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that individual survives. The nature of the near-death experience is due to the psychedelic "side effects" of ketamine.® 326 * WHAT COULD AND MIGHT BE At first glance there seems little evolutionary advantage to the individual or the species in releasing enlightening chemicals as we die. However, Karl Jansen, a British psychiatrist, proposes that one particular type of near-death brain chemicals do indeed confer benefit to the nearly dead. This is because of their "neuroprotective" properties. In the presence of ketamine, strokes and other acute forms of brain injury are less destructive. Animal data suggest that ketamine-like sub- stances exist in the brain. Thus, during near-death experiences the brain may release these substances in order to minimize brain damage in case However, there remains the question of why ketamine has psychedelic, rather than, say, tranquilizing, effects. While the release of neuroprotective compounds near death certainly is a useful response, the psychedelic side effects are not as obviously beneficial. We must therefore wonder, are these spiritual properties a coincidence, or do they have a purpose? I suggest that near-death chemicals released by the brain are psyche- delic for this reason: They must be. It is similar to asking why there is silicon in computer chips. Silicon works. It does the job. Near-death brain products are psychedelic because those are the properties consciousness requires at that time. Psychedelic compounds released near death mediate consciousness exiting the body. This is their function and this is what they do. DMT is a spirit molecule, just as silicon is a chip molecule. Rather than just caus- ing the mind to feel as if it were leaving the body, DMT release is the means by which the mind senses the departure of the life-force from it, the content of consciousness as it leaves the body. These theories refer solely to DMT's role in unusual states of conscious- ness. However, might DMT exert an effect on our normal everyday aware- ness? The fact that the brain actively transports the spirit molecule across the blood-brain barrier suggests this might be the case. In chapter 2, "What DMT Is," I pointed out that the brain seems to "hunger" for DMT; it expends precious energy actively transporting the