Dr. Rick Strassman might be best known for his paradigm-shifting research into psychedelics as made popular by his book and resulting documentary, DMT: The Spirit Molecule. He has published nearly thirty peer-reviewed scientific papers and has served as a reviewer for several psychiatric research journals. Dr. Strassman has been a consultant to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Veteran’s Administration Hospitals, Social Security Administration, and other state and local agencies. In 1984, he received lay ordination in a Western Buddhist order.Following his DMT experiments, Dr. Strassman became interested in Jewish spirituality and took a scholarly approach to understanding the faith of his youth. It didn’t take long before he began to see parallels between the prophetic states as described by the Old Testament prophets and the altered states of consciousness described by research participants. In his book DMT and the Soul of Prophecy, Dr. Strassman explores these connections and proposes a new model of spiritual experience he calls theoneurology, which posits that God communicates with us via the agency of the brain.
In this episode we discuss Dr. Strassman’s journey to Jewish spirituality, connections between psychedelic and enlightenment states, the prophetic state, similarities between the prophetic state and the DMT state, the function and life of Old Testament prophets, and much more. Find out more about Dr. Strassman at www.rickstrassman.comThis episode is sponsored by The KOZM, @thekozm, a men’s fitness clothing company set out to prove that business can be done better. Visit the store at www.thekozm.com and use the coupon code HL15 to receive 15% off your purchase order.