DVD Review - DMT : The Spirit Molecule (2010)

DMT : The Spirit Molecule (2010) is a feature-length documentary about a chemical called dimethyltryptamine which is found in nearly all living organisms and which is one of the most powerful psychedelic drugs known to science. This drug has long been used by the indigenous peoples of regions of South America in their shamanic rituals. They produce a drink known as ayahuasca from a combination of plants which allow the DMT to remaining longer in the body without breaking down. Pure DMT provides a very powerful psychedelic experience, but because the substance breaks down so quickly it can't be ingested orally in its pure form but has to be smoked or injected.

But one thing which makes this such an interesting substance for the understanding of consciousness is that the body itself produces DMT naturally in particular circumstances. Though the film doesn't go into great detail about the physiology of this process and what the specific triggers are, it does suggest that this might explain our tendency to have hallucinatory experiences during fasting or sensory deprivation, and may provide a naturalistic explanation for our rich history of reports of religious visions and alien encounters.

There was a good deal of research into the effects of psychedelic drugs in the United States in the early sixties, but once their use started to spread amongst the youth culture the use of these substances was banned and research halted. Then, in the mid 90s, Dr. Rick Strassman was able to obtain government permission to do research into the effects of DMT. This film documents the results. We get to hear from people across a variety of disciplines, from mathematics to ethnobotany to religion, talk about what they feel this substance can teach us about ourselves and, perhaps, the nature of the universe. And some of the subjects of Strassman's experiment tell us what happened when they they were given DMT.

In How to Be Free I speculate about what the basis of consciousness might be and what might lie beneath our conventionally armoured ego. DMT research seems to be one way in which these questions can be explored scientifically.

While I could have done without the gimmicky linking scenes in which Joe Rogan, dressed like a character from a Raymond Chandler novel, talks to us from a retro science lab complete with 1960s-style computer in black and white footage with artificial scratches, I'd highly recommend the film as an introduction to this subject. The film was based on a book (which I haven't read) by Rick Strassman - DMT : The Spirit Molecule : A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences (Park Street Press, 2000). There is also a website :

http://www.thespiritmolecule.com/

Another documentary which is about to be released to cinemas which may play a significant role in challenging conventional thinking is Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield's film Chimpanzee (2012), which is this year's release from DisneyNature. Walt Disney don't have the best history when it comes to nature documentaries. Their 1958 Academy Award-winning film White Wilderness contained a now notorious sequence in which lemmings were depicted jumping off of a cliff supposedly into the Arctic Ocean. Later it was discovered that the scene was artificially staged at Bow River near downtown Calgary, and the lemmings didn't chose to jump, they were forced off of the cliff by a revolving platform. But, thankfully, times have changed and Disney no longer make their wildlife films, they buy some of the best documentaries being produced in the world and then release them under their label. Sometimes they add some cheesy narration or a sappy song by a Disney artist, but mostly the quality of the films is impeccable.

What is interesting about Chimpanzee is that it deals with the story of a young chimp who is separated from his troop and adopted by an unrelated adult male. This challenges socio-biological theories that emotional bonding and nurturing behaviour amongst animals can be explained by the genetic imperative to foster the survival of one's own genes.