Auteur archieven: Jeppe Kleijngeld

The Doorway (2): DMT

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

DMT (Dimethyltryptamine) is an extremely powerful hallucinogenic found throughout nature that has a profound impact on human consciousness.

The structure of DMT is very simple: there are only four positions where chemical groups can attach. It’s everywhere in nature. All organisms have the two key enzymes that lead to the synthesis of DMT. It is also the visionary ingredient in ayahuasca, a very popular psychedelic in the West nowadays.

Ayahuasca is created by combining two Amazon plants, one containing DMT and one containing an enzyme inhibitor, needed for the DMT to have effect. How did these Amazonian Indians know how to combine these plants? A trip created by orally consuming DMT can last three to four hours. That is much more time than the bullet train trip you get when smoking or injecting DMT.

So DMT is everywhere in nature, but what is it for? Many leading experts say they are messenger molecules. It is a powerful tool to explore the whole mysterious question: what is consciousness?

DMT is often referred to as the spirit molecule, which is a conundrum. The spirit is the inner world and the molecule is the external world. So the psychedelic is an entheogen; they take us from the science to the spirit.

DMT can also be produced by the human brain in extremely small amounts. The enzymes necessary for its production are expressed in the cerebral cortex, the choroid plexus, and the pineal gland.

Rick Strassman – a professor in psychiatry – has done extensive research in DMT and non-ordinary states of consciousness. It is his belief that the pineal gland, a tiny, pinecone-shaped endocrine gland in the center of the brain, at times releases DMT to facilitate the entering and exciting of the soul in the body.

Through various practices, like fasting, chanting and praying, a release might be triggered that is correlated with mystical experiences. A DMT trip is described as a ‘psychedelic bungee jump’. Just like that, you find yourself in a completely different reality, and – bang! – just like that, you’re out of it again.

Why are these plants made illegal in our ‘enlightened’ Western societies? “It is very revealing about these societies”, says writer and journalist Graham Hancock. “Our society devalues non-ordinary states of consciousness. Any other consciousness that is not related to the production or consumption of material goods is stigmatized in our society today.”

There is fear in the powers that be that ended the psychedelic revolution in the sixties. Fear that if enough people take these substances, the very fabric of our societies would be picked apart.

After a near ban of psychedelic research, Rick Strassman got approval in 1989 to do a DMT study. It was the first psychedelic research in a generation. He did not approach the work as psychotherapy, but as pure scientific research, focusing on what happened in the body and brain. He recorded the experiences of participants and later published them in his book ‘DMT: The Spirit Molecule’, a fascinating byproduct of the study.

So what is the experience like? Time crumbles. The linearity of time is totally meaningless in a DMT experience. You are at the God Head, the point where all time folds in on itself. You are no longer a human being. In fact, you are no longer anything you can identify with. It is a terrifying experience. You are blasted out of your body at warp speed, backwards through your own DNA out the other end into the universe.

DMT users often report encountering pure consciousness, sometimes perceived as a vastly advanced civilization; far beyond anything known on Earth. “My sense was that at some point there was an implicit realization: this is the divine realm”, one user said.

“It’s a place I’ve been many times before. A place where souls await rebirth. An incredible, transcendent peace came over me. I have never felt such peace in my life. Every fear, hope, and attachment to the material world was stripped away. I was free to simply be the essence of a soul.”

Strassman’s explanation: The brain, the organ of consciousness, was transformed in such a way that it could receive information that it couldn’t normally receive. “It rips that filtering mechanism away for just a few minutes and for this time you are immersed in raw data: sensory input, memories, associations. It seems your brain builds reality out of these things. You associate and synthesize these things together and tell yourself a story basically.”

During DMT experiences, encounters with aliens, angels, and other entities are common, as are visions of other civilizations. An intelligence is often perceived, one that does not seem to exist within three-dimensional space.

DMT is a messenger that offers a glimpse into possible future stages of human evolution. It may be the ultimate psychedelic compound: a doorway to another reality.

The documentary ‘DMT: The Spirit Molecule’ is available on YouTube.

The Doorway (1): LSD

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

“A fraction of a milligram and everything changes. A molecule that alters your consciousness. An unforgettable experience.”

On April 16, 1943, Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann, working at the Sandoz laboratory in Basel, accidentally ingested a small dose of LSD. Suddenly, he felt as if he were in another world. Fear gripped him: he worried he might never return to his wife and child, and panic set in. But later, the fear gave way to a positive wave. Afterwards, Hofmann felt he had crossed to the other side and returned.

Hofmann had been searching for a medicine to improve circulation. His work led him to ergot, a fungus that grows on rye and related plants. From this he synthesized LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), a substance chemically related to psilocybin, the psychedelic compound found in magic mushrooms. At first, Hofmann did not know what had caused his extraordinary experience, but he soon realized it must have been the compound he had created.

At Sandoz, researchers recognized LSD’s potential value for psychiatric research. Samples were sent to Stanislav Grof, a Czech-born American psychiatrist and consciousness researcher. This marked the beginning of Grof’s decades-long exploration of non-ordinary states of consciousness.

Grof saw LSD as a catalyst. It does not create these experiences, he argued, but makes them accessible. “In that sense”, he said, “LSD is comparable to what a microscope is for biology or a telescope for astronomy. We don’t think the microscope creates worlds that are not there, but we cannot study these worlds without the tool.”

During the Cold War, the CIA became interested in LSD as a possible truth serum. The problem was that they were seeking predictable outcomes and LSD does not work that way. It was also considered as a potential weapon to incapacitate the enemy.

So how does LSD work? Our consciousness is the sum total of everything our senses perceive. LSD amplifies these senses dramatically. Psychedelic sessions can take people further than years of psychoanalysis.

In a positive experience, users may feel the ego dissolve, boundaries melt away, and control loosen. This can be deeply pleasant. Space and time lose their meaning; experience flows freely until one becomes pure experience itself.

In the 1960s, the psychedelic revolution erupted. The Merry Pranksters, led by Ken Kesey – author of ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ – embraced LSD and drove a brightly painted bus across America, inviting people to experience it for themselves.

In Millbrook, an abandoned estate in New York, psychiatrist Timothy Leary and Ralph Metzner established a psychedelic research center where anyone could participate. LSD was seen as a great equalizer. No matter one’s social background, the experience could dissolve hierarchy and expand cosmic understanding.

“We teach people to turn on, go out of their minds, and tune in”, Leary said. “The country is an insane asylum, focused on material possession, war, and racism.” His ambition was nothing less than a spiritual revolution, achieved by millions of people using LSD regularly.

Hofmann strongly objected to this approach. LSD, he warned, was a powerful instrument that required a mature mind. Promoting it indiscriminately to young people was irresponsible.

LSD often triggered strong anti-war sentiments, rooted in transpersonal experiences of unity with nature and all living beings. This directly challenged conservative values. In the United States, amid the escalating Vietnam War, tensions between the counterculture and the establishment grew. LSD became a convenient scapegoat for social unrest, and the government launched an aggressive – and often absurd – propaganda campaign.

In 1966, LSD was outlawed in California. In 1967, President Nixon declared Timothy Leary “the most dangerous man in America.” Grof later remarked, “In the irresponsible hands of Leary, it came to be seen as dangerous and that killed nearly all possibilities for research.”

Some clinical work continued for a while. Grof conducted LSD sessions with terminal cancer patients, profoundly altering their relationship with death. Many became reconciled with the fact that they were dying. “In our culture”, Grof said, “we are programmed to think we are only our bodies. LSD can show you that you are part of something much larger.”

Soon, however, LSD was internationally demonized. Research disappeared underground and remained there for decades.

Albert Hofmann died on April 29, 2008, at the age of 102. He never denied LSD’s risks, but he also believed its greatest danger lay in misunderstanding it. For Hofmann, LSD was not an escape from reality but a doorway… A doorway that, if approached with care, could reveal how vast and mysterious consciousness truly is.

The documentary ‘The Substance: Albert Hofmann’s LSD’ is available for rent on the Apple TV app.

Dungeon Classics #40: Killing Zoe

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

FilmDungeon’s Chief Editor JK sorts through the Dungeon’s DVD-collection to look for old cult favorites….

Killing Zoe (1993, USA, France)

Director: Roger Avary
Cast: Eric Stoltz, Julie Delpy, Jean-Hugues Anglade
Running Time: 96 mins.

Before Tarantino and co-writer Roger Avary struck gold with Pulp Fiction in 1994, both had written and directed a feature. Tarantino made Reservoir Dogs in 1992. While searching for locations for that film, its producer Lawrence Bender found a great bank in downtown Los Angeles which, although not suitable for Reservoir Dogs, seemed perfect for a movie set in a bank. Bender called every screenwriter he knew, asking if they had a script set in a bank. Roger Avary lied and said he did, then furiously wrote the first draft in under two weeks. Although the film is supposed to be set in Paris, it was shot almost entirely in L.A., with only the opening and closing road sequences filmed in the actual city. The story follows a criminal named Zed (Eric Stoltz) – two links to Pulp Fiction right there – who joins his old friend Eric (Jean-Hugues Anglade) and his gang to pull off a robbery during Bastille Day. Beforehand, he orders a prostitute named Zoe (Julie Delpy), and the two immediately click. The night before the robbery, the crew goes out on a binge fueled by booze and heroin. This stretch of the movie drags, but once the robbery begins, the film shifts into the right gear. The heist goes spectacularly wrong, leading to a series of twisted and disturbing turns. Avary, whose filmmaking career never really went very far, proves himself a quite capable director here. Is this on the level of Tarantino? No, it’s too flawed for that, but this is still a memorable, exploitation movie known for its nihilistic tone and merciless violence.

Dungeon Classics #39: True Romance

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

FilmDungeon’s Chief Editor JK sorts through the Dungeon’s DVD-collection to look for old cult favorites….

True Romance (1993, USA, France)

Director: Tony Scott
Cast: Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper
Running Time: 119 mins.

In the early nineties, Tarantino wrote a couple of screenplays, including True Romance and Reservoir Dogs. He chose Reservoir Dogs for his directorial debut and was willing to sell True Romance. In 1993, after his debut was released, he took a date to the perfect date movie: True Romance, the film he had written. And boy, did it turn out to be a good movie; great fucking movie. Just looking at the cast members rolling by in the opening credits is astonishing; seeing so many (future) stars in one ensemble cast is rare. Director Tony Scott couldn’t deal with the screenplay’s non-chronological structure, so he changed it to a linear one. But aside from that, it’s a real Tarantino movie: the sharp dialogue, the great characters, the humor, the sudden bursts of violence; it’s all there. And then there’s an amazing sequence, one of the best he ever wrote: the famous Sicilian scene with Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken. Oh man, that is legendary. Also memorable is the brutal confrontation between Alabama and the sadistic Virgil, played by James Gandolfini. The whole movie is basically a rollercoaster in which the two main characters – Clarence (Christian Slater) and Alabama (Patricia Arquette) – fall in love, get married, kill Alabama’s pimp, take off with his coke, and head to Hollywood to sell it, stumbling into one crazy situation after another while always keeping the film’s romantic core intact. True Romance is Scott’s best film and by far the best Tarantino movie not directed by Tarantino. In other words: it’s a must-see.