It is found in a wide variety of plant and psychoactive toad species and, like its close relatives DMT and bufotenin (5-HO-DMT), it has been used as an entheogen by South American shamans for thousands of years.
The Mature Inner Bark of this species contains the compound NN-Dimethyltryptamine (0.4%) and other substituted Tryptamines that are components of the South American visionary medicine Ayahuasca.
Fitzgerald and Siournis reported in the Australian Journal of Chemistry (1965, volume 18, pp. 433–4) that a sample of the bark contained 0.36% of the hallucinogen DMT as well as 0.24% of N-methyltryptamine.
Furthermore, the pineal gland is a hypothetical candidate for producing a mind's eye; Rick Strassman and others have postulated that during near death experiences (NDE's) and dreaming, the gland might secrete a hallucinogenic chemical 'N,N-Dimethyltryptamine' (DMT) to produce internal visuals when external sensory data is occluded.
It is prepared with the Banisteriopsis caapi vine, usually mixed with leaves of dimethyltryptamine-species of shrubs from the genus Psychotria, which are found in the Amazon jungle in Peru where Gorman conducts his work.
Classical or serotonergic psychedelics (agonists for the LSD (also known as "acid"), psilocin (the active constituent of psilocybin mushrooms, commonly known as "magic mushrooms" or "shrooms"), mescaline (the active constituent of peyote), and DMT (the active constituent of ayahuasca and potentially an endogenous psychedelic compound).