AFF 2010 Review: The Spirit Molecule

One of the best things about attending film festivals is that while seeing a lot of interesting films, you also learn a lot of interesting things. For example, thanks to the intriguing documentary The Spirit Molecule, I now know that dimethyltryptamine is one hell of a great drug.

Better known as DMT, dimethyltryptamine is the subject of Austin filmmaker Mitch Schultz's über-trippy examination of a drug found in nearly every living organism and considered the world's most powerful psychedelic. Combining stunningly psychedelic animation with thoughtful interviews, The Spirit Molecule is a paean to psychedelic drug use that also asks a lot of questions about the nature of human consciousness.

The film focuses on the research of Dr. Rick Strassman, a University of New Mexico psychiatry professor who dubbed DMT the "god molecule" or "spirit molecule." Over a five-year period in the 1990s, Strassman administered multiple doses of DMT to 60 human volunteers and interviewed them about their experiences while under the drug's influence. In some ways, the results were unsurprising. Many of the test subjects experienced the intense, bizarre visions and strange phenomena that are common during psychedelic drug use. But other results were startling. The DMT users spoke of entering windows into their own souls, questioning the nature of their own humanity and reaching deep levels of alternative consciousness they barely could describe. "To say the least," said one of them, "it was profound."

The Spirit Molecule also explores society's attitude toward psychedelic drug use, contrasting the strict anti-drug policy in the U.S. – which bans not only psychedelic drugs, but also most scientific research into their effects – with the far more tolerant attitudes in other parts of the world. For example, Amazonian indigenous peoples often use ayahuasca, a DMT-laced tea brewed from plants, in spiritual ceremonies.

The documentary has a simple, straightforward structure. Comedian Joe Rogan introduces the film's basic concepts, which are fleshed out with dozens of talking-head interviews with Strassman, his study volunteers and others who have taken DMT, experts in medicine, neuroscience and social science, and even a theologian or two. (The Spirit Molecule may set a new record for the number of Ph.D.s interviewed in a single film.) While some of the comments border on truly eggheaded academic meandering, they're all very interesting. The interviewees ask a lot of questions that even the best scientific and spiritual minds cannot answer: Are psychedelic drug trips merely hallucinations resulting from brain chemistry gone haywire, or do the drugs actually allow our brains to access parallel realities? Do humans have souls? And if we do, what is the true nature of our souls?

Yes, this is very heady stuff, and The Spirit Molecule's wildly intense animation makes it even headier. The intricate, multicolored forms – many of them straight out of 1960s psychedelic films – dance about the screen in perfect synergy with the film's parade of mind-blowing ideas. While The Spirit Molecule may not blow your mind quite the way a generous dose of DMT would, it's one awesome cinematic trip, man.

There is one major omission in The Spirit Molecule: It's a blatantly pro-drug film that fails to mention any of DMT's possible negative side effects. Like any psychedelic, DMT can cause bad trips, and Schultz admitted as much during the post-screening Q&A. He explained that the film is more an exploration of the drug's possibilities (and a plea for more research into these possibilities) than a truly balanced documentary about drug use. While I understand and respect the difference between agit-prop and journalistic documentaries, I think The Spirit Molecule would be a better film – and perhaps a more effective argument for more research – if it told the whole, sometimes ugly story about psychedelic drugs.

That said, I highly recommend The Spirit Molecule as an entertaining, thought-provoking and yes, totally groovy exercise in filmmaking.

Austin connections: Filmmaker Mitch Schultz and line producer Chris Ohlson are from Austin.