Educational Resources

Selected readings from/referenced in the Erowid Ketamine Vault:

• Ketamine Fatalities and Death by Erowid

• The Ketamine Konundrum by James Kent
  "If you have any lack of personal restraint when it comes to substance use, and you have fairly easy Ketamine access, then Ketamine is a big no-no. Tolerance builds up only very slowly, sometimes taking weeks. There is an extremely high potential for abuse. It can be a very 'escapist' drug.

I recently had a full bottle of pharmaceutical Ketamine - about 15-20 injections worth. At my worst, I shot about once a week for 4 or 5 weeks. Sometimes when I got angry or depressed, I felt like I just "had to" shoot to work out whatever it was that was troubling me. Because Ketamine is so process oriented, it ALWAYS worked. This is both comforting a frightening at the same time."

• Ketamine - Metaprogramming From Within the Eye of the Storm
  " ...there is also the trap of repeat use, chronic use, and long-term addiction. Low intranasal doses can easily be administered over and over all day. This behavior pattern may seem seductive, but it can be devastating...This is also a very seductive trap for some because Ketamine is a great dissociative, and can be abused for total annihilation of the mind in the same way that hard alcohol and heroin are often used. Frequent and prolonged Ketamine use can only lead to a detachment from reality, the neglect of "real-world" responsibilities, the piling up of mail, laundry, dirty dishes, empty vials of Ketamine, used needles, Pyrex plates with evaporated Ketamine residue lying around, etc. It's not a pretty sight, and I wouldn't recommend it."
  James Kent

• The Essential Psychedelic Guide by D.M. Turner
  "A major concern regarding safe use of Ketamine is its very high potential for psychological addiction. A fairly large percentage of those who try Ketamine will consume it non-stop until their supply is exhausted. I've seen this in friends I've known for many years who are regular psychedelic users and have never before had problems controlling their drug consumption. And I've seen the lives of several people who developed an addiction to Ketamine take downward turns. After about two years of once-per-week Ketamine use I even found that I had developed an addiction. Although it was less severe than what I've described above, it took considerable effort to break the cycle of repeatedly using it, even though I was aware of detrimental effects that it was causing. Since that time I've used Ketamine only occasionally, but find that I must continually exercise a high degree of will power to prevent myself from falling into a pattern of regular use. Amongst those I know who use Ketamine, I've seen very few who can use it in a balanced manner if they have access to it. One of the most remarkable things I experienced in becoming aware of and breaking my Ketamine addiction was the intervention of the tryptamine drugs, psilocybin and N,N-DMT. The DMT provided insights into the negative effects Ketamine was having on my life: a reduction in ambition; a reduction in healthy mortal fears, such as the fear of death; as well as a reluctance to confront fears or difficult tasks and situations directly. Frequent use of Ketamine can lure one as an escape since a blissful and fantastic state of fearless, disembodied consciousness is so easily available."
  D.M. Turner (Turner was found deceased in his bathtub with a vial of ketamine close by in January of 1997, hypothesized as the first known publicized death associated with ketamine usage)

• Ketamine: Dreams and Realities by Karl Jansen M.D., Ph.D.
  "The drug appears to take some people much further in than they have ever been, and yet they find themselves much further out. Ketamine is a source of both healing and harm, integration and disintegration."
  Karl Jansen
  
  (On Marcia Moore)
  "Marcia became addicted to ketamine and committed suicide. The drug is dangerous and its use should not be encouraged… I told her that it was a seductress, not a Goddess."
  Howard Alltounian, M.D. Interviewed by Karl Jansen (April 1998)
  
  (On John C. Lilly)
  "The next chapter is called 'Near Misses.' Toni Lilly found the intrepid traveler floating face down in the pool. She resuscitated him and he was taken by helicopter to hospital. Internally, he believed that he was in the year 3001. An attempt was made to admit the patient to a psychiatric hospital but he refused and the binge continued. His wife tried to persuade him to seek help, telling him that ketamine had taken over his life. He said that he could stay off the drug without help, but she insisted and he was duly admitted to a psychiatric ward. Soon he returned home. He felt that there were 'further parameters' of Vitamin K to be explored. For the next 3 weeks he gave himself injections almost hourly around the clock, secretly in the tank. He became convinced that he had to warn the government about extra-terrestrial intervention in human affairs. He flew to New York and installed himself in a hotel near Central Park, obtaining more supplies from friends. The messages told him to return to his former medical school. He flew there late at night, injected himself in a toilet and passed out on the floor. Lilly was picked up by an emergency squad and taken to hospital, where he was recognized by a doctor who knew him and arranged for his release. The injections continued, with Lilly attempting to call President Ford to warn him about the plot. He was again taken to the hospital but did not stay long. Despite everything that had happened, as soon as he got home he once again resumed his 'explorations.' His wife called this 'seduction by K.' Lilly called it 'the repeated use trap.'"
  Karl Jansen

• Non-Medical use of ketamine by Karl Jansen, M.D., Ph.D., M.D
  "A further cause for concern is that ketamine can sometimes result in a state where the users are unconcerned whether they live or die. This is not a depressive or suicidal phenomenon but is related to the particular effect of the dissociative state upon the mind: 'If you have a full-blown experience of K, you can never believe there is death, or that death can possibly influence who you are.'...In some people ketamine has the potential for compulsive, repeated use;  cases of self administered injections several times daily over prolonged periods have been reported..."
  Karl Jansen 

• Ketamine and Quantum Psychiatry by Karl Jansen

• Journeys Into The Bright World by Marcia Moore and Dr. Howard Sunny Alltounian (1978)

• Interview with a ketamine chemist by Hamilton Morris

• Ketaforensics - The Art and Science of Using Ketamine to Solve the JonBenét Ramsey Murder by Hamilton Morris 

• The Scientist (A Metaphysical Autobiography) by John C. Lilly