Near-death
experiences can be produced using a drug called
ketamine
which blocks receptors in the brain for the
neurotransmitter glutamate. All features of
a classic near-death experience can be produced
by the intravenous administration of 50 - 100
mg of ketamine. Ketamine is a short-acting,
hallucinogenic, dissociative anesthetic related
to phencyclidine. Both drugs are arylcyclohexylamines
- they are not opioids and are not related to
LSD.
In contrast to PCP, ketamine is relatively safe,
an uncontrolled drug in most countries, and
remains in use as an anesthetic for children.
Anesthetists attempt to prevent patients from
having near-death experiences (so-called "emergence
phenomena") by the co-administration of
benzodiazepines and other sedative substances
which produce "true" unconsciousness
rather than dissociation.
Ketamine
produces an altered state of consciousness that
is very different from that of the "psychedelic"
drugs such as LSD. It can produce all the features
of the near-death experience, including travel
through a dark tunnel into light, the conviction
that one is dead, telepathic communion with
God, visions, out-of-body experiences and mystical
states. If given intravenously, it has a short
action with an abrupt end. One ketamine user
talked of:
"...becoming
a disembodied mind or soul, dying and
going to another world."
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Childhood
events may also be re-lived. The loss of contact
with ordinary reality and the sense of participation
in another reality are more pronounced and less
easily resisted than is usually the case with
LSD. The dissociative experiences often seem
so genuine that users are not sure that they
have not actually left their bodies.
Timothy Leary,
a psychologist who experimented with LSD, described
ketamine as:
"... experiments
in voluntary death."
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One
ketamine user, who reported a classic near-death
experience, stated:
"I was convinced
I was dead. I was floating above my
body. I reviewed all of the events of
my life and saw a lot of areas where
I could have done better."
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Psychiatrist
and transpersonal psychologist
Stanislav Grof
states:
"If you have
a full-blown experience of ketamine,
you can never believe there is death
or that death can possibly influence
who you are."
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Ketamine
allows some patients to reason that:
"... the strange,
unexpected intensity and unfamiliar
dimension of their experience means
they must have died."
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Ketamine
HCl, available as 100mg/ml injectable under
the trade name Vetalar (Parke-Davis) and Ketaset
(Bristol) is used in veterinary work as a general
anesthetic. The dosage used produces analgesia
but with normal pharyngeal and laryngeal reflexes.
It only causes mild respiratory depression.
The advantage of this anesthetic is that you
don't need to support respiration while performing
any procedures. This allows for a one-man operation.
It is so widely used in the Veterinary profession
that I don't think abuse will cause it to be
discontinued, but I can see that it will one
day be serialized and accountable as a controlled
substance.
Because the near-death
experience and its corresponding out-of-body
experience can be induced using drugs, many
scientists conclude incorrectly from this that
such mystical experiences can be reduced solely
to brain chemistry. The same incorrect logic
can be applied to just about any human experience.
This would mean that every human experience
is only a brain chemical function. Anybody who
has ever experienced such things as synchronicity,
out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences,
after-death visitations, or anything remotely
paranormal, is only experiencing a phenomenon
that exists only in brain chemicals. Many
researchers use
scientific reductionism
to reduce everything to its most basic elements.
There is no doubt that the near-death experience
involves the mind/brain connection, but to say
that the mind is nothing more than a brain and
chemicals is to assume a lot. The fact that
near-death experiences can be reproduced in
the laboratory proves that this is a real scientific
phenomenon. By reproducing the near-death experience
in a laboratory setting, it satisfies the requirements
of the scientific method. However, the scientific
method has its limitations. It can only measure
what is measurable through the senses. Those
people who had a near-death experience, know it
actually transcends the physical senses and
the body all together and it cannot be adequately
measured. What many scientists fail to
realize is this: Just because it cannot be measured,
does not mean it does not exist.
I also
want to make it clear that I do not advocate
the use of potentially harmful drugs in any
way. The material on this web page is not necessarily
provided here for people to take ketamine in
order to induce a near-death experience.
This material is for informational purposes
only. I have never taken ketamine myself because
I have medical conditions which prevent me from
doing so. However, ketamine can be a safe drug
when used properly.
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