A popular “club drug” promises to open a scientific window on the strange world of out-of-body experiences, researchers say.
Recreational users of a substance called ketamine often report having felt like they left their bodies or underwent other bizarre physical transformations, according to an online survey conducted by psychologist Todd Girard of Ryerson University in Toronto and his colleagues.
Ketamine, an anesthetic known to interfere with memory and cause feelings of detachment from one’s self or body, reduces transmission of the brain chemical glutamate through a particular class of molecular gateways. Glutamate generally jacks up brain activity. Ketamine stimulates sensations of illusory movement or leaving one’s body by cutting glutamate’s ability to energize certain brain areas, the researchers propose in a paper published online Feb. 15 in Consciousness and Cognition.
“Ketamine may disrupt patterns of brain activation that coalesce to represent an integrated body and self, leading to out-of-body experiences,” Girard says.
Full article at WiredScience
Having been a ketamine user in my past I have to comment and say that these theories are mostly true. However on some experiences I almost felt more trapped inside my body than out of it. It’s much the same way as with acid, it’s dependent on the individuals state of mind upon taking the substance.
There are documented cases of out of body experiences that have not been at all satisfactorily explained in physiological terms. These include a case where someone with no brain activity had continued conscious experience that was later verified. For details of this and other cases please see Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience, Pim van Lommel.
There’s also a quite strong growing body of evidence saying Ketamine is an *extremely* fast acting (hours) antidepressant with almost magical properties. This is just one of many articles, trials and studies.
http://technologyreview.com/biomedicine/19156/
I work in pain management and we see this all the time with ketamine infusions. It’s not that amazing, the hypothesis they are proposing is supported by a fair bit of basic science and clinical observation. In our practice the floating feeling is felt to be quite unpleasant and not at all enjoyable. Those who like to think it might be a good drug to use recreationally should be aware of it’s notoriously short leap in dose from consciousness-affecting to complete unconsciousness.
I’ve taken K recreationally and in hospital (whilst having a dislocated ankle popped back in) and have usually ended up in a weird, swirly world with no body – I felt like a tiny point of conciousness floating through plasma.
My sister had an operation recently, and they gave her ketamine. No idea why anyone would want to use it recreationally – She said it was horrible. She actually went under with her eyes open, and she said that it was like everything had paused, like on the Sky+ Player
When she woke up, she couldn’t talk, could barely move, had triple vision, and said everything sounded really far away. She felt weird for days after that (It stays in your system for a week. It’s a freaking horse tranquilizer!)
I don’t think it’s accurate to say that any “truth” has been revealed here. What the researchers present is simply a hypothesis. It could just as easily be true that ketamine triggers the chemical reaction that allow our consciousness to move out of our bodies. But of course THAT hypothesis is scientific heresy and supporting evidence would never get published in a mainstream scientific journal.
I like this forum. The topic seems to me to be “our perception of reallity”. The fact seems to be, “a drug changes our perception of reallity”. The issue seems to be “should an altered perception of reallity be reguarded as real or false”.
This is a great topic!!!
By your very nature you have no option but to accept the large majority of experiences you have else it would fast become very hard to operate in the world. But you don’t have to keep the first explanation you invent.
Burning my hand implies “all shiny metal objects are painfull” becomes “all shiny iron like objects are very hot if plugged in”.
Does “experiencing consciousness outside our body” mean “conciousness is in some way separate from the body”. I would really appreciate evidence to back this up, it would be so cool!!
I’m just thinking of the radio interview where Alan Partridge promotes his book.
whatever, not to mention the ketamine bladder syndrome that is now an accepted side effect of long term use. we now see kids, well young people in their twenties peeing through catheters and, in some cases, getting their whole bladders removed.
how enlightening’s that?
I used to have a lot of out of body experiences when i was a teenager.I had it lying on my bed before sleeping,during my sleep and taking short naps even in the bus.I hated that.It is a strange and strong sensation of being tottaly conscious but not recognizing the world as we know it.Sensations of having a translucid body,floating around the house or place and feeling a lucid sense of being in another realm.Not lucid dreaming at all.I went floating over the houses rooftops,saw people sleeping on their beds and recognized my neighborhood exactly as it was.The problem with the researchers is that they have never been through something like that.Like trying to explain what is the taste of an orange without having tasted it for yourself.
@Caio I used to have mad dreams when I was younger. Think it’s just parts of the brain. Nothing special. Maybe I see it that way because I disliked the feelings so much. Don’t mean to be insensitive. (The best I had was flying in a fryingpan racing my brother in the sky : )