Gratitude and Entering the 5th Dimension

A Contribution to Future Research

“The Role of Gratitude in Spiritual Well-Being in Asymptomatic Heart Failure Patients,” a study published in 2015 by Mills, P. J., Redwine, L., Wilson, K., Pung, M. A., Chinh, K., Greenberg, B. H., Lunde, O., Maisel, A., Raisinghani, A., Wood, A., & Chopra, D, found there to be a positive correlation between gratitude and spiritual well-being. The researchers used the GQ-6 and Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being, to measure gratitude and spiritual well-being respectively. This study was done with a sample size of 186 men and women with the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology classification of stage B heart failure (Mills et al., 2015).

The study was done to find a relationship between spiritual well-being, gratitude, and physical and mental health in individuals with stage B heart failure (HF) (Mills et al., 2015). The study, among other things, found that a sense of gratitude can mediate for the experience of spiritual well-being. The study also found that gratitude and spiritual well-being are positively associated with better sleep quality (Mills et al., 2015).

This study, assumedly along with those like it, highlights points that are interesting for potential research advancement. In particular, with respect to this article, one of those interesting points is, what is the spirit realm? This is a noteworthy call out because spirituality is one of the original core tenants of psychology. As part of advancing research, ideas like dualism and the mind-body problem, are one’s worth revisiting and diving deeper into. As psychology as a field of study seeks to metamorphosize into its higher self, the field would be remiss to not further explore the metaphysical.

What’s salient is that the metaphysical may not be as abstract or far off as it can connotate. To tie this together, we must start with the man previously alluded to, Rene Descartes. Descartes in today’s standards is considered a genius, but also wrong about a fair amount of things. Depending on your familiarity with him, me bringing him up may be cause for inaudible groans. One of his most infamous theories is about the pineal gland.

Rene Descartes

The pineal gland is a cone shaped gland in the middle of the human brain. Descartes believed that the pineal gland is the seat of the soul. He believed that the soul is separate from the [physical] body, his classification of soul being consciousness and or the experience of a subjective experience (soul can be interpreted differently), and that the soul resides in the pineal gland. He thought this because of where the pineal gland is positioned in the human brain. Most parts of the brain are bi-hemispheric, but there is only one pineal gland that resides in the middle of the brain.

There are several religions and customs that believe that there is a third eye centered in the middle of the forehead or brain. Additionally, the pineal gland in some vertebrates (not humans) has cones and rods like an eye, which contribute to its light sensitivity and circadian rhythm (Doyle & Menaker, 2007). So, while maybe not literally a third eye, it can be argued that the pineal gland can function as one. The main purpose of the pineal gland is to create melatonin. Melatonin is a chemical that helps people go to sleep. The pineal gland coordinates with the hypothalamus and a person’s circadian rhythm to help you go to sleep when it’s nighttime, or in low light environments.

Despite being crucial in circadian rhythm regulation and creating a fair amount of serotonin, the pineal gland is disparate when it comes to spirituality. There is no evidence that the pineal gland is the seat of the soul. Perceptively a person expressing gratitude, experiencing stage B HF, and getting a better quality of sleep can suggest a relationship between the spirit realm and the hypothalamus, hippocampus, and pineal gland. The question remains however, what links these two things together? Can gratitude bring you into a fifth dimensional space? Can you get high off gratitude to the point where you end up transported to the spirit realm or heavenly places? And if so, what does that look like?

What is often deferred to as a non-corroborated through line is a chemical reaction or experience via N, N-Dimethyltryptamine or DMT. DMT is a naturally occurring chemical that can be taken to experience psychedelic effects. It’s common in plants and mammals. It is hypothesized and theorized that DMT is created in the pineal gland, which would provide a healthy explanation for the previous questions, however there is no evidence of the sort. Studies have shown that DMT has naturally occurred in the pineal gland of rats and that the pineal gland of birds produces neurosteroids; so, there’s some hope.

DMT The Spirit Molecule

Humans have DMT in them which can be found in the blood stream and in urine. It’s not fully known where DMT originates in humans. Right now, we know it’s not the pineal gland, but it’s possible that the rest of the brain has neurotransmitters for DMT. Again, none of this is substantiated, however, the significance of DMT as popularized by Dr. Rick Strassman and his book, “DMT the Spirit Molecule”, and his other works, is that DMT can be like a portal to another realm, a spirit realm. According to his book and other anecdotes about DMT experiences, the psychedelic state described is otherworldly or para-worldly. A common refrain about doing DMT is that one sees entities. People throughout history and today, have done and still do, ritualistically take ayahuasca or some other form of DMT (in “DMT the Spirit Molecule” Strassman talks about the experiment he conducted where he gave people DMT intravenously) and have an expressed spiritual experience, which while subjective, demonstrates some common traits.

While DMT can be looked at as a common denominator correlation doesn’t constitute causation. While it’s possible and efficient for research for DMT to create access to another realm, the next question besides how similar is this realm for those who visit it via DMT, is can you get there outside of a forced psychedelic experience? A critical advancement of research in this area of study within psychology can focus around the multiverse theory of life. Or can people access the fifth dimension or spirit world avatar state style a la “Avatar the last Airbender”? Or even, is the spirit world more tangible than we give it credit for sometimes and a euphoric experience sans a third party substance, is the relative outlier on a metaphoric scatter plot chart? What would a natural process to enter the spirit world void additional substances or enhancements be like and is the spirit world accessible primarily chemically or is there another method?

A study or studies on these questions would be valuable because the results may help people with varying mental disorders better cope with and understand life. So much of what humans do, especially in modernized and or western societies is abnormal to our base rationalities. Spirituality or something outside of oneself is often looked at as a way to reconcile the disparities of one’s lived experience and their inner person. It also instills people with values that lend themselves to the betterment of humanity. It’s possible that if psychology can incorporate personal and spiritual introspection into its findings and considerations, that treatments and outcomes could be more fruitful and more cost effective.

DMT Entities

I hone in on the spirit realm specifically because besides the third dimension, the spirit realm is the most common abstract dimensional experience for people. The fact that people have similar explanations for subjective experiences and that there is some corollary between sleep and spiritual well-being, tells me that the spirit realm is a good place to start when unpacking what could be a larger commentary on frequencies, the Mandela Effect, and multi-dimensionalism. Another uncorroborated suggestion is that DMT or a similar naturally occurring chemical experience is what ushers’ people through death and that as the spirit leaves the body, that person has a powerful psychedelic experience.

Gratitude is a state of being independent of self or circumstance. It’s something you can choose to do. It’s relationship with spiritual well-being, sleep, and better mood is interesting and can imply access to a fifth dimension because that appears to be a definitive unifier. It’s the main common thread between these various attributes of life. While people associate the pineal gland with spirituality, the one thing we know for sure that it does is help you sleep. DMT is somehow native to the human body and in significant dosage can take you to a place where a phenomenon of entities appears. And we know that gratitude cultivates or mediates spiritual well-being which results in better sleep, specifically for HF individuals, but presumably for more individuals when those results are extrapolated.

With all of this information in mind it’s possible and could potentially be corroborated with further research, that gratitude specifically but not exclusively can usher people into a spiritual state of existence that can positively influence physical and mental or emotional well-being. This is not a far-off idea and one that could be further substantiated via psychology in a way that could send pulses of muse, enlightenment, and new discoveries through the field and the extent of its reach. This differs from the source research in that the original study focused on gratitude in spiritual-wellbeing in HF individuals as opposed to spiritual well-being, being the catalyst for transcendence and how to achieve that.

There are people who want more from life. There are people who are disillusioned with how things were created for them without their say, and they just have to go along or struggle to play someone else’s game. There are spiritual people who don’t feel the spirit. There are people who at least think they know God but are unsure if God knows them and to what degree. There are people who want things to change and are low on hope and optimism. Low self-efficacy can lead to maladaptive behaviors. Addictive or self-abusive behaviors can come from a malnourished relationship with one’s higher self.

Psychology does a disservice by at least not entertaining the profound impact of the spirit. Some people don’t want to study God via theology, they want to know him personally. There are some people who don’t like to, would rather not, or are predisposed to becoming untethered from, taking a substance. Some people don’t want to hyperventilate or contort their body to experience a “high.” If gratitude and similar practices can be a healthy natural mediator to get people into the presence of God and for them to have a similar otherworldly or para-worldly experience as those expressed when on an elicit substance, it’s possible that people can experience a life imbued with purpose, meaning, authenticity, and a level of being unincumbered relatively foreign or unnatural to the common or normal predisposition of the world. Finally, the Bible does say, “enter his gates with thanksgiving…” (Psalm 100:4).

References:

Doyle, S., & Menaker, M. (2007). Circadian photoreception in vertebrates. Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology, 72(1), 499–508. https://doi.org/10.1101/sqb.2007.72.003

Malcom, K. (2019, June 27). “mystical” psychedelic compound found in normal brains. Michigan Medicine. https://www.michiganmedicine.org/health-lab/mystical-psychedelic-compound-found-normal-brains

Mills, P. J., Redwine, L., Wilson, K., Pung, M. A., Chinh, K., Greenberg, B. H., Lunde, O., Maisel, A., Raisinghani, A., Wood, A., & Chopra, D. (2015, January 19). The Role of Gratitude in Spiritual Well-being in Asymptomatic Heart Failure Patients. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/scp-0000050.pdf

Tsutsui, K. (2011). Neurosteroid biosynthesis and function in the brain of domestic birds. Frontiers in Endocrinology, 2. https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2011.00037