Works by
Rick J. Strassman
(Writer)

• Inner Paths to Outer Space (2008) by Ede Frecska, Luis Eduardo Luna, Rick Strassman, and Slawek Wojtowicz
  An investigation into experiences of other realms of existence and contact with otherworldly beings

  • Examines how contact with alien life-forms can be obtained through the “inner space” dimensions of our minds

  • Presents evidence that other worlds experienced through consciousness-altering technologies are often as real as those perceived with our five senses

  • Correlates science fiction’s imaginal realms with psychedelic research

  For thousands of years, voyagers of inner space--spiritual seekers, shamans, and psychoactive drug users--have returned from their inner imaginal travels reporting encounters with alien intelligences. Inner Paths to Outer Space presents an innovative examination of how we can reach these other dimensions of existence and contact otherworldly beings. Based on their more than 60 combined years of research into the function of the brain, the authors reveal how psychoactive substances such as DMT allow the brain to bypass our five basic senses to unlock a multidimensional realm of existence where otherworldly communication occurs. They contend that our centuries-old search for alien life-forms has been misdirected and that the alien worlds reflected in visionary science fiction actually mirror the inner space world of our minds. The authors show that these “alien” worlds encountered through altered states of human awareness, either through the use of psychedelics or other methods, possess a sense of reality as great as, or greater than, those of the ordinary awareness perceived by our five senses.

• DMT: The Spirit Molecule -- A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences (2000)
  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.
  
  Strassman's research connects DMT with the pineal gland, considered by Hindus to be the site of the seventh chakra and by Rene Descartes to be the seat of the soul. DMT: The Spirit Molecule makes the bold case that DMT, naturally released by the pineal gland, facilitates the soul's movement in and out of the body and is an integral part of the birth and death experiences, as well as the highest states of meditation and even sexual transcendence. Strassman also believes that "alien abduction experiences" are brought on by accidental releases of DMT. If used wisely, DMT could trigger a period of remarkable progress in the scientific exploration of the most mystical regions of the human mind and soul.

See also:

• LSD, Spirituality, and the Creative Process: Based on the Groundbreaking Research of Oscar Janiger, M.D. (2003) by Marlene Dobkin de Rios and Oscar Janiger with a forward by Rick Strassman
  This book presents for the first time the results of one of the longest clinical studies of LSD ever undertaken and explores their implications regarding LSDs influence on creativity, imagination, and spirituality.
  
  In 1954 a Los Angeles psychiatrist began experimenting with a then new chemical discovery known as LSD-25. Over an eight-year period Dr. Oscar Janiger gave LSD-25 to more than 950 men and women, ranging in age from 18 to 81 and coming from all walks of life. In this book, the authors examine the intriguing data collected during those trials, as well as follow-up studies done forty years later.
  
  Author Marlene Dobkin de Rios, a medical anthropologist who has studied the use of hallucinogens in tribal and third world societies, considers the spiritual implications of these findings, comparing them with the experiences of indigenous groups that employ psychoactive substances in their religious ceremonies. The book also examines the nature of the creative process as influenced by psychedelics and includes artwork and poetry from the original experiment sessions, allowing the reader to personally witness LSDs impact on creativity. The groundbreaking studies recounted in LSD, Spirituality, and the Creative Process depict an important moment in the history of consciousness and reveal the innate creativity of humanity.

• Hallucinogens: A Reader (2002) by Charles Grob
  It's been forty years since Timothy Leary sat beside a swimming pool in Cuernavaca, Mexico, ingested several grams of the genus Stropharia cubensis, and experienced a dazzling display of visions that led him to herald the dawning of a New Age. And yet, from the counterculture movement of the 1960s, through the War on Drugs, to this very day, the world at large has viewed hallucinogens not as a gift but as a threat to society.
  
  In Hallucinogens, Charles Grob surveys recent writings from Donald M. Topping, Gary Fisher, Glenn H. Shepard, Huston Smith, Jeremy Narby, Lawrence Bush, Myron J. Stolaroff, Ralph Metzner, Rick J. Strassman, Roger Walsh, Terence McKenna, and Thomas Riedlinger -- illustrating that a reevaluation of the social worth of hallucinogens-used intelligently-is greatly in order.

• Entheogens and the Future of Religion (1997),  Robert Forte, ed.
  Exciting book on the spiritual benefits of the entheogens, especially to our society. Essays by Albert Hofmann, Alexander Shulgin, Ann Shulgin, Dale Pendell, Eric Sterling, Jack Kornfield, R. Gordon Wasson, Rick J. Strassman, Robert Jesse, Terence McKenna, Thomas Riedlinger, and Thomas B. Roberts.