Death Rebirth Therapy: Paging Dr. K

Imagine a future society in which an artificial drug has been created which reliably produces the near-death experience, although this is not realized at first. The drug is given to millions of people when they undergo surgery, because it safely and reliably takes their consciousness away from their body so that they do not experience what is done to them. This hypothetical society has great fear of any state of consciousness which differs significantly from that which is considered "normal", and therefore when it is discovered that many people are having strange experiences on emerging from the anesthetic, doctors begin to administer other drugs as well to make sure the unusual experiences do not occur or are not remembered. Some people discover that the drug has fascinating and enjoyable effects when used at lower doses, and eventually large numbers of people begin to use the drug recreationally, while small numbers of people use it for shamanistic, spiritual, or therapeutic purposes - generally in a secretive way, because non-surgical use of the drug is prohibited.

Now stop imagining - you've been living in this world for quite some time, and the drug is called "ketamine."

Near-death experiences (NDE's) can be induced using the dissociative drug ketamine. Advances in neuroscience have recently provided us with new insights as to the mechanisms involved at the mind -brain interface. On the 'brain' side, it is now clear that these NDE's are due to blockade of brain receptors (drug binding sites) for the neurotransmitter glutamate. These binding sites are called the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors. Conditions which precipitate NDE's (low oxygen, low blood flow, low blood sugar, temporal lobe epilepsy etc.) have been shown to release a flood of glutamate, over-activating NMDA receptors. This overactivation can kill brain cells ('excito' toxicity). Ketamine prevents excitotoxicity. Conditions which trigger a glutamate flood may also trigger a flood of ketamine-like brain chemicals which bind to NMDA receptors to protect cells, leading to an altered state of consciousness like that produced by ketamine. from Using Ketamine to Induce the Near-Death Experience:Mechanism of Action and Therapeutic Potential by Dr. Karl R. Jansen

'I undertook a series of self-administrations which completely changed my conception of the ketamine experience. Ketamine differs from other psychedelics in that, in medium doses, it usually does not engage the psychodynamic level - instead it almost throws one into the transpersonal realm. Three or four minutes after the first injection I began to feel as though I had no body, yet somehow 'I' existed. There followed a stage where even this disembodied sense of self began to disappear, and I felt a real terror of dying. At that moment I managed to surrender and let go. All that remained was awareness; there was no 'I' as me, as an individual point of consciousness. It was as if there existed only that which was aware of itself.
'This experience gave me new insight into some esoteric concepts of Buddhism and other Eastern philosophies. It profoundly changed my sense of death and dying as well. For several days after this session, I had a feeling of inner surrender, I was very calm and centered.'
After this self-experimentation the researchers changed their paradigm and adopted a transpersonal approach. They now refer to this treatment as Death-Rebirth Psychotherapy. from 'Death-rebirth' psychotherapy with ketamine by Igor Kungurtsev, MD.

Kungurtsev reports an unusual anecdote: 'About one year after the study began, a small group of strange-looking people arrived at our clinic. They called themselves magicians, and said that they sensed in their meditations and magic practices that in our hospital some people were throwing other souls into the 'astral plane'. We described our work and showed them the hospital. They approved! They also told us that they used ketamine for their underground magic practice. As far as I understood from our conversations, their practice to some extent imitates or closely parallels the practice of Carlos Castaneda.'

Too bad I don't live in a society where people are allowed control over their own nervous systems. On the other hand, it's great to live on a planet where such incredibly cool things are happening. And who knows? Someday I may have access to death-rebirth therapy.