By Graham Hancock
Here, we asked Graham Hancock about plant medicine, the purpose and meaning of hallucinogenic experiences, and what bigger opportunities he sees for humanity in all of this.
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CLEAR ALL
The phenomenon of encountering non-human entities under the influence of DMT has inspired debate about what these might actually be.
I drank ayahuasca in 1999, in a ceremony led by two scholars with expertise in ayahuasca. What follows is an edited version of what I wrote about the experience in my 2003 book Rational Mysticism.
Amazonian healing traditions collide with Western medical sensibilities.
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What I will focus on are the psychological factors that influence people’s judgments about what is real and how these might explain why people come to believe in the existence of such beings.
Psychedelic drug phenomena do not justify radical new views of reality.
Now, researchers are attempting to catalog these experiences to figure out just what, or who, those DMT entities are.
When people consume enough DMT (N,N-Dimethyltryptamine) to have a "breakthrough" experience, they often encounter beings that seem autonomous, existing in a reality separate from our own.
Though researchers are still trying to understand the cognitive and therapeutic mechanics of psychedelics, they have concluded that psilocybin, DMT and other psychoactive chemicals can help people feel more tolerance, understanding and empathy.
Encounters with inter-dimensional beings, atheists discovering belief, and the bizarre world of DMT-induced entities. A trip to the fringes of psychedelic science.
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The powerful hallucinogenic brew provokes long-lasting changes in two important brain networks.