DMT can be synthesized from the root bark of a tree in South America known as Mimosa hostilis. If one can go through with the laborous task of extracting DMT from said plant, he/she can roll it into a cigarrette and smoke it. When the substance is inhaled, within the first 60 seconds of inhalation the subject becomes immersed in a world unlike any we can even begin to imagine. Many often undergo profound, life-changing experiences. Subjects, while nonresponsive and dissociated in the “real world”, embark on intense spiritual journeys that one could easily confuse for an NDE [meeting dead relatives/friends, OOBEs, reliving past lives, life flashing before one's eyes, etc.]. Experiences between persons vary from joyous to distressing, heavenly to hellish, or just plain trippy.

Some people associate the pineal gland with the Third Eye, as it is located in the middle of of every human beings forehead. It has also been proven that in some reptiles it even has a cornea, retina and lense! Pretty intriguing information.

Damn Interesting article, if I do say so myself!

Well when you get it for the date, give it some candy. Rock candy, or if your really adventitious, Pop Rocks. Then take it to the Hard Rock Café for dinner and order Rock Cod and be sure to specify no ice, have them use Nordic Rock Stone Ice Cubes. Because rocks have such a dislike to frozen ice, it seems to crack them up. Be sure that they play something from the Rolling Stones or perhaps Rock Lobster by the B-52s.

Then take it to a movie, something with Sharon Stone, or the Dwane ‘TheRock’ Johnson would work. Complete your date with a sweet treat from the Stone Cold Creamery. ;)

Okay in all seriousness…

In a nutshell it depends on the material being dated. Certain isotopes will decay into simpler elements. For instance Uranium will decay into Lead (very simplified to keep it understandable) or for a biological decay we have Carbon that decays into Nitrogen. So by measuring the amount of Uranium and the amount of Lead in the material, since the decay is basically linear, we have an atomic clock that can be traced back to the creation of that rock, or the paint on the rock.

For a few examples we have the following:
Uranium 235 takes 704 million years to decay into Lead 207
Uranium 238 takes 4.47 billion years to decay into Lead 206
Carbon 14 takes 5,730 years to decay into Nitrogen 14.

Now understand that the minerals, which contain radioactive isotopes, are in igneous rocks. The dates they give indicate the time the magma cooled.

With Carbon-14 dating you have a biological entity. Carbon-14 is created when cosmic rays strike Nitrogen-14 atoms in the atmosphere. These in turn combine with oxygen to form radioactive carbon dioxide.

Plants absorb the radioactive carbon dioxide and use it. This puts the material into the food chain where it is absorbed and resides in all living things. All living things contain a balance of Carbon-14 (1 in a trillion) to Carbon-12. The Carbon-14 is constantly turning back into Nitrogen-14 but is replenished as the organism lives. Once an organism dies it stops ingesting Carbon-14, but what is in the tissue still continues to decay back into Nitrogen-14. To measure the age of the biological entity, a comparison of the remaining Carbon-14 in the tissue to Carbon-12 is made.

I hope this helps.

The Don.

I’m curious, how do you date a rock? Is it the age in which it formed into rock from sand (sandstone style rocks), or when it cooled off and solidified? If so, how woul that show the age of the drawing? Wouldn’t that just mean the rock is X billion years old, not the art? I’m just curious. I’m a software trainer, not a scientist or archaelogist (spelling?).

[quote]Stuart said: …It pretty much standard practice for christians to selectively take scientific evidence they think supports their beliefs and ignore all the evidence that disproves it.”[/quote]

This is a fairly biased and inflamitory remark. It might be standard practice for some people to do this (ignore evidence that disagrees with personal belief), including yourself. It might just be that a good portion of religious people like science (as I do) and/or don’t feel like arguing with inflamitory people. This means that those who DO will stick out to you. Many are those who follow “Science” as a religion. This comment of yours firmly puts you in the category of someone who follows science as a religion. You worship your scientific observations (before you argue the point, please look up the definition(s) of worship) and then you are as guilty as the Bible thumpers for using your science to bludgeon people with. If we did not dismiss something as false, then we must believe everything present to us as fact. There are plenty of papers, speakers, scientists, etc that support all sorts of views. Supporters will accept documents that support their view and reject those that don’t. If we didn’t then we’d all believe that 911 was a conspiracy AND believe that it wasn’t. Theres “evidence” for both.

1) science is continually discovering (measuring/observing) things that revise much of what we take as “fact” hence science “proves” nothing unless verifying our ability to accurately measure observed behaviour is “proving” something.
2) true “science” is not about proving or disproving religion.
3) true “religion” is not about proving or disproving science.

I firmly believe that when mankind reaches 100% Physical knowledge (science) and 100% spiritual (religion) that the two will be one continuous spectrum of knowledge without disparity or unexplained difference.

Does purgatory take medicare?

I’d hate to make this into a religious discussion, but not all Christians believe the world is five thousand years old or whatever. You really shouldn’t use blanket statements when refering to Christianity, since there are so many different branches.

And thank you to Alma65us- you can be religious, or non-religious, and have a healthy interest in both sides of the God vs. science debate.

As for NDEs- it’s a Damn Interesting article, and a damn interesting subject, too.