Ketamine: Dreams and Realities

by Karl Jansen

Dreams and Realities is a non-biased and comprehensive overview of the drug ketamine. It covers everything from its recreational use in the dance community, its use as an adjunct to psychotherapy as an aid in overcoming chemical dependency and alcoholism, to the types of mystical experiences induced by ketamine. This book includes information on the possible benfits and dangers of ketamine use along with an authoratative treatment plan for individuals who become addicted to the drug. It is wealth of information for both laypersons and medical professionals alike.

Genres: Drugs, Science, Psychology, Nonfiction

354 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2001

Reviews

[Gwern · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moved to gwern.net.

[Edward Grigoryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author is partial to ketamine, but otherwise provides a balanced perspective of the potential psychotherapeutic and and mind-expanding benefits of ketamine while not at all down playing the potential risks and harms. Decent scientific overview of the chemistry of ketamine and its physiological effects. Provides metaphysical, psychoanalytic, and new-age/spiritual perspectives on ketamine, which contributes to a more thorough understanding of the social and cultural dimensions that have emerged around the use of ketamine. Though much has been learned about ketamine since the writing of this book, this is an excellent resource for the scientific literature on ketamine up until the time it was written in 2004. I am looking forward to reading the recently published "The Ketamine Papers" by MAPS for a more up to date comprehensive overview of ketamine.

[Andrés Mc Cormack · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good comprehensive account of human's relationship to ketamine.

Be warned that this includes arguably pseudoscientific speculation, so it should be read with a critical eye.

[Johan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a pretty good overview of all aspects of ketamine use, focusing on the recreational use thereof, not the medical use as an anesthetic. Interesting material presented in the form of trip reports either written down or by interview. Covers pretty much all there is to know about this hallucinogenic/psychedelic drug and some more (notably near-death experiences on ketamine). Written from a very neurological/psychiatric perspective that to some extent overlooks the social dimensions of the use.

I do have quite a few issues with the treatment methods Jensen presents, as these are based on "quantum psychiatry" and influenced by pretty wierd Jungian psychology. Ketamine-assisted therapy which is heralded as highly effective for alcoholism treatment and to some extent opiate dependency sounds pretty awful and evidence of its effectiveness is scant (referenced studies were made by the method's creators if I understand it correctly). Stuff like this places this book within a very special discipline and discourse which to my ears sounds very much like the type of "lunatic fringe" that Jensen wants to distance himself from.

So read this with a very critical mind, disregard the quantum physics stuff and pay more attention to the more realistic aspects presented, is my advice.

[Jeffrey Richey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jansen gives a thoroughly researched and deeply engaging account of the fascinating history and wondrous psychoactive effects of the remarkable psychedelic anesthetic drug ketamine. Although it has long been a staple of modern medicine as the safest anesthetic for small animals, children, and the elderly, many people aren't aware of the profound psychedelic effects it can produce when used for recreational or (for lack of a better word) spiritual purposes.

Finding wide popularity in the underground rave culture of the 1990s, users found a drug that internalized the bass-thumping pulse of their electronic music within their very own bodies and could fuel their ecstatic dance until sunrise. Those seeking a more mystical experience discovered a powerful tool which, when used in higher doses, could reliably produce vivid out-of-body and entheogenic experiences of union with the divine universe. Outside of the class of traditional psychedelic compounds which tend to act on serotonin receptors, ketamine is known as an NMDA receptor antagonist, which means its profound psychedelic effects result from a completely different type of pharmacodynamic action than the more commonly known drugs like LSD, DMT, psilocybin, and mescaline.

[Mateo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I should write the book on Methoxamine.

[Nancy Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is interesting to read a book that focuses on its hallucinogen effects along with the true risk of addiction instead of the drug's use in the operating room setting. This book does deliver both promises and even has a chapter on how addiction clinics can use a non-accusatory approach to reach the core birth trauma theory that compels some people to continue using it even though it only causes them euphoria without any true hallucinogen effects.

It focuses a lot of time on two famous addicted consumers: a free spirit New Age guru who took advantage her husband was an anesthetist to obtain the drug and ends up freezing to death meandering in a forest during the winter and a scientist who always had lucid dreams growing up who studied a lot on the drug for the US government. Both people had very different trips. The guru's trips were full of warmth and spirituality, the scientist cold and clinical. One starts to develop a second personality and dies by accident; the other retires and lives a quiet life near the beach.

The interviews about the feeling of trips by casual and chronic users are varied and interesting to read. The chapter on how plenty of people easily fall into the trap of addiction is far more educational than the tried and failed say no to drugs campaigns aimed at teenagers. The book is outdated in the sense Ketamine is now a Schedule II drug in Mexico. Any doctor can prescribe it, but it is hard to get because they only sell it in specialized surgical pharmacies in less than 20 cities.

An insufficient amount of time is used to talk about the discovery of the drug, its chemistry and medically oriented clinical effects, but the author is a psychiatrist and didn't write the book oriented at other doctors so the toning down on the medical verbiage makes a lot of sense.

If there is one complaint I have with the book, I feel like it meanders too much and doesn't really feel perfectly organized. Chapter 1 and the prologue are pretty much the same and even subsequent chapters go bouncing back and forth between varying chapters instead of neatly tightening everything up.

This is a newer edition of the book and the knowledge of ketamine for medical purposes has made huge breakthroughs when just 5 years ago, a plethora of studies on its almost miraculous use in severe depression without the disadvantages and adverse effects of SSIs started to bombard medical journals and made headlines. While the book mentions why racemic Ketamine can't be used in the spinal cord and briefly talks about newer drug versions with fewer hallucinogen effects, new drugs such as esketamine have been FDA approved for depression that haven't been mentioned in the book because it is now outdated. Esketamine is doing miracles even though at 6000 USD per biweekly treatment, it is too pricey for the average layman. With the pandora box open, even the US has centers where people get biweekly iv ketamine treatments under close monitorization with positive results.

While this book delves a bit too hard on the New Age wave and wanders around too much for my taste, I think doctors should give the book a chance just to be better informed on its recreational use.

[Simmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very well written book. Very informative, providing both the negative and positive sides of ketamine.

[Alt Er Nego · Rating 5 out of 5]

the only relevant book on this subject.
spoiler alert: you know it already, you just can t remember it.

[K Sadov · Rating 3 out of 5]

A comprehensive and balanced take on ketamine’s history and effects interspersed with detours into the author’s pet issues of birth trauma, quantum consciousness and visualization meditation.

[Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative and research based.

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

First half: I quickly learned a lot. Then it became convoluted, like Timothy Leary but with less content. I skimmed parts that were full of sketchy evidence supporting weak models. I appreciate the models, but I don't want to privilege them.

Second half: Began to redeem itself, talking about practical ways of supporting people with addiction. I like the frame of persona-hatred, caused by having a self-image mostly manufactured by others and the culture you live in.

This book is trying to do a lot, to satisfy a wide audience of potential Ketamine takers. I think by writing to the lowest common denominator is out of place, since if someone wanted to learn about the neuroscience of Ketamine, they'd know what synapses are. My favorite part are the many reports from K users. If the reports included are representative, then I feel pretty well informed about this drug.

[Oldak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jansen achieves a good blend of informative writing and anecodote to overview the history of the development and use of this drug. He artfully describes the pharmaceutical and counter-culture contexts in which it became prominent, its effects, and its health consequences. Refreshingly, he doesn't moralise about the use of recreational drugs. Particularly memorable were accounts of two of the prominent characters in the history of "psychedelic" ketamine use: John Lilly, and Marcia Moore. There is a very informative chapter about the unusual nature of ketamine addiction (both Lilly and Moore were professed addicts).

I recommend John Lilly's autobiography The Scientist, for further reading.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent insight into this amazing substance.

[María · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very useful book about the "recreative" use of the psychedelic anesthetic. Worth reading as an user.

[Joshua Line]

The best ketamine book.

[Paracelsus]

specii coerent?