Footnotes

*1. BCE means “before the common era” and is the nondenominational equivalent of BC, or “before Christ.” Similarly, CE means “common era” and is used instead of AD, which means “anno Domini,” or “in the year of the Lord.”

†2. Babylonia is present-day Iraq.

*3. Hebrew for “living things.”

†4. The convention “Book X:Y” refers to a particular book, chapter, and verse in the Hebrew Bible (the “Old Testament”). Here the notation indicates Ezekiel, chapter 1, verse 1, to chapter 2, verse 1.

‡5. This volunteer’s pseudonym is “Saul” in DMT: The Spirit Molecule, but because Saul is also the name of a biblical figure, I changed his pseudonym to “Leo.”

*6. (DMT, pg.) refers to my book DMT: The Spirit Molecule, followed by the page number on which these excerpts appear.

*7. Lysergic acid diethylamide

*8. The psychedelic experience, with its unique constellation of effects, may result from non-drug methods. These include drumming, chanting, prolonged hyperventilation, fasting, sleep deprivation, and others. However, the psychedelic drugs are the most reliable means of inducing this syndrome. How any of these non-drug methods affect endogenous psychedelic chemistry is a critical research question.

*9. Interpretation of text, especially biblical.

†10. I later learned that Dr. Freedman did consider religion a more useful discipline than psychiatry in understanding and utilizing these drugs’ effects.3

*11. For example, my speculations that elevations of endogenous DMT occur in dreams and near-death states, that DMT and the pineal gland play a role in attaining “personhood” during fetal development, and others.

*12. My exclusive attention to Hebrew Bible prophecy and its subsequent explication by Jewish thinkers is not a sign of disrespect for or disinterest in Islamic and Christian prophecy. It has taken me many years to begin understanding just the Hebrew Bible and Jewish views of prophecy. Perhaps I will address Islamic and Christian prophecy in future editions.

*13. The dictionary upon which I primarily rely is the Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of the English Language, International Edition (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1963). Because the meanings of words may change over time, I also have referred to the Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd ed. (New York: Random House Reference, 2005) and The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th ed. (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011). It is reassuring to note how minor the differences are among the three dictionaries’ definitions, even across the span of forty to fifty years.

*14. In addition, fascination with the newly described near-death experience contemporaneously drew attention to yet another highly altered state of consciousness, albeit one under much less voluntary control.1

*15. Other drugs sometimes receive the name psychedelic but are not technically members of the “classical” compounds. MDMA (“ecstasy”) is a methamphetamine derivative with qualitatively different psychological and pharmacological effects than those of LSD, psilocybin, and DMT. Ketamine and the closely related drug PCP, as well as Salvia divinorum, share subjective effects with the psychedelic drugs, but their pharmacology is distinct.

†16. Neurotransmitters are chemical substances that provide communication among nerve cells and between nerve cells and adjacent tissues, such as muscle or endocrine glands. For an in-depth discussion of these issues, see chapter 1 of DMT: The Spirit Molecule.

*17. Conservative Judaism is one of the three major sects of contemporary Judaism. It occupies the middle ground between Orthodox traditionalism and Reform liberalism. Newer sects include Reconstructionist and Renewal.

*18. As I discuss in chapter 5, the interactive and relational psychedelic-like visions resulting from meditation are not Buddhism’s final goal. This became clear to me only after some years of study and practice within Zen.

†19. Zen is a sect of Japanese Buddhism, arriving by way of China more than nine hundred years ago. Chinese Buddhism originated with the influx of Indian teachers five hundred years earlier.

‡20. This glimpse of enlightenment, or bodhicitta, is the most important stage in Buddhist training.5

*21. See chapters 3 and 4 of DMT: The Spirit Molecule for an in-depth discussion of the possible role of the pineal gland in consciousness.

†22. 5-methoxy-DMT is a close chemical cousin of DMT, endogenous, and highly psychoactive. I will discuss this compound in chapter 22.

‡23. We now know that DMT occurs in the mammalian pineal gland.7

*24. DMT is orally inactive because enzymes in the gut break it down nearly instantly. In ayahuasca there is, in addition to a DMT-containing plant, another plant possessing inhibitors of the gut’s destructive enzymes. These inhibitors are called beta-carbolines. The beta-carbolines inhibit the function of monoamine oxidases, the enzymes that break down DMT in the stomach, blood, and liver. This combination of plants in ayahuasca provides an orally active DMT formulation.

*25. Psychedelics reside in the Controlled Substances Act’s Schedule I. This category includes drugs that have no known medical use, are highly abusable, and are not safe even under medical supervision.

*26. Beta-endorphin is functionally similar to opiate narcotics and plays a role in endogenous pain and pleasure mechanisms; cortisol is a stress hormone made by the adrenal glands; prolactin regulates breast milk formation and secretion as well as sexual drive; vasopressin is similar to oxytocin, a hormone with pronounced pro-social and bonding effects; ACTH is a stress hormone that triggers the production of cortisol.

*27. This instrument, the Hallucinogen Rating Scale (HRS), demonstrated outstanding sensitivity to various doses of DMT. As further evidence of its utility, additional research groups have used this scale in studies of many other psychoactive drugs. As of 2013, more than forty scientific papers have documented its use.

*28. We used a water-soluble form of the drug, DMT fumarate. Typical psychedelic effects began at a threshold dose of 0.2 mg/kg (milligrams per kilogram) and our high dose was 0.4 mg/kg. As there are approximately 2.2 pounds per kilogram, the maximum dose for a 150-pound, or 70-kg person, was about 28 mg.

*29. In this and my previous work, I use the term “beings” to describe these objects. While some volunteers referred to them as “aliens,” no one saw the typical four-foot-high, bug-eyed, gray-skinned humanoids popular in the “alien contact” literature. I prefer the term “beings” as its generic quality avoids the connotations “alien” may carry.

*30. See chapters 17–20 of DMT: The Spirit Molecule.

*31. Sean and Elena, discussed in chapter 16 of DMT: The Spirit Molecule.

*32. I use the terms apprehend and apprehension in their meaning of “laying hold of, or grasping, mentally.” Apprehending shares features with perceiving, but I like its greater inclusiveness, which takes into account ideas, thoughts, and beliefs, and not simply sense impressions. I am not using apprehend in the sense of “expecting with anxious foreboding” or “to arrest or seize in the name of the law,” two other common definitions.

*33. For a more in-depth discussion of these speculations, see chapter 21 of DMT: The Spirit Molecule.

*34. Spiritual beings with particular characteristics such as love, compassion, courage, energy, and so on. One may invoke their aid by prayer and other rituals.

*35. For details, see chapter 20 of DMT: The Spirit Molecule.

*36. Less valuable and prone to damage than a sickle.

*37. A Middle Eastern language family, as well as the people who share both that language family and geographical proximity.

†38. Judea in turn is the name of the Southern Kingdom of Israel. The Northern Kingdom was Samaria, or “Israel,” the home of ten of the twelve tribes of Israel whose exile by the Assyrians in 722 BCE resulted in the “ten lost tribes of Israel.”

*39. Or Tanach. Both the “ch” (or “kh”) is pronounced as a guttural throat clearing like the Scottish word loch.

†40. The ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible refers to the Torah as the Pentateuch, meaning “five cases” or “five rolls.”

‡41. “Minor” refers to the length of the individual prophet’s book, not his importance.

*42. In this project I found great assistance in two Hebrew biblical dictionaries: Davidson, The Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon; and Brown, Driver, and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament.

*43. Astrology possessed a higher rank and reputability in medieval times than it does today. It was an applied science consisting of an amalgam of early astronomy with psychology, medicine, and history.

*44. In fact, the Jewish community excommunicated Spinoza twice for heresy, the first time while he was in his twenties.

†45. Often spelled “Saadia.”

*46. Or “spirit and form”—his commentary on Isa. 38:19.

*47. Sometimes Guide for the Perplexed.

*48. I have already noted how the versification of the text differs between Jewish and non-Jewish translations.

*49. Where the “ch” sound is a guttural throat-clearing.

*50. Plural of chozeh.

*51. Pronounced ooreem and toomeem, with the accent on the second syllable of each word.

*52. “Set” refers to the individual in whom the experience is occurring. It includes the biology, psychology, state of mind, expectations, previous such experiences, and so on. “Setting” refers to the environment in which the experience takes place, such as indoors or outdoors, and recreational or research, as well as the set of those in the immediate environment.

*53. I call this category somaesthesia in our scientific papers.

†54. We also developed an Intensity category, which to a large extent reflects to what degree changes occur within the other five. It also assesses an overall, integrated impression of the strength of the drug effect. I do not believe this category is as relevant to our purposes as it was in the DMT work and will not include it in treating the prophetic state.

*55. Note that I have not subjected the biblical data to the same statistical analyses that we performed with the data from the DMT study. Such a project would be of great interest.

*56. A goal we incidentally never find in the Hebrew Bible.

*57. In DMT: The Spirit Molecule her name was Sarah, also the name of a biblical figure. In order to avoid confusion, I have changed her name here to Brenda.

†58. The other is Enoch (Gen. 5:24).

*59. The Hebrew Bible mentions “a Satan” or “the Satan” in a few rare instances: here and in 1 Chronicles, 1 Kings, and Zechariah. In each case, it refers to an accusing, adversarial, or enticing being.

*60. “Jeremiah” in DMT: The Spirit Molecule.

†61. All volunteers received a low dose of DMT before the high, fully psychedelic one. This was in order for them to learn about the experimental setting and for us to be alert to any unusual sensitivity to the drug, especially with respect to blood pressure elevation.

*62. Any unreferenced DMT excerpts are from my research notes that did not get included in DMT: The Spirit Molecule.

†63. A Hebrew word for a fiery angel whose three-letter Hebrew root S-R-F means “to burn” or “to flame.” Seraphim is the plural of seraph.

‡64. For example, Ben (DMT, 198).

*65. This is in contrast to the nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea that may occur after ayahuasca consumption. These symptoms most likely result from the beta-carbolines in the brew rather than the DMT itself.

*66. “Round things.”

†67. More accurately “diviner.”

‡68. Interestingly she saw Samuel but did not hear him, while Saul heard but did not see him. This may be an example of a less than entirely successful “transfer” of prophecy from one to the other, a phenomenon I discussed in chapter 8, Prophet and Prophecy.

*69. This is the first Hebrew word of the verse and means “Listen!”

†70. Even here, the Hebrew word more accurately means “delighted in” or “desired” rather than “beloved.”

*71. Leftover grapes on the vine after the harvest.

*72. The Hebrew word kol (pronounced “coal”) could mean either “voice” or “sound.”

*73. Like Ofanim, but perhaps more spherical than wheel-like.

†74. Approximately three feet.

‡75. Sometimes spelled Cherubim. It is the plural of cheruv (or cherub), an angelic figure.

*76. Possibly a type of angelic being.

†77. Eli in DMT: The Spirit Molecule.

‡78. A deep, pure blue gemstone or the color of that stone.

*79. “Aaron” in DMT: The Spirit Molecule.

*80. A very large, treelike cactus of the Sonoran Desert possessing mostly upright, cylindrical “arms.”

*81. A name for God.

*82. A “shining white” substance.

*83. Gumby is a figure that first appeared in 1950s children’s television. The show’s producers molded green clay over a wire, humanlike figure and bent it into various postures, using stop-motion photography to give the impression of movement.

*84. We checked the size of subjects’ pupils by using a reference card held next to their briefly open eyes.

†85. We inserted an intravenous line into each arm before sessions began, one for administering the drug or placebo and one from which we drew blood samples.

*86. These issues may underlie both our findings and those of other research groups that the volitional category of the Hallucinogen Rating Scale is generally less sensitive to various drug effects than are the other categories.

*87 Ruach, whose “ch” is pronounced gutturally.

*88. The Hebrew word for “face” and “faces” is the same.

*89. For example Brenda, DMT: The Spirit Molecule, pages 213–14.

*90. As I will discuss later, the predominance of the “spoken voice” in biblical prophetic experience distinguishes it from the DMT state. One solution to this apparent disparity is to consider most, if not all, the verbal exchanges the Hebrew Bible describes as taking place telepathically.

*91. Hosts usually refers to the “heavenly hosts”; that is, the celestial bodies comprising the moon, planets, stars, constellations, and spheres.

*92. Sarah’s original name.

*93. Suffer the same fate, even though they don’t deserve it.

†94. One possible translation of Israel is “he who strives with God.”

*95. Again, hoping to die.

*96. The language of the first translation of the Hebrew Bible that the rabbis endorsed, appearing in the first or second century CE.

†97. The rational principle developing and governing the universe.

*98. Prayed for their welfare.

*99. The Hebrew root is K-N-A, and the exact definition of specific K-N-A–related words depends upon context.

*100. Usually “creating,” but “forming” lends more accuracy to the act.

*101. By following God’s guidelines.

*102. Ancient Native American ruins in New Mexico that possess spiritual significance for many contemporary spiritual seekers.

*103. The French exegete Rashi proclaims in his comments to these verses that the Golden Rule is “the Torah’s great principle.” The Spaniard Nachmanides says in his commentary to the Golden Rule: “This is an expression by way of an overstatement, for a human heart is not able to accept a command to love one’s neighbor as oneself.” His solution follows ibn Ezra’s exegesis: that the rule means to love your fellow’s well-being as much as you love your own well-being. Buber suggests that the Golden Rule tells us to act “as if” we love our fellow, which then may lead to actually establishing a more loving relationship with that person.3

*104. Literally, “circumcise your heart.”

*105. That is, in the world of the living.

*106. Most likely small clay idols.

†107. Of a ritually slaughtered animal, in search of anatomic patterns indicating the proper course of action.

*108. A medical term referring to a sign or symptom uniquely characterizing a particular disease or condition.

*109. Resulting in new insights or a deep intellectual realization.

†110. Denoting the inadequacy of words to characterize the state.

*111. Alternatively, “His spirits.”

†112. These terms are interchangeable.

‡113. The Active Intellect is the earth’s most proximate intermediary and thus exerts the most direct influence upon it.

§114. I use imaginative faculty and imagination interchangeably.

*115. I use the terms rational faculty, intellect, and intellectual faculty interchangeably.

*116. This is most likely how he would have conceptualized the state of Zen enlightenment, when the field of the imagination becomes empty through the practice of meditation and the rational faculty alone is operative at a high level.

*117. Spinoza’s goal in writing his Tractatus Theologico-Politicus,7 in which he lays out his theories of prophecy, was to wrest from the clerics of his day the authority to legislate and police proper thought, speech, and behavior. Spinoza realized that clerical power, both that of the Church and that which he believed Maimonides’ writings implied, relied on the assumed divine nature of prophetic scripture. By belittling the vast majority of biblical prophecy and placing what he did find meritorious in it, such as the Golden Rule, outside of philosophic and scientific discourse, Spinoza sought to undermine abusive clerical power that relied on prophetically inspired scripture as its justification.

*118. In this model, God “knowing” the future doesn’t necessarily affect it.

*119. Ironically, this definition is consistent with what Spinoza believes is the mechanism for nearly all of Hebrew biblical prophecy. Thus, his definition of a biblical prophet might be Maimonides’ definition of a false prophet with virtue.

*120. I discuss possible catalysts for raising endogenous DMT in DMT: The Spirit Molecule, especially pages 70–77. However, no data yet exist to confirm or refute the hypothesis that endogenous DMT levels rise in these contexts.

*121. The Hebrew word for light is ohr, whose three-letter root is the basis for the word urim, one translation of which might be “lights” or “things that light up.”

†122. While resurrection’s origin is supernatural—outside the realm of scientific scrutiny—the actual processes by which resurrection manifests within the natural world may be as amenable to explication as any other observable phenomenon.

*123. Maimonides does not believe animals have a share in the world to come.3 However, the ubiquity of DMT in the animal kingdom points to the opposite notion.

*124. The earliest part of the Talmud.

*125. A Jewish military leader and historian who wrote during the early first century CE. The occupying Romans destroyed the Second Temple in 70 CE.

*126. In Olaf Stapledon’s novel Last and First Men, the author chronicles two billion years of human evolution, beginning with the present day. One human species, simply a massively proportioned brain that the previous race develops through genetic engineering, fails to survive not because of its lack of knowledge but due to its lack of empathy.

*127. Josephus believes that only a true prophet is capable of being an accurate historian. Thus, even the narratives and genealogies in the Hebrew Bible reflect the activity of a prophetic mind.

*128. Plural of mitzvah, from the root Tz-V-H—to command or enjoin.