Andrew Gallimore

The levels of DMT, first of all, were surprisingly high.

So similar levels to things like serotonin and dopamine.

Which is unusual.

Which is, yes, which makes you think that it must have some kind of function.

But importantly, they also, in some rats, they removed the pineal gland.

They kind of cut it out and found that it didn't affect.

So we don't need the pineal, in other words.

All brain cells, all neurons can probably produce

The lungs can almost certainly produce DMT.

Yeah, I mean, it sits right in the center of the brain as well.

Right.

And it's kind of unusual, as you say.

It looks like a little tiny pancake.

Yeah, I think the near-death experience connection to DMT is very interesting because Rick Strassman, of course, in the 90s, when he wrote DMT, the spirit molecule, he hypothesized that, in fact, the point of death –

DMT is released by the pineal and it kind of acts as the conduit by which the soul exits the body and enters the afterlife.

And, of course, that was largely speculation.

It was just a hypothesis.

But in recent years, there's been some really fascinating work showing that DMT...

Actually, if you take some neurons, a culture of neurons, for example, brain cells, which are very sensitive to oxygen levels.

So if you deprive neurons of oxygen, they die very quickly.