Page Content (OCR)
them. 330 * WHAT COULD AND MIGHT BE assumptions about working with psychedelics that inevitably lead to nega- tive outcomes and premature closure. One of the most important of these is that psychedelic drugs are in- herently beneficial. All that's necessary for a positive outcome is to take Another is that psychedelics are "only" drugs. That is, their effects are independent ofthe environment in which people take them, and of the goals, expectations, and models held by those who give them. We have rediscovered for ourselves in the DMT research that neither of these common beliefs is true. Thus the model I will present avoids these two most basic and pernicious fallacies regarding working with psy- chedelic drugs. Before peering into the future, let's take a brief look at the present re- search situation. It will be a quick glance. Several human psychedelic research projects using mescaline, psilo- cybin, ketamine, and MDMA are active in the United States and Europe. No one is studying DMT. All these projects use the "psychotomimetic" model, comparing psychedelics' effects to symptoms of schizophrenia. These are pharmacology and brain physiology studies. Two psychedelic psychotherapy programs are underway. One, in the Caribbean, is an ibogaine treatment program for substance abuse; the other, based out of St. Petersburg, Russia, is studying ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, also for drug abuse. I see many forks in the road when imagining future work with DMT and other psychedelic drugs. One of the major branches divides into "research" versus "use." Some wonder if "psychedelic" and "research" are two words that even belong anywhere near each other. Let's first address this concern. In the research setting there is the expectation of getting data from your subjects. This affects the relationship between those who administer and those who receive psychedelics. Volunteers know they need to give something to the project, and scientists want something from them. For the person under the influence, just having his or her trip is not enough.