What a strange world we live in

(The second of three posts wherein I discuss the inspiration and influences behind my first novel “Deep Purple Dream.”)

Time marches relentlessly forward, so apart from a few one-offs that may follow these three "Dream" posts, upcoming posts will feature, among other things, excerpts and thoughts from my current project "Rumjack" (publishing 2016).

Previously I discussed the literary inspiration and religious allegory that sparked the idea of writing my first novel (semi-related side note: "Slough of Despond" is a great name for a band). The Phildickian inspiration of alternate realities and drug-induced epiphany came from the sadly long-gone Omni Magazine, which was an amazing combination of scifi/fantasy artwork, science articles and news, interviews and some of the best fiction - case in point, early on in its run, Omni published stories that have become classics: Orson Scott Card's "Unaccompanied Sonata", William Gibson's "Burning Chrome", "New Rose Hotel" and "Johnny Mnemonic", and George R. R. Martin's "Sandkings".

I picked up a copy every chance I could. Of all the stories and articles that could have stayed with me, it was a non-fiction article on DMT, or Dimethyltryptamine.

DMT is produced in many species of plants. Some scientists hypothesize DMT is produced in the human brain in an area called the pineal gland and is involved in certain psychological and neurological states, suggesting that it might be connected with visual dream phenomena. Brain DMT levels would be periodically elevated to induce visual dreaming and possibly other states of mind. The pineal gland also produces melatonin, a serotonin derived hormone, which affects the modulation of sleep patterns in both seasonal and circadian rhythms. The French philosopher René Descartes dedicated much time to the study of the pineal gland, going so far as to call it the "principal seat of the soul."

A psychotropic drug found in found in the human body and at least 60 species of plants worldwide that alters the perception of what is real and what is unreal? Is reality then only a hallucination? Is all that I percieve real? Is it real only because I can percieve it? If we share the perception, do we share the reality?

I lit up this idea and inhaled. This is the result.

MORE STUFF!

It's not the long-gone magazine, but perhaps it could be something even better.

Terence McKenna, student of literature, history, Western and Eastern philosophy, linguistics, anthropology, ecology, shamanism, chemistry, biology and DMT.