Slate currently has a special “Brains!” issue available, and there are a number of stories which would no doubt interest y’all. John Horgan has written a piece titled “Spirit Tech“, which looks at the various ways of stimulating the brain to invoke ‘mystical’ experiences. DMT researcher Rick Strassman is mentioned, with his quirky insight that one day we might be victims of a ‘bio-terror’ attack which promotes DMT production in the brain:
I can envision a situation where a cold virus is tinkered with to turn on our methylating enzymes,” Strassman says, “spreads around the world in a couple of years, and there you have it.
Sasha Shulgin offers some sage words on the idea of permanent ecstasy as well. There is also another article, “God is in the Dendrites“, which discusses how the brain changes during mystical experiences. You can find the introduction and full list of articles to the special issue here.
