Keep Talking Episode 94: Jon Dean - The Science of DMT
Jon Dean is a postdoc research fellow at UCSD and received his PhD in molecular and integrative physiology at the University of Michigan, where he published a landmark 2019 study on DMT. During our conversation, we talk about how and why Jon became interested in DMT, the details of his 2019 study, Rick Strassman's 2001 book "DMT: The Spirit Molecule", and what Strassman found after giving nearly 400 doses of DMT to roughly five dozen volunteers.
Jon is quick to note how little we understand about consciousness and the mind, and how our world is created in our brains. He discusses the bizarre, rather consistent details that many who take DMT report, and we speculate as to the role that this simple chemical might have in making what we call reality, along with the anecdotal stories of those who believe that its modulation can create a portal into another.
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00:00 Intro
02:04 How Jon got interested in DMT
07:36 How a death of a friend influenced Jon's journey
11:00 The influence of Rick Strassman
12:29 Rick Strassman's work, detailed in "DMT: The Spirit Molecule"
20:11 Anecdotes from what happens to people who do DMT
24:41 How Jon attempts to get funding for a controversial subject
32:51 Jon's three main discoveries about DMT from his 2019 paper
41:54 DMT is the only psychedelic known to be produced by the human body
44:51 Quotes from Rick Strassman speculating about DMT
53:45 How Jon's research on DMT has changed his view on life and death
57:36 Jon's growing acceptance of death post-psychedelic use
59:03 The future of psychedelic research