Ketamine Case Study: The Phenomenology of a Ketamine Experience

Psychonautics refers both to a methodology for describing and explaining the subjective effects of drugs, and to a long established research paradigm in which intellectuals have taken drugs to explore human experience and existence. The Psychonautics Project was an intermittent research enterprise set up in the UK in 1990 to develop this method/model, and involved a series of mixed-method studies of the phenomenology of hallucinogenic drug effects. This article reports a case study of a ketamine trip by a British academic in 1996, which should illuminate the unique nature of ketamine's effects. The account was based on a retrospective written self-report by the psychonaut of two serial injections of 40 mg of ketamine. Set and setting variables are also described. The excerpts presented here focus on his experiences of an alternative reality occupied by disembodied beings, visual hallucinations, the repetition of particular words and statements, and his affective reactions. The final section considers the impact of ketamine on depression, the importance of reflexivity in researching drug effects, and the critical role of psychonautics in the development of effective drug policies.