Trace amounts, big claims — sorting the signal.
DMT is present in trace amounts in the mammalian body, including the human brain. This fact has generated considerable speculation — most of it, unfortunately, running well ahead of the evidence.
The Rick Strassman hypothesis, that pineal DMT might be released at birth, death or in altered states, is provocative but has never been confirmed. What we know is that DMT is present. What we do not know is whether its endogenous concentrations are sufficient to produce any psychoactive effect at all.
Recent work has shown that rodent brains contain detectable DMT throughout life, that its concentration can rise under some stressors, and that the enzymes involved in its synthesis are present. Interesting; not decisive.
The honest position is agnostic. Endogenous DMT may be a functional neurotransmitter, a metabolic accident, or something in between. The story is scientifically live. The story is also being told, in popular writing, with a confidence the data do not remotely support.
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