Death by Astonishment: Confronting the Mystery of the World’s Strangest Drug

Pharmacologist Gallimore (Reality Switch Technologies) argues in this eccentric account that psychoactive drug dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, has the ability to introduce users to worlds full of noncorporeal intelligent beings that are “both everywhere and nowhere.” He explains that DMT users often report encountering visions of elflike creatures and other “discarnate intelligences” as well as shapes and patterns unlike anything they have previously seen, and he argues that because these observations make up “a world that the brain should not know how to build,” it’s plausible they’re due to the presence of otherworldly intelligence that humans can “live among and learn from.” Though he falls short of proving that theory, Gallimore offers plenty of insight on the history of DMT, covering its use by Indigenous South American tribes and its involvement in the 1960s “psychedelic revolution.” The narrative’s cast of historical figures includes William Burroughs, who brought DMT to the attention of scientists; LSD researcher Timothy Leary, who also experimented with DMT; and pharmacologist Harris Isbell, who conducted morally suspect drug experiments on federal prisoners throughout the 1950s. Though colorful, Gallimore’s prose can be repetitive and jargony. This one’s long on strange and short on science. (July)