Study Finds Ayahuasca Affects Epigenetic Gene Expression
In this Gaia News special investigation, we take a look at groundbreaking new research being done on ayahuasca, an ancient psychedelic plant medicine showing great promise in addressing the most difficult to treat mental health conditions, and may even change our DNA.
Dr. Simon Ruffle is a psychiatrist and researcher who led this study conducted in the Peruvian Amazon.
“Ayahuasca is a psychedelic brew that is used in the Amazon rainforest. It’s been used for at least hundreds of years and there’s some evidence that suggests that it may have been used for thousands of years,” Ruffell said.
“It’s used for a wide variety of purposes and normally by indigenous tribes. It’s used most commonly, now, for healing. And there’s been a lot of interest from people from the West going to the Amazon rainforest in order to drink ayahuasca. And also ayahuasca is spreading all over the world and now can be found on pretty much every continent.”
Watch Part 1:
In part two we look at how researchers found a statistically significant change in the expression of the SIGMAR-1 gene which is thought to be involved with how traumatic memories are recalled.
Watch Part 2:
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Scientists Find DMT Produces a Waking Dream State
Since the beginning of humanity, dreams have played an important role in spirituality, with shamans and sages interpreting them for their deeper meaning. In modern times, Freud and Jung have brought dream study to a new level, exploring the relationship of dreams to the subconscious and unconscious, looking for ways that a deeper self tries to communicate with the conscious one. And now, we’ve come to an even greater look at dreams via the influence of natural plants that contain what has been termed “the spirit molecule” — DMT (dimethyltryptamine). Researchers are now studying DMT’s ability to actually create a type of waking dream.
DMT is well known to neuroscientists, avid users of hallucinogenic plants, and ethnobotanists. The DMT compound produces brief and intense visual and auditory hallucinogenic experiences, whether consumed through ayahuasca, or as an isolated chemical — a white crystalline powder derived from plants found in Mexico, South America, and parts of Asia.
Medical News Today reported that the chemical root structure of DMT acts as a non-selective agonist (a substance that initiates a physiological response when combined with a receptor) at most or all serotonin receptors in the body’s cells. Serotonin has been called the happy chemical because it contributes to wellbeing and happiness. DMT is also produced naturally in the body in the lungs and in minute doses in certain areas of the brain.
