Journeys into the bright world

For the person who rarely, or even occasionally, resorts to ketamine the safety factor is remarkably high. However, the heavy user should watch himself carefully since there can be cumulative effects that are not immediately apparent. The over-excitation, sense of invincibility and of omnipotence, that may accompany repeated experimentation can militate against the practice of due caution.

Probably the real problems which can be expected to arise will appear in instances in which physicians give repeated doses of ketamine for analgesic purposes-as for example is now being done in treating burn cases. At this time it is not the underground use of ketamine that gives us cause for concern as much as the ways in which it is being prescribed by physicians ignorant of its deeper physiological and psychological effects. Formerly ketamine was almost entirely limited to one-time surgical operations. Increasingly, however, it is being prescribed as a kind of "novacaine for the whole body" which in cases of intractable pain may be administered again and again simply to keep the patient comfortable.

In an article published in 1974 in the medical journal Anesthesia and Analgesia Guenter Corssen, M.D., who is the developer of and foremost expert on ketamine, reports, "Ketamine has been administered as much as 45 times in the same individual along with radiotherapy for intraocular lesions and other inoperable intracranial tumors, without manifestation of brain damage or other signs of toxicity."

For us, it was astonishing to discover how much ketamine was being given to pregnant women on the point of delivery. In the July-August 1977 issue of the same medical journal the following information is given under the heading, "Neonatal Neurobehavioral Tests following Vaginal Delivery under Ketamine, Thiopental, and Extradural Anesthesia:"

In the ten years since ketamine was first used by Chodoff and Stella, it has been extensively employed for both vaginal deliveries and cesarean section.

…In a recent study ketamine was used as the sole anesthetic for 545 cesarean sections over a four year period… Fetal mortality was 1.8 percent, a figure less than half that seen with other techniques. No ketamine-associated effects were noted in the neonates.

On the other hand, the May-June 1971 issue of the same magazine contains a "Ketamine Symposium" in which the moderator Peter Bosomworth M.D. states:

And certainly there have been some very strange neurologic reactions in newborn infants following the use of ketamine, to the extent that I think probably the law is correct here; that only qualified investigators should be investigating these strange reactions at the present time.

Since ketamine easily crosses the placental barrier it is intriguing to speculate on the mind-bending effects produced on the infant thrust into the world on the crest of a wave of psychedelic sensations. The experience may not necessarily be negative, though it must be a letdown to the poor baby to find out an hour later what the world is really like.

In our investigations Howard and I discovered that while learned physicians think nothing of giving 150 milligrams of ketamine to a baby they can be shocked at the suggestion that they themselves might take a twenty-five milligram dose in order to have some understanding of the psychological effects of their routine ministrations. Rather, their emphasis seems to be entirely upon disguising the "emergence reactions" with other drugs. In the burn and obstretical cases, however, only ketamine was being given, and this seems to be a rising trend.

More and more we were finding out that even though people react in varying ways to the ketamine experience there are certain constants. Apparently there is some inherent property of the substance that makes it appear that one is tuning in on higher intelligences, journeying through space, tapping archetypes and controlling coincidences. Even the medical journals have to some extent taken account of this phenomenon. For example the May-June 1973 issue of Anesthesia and Analgesia contains an article entitled "Sensory Disturbances Following Ketamine Anesthesia" which states: