Page Content (OCR)
PROLOGUE «+ 5 from another building where I had some business. It was important to be with him, to observe how he functioned for the next couple of hours. Philip seemed well enough three hours after his DMT shot for Robin to drive him home. We said good-bye in the hospital parking lot, and I told him to expect a call that night. When we spoke, Philip told me that Robin and he went to eat lunch after leaving the hospital. He immediately became more alert and focused. On the ride home, he felt euphoric, and colors seemed brighter every- where he looked. He sounded quite happy. Philip sent me a written report a few days later. Most important was his last comment: / expected to jump to a higher level, to leave the body and ego con- sciousness, thejump into cosmic space. But this did not happen. This threshold to which Philip referred is what we now call the "psy- chedelic threshold" for DMT. You cross it when there is a separation of consciousness from the body and psychedelic effects completely replace the mind's normal contents. There is a sense of wonder or awe, and a feeling of undeniable certainty in the reality of the experience. This clearly had not occurred with 1 mg/kg intramuscular DMT. It was great to have Philip in this explorer's role. He was psychologi- cally mature and stable and was familiar with the effects of psychedelics in general, and DMT in particular. He could make clear, understandable comparisons between different drugs and different ways of receiving them. His case was powerful validation of our decision to enroll only experi- enced psychedelic users. Philip's report left no doubt that IM DMT effects lagged behind those of smoked DMT. I considered giving a higher dose. However, even if full peak effects developed, I doubted that this route would ever give the "rush" that is another hallmark of smoked DMT. During this "rush," which usu- ally happens in the first 15 to 30 seconds after smoking DMT, the shift from normal consciousness to an overwhelming psychedelic reality takes place with breathtaking speed. It is this "nuclear cannon" effect that us- ers find so frighteningly attractive. We definitely needed a more rapid way of getting DMT into the system.