On the Neuro-Chemistry of Death & Transcendence
Tuesday, March 28th, 2006
My young friend Russell was recently asking me about the changes in brain chemistry that accompany death. He wanted to know if it could be compared to a DMT-like kundalini experience. With a sigh, I had to tell him that, while death could be the biggest DMT rush of all, for most humans it was far more likely to be a bad, out-of-focus horror movie.
Since Russell considers me somewhat of an expert on both death and neuro-chemistry, he insisted that I share my insights. Perhaps I should begin by qualifying my expert witness status.
In the spring of 1978, I participated in a clinical near-death simulation study at Duke University Medical School. I was not a researcher, I was a test subject. Along with a dozen or so other people, I was injected with a massive dose of a central nervous system depressant, (the same thing they use as part of the lethal cocktail so popular at modern executions) allowed to go almost to the point of no-return and then shot up with a saline and adrenal speedball to the heart that hauled my spirit right back from where ever it had gone. All I had to do in return for this roller-coaster ride on the astral plane was to let the lab coat gang monitor, test and interview me. I think we all got a lot out of it.
