Jessica R Pomerantz
"Conversely, those aspects of the world not subject to intersubjective verification are excluded from the scientific domain. ...mystical religious experience also is inaccessible to science. ... As much as Phillip Johnson might wish it otherwise, the sacred dimension of life witnessed by the religious attitude cannot be seen from the perspective of the scientific attitude. ... If it can't be measured or counted or photographed, then it can't be science - even if it's important."
Frederick Grinnell, Radical intersubjectivity,
in Proceedings of "Darwinism: Scientific inference or
philosophical preference?"
SMU 3/92
Frederick Grinnell claims those aspects of the world not subject to intersubjective verification are excluded from science, including religious experience. Grinnell goes on to mandate that what cannot be measured, counted, or photographed cannot be science. Clearly, Mr. Grinnell has yet to discover a little science some people like to call �psychology�. Measuring the weight of a human brain will not betray a single human thought to intersubjective verification. The sum of all neurons firing when a person looks at the sky does not independently equal the experience of the color blue. And nowhere on a magnetic resonance image will the emotions joy or pain appear, but I believe these things have not yet been omitted from study.
Welcome to psychology, the ultimate pseudoscience, laying claim to the domain of the immeasurable, uncountable, and unphotographed for a hundred years or more. Perhaps religious experience cannot be a part of science, but science sure is seeking to explain religious experience�often at the expense of the demarcation criteria so carefully placed to hold science and non-science firmly apart. Nowhere is this more evident than with research regarding dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, an organic chemical with hallucinogenic properties. DMT is a promising clue, if not the very key to a number of mysteries science has yet to explain, but DMT is being largely ignored because it threatens to span the schism between science and non-science, between naturalism and metaphysics, which narrow-minded theists and naturalists alike find unacceptable. A ubiquitous fear of the unknown, along with rigid preconceived notions about what science ought to be has crippled and stalled any promising exploration into the many unknowns of our world.
DMT has a chemical core of tryptamine, derived from tryptophan�an amino acid, with two methyl groups attached. It is in the same chemical family as the neurotransmitter serotonin and the psychedelics LSD and psilocybin. Not only is DMT naturally found in a number of plants and animals, but it is also naturally produced in humans, and DMT is one of the few substances the brain allows to pass through the blood-brain barrier, processing it in a similar fashion as glucose. To the best of human knowledge, no other psychedelic compound is so accepted by the brain, and in no other known case do plants, animals, and the human body itself manufacture a potentially psychedelic substance. At larger than �normal� (1), self-created doses, DMT causes the following: alien abduction phenomena and contact with others, near death experiences, witness to the creation of the universe, contact with the DNA double helix, loss of self, loss of ego, loss of time, loss (2) of space, a sense of enlightenment, and the overlapping of parallel universes with our own. According to one research subject who participated in a DMT experiment, you can still be an atheist until 0.4, meaning 0.4 milligrams of the drug. Rick Strassman, the University of New Mexico professor and clinical psychiatrist who designed and ran the DMT experiment in the early 1990s, calls DMT the spirit molecule. He hypothesizes that DMT is manufactured in the pineal gland, where the necessary enzymes and building blocks to make DMT would be located in high concentrations, and the pineal gland as such may act as a kind of receptor for the soul. (3) A variety of psychologists have voiced similar opinions about the pineal gland, Rene Descartes, for one. But Strassman�s research was hindered by influences both internal and external. The latter included a Buddhist community spokesperson that denounced Strassman�s work as futile, devoid of benefit, and delusional, and the biomedical complex that restricted observations to weights, measures, and a clinical setting unfavorable to the groundbreaking work at hand. Strassman�s own ideological confines interfered, preventing even him from accepting the fantastic results from his experiment.
Ayahuasca is a combination of plants, one of which contains DMT�but DMT has no effect when swallowed, because stomach enzymes break it down�so an additional plant contains a substance called a monoamine oxidase inhibitor that deactivates the stomach enzymes, allowing the hallucinogen to reach the brain. Indigenous Amazonian shamans have been preparing ayahuasca as part of their spiritual tradition and ritual for thousands of years. Out of the hundreds of thousands of plant species in the Amazon, so-called primitive societies managed to correctly combine the very two that allowed for a hallucinogenic experience, and when asked about it, they claim their knowledge comes from the plants themselves, who talk to them through ayahuasca. (4) Jeremy Narby, author of The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge, first encountered ayahuasca and its patrons, the ayahuasqueros, while doing anthropological research in Peru. Narby himself experimented with ayahuasca and underwent a vision of great, terrifying serpents. Narby�s studies uncovered a common lexicon among indigenous cultures worldwide, from the Aztecs to the Egyptians and beyond describing cosmic serpents, entwined symmetrical snakes responsible for the creation of life itself. Narby found, within the artwork of primitive societies around the world, pictures of the now-famous double helix, along with other images previously thought to be the sole domain of molecular biology, images like chromosomal pairs and anaphase�a stage in cellular reproduction.
When Narby told the Amazonians about his theory that the entwined serpents shamans have seen and reported for thousands of years is, in fact, the DNA double helix science has only recently discovered, the only reply he reported was this: Are you saying that scientists are catching up with us? (5)
Within Strassman�s research, he found his subjects ensconced in the real possibility and perception of adjacent dimensions to our own, places they experienced as solidly as the world itself, and when Strassman tried to explain the perceptions away as brain chemistry and mere hallucination he found himself unilaterally opposed on the issue by the research subjects themselves. Interestingly, Strassman�s participants also saw the DNA double helix, as did Amazonian shamans, and they too felt a sense of information communicated. Strassman was unprepared for reports of contact with beings, in his words. His expectations included the more rational possibility of enlightenment in the Buddhist sense, but when subjects reported alien abduction scenarios instead, Strassman�s own views of reality and the brain were challenged in unexpected ways, which may have ended the experiment early. Both Strassman and Narby found themselves confined by their own scientific conditioning�either continuously or initially, in each case respectively�and their work has, for the most part, been neither applauded nor even considered within their larger communities of psychology and anthropology. Because anthropology discouraged learning from indigenous peoples, as they were merely primitives and could not possibly know more than civilized western cultures, and because psychology discouraged learning from hallucinogens, as they were merely drugs fit for criminals, both Narby�s and Strassman�s work was inhibited by rigid views of what is legitimate within the discipline.
In Stephen Meyer�s article, The Methodological Equivalence of Design & Descent: Can There Be a Scientific "Theory of Creation"? he enumerates a number of guidelines to determine what is science and what is not. According to his assessment of demarcation criteria, a theory is unscientific if it does not explain via reference to natural law, if it invokes unobservables, if it is not testable, if it does not make predictions, if it is not falsifiable, if it provides no mechanisms, if it is not tentative, and if it has no problem-solving capability. Meyer goes on to demonstrate the absurdity of the criteria, in that they are not applied to our most commonly accepted scientific theories, but even so, these demarcation arguments are still used to refute new research concepts, and this bias�unapplied in some cases, but arbitrarily applied in others, is halting exploration into the currently insurmountable mysteries of life�including further study of DMT.
DMT fails most, but not all of Meyer�s demarcation criteria, especially within the strictest possible interpretation. DMT experiences cannot be explained by reference to known natural law. There are no current physical explanations as to how ayahuasqueros, through ingesting ayahuasca, could be communicating with DNA at a molecular level, or how it is possible for the DNA itself to convey information to the shamans. But we do see the undeniable results; the Amazonian people have devised a number of remarkable concoctions, including ayahuasca, but also curare, a muscle-paralyzing substance, along with agents to cure fungal infections, snakebite, and lesions, to name just a few. And all this with no formal university training, no organic chemistry classes, not even any microscopes. There certainly is no natural law to explain their knowledge, but the knowledge undeniably exists. And the repeated image of the double helix with the accompanying sense of transmitted information in humans from New Mexico to Peru with literally no commonality other than DMT consumption infers that a natural law of some sort exists, but remains formally unexamined and unnamed by science (although in no way unexamined by the shamans).
DMT also invokes unobservables; the DMT experience is such that every human must experience it for himself, but the same can be said of space exploration, while almost no one doubts the existence of that. (6) One may argue that space exploration produces artifacts, like moon rocks, but brain exploration, too, has certainly produced a number of biological by-products in the Amazon, ayahuasca and curare being the least of these. Skeptics may claim chance and circumstance, but closer study of the complex preparatory mechanisms behind these rainforest cures, a large number of which serve as the model for prescription drugs, would lead only to the conclusion that the skepticism itself may be dogmatic by nature, which is the real issue.
Narby cites the major problem in gaining acceptance for his ideas about DNA and the origins of knowledge: biology�s blind spot. Modern biology, he says, is founded on the idea that nature is by definition, inanimate, and therefore has no ability to communicate. Yet DNA is mysteriously referred to invariably as a language, a code within all living things. How could nature not be conscious, Narby asks, if our own consciousness is produced by nature? Good question. The answer Narby comes up with, and with which I wholeheartedly agree after witnessing scientists� fear all semester in class, is that science is scared to death of its own ignorance. Narby�s case-in-point: biologists had no idea what 97 percent of the DNA code did; so they labeled it junk DNA. The implication is this: we can�t find a purpose for it; therefore it must have none. Most of biology�s important questions have been answered the same way; the origin of life is merely a spark and some gases.
What I found most striking about DMT is this: it touched on nearly every single aspect of the mysteries science cannot explain that we studied all semester along with some we did not. Experimental subjects who received DMT injections witnessed the origin of the universe or the origin of information in DNA. They experienced their own deaths or contact with seemingly alien beings. Strassman believes that DMT may allow humans to experience contact with parallel universes. At the conclusion of his book, Strassman also alludes to dark matter, the invisible mass of the universe that constitutes 95 percent. Either of these, parallel universes or dark matter, Strassman says, may be an answer to the question, where does DMT take people? Needless to say, Strassman�s book has landed itself in the mysticism section of any bookstore, but what makes his hypotheses so incredible? Stephen Hawking, renowned theoretical physicist, postulates the existence of multiple universes, and millions of people buy his book, yet Strassman performs an experiment that results in people actually experiencing other universes, but his career stagnates and his research dies out. The limits of the human brain are self-imposed. (7)
Indigenous people have been painting pictures of DNA for millennia, yet we discounted their knowledge as simple mythology. Thousands of years later, the western world invents the microscope and suddenly the cosmic serpents are the most talked about thing since sliced bread, only now they have these new fancy names people have to condense down to an acronym to even talk about it. It smacks of arrogance and ignorance. There is a phenomenon in the western world, where power over knowledge is controlled by a remote few, and these few go to expensive schools and learn a bizarre vocabulary that makes information itself so elite that soon only they seem to have any understanding over their world, and that understanding is so narrow that it takes a large number of people in any given field to start to paint a complete picture, but these people cannot talk to each other anyway because they are too busy all the time, and they write papers with names like Discovering patterns in Plasmodium falciparum genomic DNA, and meanwhile the whole planet dies of some disease because pharmaceutical companies went and put a patent on the damn rainforest.
Stephen Hawking claims, �If our physics fails, understanding on the fundamental level weakens; we have a crisis in science.�
We have a crisis all right, but science is just one component in a diseased system. Understanding on the fundamental level�any fundamental level�does not exist. Humanity has literally no idea what it is, where it came from, or why it is here, and the answers both science and religion have devised are so non-compelling as to pose absolutely no obstruction to the rampant path of self-destruction humanity has been paving for ten thousand years. (8) And, startlingly enough, the one tool that may allow humans to quite literally explore the origins of life has been merely prodded and discarded, left to the realm of the ayahuasquero until the United States expands the drug war from Colombia to Peru and illegalizes all plants.
Narby claims that biology has a blind spot, but clearly all of science has a blind spot in some area, resulting in a collection of imponderables about the creation of the universe, the origins of life, DNA, and the like. If science has been seeking answers as Mr. Grinnell says it should�through measuring, counting, and photographing, and science has obviously come up with nothing, then maybe these methods are unsatisfactory; perhaps traditional science methodology is impotent when it comes to such mysteries. If you measure knowledge in terms of environmental capability, the ability to explore and manipulate one�s surroundings, then the ayahuasquero is certainly on par with modern science if not operating at levels far beyond. (9) Yet the knowledge of the indigenous has been discounted or ignored, except on the occasion a corporation stands to profit from some medical cure the people have devised. Are they not scientists because they do not measure, count, or photograph? Perhaps not, but their non-science serves them just as well as our science serves us if not better, because they seem to know how to treat their environment while westerners are busying wreaking havoc.
The consequences of applying Grinnell�s demarcation criteria are dire. For one, the field of psychology has got to go. But in essence, the field of psychology is already dead, because one of its most interesting and promising components, DMT, has been thrown out due to excessive weirdness, despite a willing psychiatrist, eager test subjects, and a fascinating body of results. Are humans too busy inventing the next Prozac? Western arrogance will not admit the wisdom of the ayahuasquero into its ranks, and not just scientists but Buddhists alike found Strassman�s work troublesome. All this betrays a malfunctioning corpus callosum on a societal level; the left brain and the right brain are not even allowed to talk to each other anymore, and the obstinacy of naturalists and theists prevents exploration.
The compartmentalization of life on all levels has led to such disconnection that rather than interact with our environment, it is merely something we need to exploit or save, as the case may be. Arguing over demarcation criteria is meaningless because the practitioners of naturalism and the practitioners of metaphysics will both do their best to keep the two mutually exclusive, as has been the case with DMT. Naturalism has been relegated to weights and measurements, and there it will stay, while theism will remain getting down on your knees or whatever it is people do these days and throwing some money into a basket. If there is no attempt to reconcile the fractured and incomprehensible parts of our world, both approaches will remain absurd and largely empty of meaning to the general public, and the meager, inconsequential power that lies in both will remain concentrated in the hands of a few, for that is the non-egalitarian nature of civilization. Science is wearing a lab coat; non-science is calling the psychic friends network. Meanwhile, all the answers to the most important questions of our time may be located somewhere between the two. The mysteries of our world will remain as unexplored as we care to have them, because one or two people are willing to take a chance and go out on a limb to see some real results, while a few million others stand around and criticize, and everyone else dies of genocide or starves to death or something. Humans may stand around thinking about things for a long time until finally the magnetic poles of the earth shift and cosmic rays fry the crap out of them.
Notes:
(1) I use the term normal loosely here, because DMT has been so ignored, research-wise, that no one knows what the normal human amount of DMT is, or exactly how much is produced, or how it is produced, or anything at all, really.
(2) One could just as easily interchange the word loss for the word gain.
(3) Strassman cites these juxtapositions: The Tibetan Book of the Dead instructs that it takes 49 days for a soul to reincarnate; 49 days after human conception the pineal gland and sexual characteristics appear.
(4) This idea in itself creates a chicken-and-egg sort of conundrum, namely, if ayahuasca allows them to communicate with plants at a molecular level, how did they know to make the ayahuasca before they had ayahuasca? This type of puzzle comes up frequently with mysteries surrounding DNA, origins of life, origins of the universe, and the like.
(5) The answer is no. They sure as hell aren�t.
(6) Except for conspiracy theorists. Skeptics are everywhere.
(7) Humans indoctrinated into western cultures notoriously distrust their own minds, and perceived mental malfunctioning makes one a suspected civilization outsider. Children, for instance, are no longer allowed to feel bored at school, as this indicates a so-called Attention Deficit Disorder, which will lead to a certain dose of methamphetamine at the cost of such non-conformist behavior. So it comes as no surprise that a mental exercise is endorsed while a mental experience is debunked.
(8) Civilization has existed in its current form for roughly ten thousand years, and murderous self-destructive human behavior is synonymous. For more information, see Hunter Gatherers Didn�t Have Prozac, to be published in the Spring 2003 edition of UNM Best Student Essays.
(9) Consider this: the ayahuaquero throws away no plastic slides or rubber gloves, uses no electricity from a coal-burning plant to power his laboratory, generates no piles of papers to surmount any red tape.
Works Cited
Narby, James. The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge. New York: Tarcher/Putnam, 1998.
Strassman, Rick, M.D. DMT: The Spirit Molecule. Rochester, Vermont: Park Street Press, 2001.
All other material referenced from http://www.unm.edu/~hdelaney/, Origins of Science, Faith, and Philosophy course web site.
