#1
Recreational Use
The radio analogy as used in "history and facts" also explains why people would want to use
ketamine for recreational purposes. The volume of the radio is turned up, and instead of music
the radio produces something different: noise.
How does this translate to an experience on ketamine? The body works faster, and so does
the brain. Since there are no external signals reaching the brain as they are blocked by the
ketamine, the brain is left with signals that are already inside the brain: memories, dreams, the
subconscious. The noise is in fact a trip into the brain! In "the k-hole" I'll give a detailed
description how this actually feels.
Party Drug
In the 70s and 80s ketamine was only used recreationally by a small group of psychonauts,
and people who worked in hospitals and wanted to try the stuff. It wasn't until the rise of the
dance scene in the late 80s that more people started to use K. Until 1999 ketamine was an
uncontrolled drug, and since XTC was very expensive and illegal in the USA, it wasn't a
surprise that K became very popular in the USA. In the early 90s it was quite common to see
several people lying on the floor in New York clubs like Twilo and The Tunnel, people who
had taken so much K that they had knocked themselves into a "K-hole".
In 1999 the drug became a controlled substance, which meant that only certified people were
allowed to possess and use ketamine.
Injecting K
In the early days the most common way to use ketamine was to inject the liquid. Ketamine is
usually sold in little bottles that contain 1 gram of K dissolved in 10 ml of liquid. Ketamine can
be injected intravenously (directly into the bloodstream) or intramuscularly (in a muscle).
Especially the first method can be dangerous, as the drug starts to work almost immediately,
and it's not a good idea to knock yourself out with a needle sticking into your body.
Snorting K
With the rise of K on the dance scene the most popular way to take K is snorting it. For this
one has to cook the liquid K dry. The slower one does this, the better.
In my opinion the best way to do it is to put the liquid K in a glass bowl, which one puts in a
pan with boiling water, cooking the K 'au bain marie'. If one is in more of a rush, one can also
put the glass bowl in an oven or even microwave, and cook it until the liquid has evaporated.
What are left are K crystals on the glass bowl, which one scrapes off and cuts up until one
gets a powder.
Snorting K is obviously less effective than injecting it, but the effects still come quite fast,
sometimes within a few minutes. Another disadvantage is that snorting K has a negative effect
on the mucous membranes in the nose. A more technical term for snorting K is 'insufflating' K.
Swallowing K
Ketamine can also be swallowed. Many people had their first experience with K when they
bought a pill that was sold as XTC but actually contained ketamine. Swallowing K is the least
effective way of using the drug. The stomach metabolizes ketamine into norketamine, which
has only 20 to 30% of the effectivity of ketamine. The advantage of swallowing ketamine is
that the effects come slowly and that the trip last longer. Norketamine can stay in the body for
many hours, while a K-trip by insufflation lasts around an hour, and the effects of injected K
often disappear within less than half an hour, often even within 15 minutes.
Effects
So what are the effects of ketamine? Well, obviously this depends a lot on the doses. In clubs
one usually takes low doses, just to make one feel "high", while a psychonaut takes much
higher doses to travel to other dimensions.
Low Doses
In clubs one usually snorts K using a bullet (a little device that makes it possible to insufflate
drugs like ketamine without having to worry of taking too much or spilling the drug). A dose
from a bullet - usually called a 'bump' is somewhere around 30 to 40 mg, and for first time
users one bump is often enough (until it wears off). At low doses one can expect some or all of
the following effects:
- Numbness. It's often like one is surrounded by soft cotton. This is because ketamine blocks
senses of pain from the body. This often gives the sensation of feeling high. People might feel
like they are floating. The feet might walk, but the brain doesn't register it. The body moves on
automatic pilot.
- Slurred speech. It's often hard to have a proper conversation.
- Loss of coordination. First time users usually go weak in the knees, and have to sit down.
One might fall (and not feel any pain).
- Impaired sight. Colours change, and sometimes light can simply get too bright. In clubs you
can have the feeling of being in your own movie, or even have an out-of-body experience
(more about that later, in The K-Hole).
- Impaired hearing. Sounds may be deformed, frequencies may disappear, music may seem to
slow down.
- Altered sense of time and space. Your perspective may change. Time seems to slow down.
Bits of time seem to be missing, time might not seem chronological, and one can experience
deja-vus.
All these effects show that ketamine is not a very social drug (unlike XTC for example). People
tend to turn inward on this drug. Some would say that they start behaving like zombies, not
really in touch with the world around them. This is why a lot of people won't use ketamine in
clubs.
High Doses
Higher doses are not advisable in a club. If one wants to try a higher dose of ketamine, it is
absolutely required that one sits down, or better: lays down on a bed or sofa. If you've never
done high doses of K before, it's best to have a sitter around (someone who stays sober, and
can look after you), as the effects of K can be very extreme, and - even though they are
relatively safe - can therefore be quite scary.
At higher doses the effects as described before get stronger. Vision and hearing become very
difficult, even unpleasant, and thus most people who venture into the K-hole do so in a dark
and quiet area (the bed room for example). Moving around becomes almost impossible - most
accidents with ketamine happens if people try to walk or do other things while on K. Talking is
barely possible. When one enters the K-hole, one turns completely inward, signals from the
outside world do not reach the brains, and the person tripping is left on his own. Again,
ketamine is a very unsocial drug.
Entering into the K-hole usually feels like falling into nothingness. Everything seems black, the
normal laws of physics seem not to apply anymore, time and space collapse completely. The
further one goes the more extreme the effects can be. Often people have out-of-body
experiences (OBE's), sometimes they have near-death (NDE) or rebirth experiences. Some
people meet God, some people are God, some meet aliens, etc. Almost anything is possible.
It's a completely different world out there.
In the chapter "The K-hole" I will describe in more detail the different phases of a trip on
ketamine, and the things I have felt and seen.
Coming down
After the recreational use of drugs one often experiences a comedown. For example XTC
causes the brain to release high levels of serotonin into the brain, which generate a happy
feeling, and make the user feel euphoric. After the pill has stopped working, the brain is
depleted of serotonin, and the user feels low. This is known as a comedown.
Ketamine doesn't cause a comedown. Some people feel lethargic after the use of ketamine,
some feel down after a wonderful experience in "another dimension", but this is not a
physical thing like the comedown of XTC.
In fact, it's very possible to feel rather energetic and happy after a night on K. Ketamine is in
principle an upper, a stimulant, and when the anesthetic effect of K has disappeared, the
stimulating effect of the drug is often still present. People who've used ketamine often
become resistant to the anesthetic effect of K - they build up a tolerance - but the stimulant
effect often stays. This explains why regular users of K often have no problems dancing the
night away on K.
The effects of ketamine wear off relatively quickly. If you inject K, the effects wear of in half an
hour. If you snort K, the drug usually wears off within an hour. This and the fact that ketamine
doesn't cause a comedown gives ketamine an advantage over a drug like XTC: if one stops
taking K one hour before one leaves the club, one can go home surprisingly clear.
If one does ketamine at home, coming back to normal life can be a bit harder. Leaving the
surreal world of the K-hole and coming back into the 'boring' real world can be very
disappointing. Physically one tends to feel groggy, and is often very sensitive to light and
sound. Not much different from waking up after an operation.
The disappointment one feels when resurfacing from the K-hole is the main cause of ketamine
addiction. Many addicts have problems living in this world, and keep travelling to that other
world, sometimes with fatal consequences. The world just revolves around the question:
"when is my next trip?" The best way to make sure you don't go this far is never to do a
K-trip again before the profound feeling of the previous one has worn off. If you do K thinking
"I wanna feel like last week again" you know you're on the wrong path.
The radio analogy as used in "history and facts" also explains why people would want to use
ketamine for recreational purposes. The volume of the radio is turned up, and instead of music
the radio produces something different: noise.
How does this translate to an experience on ketamine? The body works faster, and so does
the brain. Since there are no external signals reaching the brain as they are blocked by the
ketamine, the brain is left with signals that are already inside the brain: memories, dreams, the
subconscious. The noise is in fact a trip into the brain! In "the k-hole" I'll give a detailed
description how this actually feels.
Party Drug
In the 70s and 80s ketamine was only used recreationally by a small group of psychonauts,
and people who worked in hospitals and wanted to try the stuff. It wasn't until the rise of the
dance scene in the late 80s that more people started to use K. Until 1999 ketamine was an
uncontrolled drug, and since XTC was very expensive and illegal in the USA, it wasn't a
surprise that K became very popular in the USA. In the early 90s it was quite common to see
several people lying on the floor in New York clubs like Twilo and The Tunnel, people who
had taken so much K that they had knocked themselves into a "K-hole".
In 1999 the drug became a controlled substance, which meant that only certified people were
allowed to possess and use ketamine.
Injecting K
In the early days the most common way to use ketamine was to inject the liquid. Ketamine is
usually sold in little bottles that contain 1 gram of K dissolved in 10 ml of liquid. Ketamine can
be injected intravenously (directly into the bloodstream) or intramuscularly (in a muscle).
Especially the first method can be dangerous, as the drug starts to work almost immediately,
and it's not a good idea to knock yourself out with a needle sticking into your body.
Snorting K
With the rise of K on the dance scene the most popular way to take K is snorting it. For this
one has to cook the liquid K dry. The slower one does this, the better.
In my opinion the best way to do it is to put the liquid K in a glass bowl, which one puts in a
pan with boiling water, cooking the K 'au bain marie'. If one is in more of a rush, one can also
put the glass bowl in an oven or even microwave, and cook it until the liquid has evaporated.
What are left are K crystals on the glass bowl, which one scrapes off and cuts up until one
gets a powder.
Snorting K is obviously less effective than injecting it, but the effects still come quite fast,
sometimes within a few minutes. Another disadvantage is that snorting K has a negative effect
on the mucous membranes in the nose. A more technical term for snorting K is 'insufflating' K.
Swallowing K
Ketamine can also be swallowed. Many people had their first experience with K when they
bought a pill that was sold as XTC but actually contained ketamine. Swallowing K is the least
effective way of using the drug. The stomach metabolizes ketamine into norketamine, which
has only 20 to 30% of the effectivity of ketamine. The advantage of swallowing ketamine is
that the effects come slowly and that the trip last longer. Norketamine can stay in the body for
many hours, while a K-trip by insufflation lasts around an hour, and the effects of injected K
often disappear within less than half an hour, often even within 15 minutes.
Effects
So what are the effects of ketamine? Well, obviously this depends a lot on the doses. In clubs
one usually takes low doses, just to make one feel "high", while a psychonaut takes much
higher doses to travel to other dimensions.
Low Doses
In clubs one usually snorts K using a bullet (a little device that makes it possible to insufflate
drugs like ketamine without having to worry of taking too much or spilling the drug). A dose
from a bullet - usually called a 'bump' is somewhere around 30 to 40 mg, and for first time
users one bump is often enough (until it wears off). At low doses one can expect some or all of
the following effects:
- Numbness. It's often like one is surrounded by soft cotton. This is because ketamine blocks
senses of pain from the body. This often gives the sensation of feeling high. People might feel
like they are floating. The feet might walk, but the brain doesn't register it. The body moves on
automatic pilot.
- Slurred speech. It's often hard to have a proper conversation.
- Loss of coordination. First time users usually go weak in the knees, and have to sit down.
One might fall (and not feel any pain).
- Impaired sight. Colours change, and sometimes light can simply get too bright. In clubs you
can have the feeling of being in your own movie, or even have an out-of-body experience
(more about that later, in The K-Hole).
- Impaired hearing. Sounds may be deformed, frequencies may disappear, music may seem to
slow down.
- Altered sense of time and space. Your perspective may change. Time seems to slow down.
Bits of time seem to be missing, time might not seem chronological, and one can experience
deja-vus.
All these effects show that ketamine is not a very social drug (unlike XTC for example). People
tend to turn inward on this drug. Some would say that they start behaving like zombies, not
really in touch with the world around them. This is why a lot of people won't use ketamine in
clubs.
High Doses
Higher doses are not advisable in a club. If one wants to try a higher dose of ketamine, it is
absolutely required that one sits down, or better: lays down on a bed or sofa. If you've never
done high doses of K before, it's best to have a sitter around (someone who stays sober, and
can look after you), as the effects of K can be very extreme, and - even though they are
relatively safe - can therefore be quite scary.
At higher doses the effects as described before get stronger. Vision and hearing become very
difficult, even unpleasant, and thus most people who venture into the K-hole do so in a dark
and quiet area (the bed room for example). Moving around becomes almost impossible - most
accidents with ketamine happens if people try to walk or do other things while on K. Talking is
barely possible. When one enters the K-hole, one turns completely inward, signals from the
outside world do not reach the brains, and the person tripping is left on his own. Again,
ketamine is a very unsocial drug.
Entering into the K-hole usually feels like falling into nothingness. Everything seems black, the
normal laws of physics seem not to apply anymore, time and space collapse completely. The
further one goes the more extreme the effects can be. Often people have out-of-body
experiences (OBE's), sometimes they have near-death (NDE) or rebirth experiences. Some
people meet God, some people are God, some meet aliens, etc. Almost anything is possible.
It's a completely different world out there.
In the chapter "The K-hole" I will describe in more detail the different phases of a trip on
ketamine, and the things I have felt and seen.
Coming down
After the recreational use of drugs one often experiences a comedown. For example XTC
causes the brain to release high levels of serotonin into the brain, which generate a happy
feeling, and make the user feel euphoric. After the pill has stopped working, the brain is
depleted of serotonin, and the user feels low. This is known as a comedown.
Ketamine doesn't cause a comedown. Some people feel lethargic after the use of ketamine,
some feel down after a wonderful experience in "another dimension", but this is not a
physical thing like the comedown of XTC.
In fact, it's very possible to feel rather energetic and happy after a night on K. Ketamine is in
principle an upper, a stimulant, and when the anesthetic effect of K has disappeared, the
stimulating effect of the drug is often still present. People who've used ketamine often
become resistant to the anesthetic effect of K - they build up a tolerance - but the stimulant
effect often stays. This explains why regular users of K often have no problems dancing the
night away on K.
The effects of ketamine wear off relatively quickly. If you inject K, the effects wear of in half an
hour. If you snort K, the drug usually wears off within an hour. This and the fact that ketamine
doesn't cause a comedown gives ketamine an advantage over a drug like XTC: if one stops
taking K one hour before one leaves the club, one can go home surprisingly clear.
If one does ketamine at home, coming back to normal life can be a bit harder. Leaving the
surreal world of the K-hole and coming back into the 'boring' real world can be very
disappointing. Physically one tends to feel groggy, and is often very sensitive to light and
sound. Not much different from waking up after an operation.
The disappointment one feels when resurfacing from the K-hole is the main cause of ketamine
addiction. Many addicts have problems living in this world, and keep travelling to that other
world, sometimes with fatal consequences. The world just revolves around the question:
"when is my next trip?" The best way to make sure you don't go this far is never to do a
K-trip again before the profound feeling of the previous one has worn off. If you do K thinking
"I wanna feel like last week again" you know you're on the wrong path.