#155 - Meet The World’s Greatest Endogenous DMT Psychedelic Scientist You've Never Heard Of

🧠 JOIN THE GIANT'S SHOULDER FAMILYBecome a YouTube Member for exclusive episodes, early access + ad-free viewing 👇 https://www.youtube.com/@thegiantsshoulder/joinSteven Barker is the chemist who has spent fifty years proving your brain makes its own psychedelic. He built the mass-spectrometry methods sensitive enough to find DMT in living tissue, and showed it sits in the brain at concentrations rivalling serotonin and dopamine. In 1981 the war on drugs cut his funding and the work stopped for fifteen years. He also synthesised his own supply — and took it.Expect to learn:- The locked cabinet: what his mentor kept behind two locks, and why Barker raided it- The missing neurotransmitter: why DMT meets every formal criterion and nobody noticed- Machine elves: why he calls the term marketing rather than science- DMT immunity: the lab technician who took a full dose and felt nothing- Receptors inside the neuron: the 2023 finding that explains the neuroplasticitySPONSORSDownload the most scientifically rigorous nutrition app MacroFactor! Use code GIANTS for a 2 week FREE trial - https://app.macrofactor.com/mfgiantsGS EPISODES MENTIONEDAndrew Gallimore - No.1 DMT Neurobiologist: Alien Worlds, DMT Entity Encounters, Attractor States and Consciousness: https://youtu.be/USgWrxEFWDARick Strassman - Meet The Father Of Modern DMT Research: https://youtu.be/KeAZOj7tYscDennis McKenna - Dennis McKenna: "I've Spent 50 Years Investigating The Entities That Exist Within Ayahuasca": https://youtu.be/gTSBhfZhuD8David Nichols - Meet The Greatest Living Psychedelic Scientist You've Never Heard Of: https://youtu.be/6umTgXsW1lQGUEST LINKSResearchGate Profile: https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Steven-A-Barker-2164230436N,N-Dimethyltryptamine, an Endogenous Hallucinogen (2018 review): https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2018.00536A Critical Review of Endogenous DMT in Humans 1955-2010 (with Strassman): https://doi.org/10.1002/dta.422LC/MS/MS Analysis of Rat Pineal Microdialysate (2013, the paper discussed on tape): https://doi.org/10.1002/bmc.2981Administration of DMT in Psychedelic Therapeutics (2022 review): https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-022-06065-0LISTEN ONSpotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5m3Gta5MtIYdk59pb2GJ7MApple - https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/the-giants-shoulder/id1752486249SKOOLWant a full breakdown of your own conscious inner experience? Join the Giant's Shoulder community: https://www.skool.com/the-giants-shoulder-6526/aboutFOLLOW EVANhttps://x.com/evan_mcglTIMESTAMPS0:00:00 Trailer0:02:15 50 Years Chasing One Molecule0:06:37 Huxley, Osmond and the Birth of "Psychedelic"0:08:01 The Schizotoxin Hypothesis That Started It All0:10:54 Finding DMT in Everyone, Not Just Patients0:11:56 How the War on Drugs Killed the Research0:16:39 The 40 Years of Research We Lost0:18:36 "Have You Ever Taken It Yourself?"0:19:20 Inside the Locked Psychedelic Cabinet0:20:22 The Overabundance He Didn't Want to Waste0:22:51 Why He Won't Describe What He Saw0:23:38 Set, Setting and the Expectancy Problem0:27:16 Dennis McKenna Has Never Seen a Machine Elf0:28:31 "Machine Elf" Was a Marketing Term0:30:40 The Tryptamine Family Tree Explained0:34:21 Bufotenine, 5-MeO-DMT and the Blood-Brain Barrier0:38:36 DMT as a Working Neurotransmitter0:41:34 "DMT Is the Missing Neurotransmitter"0:44:56 You Have Two Brains - and the Gut Makes More0:46:29 Pushing Back on Gallimore's Alien World0:54:04 96% Say the Entity Was Conscious0:57:52 Did the Caveman Experience an Alien?0:59:07 "These Are Not Real Elves"1:06:40 Are Some People Immune to DMT?1:10:51 You Can't Build Tolerance to Your Own Neurotransmitter1:15:46 The Receptors Hiding Inside Your Neurons1:24:24 What a Psychedelic Overdose Actually Is.....Email for sponsorship enquiries: evan@thegiantsshoulder.com