Frutto di decenni di studi, esperimenti e ricerche del dottor Strassman, questo 'Manuale di psichedelia' costituisce una guida preziosa e accessibile per chiunque voglia comprendere cosa sono e come funzionano gli psichedelici. Consapevole della difficoltà di iniziare a conoscere un mondo che, come quello delle sostanze psichedeliche, è avvolto da pregiudizi, ignoranza e confusione, Strassman riassume i risultati raggiunti fino ad oggi dalle ricerche scientifiche che negli ultimi anni hanno ripreso vigore - e legittimità - in molte parti del mondo. Ricco di informazioni sulle sostanze che 'manifestano la mente' -come psilocibina, LSD, DMT/ayahuasca, mescalina/peyote, ketamina, MDMA, ibogaina, 5-metossi-DMT e Salvia divinorum- questo libro è un punto di riferimento non solo per comprendere la storia degli psichedelici, scoprire il loro potenziale vuoi per curare svariati disturbi come depressione, disturbo da stress post-traumatico, abuso e dipendenza da alcol o altre sostanze dannose, vuoi per aumentare il benessere, la creatività e la meditazione, ma anche per imparare a riconoscere e gestire le reazioni negative agli psichedelici e la pratica del microdosaggio.

Torna in una nuova edizione, arricchita da una prefazione inedita dell'autore, uno dei libri più apprezzati sulla natura della mente umana e sul potenziale terapeutico degli psichedelici. Resoconto della sperimentazione della DMT, uno degli psichedelici più noti al mondo, condotta all'inizio degli anni '90 su sessanta volontari, quest'opera ripercorre le varie tappe della ricerca, riportandone difficoltà e risultati, nonché le testimonianze di coloro che ebbero a sottoporsi all'esperimento, concordi nell'affermare che tali sessioni siano state tra le più profonde esperienze della loro vita. Dagli incontri con entità intelligenti non umane, in particolar modo 'alieni', alle esperienze di premorte, dalle rivelazioni mistiche all'ingresso nei mondi invisibili, Strassman ci accompagna in un viaggio nelle profondità più inesplorate di questa molecola, una sostanza chimica di origine vegetale ma anche autonomamente prodotta del cervello umano, non a caso definita la molecola dello spirito. Prefazione alla nuova edizione di Rick Strassman Andrea Doria.

When his decades of clinical psychiatric research and Buddhist practice were unable to provide answers to this question, Strassman began searching for a more resonant spiritual model. He found that the visions of the Hebrew prophets—such as Ezekiel, Moses, Adam, and Daniel—were strikingly similar to those of the volunteers in his DMT studies. Carefully examining the concept of prophecy in the Hebrew Bible, he characterizes a "prophetic state of consciousness" and explains how it may share biological and metaphysical mechanisms with the DMT effect.

Examining medieval commentaries on the Hebrew Bible, Strassman reveals how Jewish metaphysics provides a top-down model for both the prophetic and DMT states, a model he calls "theoneurology." Theoneurology bridges biology and spirituality by proposing that the Divine communicates with us using the brain, and DMT—whether naturally produced or ingested—is a critical factor in such visionary experience. This model provides a counterpoint to "neurotheology," which proposes that altered brain function simply generates the impression of a Divine-human encounter.

Theoneurology addresses issues critical to the full flowering of the psychedelic drug experience. Perhaps even more important, it points the way to a renewal of classical prophetic consciousness, the soul of Hebrew Bible prophecy, as well as unexpected directions for the evolution of contemporary spiritual practice.

Naturally occurring DMT may produce prophecy-like states of consciousness and thus represent a bridge between biology and religious experience

• Reveals the striking similarities between the visions of the Hebrew prophets and the DMT state described by Strassman’s research volunteers

• Explains how prophetic and psychedelic states may share biological mechanisms

• Presents a new top-down “theoneurological” model of spiritual experience

After completing his groundbreaking research chronicled in DMT: The Spirit Molecule, Rick Strassman was left with one fundamental question: What does it mean that DMT, a simple chemical naturally found in all of our bodies, instantaneously opens us to an interactive spirit world that feels more real than our own world?

When his decades of clinical psychiatric research and Buddhist practice were unable to provide answers to this question, Strassman began searching for a more resonant spiritual model. He found that the visions of the Hebrew prophets--such as Ezekiel, Moses, Adam, and Daniel--were strikingly similar to those of the volunteers in his DMT studies. Carefully examining the concept of prophecy in the Hebrew Bible, he characterizes a “prophetic state of consciousness” and explains how it may share biological and metaphysical mechanisms with the DMT effect.

Examining medieval commentaries on the Hebrew Bible, Strassman reveals how Jewish metaphysics provides a top-down model for both the prophetic and DMT states, a model he calls “theoneurology.” Theoneurology bridges biology and spirituality by proposing that the Divine communicates with us using the brain, and DMT--whether naturally produced or ingested--is a critical factor in such visionary experience. This model provides a counterpoint to “neurotheology,” which proposes that altered brain function simply generates the impression of a Divine-human encounter.

Theoneurology addresses issues critical to the full flowering of the psychedelic drug experience. Perhaps even more important, it points the way to a renewal of classical prophetic consciousness, the soul of Hebrew Bible prophecy, as well as unexpected directions for the evolution of contemporary spiritual practice.

An investigation into experiences of other realms of existence and contact with otherworldly beings

• Examines how contact with alien life-forms can be obtained through the “inner space” dimensions of our minds

• Presents evidence that other worlds experienced through consciousness-altering technologies are often as real as those perceived with our five senses

• Correlates science fiction's imaginal realms with psychedelic research

For thousands of years, voyagers of inner space--spiritual seekers, shamans, and psychoactive drug users--have returned from their inner imaginal travels reporting encounters with alien intelligences. Inner Paths to Outer Space presents an innovative examination of how we can reach these other dimensions of existence and contact otherworldly beings. Based on their more than 60 combined years of research into the function of the brain, the authors reveal how psychoactive substances such as DMT allow the brain to bypass our five basic senses to unlock a multidimensional realm of existence where otherworldly communication occurs. They contend that our centuries-old search for alien life-forms has been misdirected and that the alien worlds reflected in visionary science fiction actually mirror the inner space world of our minds. The authors show that these “alien” worlds encountered through altered states of human awareness, either through the use of psychedelics or other methods, possess a sense of reality as great as, or greater than, those of the ordinary awareness perceived by our five senses.

An exploration of how LSD influences imagination and the creative process.

. Based on the results of one of the longest clinical studies of LSD that took place between 1954 and 1962, before LSD was illegal.

. Includes personal reports, artwork, and poetry from the original sessions as testimony of the impact of LSD on the creative process.

In 1954 a Los Angeles psychiatrist began experimenting with a then new chemical discovery known as LSD-25. Over an eight-year period Dr. Oscar Janiger gave LSD-25 to more than 950 men and women, ranging in age from 18 to 81 and coming from all walks of life. The data collected by the author during those trials and from follow-up studies done 40 years later is now available here for the first time, along with the authors' examination of LSD's ramifications on creativity, imagination, and spirituality. 

In this book Marlene Dobkin de Rios, a medical anthropologist who has studied the use of hallucinogens in tribal and third world societies, considers the spiritual implications of these findings in comparison with indigenous groups that employ psychoactive substances in their religious ceremonies. The book also examines the nature of the creative process as influenced by psychedelics and provides artwork and poetry from the original experiment sessions, allowing the reader to personally witness LSD's impact on creativity. The studies recounted in LSD, Spirituality, and the Creative Process depict an important moment in the history of consciousness and reveal the psychic unity of humanity.

A clinical psychiatrist explores the effects of DMT, one of the most powerful psychedelics known.

. A behind-the-scenes look at the cutting edge of psychedelic research.

. Provides a unique scientific explanation for the phenomenon of alien abduction experiences.

From 1990 to 1995 Dr. Rick Strassman conducted U.S. Government-approved and funded clinical research at the University of New Mexico in which he injected sixty volunteers with DMT, one of the most powerful psychedelics known. His detailed account of those sessions is an extraordinarily riveting inquiry into the nature of the human mind and the therapeutic potential of psychedelics. DMT, a plant-derived chemical found in the psychedelic Amazon brew, ayahuasca, is also manufactured by the human brain. In Strassman's volunteers, it consistently produced near-death and mystical experiences. Many reported convincing encounters with intelligent nonhuman presences, aliens, angels, and spirits. Nearly all felt that the sessions were among the most profound experiences of their lives.

Strassman's research connects DMT with the pineal gland, considered by Hindus to be the site of the seventh chakra and by Rene Descartes to be the seat of the soul. DMT: The Spirit Molecule makes the bold case that DMT, naturally released by the pineal gland, facilitates the soul's movement in and out of the body and is an integral part of the birth and death experiences, as well as the highest states of meditation and even sexual transcendence. Strassman also believes that "alien abduction experiences" are brought on by accidental releases of DMT. If used wisely, DMT could trigger a period of remarkable progress in the scientific exploration of the most mystical regions of the human mind and soul.