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94 * CONCEPTION AND BIRTH After briefly summarizing the history of psychedelics within aca- demic psychiatry, I pointed out that while animal studies continued, human experiments lagged far behind. Psychedelics continued to be popular drugs of abuse, and understanding what they did, and how they did it, would address real public health concerns. I also reviewed previously published animal and human data on DMT and listed the qualities that made it an ideal candidate with which to resume human psychedelic drug research. I noted that one of the best reasons for choosing DMT was that very few people had heard of it. When the media discovered my research, it would draw much less attention than would an LSD project. Next I exhumed the endogenous psychotomimetic argument, arguing that scientists had yet to find any better candidate for a naturally occur- ring schizotoxin. Researchers were developing new antipsychotic drugs that blocked the same serotonin receptors that psychedelics activated. Thus, the more we knew about DMT, the more we might learn about psy- chotic disorders. If we could block the effects of DMT in normal individuals, perhaps we would have a new weapon in our armamentarium against schizophrenia. I also proposed that DMT's short duration of effects would make it easier to use than longer-acting drugs, especially in the potentially nega- tive setting of a hospital environment. Finally, DMT had a track record of safe use in previously published human research, especially that of Dr. Szdra. This introduction led to the theoretical underpinnings for studying DMT: the biomedical model. Psychopharmacologists had firmly estab- lished that psychedelics, including DMT, activated many of the same brain receptors as did serotonin. Laboratory animal research, continuing for decades after human studies ended, revealed the specific types of seroto- nin receptors involved. I was to build upon this animal data and determine if it also applied to humans. The most important biological variables were to be neuroendocrine in nature. Neuroendocrinology is the study of how drugs influence hormones by first stimulating certain brain sites. For example, activation of specific