Synopses & Reviews
Naturally occurring DMT may produce prophecy-like states of consciousness and thus represent a bridge between biology and religious experience
• Reveals the striking similarities between the visions of the Hebrew prophets and the DMT state described by Strassman’s research volunteers
• Explains how prophetic and psychedelic states may share biological mechanisms
• Presents a new top-down “theoneurological” model of spiritual experience
After completing his groundbreaking research chronicled in DMT: The Spirit Molecule, Rick Strassman was left with one fundamental question: What does it mean that DMT, a simple chemical naturally found in all of our bodies, instantaneously opens us to an interactive spirit world that feels more real than our own world?
When his decades of clinical psychiatric research and Buddhist practice were unable to provide answers to this question, Strassman began searching for a more resonant spiritual model. He found that the visions of the Hebrew prophets--such as Ezekiel, Moses, Adam, and Daniel--were strikingly similar to those of the volunteers in his DMT studies. Carefully examining the concept of prophecy in the Hebrew Bible, he characterizes a “prophetic state of consciousness” and explains how it may share biological and metaphysical mechanisms with the DMT effect.
Examining medieval commentaries on the Hebrew Bible, Strassman reveals how Jewish metaphysics provides a top-down model for both the prophetic and DMT states, a model he calls “theoneurology.” Theoneurology bridges biology and spirituality by proposing that the Divine communicates with us using the brain, and DMT--whether naturally produced or ingested--is a critical factor in such visionary experience. This model provides a counterpoint to “neurotheology,” which proposes that altered brain function simply generates the impression of a Divine-human encounter.
Theoneurology addresses issues critical to the full flowering of the psychedelic drug experience. Perhaps even more important, it points the way to a renewal of classical prophetic consciousness, the soul of Hebrew Bible prophecy, as well as unexpected directions for the evolution of contemporary spiritual practice.
Review
“If ever a book was destined for controversy, this is it! Connecting the ancient Biblical past with the far-flung reaches of psychedelic hyperspace, Rick Strassman’s compelling, thought-provoking, and compulsively readable new book is hard to put down. Strassman offers fascinating evidence that the prophets in the Hebrew Bible may naturally have experienced mystical states of consciousness, similar to what his research subjects experienced when they were given the potent psychedelic DMT, and he shows how the revered text of the Hebrew Bible can be used as a model for understanding the mysterious DMT experience. Scholarly, well-researched, and exploding with original insights, this radical exploration will surely stretch the limits of what you thought was possible.”
Review
“This is a powerful comparative project that brings together the phenomenology of Hebrew prophetic literature and modern psychedelic experiences in order to develop a new theoneurology; that is, a new model of how the brain and the microchemistry of DMT may well mediate, shape, and filter both consciousness itself and humanity’s millennia-old encounter with ‘God.’”
Review
“Not since Huxley’s landmark The Doors of Perception has such a profound treatise emerged exploring the nexus of consciousness, the brain, and mind-altering substances. Strassman accomplishes this tour de force by wisely inverting the vector of the field of neurotheology to that of theoneurology. This book exemplifies rigorous science and keen historical analysis and is a significant contribution to human welfare. A delight to read, a sparkling exercise in clarity.”
Review
“This book is a revelation. Strassman has written a daring and remarkable book that connects contemporary psychedelic explorers with the roots of the Jewish prophetic tradition. Here is a book that shows us how this ancient model of prophecy might provide an elegant and powerful language for the ennobling of our journey toward expanded consciousness.”
Review
“A very surprising and refreshing book. Strassman is unique and opens up completely new perspectives. I have learned a lot from this well-written book, and I am sure that other readers will do so too. Strassman took me far beyond familiar ways of thinking about the brain, minds, and interactions with nonhuman intelligences.”
Review
“As Rick Strassman’s extraordinary new book explains, the Hebrew prophetic tradition provides an unexpectedly powerful lens for wrestling with the meaning of our psychedelic experiences. Strassman’s model of theoneurology provides the proper context for viewing the religious importance of our mystic visions.”
Review
“This engagingly written book will be of interest to those with primary interest in religious experience as well as those with primary interest in psychedelic experience and altered states of consciousness.”
Review
“People interested in DMT, hallucinogens, spirituality, monotheistic religion, Buddhism, consciousness studies, and philosophy will find this book stimulating. I commend Strassman for his bold attempt to bridge science and religion, thereby risking attack from both sides. This is the kind of book that will advance knowledge . . . A deep and intense study outside the usual boundaries of education.”
Review
“This book is deeply compelling, groundbreaking, thought provoking, and important. Rick Strassman set the bar very high with his brilliant DMT: The Spirit Molecule, but DMT and the Soul of Prophecy comfortably surpasses it by taking the work forward in exciting and unexpected directions. Highly recommended.”
Review
“By utilizing the worldview of the medieval Jewish philosophers, Strassman has presented this often emotionally laden and controversial subject in such a rational and scientific manner that even the skeptic and agnostic among; us will be pleasantly surprised at how intriguing the confluence of God, the Hebrew Bible, and psychedelic endogenous DMT can be.”
Review
“This is a brilliant, perceptive, and illuminating book. Strassman states that the best way to understand the DMT experience is to see how closely it follows the experience of Old Testament prophets and vice versa. I was surprised to find out he was right.”
Review
“A stimulating work that, while controversial, will be of interest to students of the Bible and human thought.”
Review
“Dr. Strassman’s theoneurology theory is a coherent and successful undertaking by a uniquely qualified and situated medical researcher of altered states of consciousness.”
Review
“Strassman lobbies hard for theoneurology, and along the way offers a wealth of examples and experiments that lend credence to the theory.”
Review
“A detailed and ground breaking study. The book is a tour de force and a strong counterpoint to prevailing bottom-up explanations involved in neurotheology, asserting the primacy of the spiritual rather than the material.”
Review
“A fascinating and provocative examination of altered states of consciousness caused by psychedelics, and in particular the powerful, prototypic hallucinogen, DMT.”
Review
“Rick Strassman, M.D., always provokes and delights. His latest work explores the fractal edges of religion and mind, covering such seemingly far-flung topics as the Hebrew Bible, prophetic visions, DMT, the mysteries of consciousness, and more. Buy this book and feed your brain!”
Review
“In science, religion, politics, – everywhere in the academic and public domain – the dominance of spoken and written language is overwhelming. Rick Strassman’s new book helps to tilt the balance to the right direction describing elaborately the fundamental role of visions in our Judeo-Christian tradition.”
Review
“In DMT and the Soul of Prophecy, Rick Strassman courageously examines the Jewish Prophetic Tradition, which in his interpretation has a potent explanatory power of revelatory DMT experiences. Given the renewed interest in these experiences, and the lack of convincing models to interpret them, this book represents a contribution to the dialogue on this subject that cannot be ignored.”
Review
“This book provides enough heresy to provide a stimulating read for both atheists and believers!”
About the Author
Rick Strassman, M.D., is clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and president and cofounder of the Cottonwood Research Foundation. From 1990 to 1995 he performed the first new human studies with psychedelic drugs in the United States in more than 20 years, focusing on the powerful naturally occurring compound DMT. The author of DMT: The Spirit Molecule and coauthor of Inner Paths to Outer Space, he lives in Gallup, New Mexico.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Books of the Hebrew Bible: Names, Abbreviations, and Versification
Prologue
A Hebrew Prophet in Babylonia and a DMT Volunteer in New Mexico
Part I
From Psychedelic Drugs to the Hebrew Bible
1 Setting the Stage
2 Defining Our Terms
3 The Path to DMT: Psychedelic Drugs, Meditation, and the Pineal Gland
4 The DMT World: Where Is This?
5 Candidate Religious Systems
Part II
The Hebrew Bible: Basic Notions
6 Introduction to the Hebrew Bible: What It Is and How to Study It
7 God
8 Prophet and Prophecy: The Biblical Record
Part III
The Prophetic State: Comparison with the DMT Experience
9 Overview
10 The Body
11 Emotions
12 Perception
13 Cognition
14 Volition and Will
15 Relatedness: A Unique Prophetic Category
16 Kavod: God’s Glory
17 Message and Meaning I: Belief and Behavior
18 Message and Meaning II: History, the World to Come, the Messiah, Resurrection, False Prophecy, Wisdom, and Poetry
Part IV
Mechanisms: Spiritual and Material
19 The Metaphysics of Prophecy
20 The Metaphysics of DMT: A Theoneurological Model of Prophecy
Part V
The Past, Present, and Future of Prophecy
21 The End of Prophecy
22 The Once and Future Prophet
23 Concluding Remarks
Appendix Sacred Texts: Translations, Commentaries, Philosophical Works, and Scholars
Notes
Bibliography
Biblical Index
Index