Nexus Science, thats just a circulated rumor. I'd let your friend know that theres no hard evidence that is the case. And even if we assumed that the pineal produces dmt, the fact that many of us who've used dmt a lot over the years have noticed life getting more and more interesting/psychedelic, and not the opposite as your friend suggests, seems to go against his line of thinking
BokuDen, That study has been discussed in a
thread here if you want to take a look. Its great to see more research like this but as others pointed out it still isn't proof that the pineal produces dmt, just that it contains it.
Having said that I do think its a bit of a stretch to dismiss all of this as not some form of evidence, however small and inconclusive it may be, in support of the hypothesis that the gland could produce dmt. It doesn't prove it, obviously... not even by a long shot. But its confirmed presence there does increases its chances of actually being produced there, as opposed to its confirmed absence. And when looked at in the context of several other things that are often neglected, it gets much more interesting... such as:
The correlation between dmt/aya experiences and other altered states produced through various activities that have been shown to increase pineal activity: such as meditation and dark rooming (one study a decade or two ago found a massive increase in melatonin production just after meditating for an hour, iirc). I wrote a paper exploring all of this for a cognitive neuroscience class a while ago and during the presentation for fun i decided to have the class try and tell the "sober" trip reports I'd gathered together apart from the ayahuasca/dmt trip reports, and they couldn't even tell the difference after reading both. Not all altered states produced without ingesting a psychedelic are similar, of course, but there is loads out there that are similar to these dmt/aya states.
We know the pineal also produces MAOI like pinoline, and supposedly other MAOI as well...So part of what makes this more interesting to me personally is that many of us do enter states very similar to dmt/harmalas without ingesting them, whether it be spontaneously in the dark or while using practices that have been shown to increase pineal activity. Even just taking melatonin, (which has been shown to increase its activity as well), can have a powerful tryptamine/maoi type of effect, especially if taken in prolonged darkness
We know that the pineal is way more active in the dark (its light sensitive, neato)... and week+ long retreats into pitch black caves for shamanic purposes was a very common practice all over the place in ancient times and even right into the present in some cases...and these were said to induce visionary states. Today there is retreats where dozens of people, many completely unfamiliar with psychedelics, have claimed that after many days in the dark things get weirder and weirder, and to me their reports sound very similar to an intense and integrative ayahuasca experience. (This can't just be dismissed as the effects of sensory deprivation alone since they are often engaged in physical/vocal exercises, conversation, and other things.)
Of course, this doesn't prove anything, and is mostly anecdotal. I've come to no conclusions and am skeptical, but open to the possibilities. I just think this makes it much more interesting to me personally and that its far too rare that we see these other factors/lines of investigation considered in the overall context of these sorts of discussions.... There is a lot of rumor and BS out there, of course, but often times I see people taking a reactionary position due to this, where they are flat out against the possibility. I think its good to keep a level head and not let the emotions get in the way of reasonably assessing what we know, despite all the rumor and misinformation. And right now we just don't know for sure either way.
<Ringworm>hehehe, it's all fun and games till someone loses an "I"