[Buddha-l] Buddhism and psychoactive substances

[curt]

Barnaby Thieme wrote:
> Hi folks
>
> Many thanks for all the illuminating and useful replies I have gotten 
> to this question, on and off list.
>
> I have two comments.
>
> 1) Strassman's book "DMT; The Spirit Molecule" is intersting, but it 
> must be emphasized that his discussion of endogenous DMT is extremely 
> speculative, and that it is largely driven by his Buddhist 
> convictions. Anyone familiar with the Bardo Thodol will understand why 
> Strassman speculates that the pineal gland reduces DMT 49 days after 
> birth. The actual structured research that Strassman undertook was 
> very limited in scope.

This is a rather unfair characterization of Strassman's work. In the 
first place, his work was groundbreaking in that it was the first time 
since the "scheduling" of LSD, MDMA, etc, that such experiments had been 
approved in the United States.  Second of all his methodology was very 
well thought out. In fact, his results are far more precisely quantified 
in terms of dosage than those of the Johns Hopkins studies (which you 
praise later on). In the JH study subjects took oral doses, for 
instance, as opposed to the intravenous method that Strassman used 
(which was necessary because that problem with MAO's). There really is 
no justification for making vague statements about the "limitations" of 
Strassman's studies, and then praising the JH study as if it represented 
some kind of vastly superior methodology. Especially when this is 
combined with the innuendo that Strassman's thinking is somehow clouded 
by being a Buddhist!

- Curt