Ketamine reveals truth about the out-of-body experience
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
Chinese Man Lives With Blade in Face For Four Years
Doctors in China examined a patient complaining of headaches and a bad taste in his mouth – and found a 4ins blade buried in his face.
They say it had been in Li Fu’s face for four years without his knowledge, since he was stabbed in a robbery while working as a cab driver. Doctor Xu Wen, vice-director of stomatology at Yu Xi City People’s Hospital, said: “We were amazed to see such a long blade in his face.
“And it’s even more amazing to think that the blade had been there for more than four years and the patient was still living without too many problems.” He is now recovering after surgeons removed the blade, which had penetrated his tongue root, muscles and brain, in a complicated four hour operation.
Li, 37, of Yuanjiang County, Yunnan Province, was stabbed in September, 2006, after he resisted a knifepoint robbery. He was treated at a local hospital where doctors cleaned his wound and gave him disinfectant shots.
“The wound healed up gradually and I didn’t have any other symptoms, so I didn’t think of having further checkups,” said Li.
Police later caught the criminal and found the broken knife handle – but they never found the blade until Li was x-rayed at a county hospital. Doctors there referred him to Yu Xi City People’s Hospital which agreed to waive some of the £5,000 fees for the complex operation.
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