallyl, dibutyl and diisopropyl analogues, the last having about twelve times the potency of DMT.

DET and DPT are longer acting and more potent than DMT as a result of altering the CH3 part of the DMT side-chain to CHCH^ and CH2CH2CHi respectively. Psilocin, a longer-acting tryptamine, differs by addition of a hydroxy group through enzyme action. When it is altered into CY-19 and CZ-74 by manipulations similar to the changes of DMT into DET and DPT, the result, in contrast, is shorter action and less potency.

Analogues that are still legal can be synthesized by substituting equal molar amounts of source materials other than dimethylamine, which yields DMT, or diethylamine, which yields DET. Using dipropylamine as a starter yields DPT, methylethylamine yields methylerhyltryptamine, methylpropyl-amine yields methylpropyltryptamine, ethylpropylamine yields ethylpropyl-tryptamine, etc.

Processes for synthesizing short-acting tryptamines are fairly simple and don't require much in the way of equipment, but they involve a risk of explosion. Also, purchases of several of the source materials are watched by the DEA. One of these is lithium aluminum hydride (LiAIH^), which is dangerous if it comes in contact with water molecules, as is usually required at the end of these processes. A chemist describes an experiment:

He placed a gray chunk of it in a stainless steel pot and left it exposed to the air to see what would happen. When nothing appreciable occurred, he got a hammer and banged it—which ignited it.

It then burned white hot right through the stainless steel pot and continued to burn on the floor. Of course, one cannot use water to put it out because it reacts with water causing not only a more vigorous reaction but also releasing hydrogen which, as you know, will explode violently itself when it teaches a certain concentration of O2. Luckily for him, it was a small piece.

PHYSICAL EFFECTS

Native Use of Enormous Amounts

Some Indian tribes, particularly those among the Waikas, use psycho-active snuffs in what Schultes and Hofmann refer to as "frighteningly excessive amounts." Virola resins with a DMT content as high as 11 percent are routinely ingested in quantities as large as two or three teaspoonfuls.

William Emboden has described the list of accoutrements associated with snuffing as "endless." There are bones from plovers tied together to form tubes, "which enable friends to blow snuff into each other's nostrils," while "V-shaped bones permit self-indulgence in sternutation. These powerful snuffs blown into the upper nasal passages, or even into the sinuses, induce violent fits of sneezing followed by violent states of hallucination."

The Synthesizing Process 321

Natives often practice snuffing daily. In Colombia and Venezuela, Hoffer and Osmond write that the yopo-snuffing habit

was carried on by whole populations. The intoxication produced convulsive movements and distortions of face and body muscles, then a desire to dance and finally an inability to control their limbs. Then a violent madness or deep sleep overtook the user. Then they developed stupor.

The Waikas, however, are the greatest risk-takers, as Emboden notes:

"Leaves of the Angel of Death" or bolek-heia is the name for one such snuff derived from justicia pectoralis variety stenophylla of the family Acanthaceae [see plate 58 of his Narcotic Drugs]. This red-flowered herb enjoys a considerable popularity among the Waikas — Among these peoples, three curanderos have died from using this potent snuff which seems to contain fairly large amounts of tryptamines in the dried and powdered leaves. Often it is an adulterant of snuffs made from the red bark resin of several species of Virola.

322 DMT, DET, DPT

Use and Safety of Synthetics in Ordinary Amounts

DET and DPT are more potent than DMT It seems that increasing the amine side-chain makes the tryptamine more water soluble; with increased absorption, less is needed. Yet even 15 to 20 mg. of DMT is sufficient to give strong effects when smoked. In most of the hospital studies, about 50 mg. of DMT was injected intramuscularly.

When DMT is injected, the onset of effects usually takes two to five minutes, time required for the tryptamine to make its way to the brain. The user becomes ecstatic for ten to fifteen minutes, declining to normal states of mind over the next quarter to half hour. Injected DET displays a similar curve of effects but lasts about three hours. DPT has about the same duration as DET but ends more abruptly.

More often, these tryptamines are smoked because less is needed to feel the effects, which arrive in a matter of only a few seconds. The DMT peak lasts for three to ten minutes, and it's all over in twenty to thirty minutes. DET and DPT, which have more subtle effects than DMT, may take a few minutes to register, although, as Alan Birnbaum writes in regard to DPT, "some people have reported to be immediately immersed in the light on the first toke." DET lasts about an hour when smoked; the most intense part of a DPT experience is over in about twenty minutes.

Long available from chemical supply houses, 5-methoxy-DMT is about five times as strong as DMT when smoked and the shortest-acting of all these compounds. The experience is characterized by a "rush" similar to that from amyl nitrate. There is little in the way of visuals, but intense thoughts and perhaps bodily sensations last for five to ten minutes. Many people don't like it; in his Psychedelic Chemistry, Michael Valentine Smith compares its effects to having an elephant sit on one's head.

Short-acting tryptamines are smoked in joints or pipes and often are mixed with marijuana. However, it should be emphasized that these compounds provoke an intense experience and should not be taken, in the words of Bigwood and Ott,

in the carefree way marijuana often is. Smoking DMT while driving is extremely dangerous .... Most users prefer to be sitting down or reclining before and during the trip. The smoking should be carried out in a setting free from unexpected intrusions by visitors, a ringing telephone, etc.

Initiates, after taking a toke, have often started to say they weren't feeling anything and then suddenly become silent in mid-sentence. Some people who have started to smoke a DMT joint while standing have suddenly needed to sit down.

The observable physical changes are pupil dilation, increased pulse rate and blood pressure and, in some instances, dizziness, nausea or tremor. Stephen Szara and his associates examined such effects closely in a series of papers (eleven of these are listed in Brimblecombe and Finder's bibliography at the end of their tryptamine chapter), concluding that these were minor.

Rapidity of Effects 323

Still, DMT and related compounds may not be the proper Psychedelics for those with high blood pressure.

In an article about DMT in Head magazine, Bigwood and Ott ask: "Why is DMT not a popular drug today?"

Probably the most important factor relates to the myth that DMT causes brain damage. Though there is no evidence for this, it appears that some early users became frightened by the rapid onset of the effects, the chemical taste of the smoke, and the potency of the drug, and responded by generating myths The idea chat DMT caused brain damage became entrenched in the counterculture, and is still parroted today.

The suddenness and intensity with which DMT comes on can be somewhat alarming, so much so that, as Grinspoon and Bakalar remark, the "term 'mind-blowing' might have been invented for this drug." Users report feeling that they were "melting into" or "fusing" with the floor, that their heart was stopping, or that their "life-force" was somehow ebbing away. When the experience is over, the user feels normal again but may worry, more than with other Psychedelics, about such physical feelings, particularly if the compound was inadvisably used while alone.

The smell of these substances contributes to such suspicions. "Unfortunately," adds Michael Valentine Smith,

these compounds taste and smell like burning plastic when smoked and are harder to smoke than hash. There is, however, no evidence for the notion that they are damaging.

Tolerance, Potentiation and MAO-Inhibition

Impressive effects from DMT depend to a large extent on a sufficient amount going to the brain all at once. The peak comes on quickly and is hard to build upon. In this sense, DMT exhibits a threshold phenomenon: if the desired intensity is not reached, extra inhalations a few minutes later won't help. In smoking DMT, it is most efficient for one person to fill a pipe with the amount desired and finish it, the next user repeating this process, rather than for a pipe or joint to go around a circle of users as is often done with marijuana. This procedure also equalizes the concentration of the compound more equal; otherwise, the first user would get the strongest toke.

Once an insufficient amount has entered the brain, it is unlikely that a user could get strong DMT effects; twenty minutes must first elapse. But even if a higher level of experience is not attained, the effects can still be impressive, approximating a very colorful, intense hash high, and can be extended if there is an adequate supply on hand. Residua! DET and DPT effects can also be sustained by taking continual pipefuls.

In 1962, Sai-Halasz, who worked with Szara, reported that DMT was potentiated by pretreatment with serotonin antagonists like methysergide; in 1963, he announced that such potentiation could be diminished by pretreatment with monoamine oxidase inhibitors.

324 DMT, DET, DPT

Under normal circumstances, DMT, DET and DPT are inactive when taken orally. A gram of DMT, well over thirty times the dose needed to achieve effects from smoking, has been swallowed without perceptible psychoactivity. When these substances pass into the stomach, they are attacked by the enzyme monoamine oxidase, which hacks the molecule apart. In the company of MAO-inhibitors, like the /3-carbolines associated with yage, these tryptamines become resistant to quick metabolism and thus remain effective when taken orally.

Walter Anirman, author of Sky Cloud Mountain, is one of those who has experimented with the user of DMT in conjunction with LSD. About this synergistic combination, he wrote:

One inhalation of the concentrated smoke, and the world melts into its patterning constituents. A second inhalation, and the body becomes transfixed with a silence so deep and so startling that within it a tear would fall as a torrent. A third inhalation and sentience visibly radiates itself from everywhere: plants and animals are transfigured to their sacred essence and pebbles sparkle like self-conscious, magical jewels. But the balance is delicate. The vision can detonate along with the nervous system chat falters before it.... Such experiences, though often quite horrible, are no more than a widow's mite in the table stakes of consciousness, for under the guidance of the LSDMT synergy, vast realms of perfect attunement may also occur, and the stellar brilliance of the clear-light void shine from everywhere, from everything, inside and out.

Cerebrospinal Tryptamines

1,-tryptophan is an essential amino acid prevalent throughout the animal world. It is the only one that is an indole and is generally considered the basic building block for the indolealkalylamines, which include most of the compounds discussed in this book. Neither l-tryptophan nor bufotenine, a neurotransmitter, is now considered psychoactive, though bufotenine was once thought to be at higher dosages. However, both are cross-tolerant with LSD, as is DMT, which suggests that their molecules may occupy the same or related receptor-sites in the brain. (DMT is not cross-tolerant with psilocybin or mescaline.)

Over the last thirty years, much attention has gone into seeking a "psychotogen," a chemical manufactured in an abnormal brain and nervous system that causes psychosis. "Most psychedelic drugs cannot possibly play this role," as Grinspoon and Bakalar explain,

because tolerance develops too quickly for a persistent effect. The main exception is DMT, and it has recently been identified as an endogenous compound in the brains of rats and human beings. The enzyme responsible for its synthesis and the sites where it is absorbed by nerve terminals have also been discovered (Christian et al, 1976; Christian et al. 1977). Both LSD and 5-MeO-DMT seem to displace DMT at those sites, which may also be serotonin receptors.

Presence in the Blood and Brain 325

"Christian et al" refers to Dr. Samuel Christian and his associates at the University of Alabama in Birmingham's Neurosciences Program; in 1975 they identified DMT, 5-methoxy-DMT, 5-methoxy-N,N-DMT, N-methyltryptamine and tryptamine in human cerebrospinal fluid. In May 1977, Dr. Wolfgang Vogel of the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia isolated 5-methoxy-DMT in brain tissue; the Christian team also found DMT there.

If DMT and 5-methoxy-DMT are neurotransmitters, as many researchers think, then an excess of them may be a cause of schizophrenia. Observing dramatic increases of DMT in the spinal fluid of animals and humans "during extreme stress," Dr. Christian hypothesized that the tendency among some people to develop mental aberrations might reflect "a genetic predisposition to excessive DMT production as a response to stress." Later work, reported by L Corbett, Christian and others in the British journal of Psychiatry (1978, 132: 139-144), indicated that schizophrenics do not have higher levels of DMT in their brains than control subjects. Research in this intriguing area continues.

MENTAL EFFECTS

Effects from Cohoba and Epena Snuffs

Observing Guahibo Indians in the mid-nineteenth century, Richard

Spruce remarked that using cohoba snuff eliminated hunger and thirst because "one feels so good" and compared the inebriation to that from Fly Agarics. He noted that the Catauixi used the snuff when they were about to go on a hunt in order to render themselves more alert. Shultes and Hofmann write that this snuff from the yopo tree is sometimes, as among the Guahibo, taken as a daily stimulant.

But it is more commonly employed by payts ("medicine men") to induce trances and visions and communicate with the hekula spirits; to prophesy or divine; to protect the tribe against epidemics of sickness; to make hunters and even their dogs more alert.

As for epena snuff, they declare that this "was employed ritualistically for diagnosis and treatment of disease, prophecy, divination, and other magico-religious purposes." Indians under the effects of this Virola resin

characteristically have faraway dream-like expressions that are, of course, due to the active principles of the drug, but which the natives believe are associated with the temporary absence of the shamans' souls as they travel to distant places. The chants during the incessant dancing performed by shamans may at times reflect conversations with spirit forces. This transportation of the soul to other realms represents to the Walks' one of the most significant values of the effects of this hallucinogen.

Emboden adds an interesting comment on the striking tribal differences in visions produced by epena:

326 DMT, DET. DPT

Among the Witotos, microscopia, or set-ing things and people miniaturized, is a characteristic of the Virtila syndrome; while for the Waika macroscopia is a pan of the visionary experience. This is probably conditioned in part by the tryptamines and in part by cultural background. Macroscopia is inextricable from the Waika" concepts of hikura, the spirit who dwells in the Vimla tree.

DMT Effects

DMT has been the most studied and used of the short-acting tryptamines. Almost everyone who's had a good lungful has been astonished by the rapidity and vividness of the effects. With eyes open, there appears a "retinal circus," where perception of the external world is overlaid with moving, fascinating, brightly colored patterns. With the eyes closed, wrote Bigwood and Ott,

the subject becomes aware of swirling patterns, often geometric in shape . .. Many people become ecstatic or euphoric, others become meditative and concentrate on the hallucinations with eyes closed. Sometimes, especially during the initial stages of the inebriation, there can be a slight feeling of paranoia, but this is seldom more than momentary.

When Osmond was first given DMT, he remained silent for some time and then responded with: "My . . . word!" Another user, trying to describe the effects briefly, commented, "I took a puff—and then my arms and legs fell off... and the garden of God opened up." Yet another user living in the Virgin Islands had been sent some DMT and assumed it was a new kind of Cannabis; she telegraphed the sender: "WHAT REPEAT WHAT WAS THAT?"

Alan Watts said the DMT experience was like "being fired out of the muzzle of an atomic cannon." He later re-evaluated DMT, calling it "amusing but relatively uninteresting" compared to LSD, mescaline, psilocybin and Cannabis. Most who have tried DMT find it to be immensely pleasurable-but without enduring effects.

More than a few artists have discovered inspiration in the presentation of geometric patterns. In early Canadian research, DMT was used successfully in propelling people who resisted LSD's effects into a psychedelic state.

An example of how DMT's effects may be meaningful, evoking more than a sequence of kaleidoscopic images, comes from Richard Alpert, who was debating with Leary whether the word ecstasy should be used in describing LSD and psilocybin trips. Alpert thought it would "just get everybody thinking about orgies." Leary liked the word's derivation from ex (or ek) + stasis—"going out of the static."

At this time, Alpert received a huge, hand-embroidered robe brought by a lama from Tibet. Alpert, though appreciative, didn't know what to do with the robe. He decided to wear it while under DMT, considering this question about ecstasy. Alpert went into a meditation room at the top of the big house in the Millbrook estate. The smell of incense from the robe surrounded him as he shot DMT into his thigh and lay down.

The "Retinal Circus" $27

I found myself walking down some very wide steps into what seemed like a Roman or Greek scene. Torches lit the stairway of a stone castle. I walked down into an underground grotto, where I looked through a door into a room. Inside was a kidney-shaped indoor swimming pool, and beyond that were groves of trees. Nymph-like figures were diving into the pool, which was surrounded by silver statues. I got the feeling of intense sensuality, of a Dio-nysian, orgy-like place.

I stood at the door, sure I wasn't going to go into this "Sin City"—not me, afraid of my impulses. But then I noticed that one of the statues was of Timothy, who was laughing, I said, "See, I knew I was right!"

Then, suddenly, I was whisked away in an elevator. It felt like being shot up in the Trade Center Building in New York City.

Then, just as suddenly, it stopped. I found myself in a dome that was luminously white. The light wasn't inside or out—the whole thing was luminous. A more intense light seemed to emanate from the center skylight. There were many people in the room, gathered mainly in the center and looking upward.

1 crowded in to see what they were looking at. Finally, I reached the center and could look up. I discovered I was looking up into absolutely dear light. I'm looking directly at the light, and it's totally purifying me.

At the most ecstatic moment in this experience, I heard a laugh. I turned to look, and, at the edge of the crowd, there stood Timothy. I realized that he was telling me that this was "ecstasy" too.

I took off the robe, went down to see Timothy, and said," 'Ecstasy' is a great word. Let's use it,"

More than-a few users have had frightening, even terrifying experiences on DMT, Because the transition into the altered state is so rapid and so intense, some people have concluded when they saw religious archetypes arise that they had been lured into a pact with the Devil. On this half-hour trip, some people have felt they might "never come back."

Possibly the best published example of the negative side of the DMT experience comes from Jean Houston, coauthor of The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience. In the chapter on "The World of the Non-Human," Houston ("S-6") presents an illustration of bad set and setting and the fearful - results under such conditions. "It is best to be in a calm and relaxed state," say Bigwood and Ott: "If one is tense or anxious, it would be unwise to smoke DMT." Houston "had been up for three days and two nights working on a manuscript." The "room where the 'experiment' was to take place was a dirty, dingy, insanely cluttered pesthole." She was told she "would see God," After injecting the DMT, Houston experienced "the most terrifying three minutes" of her life, three minutes that seemed an eternity. Eventually, a "face of God" appeared after she made "a final effort at ultimate visions," and it turned out to be "a very wise monkey." Houston "burst out laughing."

DET Effects

DET doesn't have the visual impact of DMT but does evoke intense, pleasurable states of mind, which last for about an hour when the substance

328 DMT, DET, DPT

is smoked. Meditating users have noticed (hat they can lock themselves into a lotus position much more easily than before. The DET experience can be built upon by repeated inhalations, with some users reporting that they have begun to "vibrate" and "raise Kundalini energy." Some users find that their eyes turn backward, as in a state of religious ecstasy. Among those who have experienced DET with religious intensity is Alan Birnbaum:

DET is the first psychedelic which convinced me that the psychedelic is a Primeval Light Being which is God, the Creator. We had smoked it in a large hookah and it was so clear and so bright—unmistakable—it was a Being.

The most extensive report on the effects of DET was submitted by Boszormenyi, Der and Nagy in 1959 in the Journal of Mental Sciences. They described trials in thirty normal and forty-one psychiatric subjects who were given 0.7 to 0.8 mg./kg. intramuscularly. They concluded that DET was more satisfactory than LSD or mescaline in increasing communication and facilitating therapy because of its shorter duration of action: "We believe DET to be the best and least noxious psychotogenic agent known thus far."

Some of their subjects began to show an interest in art and renewed their interest in writing. Two began to paint. Several who were professional authors compared their experiences with spontaneous inspiration. A young poet reported: "I felt an enormous drive to write, to put down the marvelous feelings." Boszormenyi suggested that the increase in creativity resulted from "the emergence of ancient desires and drives which forced the person to satisfy them by creating."

Here is a fairly typical comment about the effects from DET when smoked;

DET is like grass, but you get very high and are still functional. There's a

little hallucination, and a little color distortion. It's not as intense as DMT,

and you can do things behind it—like go to lectures or run around the streets

With DMT and acid you're often astonished, wondering what's happening,

whereas with DET you know you're on it.

DPT Effects

DPT has not been very widely used to date, but those who have tried it seem to agree that it does produce psychedelic or "peak" experiences. Much of its application in psychotherapy has taken place in Europe, under the supervision of such specialists as Dr. Hanscarl Leuner, who has just published a book in German on psycholytic therapy. Initial reports in the U.S. have come from the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, which used this drug in conjunction with therapy at Spring Grove Hospital near Baltimore.

In the January-March 1977 Journal of Psychedelic Drugs, five doctors on the Spring Grove team discussed their findings about "The Peak Experience Variable in DPT-Assisted Psychotherapy with Cancer Patients." They expressed the opinion that among the many altered states of psychedelic consciousness, peak experiences "are probably among the most difficult to

Creativity and Peak Experiences }29

facilitate . . . [but] we now possess a technology that can evoke peak experiences with sufficient potency and reliability to permit us to study their impact on human behavior." They undertook to test such a possibility with DPT, administering it to thirty-four cancer patients who were expected to live at least three months and who were suffering major psychological stress. The goal was to evoke what William James called the "poetic" quality of peak experiences, about which he had written:

although so similar to states of feeling, [these] mystical states seem to those who experience them to be also states of knowledge. They art-states of insight into depths of truth unplumbed by the discursive- intellect.

Collected data indicated "clinical improvement of greater magnitude for the group of peakers than for the group of nonpeakers." The team concluded that a cluster of significant changes on various indexes "strongly suggests that the response to psychotherapy was different for the two groups." They cited "the peakers' improvement in 'Capacity for Intimate Contact,' suggesting the enhancement of a quality of interpersonal openness that might mitigate the isolation and lack of meaningful communication often experienced both by terminally ill patients and their closest family members."

The Spring Grove evaluations were complicated because raters were asked not to speak with the subjects about their DPT experiences. Another problem was that some of these patients later classified as "nonpeakers"

had experiences during the period of DPT action that they viewed as quite meaningful. For example, the subject in the sample of nonpeakers who scored highest on the peak experience items of the Psychedelic Experience Questionnaire (43 percent total score) described having experienced herself during part of the period of DPT action in a visionary synagogue. Within the experiential sequence recounted, she described feeling led by the hand of a wise old man she called God to the front of the sanctuary, and there given a Torah tu carry as a sign that she was accepted, forgiven, and had "come home.' Although this sequence might well be classified as a "religious experience" or as an "archetypal experience," it did not entail the sense of ego-transcendence and the unitive state of consciousness defined as intrinsic to the term "peak experience" within the context of this study.

Nonetheless, this team concluded from its experiments with DPT "that peak experiences may constitute an intrinsic element of effective psychotherapy for some persons" and that "rapid therapeutic progress in the course of short-term psychotherapy with cancer patients ... is indicated by this study." In a comment also pertinent for anyone considering use of DPT, they observed that "when a peak experience does occur, its continuing relevance for daily living may be strongly dependent on the degree to which the associated insights are assimilated or transferred into the everyday self-concept and world view of the patient."

330 DMT, DET. DPT

In the October-December 1977 issue of the Journal of Psychedelic Drugs, the Spring Grove team reported on a controlled study of DPT-assisted psychotherapy with eighty-six alcoholics. Some of these investigators had earlier "quite encouraging" results using LSD as an adjunct to psychotherapy with chronic alcoholics, but they thought DPT might be a more suitable agent because of its shorter duration and its lack of negative publicity. A year later, the group given DPT "showed an advantage in positive outcome measures"—particularly in regard to Occupational Adjustment and Sobriety— when compared to the two control groups. Those given DPT "may have temporarily experienced a substantial number of peak reactions," the authors wrote, and "may have temporarily experienced a more positive mode of functioning." Later follow-ups, however, revealed few long-term differences among the three groups, a result that "would seem to indicate that the DPT group did not know how to integrate their new modes of functioning into the everyday patterns of their lives."

FORMS AND PREPARATIONS

The short-acting tryptamines, usually seen as crystals, are difficult to identify. However, each has a characteristic smell that is easily recalled by people who have tried them once. Over time, they turn increasingly reddish.

Tryptamines may also appear as an oil put onto various herbs, such as parsley, marijuana or red raspberry leaves. Marijuana is probably the best medium, because it is less harsh on the throat and lungs than parsley and because a lot of users like the combination. Some tryptamine enthusiasts object to mixture with pot on the grounds that marijuana detracts from a tryptamine's clarity. Parsley and other herbs can be converted into more neutral carriers by steeping them in water so as to extract most of their aromatic flavoring and then drying the herb.

Some users prefer to smoke a compound like DMT without any carrier in a small glass pipe. A small amount of the crystals or oil is placed in the bowl and then slowly heated until fumes begin to fill the pipe. As has been mentioned, it is most efficient if each user smokes the entire amount he or she wants and then passes the pipe along.

A regular pipe covered with a fine screen can also be used. As Bigwood and Ott explain, the crystals should not be placed directly on the screen because

they would be aspirated before they can be vaporized Instead an herb (preferably non-psychoactive) should be placed on the screen and the DMT added atop the herb.

When smoking DMT-soaked parsley, it is often difficult to gauge the proper dose. The only recourse, Other than solvent extraction and isolation, is to use the "bioassay technique." Basically, one should try a small amount of the mixture, increasing the dose ... until the desired effects become apparent.

Smoking Techniques ,,,

When smoked, fifteen to thirty milligrams of pure DMT is sufficient to produce hallucinogenic effects. This is a small amount, too small to be easily estimated without some reference. We suggest, if you have some DMT to spare, that you weigh out 15 to 30 milligrams as a reference. We do not recommend measuring doses while inebriated.