There can be no doubt but that ketamine acts as a truth serum inasmuch as it forces confrontation with material which has long been locked away in the unconscious. If an individual has something to conceal or has in any way been living a lie, then he takes this substance at the risk of having to be altogether honest with himself. Presumably, therefore, it could precipitate latent psychoses, just as LSD has been known to do. Unless there is a willingness to clean up one's personal life it might be better to avoid ketamine altogether. There can be little point in revealing a cancerous tumor if the patient is unwilling to submit to an operation to cut it out.
Another drawback which is a notorious feature of the heavy use of any psychedelic agent is paranoia. Howard and I did experience our share of this common side-effect and thereby subjected ourselves to much unnecessary strain. Realistically speaking there certainly was a danger that his job might be jeopardized by the premature revelation that we were engaged in unsponsored research with a controversial drug. Nonetheless, the sense of being once again an "outlaw" was probably more oppressive than it should have been.
It may be that people engaged in esoteric pursuits are especially subject to paranoid fears because they have, in former incarnations, suffered more than their share of martyrdoms. Consequently any ketamine-induced probing into the cracks and crevices of the psyche is likely to joggle the buried memories of innumerable martyrdoms. Most of us have been tortured, burned or in some way crucified in former lifetimes and these ancient traumas still produce their repercussions.
The first lifetime to which I was regressed was one in which I had been a young maiden on a South Sea island who was garbed in feathers, conducted up a steep mountain and hurled into a volcano as a sacrifice to the local deity. (Actually I think I was supposed to be bearing a message to the god and this seemed a logical way to send it.) There was also a memory of having been shoved backward over an abyss and, of course, Old Mary shivering on that damp dungeon floor. To this day it is hard to escape the conviction that we will once again be immolated, incarcerated or rudely dispatched as the result of engaging in forbidden practices. This fear has not been helped by the fact that even in this existence there has been some ferocious opposition to the esoteric movements with which we have been allied, some of which has rubbed off on us personally.
There were even times when I felt as though the gods in their heavens were throwing dice to decide which archetype would make the most fitting finale for our labors. A spectacular martyrdom might just turn the trick in publicizing samadhi therapy. On the other hand, if this old Earth is to have a new dispensation maybe we would be permitted to cut a fresh groove by enjoying our sunset years in that secluded "twelfth house" on the Olympic Peninsula that we so often envisioned. Certainly we were willing to cooperate with the "powers that be" in carving out an archetype of joy and success and have made active efforts to create thoughtforms to this effect. From what we have been able to remember of our souls' histories it would be an agreeable change of pace.
Almost certainly, no one is going to refine the pure gold of a shining new value system without digging deep into the leadmines of the soul. The individual who sincerely strives to recreate himself in a new image may eventually achieve the desired alchemical regeneration. He is likely to find, however, that reincarnation would have been an easier expedient. Perhaps that is why physical rebirth remains the preferred method of rejuvenation. Only toward the end of the evolutionary cycle do we become co-creators of our fleshly domiciles, like a tenant who having rented house after house finally decides to take the trouble to construct a home of his own, now that he knows what he really wants.
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: