At Stanford in the '70s...
A young Rick Strassman studied drugs, mysticism, and the pineal gland
The following is an excerpt from p. 145-147 of Chapter 3, “Everywhere, All the Time: DMT and Drugism” from my book, Drugism (2022):
Rick Strassman grew up in San Fernando Valley, California. He attended Stanford in the early ‘70s, receiving his bachelor’s in 1973.[i] While at Stanford, Strassman enrolled in courses about Buddhism, consciousness, psychology, sleep, and dreams.[ii] When the young, flustered Strassman asked for help from a psychiatrist in Stanford’s student services, the psychiatrist referred him to James Fadiman. Fadiman, a psychologist, worked in Stanford’s engineering school at the time. Fadiman has since become known as a formative figure in the academic study of tryptamines, known recently for his work on microdosing.
Strassman explained his interests to Fadiman—psychedelics, meditation, etc. He sought guidance from Fadiman on how to further pursue these studies. What areas should he look into? Was there a “unifying factor” that would render these seemingly scattered interests more cohesive? To this end, Fadiman advised Strassman to study the pineal gland.[iii]
Strassman took Fadiman’s advice. It was the start of a lifelong interest in the pineal gland for Strassman. While at Stanford, he wrote several papers to formulate his early ideas around the pineal gland and its possible relation to mystical or psychedelic experience. His study of the pineal lead him to the compound melatonin, a tryptamine which is produced in the pineal gland.[iv] Strassman spent years studying melatonin. It would be the subject of some of his early work at the University of New Mexico (UNM), where Strassman began a residency in 1984.[v] The same university would eventually become the site of his DMT research in the 1990s.
Another individual from Stanford who, like Fadiman, proved influential for Strassman, was Willis Harman. Harman directed a department at the SRI that had conducted military-funded research on chemical weapons. He also collaborated with operatives like Al Hubbard on drug experiments and student surveillance projects.[vi] While at Stanford, Harman worked with James Fadiman, who, as mentioned above, advised the young Strassman to focus on the pineal gland.[vii]
Later on, Strassman and Harman developed a friendship. Strassman recounts a conversation with Harman in the mid-90s in which Harman insisted that “at the very least, we must enlarge the discussion about psychedelics.”[viii] Strassman described the conversation in his first book, DMT: The Spirit Molecule (2001). He explained, “it is in response to his request that I include in this book highly speculative ideas,” such as DMT’s possible roles in religious experience, alien abduction experience, fetus formation, and more.[ix] Strassman dedicated his third book, DMT and the Soul of Prophecy (2014) to Willis Harman and Daniel Freedman.[x]
Daniel Freedman, like Harman, was quite influential to Strassman’s work. Freedman studied LSD at Yale in the 1960s before joining the psychiatry department at the University of Chicago and eventually serving as president of the American Psychiatric Association. He also testified in the 1966 Senate committee hearing on the legal status of LSD. Freedman, who as Strassman remembers, “chain-smoked cigarettes and drank endless quantities of frighteningly strong coffee,” was a vocal advocate of tryptamines.[xi] He had notable connections to federal bureaucrats such as the director of NIDA. Freedman also had an important connection to a Freemason group called the Scottish Rite Foundation, which had funded DMT research years earlier.[xii]
To be continued…