[ap22213]

Why does the plant produce DMT? Is it a poison? Are there other plants that produce it?

I wonder about the evolutionary reasons for its emergence. Does the plant influence the Human so that the Human protects and nurtures the plant? When did Humans begin altering South America? 15,000 years ago? More than enough time for the plant to adapt.

It's a strange feeling to ingest a hallucination producing organism. I remember being 19 years old, in the 90s, being given mushrooms. I spent the next several hours sitting at a tree stump feeling myself sink into it, feeling merged with plants around me. I remember thinking a lot about the juxtaposition of the natural with the concrete and brick and asphalt just a few hundred meters away - and wanting to tear it all down. Now, decades later, reading the woman's experience, I wonder if the fungi had somehow manipulated me.

[throwanem]

Might want to spend some time thinking about that phrase "evolutionary reasons". There's an assumption in there I'm not sure you've noticed.

[ap22213]

That's pretty cryptic... Ok, what do you mean? I'm dense.

[salmon30salmon]

I am not the OC, but I think he was going on about how you apparently attributed a certain level of "reason" to evolution. His contention is that evolution exists free of reason. I think you two are disagreeing on the term reason.

You mean "reason" in the sense of "why" and he means reason in the sense of "logical conditions". The why is an interesting question, what environmental or other factors provided an advantage in a plant containing this chemical, or was it a non-important side effect of some other change. It is interesting, maybe not easily knowable.

Hope this clears it up. I may be wrong, but I get annoyed when I read comments that are negative without an explanation, so I thought I would attempt to shine some light.

[throwanem]

'Negative'? That seems a touch harsh, although possibly just because I find myself on the pointy end.

[salmon30salmon]

Maybe less "negative" and more "non-constructive". It is a personal annoyance of mine when a reply points out a flaw or misunderstanding, but does so behind a veil of ambiguity. It completely passes up on a chance to educate the OP, and instead leaves them feeling uncertain.

[throwanem]

You assume there are reasons to be found in evolution. Are you sure they aren't simply put there after the fact?

[ap22213]

Oh - I was using 'reason' as is often used in the informal vernacular - to mean why or follows from. I assumed that most people on here would understand from the context. But, I can see now that it's a loaded word given the subject - sorry to confuse.

[unfunco]

Thousands of organisms (including rats and humans) biosynthesise dimethyltryptamine, and to me at least, that's not the interesting part, the part I find more interesting is that of the tens (hundreds?) of thousands of plant species in the Amazonian jungle, they found the two that work together, oral DMT isn't normally active, as it's broken down by monamine-oxidase, one of the plants in Ayahuasca is an inhibitor of this enzyme.

A similar story exists around the discovery of LSD (LSD-25 was just one in a sequence of lysergic asid that was synthesised by Albert Hoffman) – it was years later that Hoffman decided to revisit the compound, thinking... "There must be something there..."

It's all likely coincidence, but there exists (especially with plants, such as those that produce DMT, and Psilocybin) that we have evolved together.

[centicosm]

Interestingly, there are hundreds of plants that produce it. Even more interesting, the human body also produces it. There was some human studies that took place in New Mexico. Check out: DMT: The Spirit Molecule for some interesting reading if such studies are of interest.