A significant proportion (18 percent) of patients receiving ketamine have vivid and colorful dreams, frequently of "outer space" or "floating."
Perhaps the most remarkable property of these dreams was that the majority were pleasant, even though the patients had been heavily premedicated, were given knock-out doses of ketamine, and were being subjected to painful and frightening operations.
In this article the following three cases were mentioned:
Case 1. This 42-year-old, 120-lb. woman was hospitalized for a dilation and curettage in August 1971… Following the surgical procedure, she dreamed in the recovery room of riding in a space ship or floating down in it.
A week later, while walking down a flight of steps, she perceived the same sensation as described in her recovery-room dreams; the sensation lasted until she was off the steps. This episode would recur each time she descended steps, over a three-week time span.
Case 2. This was a 63-year old, 210-lb. man who had undergone ten anesthetic procedures during the preceding six years for operations on a recurrent bladder tumor… His dreams in the recovery room consisted of "floating" or "flying" in space with his extremities "open like wings." A week after discharge, while walking down a flight of steps, he experienced the same sensation for a few seconds.
Case 3. This 60-year-old, 128-lb. woman was admitted in January 1972 for an operation on the flexor tendon on an index finger… In the recovery room she dreamed of numerous faceless people surrounding her bed. She was discharged two days later. Thereafter, and for about a week, each time she lay down, she saw faceless people around her bed, each such episode lasting for five or six seconds. Interviewed four months later, she had not had any recurrence of these episodes."
It also stated that of 1400 patients undergoing ketamine anesthesia, 80 percent reported dreaming while in the recovery room.
The incidence and quality of dreams following ketamine anesthesia-floating in space, splitting of the body image, and depersonalization-are far different from dreams previously described following conventional anesthetic agents. Also emergence delirium and/or hallucinatory effects following ketamine are much more common than with any other general anesthetic.
For my own part, I deliberately accelerated my intake during February with the thought in mind that I should check out the upper limits of safety before publishing this manuscript. After a week of daily tripping I began to suffer seriously from insomnia. By the first part of March I was sleeping only about three hours a night-and my body has always required an average amount of rest.
Despite this disruption of biological rhythms I felt remarkably well. The reason for the maintanance of a high level of efficiency was that between the first and fifth of March I experienced several inner plane healing and body-repair treatments. The last was like an actual operation with semi-visible surgeons working with light energies upon my spine. It was a most peculiar rendition of an actual surgical procedure which seemed to seal some sort of etheric rent in the lower back and quiet my overstimulated nerves. However, my bad leg did not improve and there was still an unaccustomed vibratory tingling at the base of my spine.
On March fifth I underwent a triple twenty-five milligram session which ended with a "Close-Encounters-of-the-Third-Kind"-type of confrontation during which my mind seemed to have reached the interface between planet Earth and the extraterrestrial web of informing intelligences that we have come to think of simply as "the Network." As it appeared to me, encounters of the first kind are with oneself, those of the second are with other individuals and those of the third kind are with the space brothers. It was made clear that our work had barely begun, but that my own physiological ability to stand up under the requisite pressures was in question. Accordingly, the impression was conveyed that I should desist from further ketamine usage until we had solved some pressing personal problems and wrapped up a multitude of loose ends, including this book.
The thought of foregoing our samadhi medicine for a couple of months was not as depressing as I would have expected since it was becoming increasingly evident that the body needed a respite. It was also good to know that there was some inherent quality in the substance that could signal the danger of an overload. Evidently the atoms of my inner being had been quickened to the point where the transformation could be sustained without repeated stimulation. Consequently I set aside my vials and syringes and prepared for my next trip to California.
For some time, I had been hearing via the grapevine that the person who had conducted the most research into the psychological effects of ketamine was the renowned scientist John Lilly, M.D. In mid-March I was fortunate enough to enjoy a brief visit with John and Antoinette Lilly at their charming Decker Canyon home high in the Malibu hills. This time Howard had been obliged to remain toiling away at his job at the Seattle Public Health Services Hospital while I attended to business in Ojai. Then we were to meet for an anesthesia conference in San Francisco. However, I was accompanied by my longtime friend Lynn Powell, a psychologist who is also a practitioner of ketamine therapy.
Although the Lillys' estate is only an hour's drive from the heart of teeming Los Angeles its appearance is that of an oasis in the sky set off by ranges of primeval mountains. It couldn't have felt more remote. At the same time it was a casual, comfortable sort of country place where modern conveniences blended compatibly with the accumulated memorabilia of years of full and gracious living. One could not help but think that whoever lived in this garden spot must have the best of all possible worlds.
Probably most of our readers know John Lilly as the author of many distinguished books including The Center of the Cyclone, Programming and Metaprogramming the Human Biocumputer, Simulations of God and several volumes on dolphin-human communications. He is the founder and director of the Communications Research Institute and in 1954 invented the Isolation Tank method for research into the "Deep Self."
Toni Lilly, a handsome vital woman my own age is a therapist and writer with extensive experience in teaching and filmmaking. Meeting her we could understand why John had written:
She has a maturity of viewpoint, a finish and elan, a joie de vivre, a steadfastness and a groundedness that I have seen in no other woman. She is very capable in human relationships. Male or female, businessmen, politicians, scientists, doctors, actors, mystics, children-all enjoy her warmth and enthusiasm. During the year of experiments with the Samadhi domain, when I pushed most others beyond their limits, Toni stood by and kept our planetside trip together.
It was Toni who made us welcome and ushered us out onto the lawn where we basked in the morning sunshine, sipped mugs of Red Zinger tea and honey and admired the flowers. By the time we had made our introductions John had joined us and we turned our attention to the point of our visit.
Being still in my euphoric stage of childlike awe at the wonders of ketamine I was astonished to discover that both Toni and John considered this to be an extremely dangerous substance and that both had ceased taking it. On asking the reasons for these reservations I was flabbergasted to discover that he had been taking up to fifty milligrams an hour, twenty hours per day, for periods up to three weeks. Owing to the cumulative effects thereby induced it became possible to remain permanently stoned.