[benkahuna]

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3. A realization, upon death, that your human brain was just a receiever for the real you that exists elsewhere all the time, perhaps in another dimension (See the last chapter of Poker Gaming and Life).

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If this were true, taking LSD would not alter our consciousness.

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I disagree. I think the experiences are likely similar in a number of ways so LSD could alter consciousness in a way similar to events at death.

LSD should not be confused with killing or almost killing a person. The only potentially deleterious physical effect LSD has is in vitro chromosomal breakage which is not known to cause any physical problems and this effect also occurs in the presence of acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin), and to the same extent. I'd be quite surprised if it were less significant with LSD b/c the effective dose is 3 orders of magnitude (in the 1000X range) lower than that of aspirin.

If you read Rick Strassman's clinical research articles, you'll find close relationships between ketamine and near death experiences. Ketamine has a fair number of experiential similiarities with more classic tryptamine and phenethylamine psychedelics. Additionally, Strassman has written a bit about DMT and its relationship with a 49 day life/death cycle, though that writing had a more spiritual slant to it than his ketamine studies.


I have no idea what happens when people die. The person's body falls apart and we lose the more obvious connection to a person's consciousness. Clearly there are some biological happenings during near death experiences that occur in some people. Since that's all we have to go on, I feel presumptuous in guessing. I'm more of a wait and see what happens kind of guy.