K-Hole

At sufficiently high doses of the drug ketamine (half a gram or more), it is common to experience a ‘K-hole.’ This is a slang term for a state of dissociation from the body which may mimic the phenomenology of schizophrenia. Experience of the K-hole may include distortions in bodily awareness, such as the feeling that one’s body is being tugged, or is gliding on silk, flying, or has grown very large or distended. Users have reported the sensation of their soul leaving their human body.

Users have also often reported feeling more skeletal or becoming more aware of their bones – the shape of their hands is also often of interest. Users may experience worlds or dimensions that are ineffable, all the while being completely unaware of their individual identities or the external world. Users have reported intense hallucinations including visual hallucinations, perceptions of falling, fast and gradual movement and flying, ‘seeing god, ‘feeling connected to other users, objects and the cosmos, experiencing psychic connections, and shared hallucinations and thoughts with adjacent users.

Some users may not remember this part of the experience after regaining consciousness, in the same way that a person may forget a dream. Owing to the role of the NMDA receptor in long-term potentiation, this may be due to disturbances in memory formation. The ‘re-integration’ process is slow, and the user gradually becomes aware of surroundings. At first, users may not remember their own names, forget they are human, or even know what that means. Movement is extremely difficult, and a user may not be aware that he or she has a body at all, it is rare to be able to sit and talk.

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