DMT: The Spirit Molecule (2010)

The Spirit Molecule investigates dimethyltryptamine (DMT), an endogenous psychoactive compound, which exists in humans and numerous species of plants and animals.

The documentary traces Dr. Rick Strassman’s government-sanctioned, human DMT research and its many trials, tribulations, and inconceivable realizations. A closer examination of DMT’s effects through the lens of two traditionally opposed concepts, science and spirituality.

The documentary explores the connections between cutting-edge neuroscience, quantum physics, and human spirituality. Strassman’s research, and the experiences of the human test subjects before, during, and after the intense clinical trials, raises many intriguing questions.

A variety of experts voice their unique thoughts and experiences with DMT within their respective fields. As Strassman’s story unfolds, the contributors weigh in on his remarkable theories.

From 1990 to 1995 Dr. Rick Strassman conducted U.S. Government-approved and funded clinical research at the University of New Mexico in which he injected sixty volunteers with DMT, one of the most powerful psychedelics known.

His detailed account of those sessions is an extraordinarily riveting inquiry into the nature of the human mind and the therapeutic potential of psychedelics. DMT, a plant-derived chemical found in the psychedelic Amazon brew, ayahuasca, is also manufactured by the human brain. In Strassman’s volunteers, it consistently produced near-death and mystical experiences.

Many reported convincing encounters with intelligent nonhuman presences, aliens, angels, and spirits. Nearly all felt that the sessions were among the most profound experiences of their lives.