From Vivekan:

Re: Study finds lasting benefit in banned mushroom drug (July 1): Thank you for publishing this. My personal experiences echo these findings.

Regarding the accounts of fear, as the MD, Rick Strassman alluded to in, “DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor’s Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences”, a huge variable in the study’s volunteers relating fearful episodes may well be the sterile, clinical setting in which these studies had been conducted compounded by researchers probing and hovering over them while the volunteers were experiencing heightened states of awareness.

My personal experiences of fear had more to do with the illegality of it and fear of draconian penalties for its possession and use.

Vivekan
Brooklyn, NY