In my review of Rick Strassman's book DMT: The Spirit Molecule (posted way back in the mists of time), I noted that "it is the case studies in the latter part of the book that make it something special." As with the near-death experience, listening to experiencers' direct testimony of this 'otherworld' is compelling stuff.

If you haven't already seen the recent documentary based on Rick Strassman's book, then I recommend you watch this 10 minute segment from it on YouTube, in which the volunteers from his research study describe in their own words the DMT experiences they had:

On a sidenote, you might notice that the clip opens with a description of the 'hum' that often heralds the onset of the experience - something I wrote about in my Darklore article "Her Sweet Murmur. Rabbit-holes, rabbit-holes everywhere, which one shall we explore today...?

You might also like...

• TDG review of DMT: The Spirit Molecule
• Dr Rick Strassman: A Conversation on DMT
• DMT: The Spirit Molecule Documentary Trailer
• Alex Jones and the DMT Conspiracy
• Graham Hancock Talks to Joe Rogan

I rank Erik Davis as one of the most intelligent and engaging explorers of the counterculture - from his seminal book Techgnosis: Myth, Magic & Mysticism in the Age of Information (Amazon US and UK), to his wonderful essays and articles on everything from music history and technology to spirituality and post-humanism. I was absolutely stoked to be able to feature his article on occultists' adoption of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos in our Darklore anthology series last year (available to read as a free sample here on TDG).

So I was very pleased to see the following video interviews posted on YouTube. Filmed during the making of the excellent documentary DMT: The Spirit Molecule, this playlist of 19 individual videos (over an hours worth of viewing) has been released as part of the DMT Remix project, allowing others to use the original footage to create their 'own' documentaries (not just of Erik, but other interviewees as well). Obviously, given the topic of the documentary, the main subject under discussion is psychedelics - but Erik comes at it from a number of angles (spirituality, the arts etc.), which makes for a fascinating hour of discussion.

If you'd prefer to browse the videos and pick out individual topics, browse the full playlist on YouTube. For the rest of you, the entire thing is embedded below. Being a 'raw dump' of video footage, the conversation jumps around a little...but I'm sure intelligent folk such as your good self will have no problem with that:

After enjoying the interview, I recommending picking up a copy of Erik's latest book Nomad Codes: Adventures in Modern Esoterica (Amazon US and UK), a handy anthology of his writings that you're sure to enjoy.

You might also enjoy...

• Calling Cthulhu
• The Temples of Damanhur
• Techgnosis Tripping
• The Alien Entities of DMT
• Book review: DMT: The Spirit Molecule, by Rick Strassman

From the outstanding documentary DMT: The Spirit Molecule, here's David Nichols, a world expert on the pharmacology of psychedelics, discussing the curious 'alien entity' aspect of the DMT trip:

What do you think the 'contact' aspect of DMT is? Pure hallucination, an internal dialogue, or contact with some other intelligence?

For those in the UK, if you've got next weekend free then this might be right up your alley: Breaking Convention is "a multidisciplinary conference on psychedelic consciousness" to be held on the 2nd and 3rd of April at the University of Kent, Canterbury. The speaker list reads a bit like a who's who from our own Darklore anthology series: Paul Devereux, Mike Jay, David Luke, along with Graham Hancock, Andy Letcher, Amanda Feilding, Mike Crowley, and Rick Doblin, as well as video presentations from Stan Grof, Ram Dass and Ralph Metzner. There will also be screenings of a number of films about the psychedelic experience, including DMT: The Spirit Molecule and Aya: Awakenings.

At just £80 for the two days (£60 for students and seniors), this seems a damn fine way to spend the start of April...I'd be there if it wasn't for half a globe worth of distance between me and Canterbury. Full details at the Breaking Convention website.

Shamanism is one of our favourite topics here at TDG, which is one of the reasons Daily Grail Publishing reissued Paul Devereux's wonderful book The Long Trip: A Prehistory of Psychedelia in 2009 (pick up a copy now from Amazon US or Amazon UK). For those that share our fascination with the historical development of shamanic use of hallucinogens, here's some interesting news from New Scientist: Europeans may have used magic mushrooms to liven up religious rituals 6000 years ago - the oldest evidence of their use in Europe found thus far:

The Selva Pascuala mural, in a cave near the town of Villar del Humo, is dominated by a bull. But it is a row of 13 small mushroom-like objects that interests Brian Akers at Pasco-Hernando Community College in New Port Richey, Florida, and Gaston Guzman at the Ecological Institute of Xalapa in Mexico. They believe that the objects are the fungi Psilocybe hispanica, a local species with hallucinogenic properties.

Like the objects depicted in the mural, P. hispanica has a bell-shaped cap topped with a dome, and lacks an annulus - a ring around the stalk. "Its stalks also vary from straight to sinuous, as they do in the mural," says Akers.

This isn't the oldest prehistoric painting thought to depict magic mushrooms, though. An Algerian mural that may show the species Psilocybe mairei is 7000 to 9000 years old.

Also, this seems as good a time as any to post some video I've been meaning to share for a few months now (presented by a fellow-Grailer no less) - Michael M. Hughes' talk "The Secret History of Magic Mushrooms" at the Ignite: Baltimore conference:

As already mentioned, make sure you have a copy of The Long Trip at your disposal - a great resource on the history of shamanism (and mysticism) in ancient cultures, plus purchasing a copy helps The Daily Grail keep running (once again: you can grab a copy from Amazon US or Amazon UK). Win win!

Because I know on a Friday night you're just looking for something psychedelic, I give you "Love and Theft", a wonderful little animation that will bend your head inwards. The bad trip kicks in at 2:12, so if you're peaking on something, turn it off before you get there (and make sure you close the damn banner ad if it pops up)...

You're welcome.

Take three pinches of DMT, stir in pencil lead of Escher, and a fractal portion of science-fiction vibe, and mix well.

The geometry of the dream-place he saw was abnormal, non- Euclidean, and loathsomely redolent of spheres and dimensions apart from ours...

H.P. Lovecraft

Previously on TDG:

• Cube of the Machine Elves

The rehabilitation of shamanic entheogens continues, with the latest issue of Scientific American featuring an article by Roland Griffiths and Charles Grob titled "Hallucinogens as Medicine" (restricted to subscribers unfortunately, apart from an opening excerpt). Along with that article is a companion piece by one of the participants in the psilocybin trial mentioned in the print article, which - unusually for Sci-Am - concentrates more on her experience, rather than scientific data and conclusions:

After a few minutes, instead of getting accustomed to the level of light, I realized the light was getting brighter and brighter and strangely brighter, until I understood that this light was not in the room, it was inside me. At that moment, it was as if all the cylinders in the lock somehow fell into alignment, the door swung open, and I found my consciousness being flooded with brilliant Light. Without notice or fanfare I had arrived at a transcendental state, and was awestruck at the discovery. I felt a sense of joyous expansion as it opened fully to me, like entering a splendid palace, yet the feeling was completely natural and gentle.

With my eyes closed I was overwhelmed with glorious golden light, suffused with every color, prisms and rainbows everywhere like a shining hologram. The Light itself was alive, a radiant consciousness of ultimate intelligence, perfect integrity, singularity and purity. The Light pervaded everything. It composed everything. Its presence was benevolent, calm, and intense.

It was as if the Light were revealing to me the innermost workings of the universe. Without words, It informed me that It, as the Light, was the source of every physical manifestation and that each had its purpose: "Everything is in my perfect control. With this as Cause, there can be no mistakes." I knew It to be the substance of every particle in the microcosm and the overarching essence of the macrocosm. In that moment I intuitively understood how everything is being created anew each instant from Its emanation. Why, then, could we not see the Light completely composing and permeating all of creation? How could the shining substance of all things be hidden? Later I remembered what the sages have always told us. The only possible answer is that our sense perceptions are an illusion.

Below this personal account, in the comments, you can find one of the major reasons the general public often shy away from science when it seeks to devalue mystical or religious experiences:

Ah, the crassness of our post hoc narrator. I don't deny the experience, just any significance it has other than as a revelation of cultural roots and our archetype wielding, metaphorical brains.

...I can explain much of it perfectly from the comfort of "my own paradigm", which is to be open but sceptical of everything, so that I am fooled as little as possible by data.

Though the commenter maintains that he doesn't "deny the experience", essentially he does - in effect, saying "yes I understand some people are fooled by delusions, and they are welcome to do so, but I am more intelligent than that". And that's not to say that I disagree (or agree) - delusion may well be the correct description...I can't claim to be qualified to say either way. But the account shows that this was a profoundly moving personal experience for the trial participant - I would daresay its effect would outweigh any explanation that a scientist might provide. While science may hold 'data' and the scientific process as being of supreme importance, for most of the general public it is all about what they experience.

The Daily Grail is all about surfing the edges of science and history, and navigating those strange seas can sometimes be fraught with danger - there's no shortage of publicity seekers and frauds out there more interested in their wallet or the public spotlight than in the search for knowledge. As such, one of the things I try to do on TDG is bring some focus to the honest, knowledgeable researchers and writers out there that *should* be getting more attention than the slippery sensationalists (but sadly aren't). An example is Mike Jay, whose research and writing I can't say enough good things about. Mike has contributed to four of the five Darklore volumes released so far, on everything from ancient pyramids and shamanism to the origins of the Illuminati and Sherlock Holmes' drug habit. I also have a couple of his books, and recommend them heartily. As such, I'm really happy to see that he has a new book out: High Society: The Central Role of Mind-Altering Drugs in History, Science, and Culture, available now from Amazon US and Amazon UK:

Here's a really nicely done 'book trailer' for High Society, followed by the synopsis:

High Society explores the spectrum of mind-altering substances across the globe and throughout history. Beautifully illustrated with rarely seen material, this striking, lyrical and rigorously researched book puts its controversial subject into the widest possible context.

Every society is a high society. Every day, people drink coffee on European terraces and kava in Pacific villages, sniff cocaine in American suburbs and petrol in Aborigine slums, chew betel nut in Indonesian markets and coca leaf on Andean mountainsides, swallow ecstasy tablets in the clubs of Amsterdam and opium pills in the deserts of Rajasthan, and smoke ya'aba in Thai nightclubs, hashish in Himalayan temples and tobacco in every nation on earth.

Acclaimed cultural historian Mike Jay paints vivid portraits of the roles that drugs playas medicines, religious sacraments, status symbols and coveted trade goods. He traces the understanding of intoxicants from the botanicals of the classical world through the mind-bending self-experiments of early scientists to the present 'war on drugs', and reveals how the international trade in substances such as tobacco, tea and opium shaped the modern world.

Mike's also currently curating the High Society exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London - for those not in the vicinity make sure you still head to the weblink, which features some great image galleries (from cartoons satirising the 19th century 'laughing gas' parties to the brilliant LSD blotter art of recent decades).

You can get a glimpse of the inside of High Society by heading to the Inner Traditions website and downloading the PDF excerpt. Sounds like a must for my bookshelf, a likely perfect companion to Paul Devereux's The Long Trip: A Prehistory of Psychedelia.

High Society: The Central Role of Mind-Altering Drugs in History, Science, and Culture is available now from Amazon US and Amazon UK. Support good research and writing!

Writer and film-maker Hamilton Morris has been fascinated with the 'zombie-making' legends of Haiti since middle-school when he first saw Wes Craven's movie The Serpent and Rainbow (based on the book of the same name by anthropologist Wade Davis). Now, as part of his web video series "Hamilton's Pharmacopeia", Morris has made a full-length documentary about the phenomenon and his quest to find out more, titled Nzambi:

You'll find a nice little interview with Morris over at Boing Boing filling in some of the background details on why he made the documentary and how he views the phenomenon of zombie-making.

Previously on TDG:

• The Ethnobiology of Voodoo Zombification
• Wade Davis on "Why Ancient Wisdom Matters"
• Wade Davis on the Ethnosphere