James Oroc writes about wresting spiritual insights from the mind-storms catalyzed by psychedelics, and along the way wrestles with his culture and his role in it. His principal drug ally, 5-MeO-DMT, is not easy to use well, but Oroc emerges grounded and inspired with tales worth sharing. --Rick Doblin, founder and president of MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.) The venom from Bufo alvarius, an unusual toad found in the Sonoran Desert, contains 5-MeO-DMT, a potent natural chemical similar in effect to the more common entheogen DMT. The venom can be dried into a powder, which some researchers speculate was used ceremonially by Amerindian shamans. When smoked, it prompts an instantaneous break with the physical world that causes out-of-body experiences completely removed from the conventional dimensions of reality.

In Tryptamine Palace, James Oroc shares his personal experiences with 5-MeO-DMT, which led to a complete transformation of his understanding of himself and of the very fabric of reality. Driven to comprehend the transformational properties of this substance, Oroc combined extensive studies of physics and philosophy with the epiphanies he gained from his time at Burning Man and his travels in India. He discovered that ingesting tryptamines unlocked a fundamental human capacity for higher knowledge through direct contact with the zero-point field of modern physics, known to the ancients as the Akashic field. In the quantum world of nonlocal interactions, the line between the physical and the mental dissolves.

5-MeO-DMT, Oroc argues, can act as a means to awaken the remarkable capacities of the human soul as well as restore experiential mystical spirituality to Western civilization. Journalist, photographer, and artist Oroc was born in the small South Pacific nation of Aotearoa. Since 1998 he has been pursuing and reporting on the cutting edge of extreme sports in more than 40 countries around the globe, his work appearing in magazines, films, and on MTV Sports. He has been a member of the Burning Man community since 1999, and he is also involved in the documentation and advancement of Alternative Culture. Oroc resides in the Dominican Republic.