At-home ketamine therapy may produce a sense of disconnection from one’s ordinary reality and usual self that may induce or enhance feelings of creativity, purpose, perspective, serenity, insight, inspiration, gratitude, empathy, connection with others and the world, openness to new ideas, psychological rebirth, and traveling outside of one’s self, among others. You may also experience visual, auditory, and other sensory effects.
Depending on the dose of ketamine and the time between your last session, you may experience anything from being more aware of how your body feels, quieting of the mind, feelings of love and gratitude, all the way to increased feelings of connection to yourself, to the universe/god, ego-transcendence, and revisiting past experiences from a different perspective - without the normal emotional charge attached to those experiences. The level of dissociation is not directly related to the efficacy of the medicine.
Ketamine has an extensive history of use as an anesthetic agent for medical procedures and surgery. How ketamine allows for sedation during these procedures is due to its dissociative property. This dissociative property “disconnects” the mind from body by disrupting the action of the neurotransmitter (aka brain chemical) glutamate. When ketamine is used for non-anesthetic indications (KNAI), it can create transformational experiences. Because of this property, patients become dissociated and can have a “ketamine-induced non-ordinary state of consciousness.”
Ketamine treatments range from feeling like a deep-meditation to a "journey" or separation from your body & ego. While each experience is different, here's how we categorize the experiences:
Empathogenic Experience (EE):
Awareness of body
Comfort and relaxation
Reduced ego defenses
Empathy, compassion, and warmth love and peace
Euphoria
Mind is dreamy with non-specific colorful visual effects
Out-Of-Body Experience (OBE):
Feeling of separation from one’s body.
Significantly diminished ego defenses.
Visits to mythological realms of consciousness
Emotionally intense visions (e.g., deceased relatives, spirits)
Vivid dreams of past and future incarnations
Feelings of rebirth
Ego-Dissolving Transcendental Experience (EDT):
Ecstatic state of the dissolution of boundaries between the self and external reality
Complete dissolution of one’s body and self (soul)
Transcending normal mass/time/space continuum
Collective consciousness
Unity with Nature/Universe
Sacredness
During your at-home ketamine treatments, you may revisit memories, emotions, and stories which may contain unprocessed or repressed feelings - without the normal emotional charges. This release allows for an opportunity to work through or process these past experiences and feelings.
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