DMT Enters the Lab

Szára, Hubbard, and the Million-Dollar Drug

Clockwise from top left: Stephen Szára; Al Hubbard; structure of DMT molecule; DMT crystals; bottle of DMT; more DMT crystals. See photo credits below.

The following is an excerpt from p. 131-136 of Chapter 3, “Everywhere, All the Time: DMT and Drugism” from my new book, Drugism (2022):

East of the prime meridian, the first place DMT was consumed intentionally was probably Budapest, Hungary. There, in the 1950s, Stephen Szára developed an interest in psychoactive drugs. A psychiatrist and a chemist, Szára read about LSD and wanted to study it himself. Sometime around 1953, he placed an order for LSD from Sandoz, who chose not to fill Szára’s order.[i] He and others attribute this to the fact that Hungary, where Szára wrote from, was under Soviet control at the time. The usual explanation is that Sandoz did not want to risk LSD falling into communist hands, lest it be used as a weapon against other superpowers.

However, it was not Sandoz per se, but the CIA that wanted to prevent communists from obtaining LSD. Had Szára written Sandoz a year or two earlier, they would likely have happily filled his order. But the CIA beat him to it. In mid-1953, a CIA agent was sent to Basel to negotiate the supply and control of LSD with Sandoz. CIA director Allen Dulles had personally approved a plan for the agency to spend nearly a quarter of a million dollars (which, adjusted for inflation, would come to well over two million today) to obtain all of Sandoz’s remaining LSD, down to the last gram. The agency also got Sandoz to agree not to sell LSD to anyone in communist countries.[ii]

East of the prime meridian, the first place DMT was consumed intentionally was probably Budapest, Hungary.

In short, it was because of the CIA’s anti-communist paranoia that Szára resorted to DMT and mescaline rather than LSD. After his denial from Sandoz, Szára ordered ten grams of mescaline from a British pharmaceutical company.[iii] Presumably, they had not been bothered by the CIA; they filled Szára’s order. After some self-experimentation with mescaline, Szára wanted to try other, similar drugs. He had read a scholarly article about cohoba which mentioned DMT and decided to study the compound.

Being the head of a biochemistry lab with a PhD in organic chemistry, Szára whipped up ten grams of DMT without too much difficulty. It was not yet known that DMT is not orally active, and Szára’s first few attempts at the drug were oral. He noticed no effects. A colleague suggested he try injection; it worked.[iv]

It was some day in April 1956 in Budapest that Szára first injected the stuff, just months before the Hungarian Revolution which occurred later that year. After thirty milligrams, his pupils dilated and he saw closed-eye visuals. He tried again, upping the dose to seventy-five milligrams. That elicited much stronger effects. “My consciousness was completely filled by hallucinations,” Szára said of the experience.[v] “I remember feeling intense euphoria” he explained in a later interview and recalled his excitement that he “had discovered a new hallucinogen.”[vi]

Due to the CIA’s anti-communist paranoia, Szára resorted to DMT and mescaline rather than LSD.

After these initial experiences, Szára recruited colleagues to try the drug so he could confirm its effects. Many of their experiences were well documented by Szára. One of his volunteers, a physician, in the midst of a DMT trip exclaimed “it makes me dizzy,” and, a moment later, “it is too much!”[vii] Another volunteer, also a physician, described his trip as “dangerous game” from which “it would be easy not to return.” “I am faintly aware that I am a doctor,” he continued, “but this is not important...only this world is important.”[viii] Another of Szára’s volunteers from the same period, upon receiving an intramuscular injection, remarked,

It is frightening because I cannot terminate it...How unpleasant! Oh, how bad. It would be better to fall down in a faint. Will it endure still for one hour? Give me something so that I shall die quickly, it would be better to die.[ix]

As a later DMT scientist, Rick Strassman observed, “Szára’s descriptions are unusually forthcoming for a psychiatric researcher.”[x] Such adverse reactions are not typically published by researchers with “a vested interest in demonstrating [their] drug’s beneficial effects.”[xi] Szára was unquestionably at the cutting edge of drug research, and his studies are the first in which DMT’s effects are documented in clinical settings.

Much of the CIA’s experimentation with drugs in the 1950s and ‘60s was, publicly at least, shaped by their fear that the Soviet Union had already developed mind-control drugs or similar technology.[xii] When Szára synthesized DMT in Budapest, the CIA had already been, for years, funding radio broadcasts in Hungary designed to agitate its political climate and generate antipathy toward the Soviets. Considering their projects in Hungary, their well-established presence throughout Europe, and their interest in drug research, it seems quite likely that the CIA came across Szára’s work on DMT published in the ‘50s. If so, it would certainly have concerned them to see a Hungarian scientist publishing research about a potent tryptamine.

Szára’s studies are the first in which DMT’s effects are documented in clinical settings.

Probably wanting to get to Szára before the Soviets did, the US government hired him to work for National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and, later, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), both located in Washington, DC.[xiii] Szára arrived in the US in 1957.

Interestingly, publicly released MK-ULTRA documents reveal that the CIA conducted several projects involving Hungarian refugees in precisely the same period in which Szára moved to the US and began to work at NIMH.[xiv] Was Szára one of these refugees? We may never know for sure. But we do know that throughout MK-ULTRA, Szára’s place of employment, NIMH, was used as a public channel for funds which went toward CIA projects.[xv]

While Szára was probably the first to experience pure DMT, he was not the first to study it. Back in the US, one of the earliest scholars to study DMT was Oscar Janiger. Janiger studied many drugs through-out the 1950s. In 1959, he published a paper documenting the presence of DMT in cohoba and yagé.[xvi] Janiger was closely associated with Al Hubbard, the OSS/CIA/FDA operative.[xvii] Hubbard supplied Janiger with LSD, and presumably other drugs, during the MK-ULTRA period.

On Thursday, March 23, 1961, intelligence operative Al Hubbard received three injections of DMT.

Hubbard himself definitely used DMT, multiple times. At least one of his DMT sessions was even transcribed, and is available on Erowid. From the document, we learn much about Hubbard, DMT, and how the intelligence community and the early psychedelic elite viewed DMT and hoped to use it.

It is unclear exactly when Hubbard first learned about, or used DMT. However, we do know that on Thursday, March 23, 1961, Hubbard received three injections of it over the course of the afternoon. It was not the first time he had tried it, either; after the first injection, Hubbard noted “this is half of what I took in Ontario,”—we then learn that the Ontario trip happened “earlier this month” i.e., March 1961.[xviii]

While Hubbard seemed to greatly enjoy the DMT, he also felt the drug could be overwhelming for the unprepared. Multiple times throughout his experience, Hubbard expressed this. First: “If you resist it [DMT], it could be very disconcerting, non-resistance is important,” then: “shock would be quite pronounced to a patient who resisted it,” and later: “if one resisted it, it could be extremely vicious...” Despite this, Hubbard himself found the experience “very beautiful,” even “extremely beautiful.”[xix] His trip-sitter, Dr. MacDonald, described Hubbard as “relaxed” and “smiling.”[xx]

A few minutes after his second DMT injection, Hubbard suggested “this would be worth a million dollars.”

Hubbard was unusually vocal while on DMT—many who take the drug are literally left speechless, often not talking at all until its most vivid effects have worn off. But Hubbard was quite the druggie. He had tripped many, many times on various substances before trying DMT. If the term psychonaut (coined by Nazi-sympathizing, Conservative Revolutionary writer Ernst Jünger[xxi]) describes anyone, Hubbard certainly more than fits the bill. Considering the extent of his drug experiences, it is not so surprising that Hubbard spoke freely throughout his multiple DMT injections. And for students of drug history, Hubbard’s words are heavy with meaning.

During the extended DMT trip, Hubbard mentions by name both Oscar Janiger and Gerald Heard. Janiger, mentioned above, was closely connected with Hubbard, both of whom collaborated on drug research. Gerald Heard was another in the same scene. He was also a close associate of Hubbard, as well as a good friend of Aldous Huxley.[xxii]

While the transcription of Hubbard’s trip is unclear at times, it indicates that Hubbard obtained something important—possibly even the DMT—from Heard, and he is quoted describing “a sense of gratitude” for Gerald Heard, and “a big wonderful responsibility regarding being able to use these materials” given to Hubbard by Heard.[xxiii] It is unclear whether “these materials” refers to the DMT or to other material present in the room during the trip. Regardless, Hubbard and Heard were clearly in close collaboration when Hubbard was experimenting with DMT.

Hubbard was not the only one in the CIA with an interest in DMT.

Hubbard’s trip-sitter MacDonald also noted that Hubbard “spoke regarding Dr. Janiger of Los Angeles.”[xxiv] Hubbard’s specific words about Janiger were, unfortunately, not transcribed, but MacDonald does note in the same passage that “Dr. Hubbard feels DMT would be very valuable in psychiatry,” which was Janiger’s field.[xxv] While it is difficult to determine their specific motives and opinions, especially so far removed from the event, it seems safe to say that Hubbard felt DMT would be useful for in some sort of psychiatric application, and likely spoke with Janiger about such possibilities. But how, exactly did Hubbard think DMT would be useful?

After mentioning Heard and Janiger, Hubbard shared with MacDonald more thoughts on DMT. A few minutes after his second injection, Hubbard exclaimed, “the masses have to learn it slowly—wonderful!”[xxvi] He also suggested “this would be worth a million dollars.” He described it as “wonderful” and “delicious.”[xxvii]

But the wonderful deliciousness did not last. Hubbard’s trip seemed to take a different turn as he exclaimed “our phoniness stinks” and “how silly we are!”[xxviii] He shared with MacDonald that he “searched the universe for why we acted this way” and continued, “I couldn’t find it, it was a great disappointment.”[xxix] I cannot help but wonder if Hubbard was in fact referring to his own cohort and their mission for neuro-political control. After receiving his third injection, Hubbard remarked that it was “the most intense experience I ever had.” Describing the trip to MacDonald, he continued, “it seemed an awfully lot like death.”[xxx]

The CIA’s DMT research was only a small part of their work with drugs and other techniques of behavioral control.

Hubbard was not the only one in the CIA with an interest in DMT. The Agency also funded DMT research at the Public Health Service Narcotic Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, commonly known as “the Narcotic Farm” or simply “Narco.”[xxxi] The research was conducted by Harris Isbell, who has become known for his, at times, torturous experiments on patients. Isbell’s work exemplifies the type of controversial research overseen by the CIA and other federal agencies in the mid twentieth century.

Due to the covert nature of Isbell’s DMT research, there is scant documentation of it. It was conducted on people who had been convicted of federal drug crimes and were undergoing treatment at the Narcotic Farm. The only documented, publicly available description of the effects of the DMT on the people being “treated” at the Farm is quite brief:

Markedly significant mental effects including anxiety, hallucinations, and perceptual distortions and autonomic changes consisting of pupillary dilation, increase [in] blood pressure, and a decrease in the kneejerk threshold. These effects appeared within 15-30 minutes and subsided within 1-2 hours.[xxxii]

Unlike Hubbard, who in a way represented the social elite, the prisoners at the Narcotic Farm were not gently tended to, nor were their actual thoughts, words, or actions documented. Only this terse, extremely objectifying description survives. The actual content of the prisoners’ DMT trips, or the psychosocial atmosphere around the experiment are likely lost to history. In the same time period, a chemical relative of DMT, bufotenine (which is also found in cohoba) was administered to prisoners at Ohio State Penitentiary.[xxxiii]

Powerful as it is, even DMT could not escape the clutches of colonization and industrialization.

The DMT, etc., used by the CIA was synthesized by chemists like James Moore. Moore is described by John Marks, a historian of the CIA’s MK-ULTRA project, as a “short-order cook” for the CIA’s chemical needs.[xxxiv] Moore, as noted in we’re here, we’re high, also accompanied Gordon Wasson to Mexico to obtain specimens of psilocybin mushrooms for the CIA. Moore’s work was funded by the Geschickter Fund for Medical Research, a front organization that provided public cover for CIA operations during MK-ULTRA.[xxxv]

The CIA’s DMT research was only a small part of their work with drugs and other techniques of behavioral modification. However, just as Hubbard was not the only one in the CIA interested in DMT, the CIA was not the only federal agency interested in the drug. DMT was also studied by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). In 1974, NIMH conducted a study in which DMT was administered to experienced illegal drug users, who were then asked to assess “how high” they felt. The majority of the volunteers indicated that the DMT got them “higher than they had ever been.”[xxxvi]

Such is the history of DMT’s first forays into the laboratory. Powerful as it is, even DMT could not escape the clutches of colonization and industrialization. After thousands of years dwelling in the traditional plant medicine of the western hemisphere, DMT migrated to the laboratories of the northern hemisphere, where it was extracted, refined, and concentrated. From there, DMT moved (albeit rather inconspicuously) into the bloodstream of popular culture.

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Endnotes

[i] Strassman, DMT: The Spirit Molecule, 44; Gallimore and Luke, “DMT Research from…”

[ii] Kinzer, Poisoner in Chief, 85-6.

[iii] Gallimore and Luke.

[iv] St John, 15; Gallimore and Luke; see also Szára’s biography on

https://espd50.com/

[v] St John, 17.

[vi] Gallimore and Luke.

[vii] Strassman, 46.

[viii] Ibid.

[ix] Ibid., 249.

[x] Strassman, 249.

[xi] Ibid.

[xii] Kinzer, throughout.

[xiii] St John, 40; Strassman, 17.

[xiv] Central Intelligence Agency, “MKULTRA DOC_0000017469.”

[xv] Kinzer, 95.

[xvi] Janiger, “The Use of…”

[xvii] Lee and Shlain, Acid Dreams, 51.

[xviii] MacDonald, “Report: DMT Experience…,” 1.

[xix] Ibid., 1-2

[xx] Ibid., 3.

[xxi] Pace, “Lucy In The…”

[xxii] The second time Huxley used mescaline (producing the trip which would become the basis for his book, Heaven and Hell), both Heard and Hubbard were with him. See Lee and Shlain, 48.

[xxiii] MacDonald, 2.

[xxiv] Ibid., 3.

[xxv] Ibid.

[xxvi] Ibid., 4.

[xxvii] Ibid.

[xxviii] Ibid., 5.

[xxix] Ibid., 4.

[xxx] Ibid., 5.

[xxxi] The Narcotic Farm was created by the federal government with funding from the Rockefellers to gain political leverage over illegal drug users during the Great Depression. See Acker, Creating the American…, 156 and Ch. 6, throughout; Campbell et al, The Narcotic Farm, 12.

[xxxii] Rosenberg, Isbell, and Miner, “Comparison of a…”

[xxxiii] Gallimore and Luke.

[xxxiv] Marks, The Search for…, 110.

[xxxv] The Geschickter Fund, managed by Charles Geschickter, was also used as a conduit to fund the construction of a portion of Georgetown University Hospital used for CIA research in the 1950s. See Cockburn and St. Clair, White Out, 160.

[xxxvi] Strassman, 47, 349.

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Sources

Acker, Caroline Jean. Creating the American Junkie: Addiction Research in the Classic Era of Narcotic Control. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD. 2002.

Campbell, Nancy, JP Olsen, and Luke Walden. The Narcotic Farm: The Rise and Fall of America’s First Prison for Drug Addicts. Abrams, New York, NY. 2008.

Gallimore, Andrew R. and David P. Luke. “DMT Research from 1956 to the Edge of Time.” Reality Sandwich, Oct 15, 2015.

Janiger, Oscar. “The Use of Hallucinogenic Agents in Psychiatry.” The California Clinician, 55(7):222-224, Jul 1959.

Kinzer, Stephen. Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control. Henry Holt and Company, New York, NY. 2019.

Lee, Martin A., and Bruce Shlain. Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond. Grove Press, NY. 1985.

MacDonald, D.C. “Report: DMT Experience: Dr. A. M. Hubbard.” 1961. https://www.erowid.org/experiences/images/reports/exp-78447-stolaroff-sc6.pdf

Marks, John. The Search for the “Manchurian Candidate”: The CIA and Mind Control. Times Books, New York, NY. 1979.

Pace, Brian. “Lucy In The Sky With Nazis: Psychedelics and the Right Wing.” Psymposia, Feb 3, 2020.

Rosenberg, D. E., Harris Isbell, and E. J. Miner. “Comparison of a placebo, N- dimethyltryptamine, and 6-hydroxy-N-dimethyltryptamine in man.” Psychopharmacologia 4:39-42, Jan 1963.

St John, Graham. Mystery School in Hyperspace: A Cultural History of DMT. Evolver Editions, Berkeley, CA. 2015.

Strassman, Rick. DMT: The Spirit Molecule. Park Street Press, Rochester, VT. 2001.       

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Photo credits

Photo of Al Hubbard from History Link at https://www.historylink.org/file/20830

Photo of Stephen Szára from Psychedelic Science Review at https://psychedelicreview.com/person/stephen-szara/

Picture of DMT molecule from Erowid at https://erowid.org/chemicals/show_molecule.php?i=dmt/dmt_2d.gif

Photo of DMT crystals from Erowid at https://erowid.org/chemicals/show_image.php?i=dmt/dmt_crystals__i2008e1195_disp.jpg

Photo of DMT bottle from Alcohol and Drug Foundation at https://adf.org.au/drug-facts/dmt/

Photo of DMT crystals from Erowid at https://erowid.org/chemicals/show_image.php?i=dmt/dmt_crystal2.jpg

Photo of DMT crystals from Erowid at https://erowid.org/chemicals/show_image.php?i=dmt/dmt_crystal__i2008e1196_disp.jpg

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