posted May 03, 2009 03:27 PM            

"Ketamine and Phencyclidine
Ketamine is a short-acting, hallucinogenic, dissociative anaesthetic related to phencyclidine (PCP). Both drugs are arylcyclohexylamines - they are not opioids and are not related to LSD. In contrast to PCP, ketamine is relatively safe, an uncontrolled drug in most countries, and remains in use as an anaesthetic for children (White et al., 1982). Anaesthetists attempt to prevent patients from having NDE's (emergence phenomena) by the co-administration of benzodiazepines and other sedative substances which produce 'true' unconsciousness rather than dissociation (Reich and Silvay, 1989).
Ketamine produces an altered state of consciousness which is very different from that of the 'psychedelic' drugs such as LSD (Grinspoon and Bakalar, 1981). It can reproduce all features of the NDE, including travel through a dark tunnel into light, the conviction that one is dead, 'telepathic communion with God', hallucinations, out-of-body experiences and mystical states (see ketamine references above). If given intravenously, it has a short action with an abrupt end. Grinspoon and Bakalar (1981, p34) wrote of: '...becoming a disembodied mind or soul, dying and going to another world. Childhood events may also be re-lived. The loss of contact with ordinary reality and the sense of participation in another reality are more pronounced and less easily resisted than is usually the case with LSD. The dissociative experiences often seem so genuine that users are not sure that they have not actually left their bodies.'

A psychologist with experience of LSD described ketamine as 'experiments in voluntary death' (Leary, 1983, p375). Sputz (1989, p65) noted:'one infrequent ketamine user reported a classic near-death experience..."I was convinced I was dead. I was floating above my body. I reviewed all of the events of my life and saw a lot of areas where I could have done better". The psychiatrist Stanislav Grof stated: "If you have a full-blown experience of ketamine, you can never believe there is death or that death can possibly influence who you are" (Stevens, 1989, p481-482). 'Ketamine allows some patients to reason that ...the strange, unexpected intensity and unfamiliar dimension of their experience means they must have died..' (Collier, 1981, p552). "

posted May 04, 2009 12:04 PM            

i have no trouble believing in "real" NDEs, i was just very curious that they seem to think it can be reproduced with a chemical. and wondering if that chemical is somehow released in the system on death?

posted May 04, 2009 01:19 PM            

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Back in 1979 I was on my way home from working the night shift. I had been planning a trip out west and was going to visit an uncle I had never met before. He lived in Arkansas. Well I was going to give him a call that day to ask if I could visit and finally meet him. My family is not close and it had been like more than 10 to 16 years since I had talked to any of that part of the family.
Well I fortunately was NOT the driver that morning!
I was just looking out the window and commented idly to my then husband..."I wonder what Uncle L.D. will be like?"
Suddenly I was plunged into a total immersion trance/telepathy state! Wham! I found myself in total and absolute utter darkness and a soundless place! Before I could really panic, a door opened up away from me and I realized I was standing at the bottom of a stone stairway and from there I could see outside this open door, trees all green and sunshine and bluebirds flying in and out the open door. Then suddenly this tall middle aged red haired main steps into the doorway...and even though his back was to the light and sunshine, I could clearly see him! His face was illuminated and he was smiling this big beautiful smile at me! He started towards me and as I reached for him he suddenly threw his arms up over his head and turned his face up, and let out a big laugh of such unbelievable joy! Then he looked at me smiling again and the door slammed shut!
I came out of the trance communication with a jolt! My then husband said I had been acting weird and he said I was humming the song "MR. Bluebird on my shoulder" with my eyes closed and had been ignoring him for 2 miles!
Well I told him what had happened. He was used to me doing things like that. We pulled in our driveway, got out of the car... and as we begain to open the door to the house, the phone begain to ring! We hurried in and answered it. It was another relative who I had not heard from in about a decade...calling to tell me that my Uncle L.D. had just passed away in Arkansas. I did not get any information beyond that...said thank you and sent flowers later for his funeral. A year later we took a trip to see my Grandmother in Florida. She and I had not been in contact with each other for 16 years either. Well I decided to visit and attend a 20 year BIG family reunion. After the reunion we went to my Uncle E.D.'s house with my Grandmother. I told them about my Trance/vision. Uncle E.D. begain to cry and ran out of the room. I said to my Grandmother, "I didn't mean to upset him!" She said, " oh no honey...you didn't do anything wrong...you just said it like you was there when he passed, like we all was!"
Well she told me how he (Uncle L.D., the one who died) was laying in a coma and rolled into a fetal postion....he had bad cancer and had went from a strapping 6 ft.6in. tall, 210 pound man, down to under 100 pounds. There was a big painting over the bed of trees and sunshine and bluebirds. They did not think he would wake up before dying. She said suddenly he moved and struggled up in the bed to his knees...got this beautiful look on his face and threw his arms over his head...let out a burst of joyous laughter and fell face foreward dead!
She said that that song, MR.Bluebird on my shouder", and "Mocking Bird Hill" were songs he often sang or hummed. I had been whistling them both for two days!She told me I had always had the "family" gift, ever since I was born....but that is another series of stories...

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My best friend was in a rest home(she was 84 and I was 23)...she wanted to go Christmas shopping with me, but she was not feeling up to it. She had been wheelchair bound for 70 of her 84 years. But until the mini stroke left her unable to use her arms to roll about..she lived on her own. Well she sold all her things to afford the rest home. But she wanted a little something to make her feel a little more "at home". She wanted a new clock..with flowers and it had to be a china plate clock like the one she had before that had been dropped and broken during her move to the rest home. Well I went to the mall without her that December 22-1977...because she was feeling poorly. I promised to get the clock for her.
While I am at the mall looking at some scarves, I hear the sound of "HER VICTORIAN WICKER AND WOOD WHEELCHAIR!" behind me! I turned and of course she was not there! But then I smelled her "white shoulders" perfume!
Ok...so I decided I had better get the clock.
I went over to a gift shop and walked in to the clocks area of gifts. Damn! Only one flowered china clock left! And it was absolutely perfect except for having Roman numerals...which she hated! I was going to go someplace else when it suddenly fell off the display and I had to catch it! So I bought it...seeing how I knew I had a few more days left to shop for the right plate clock. When I got home Mrs.C. called me from the rest home. She said "V" had died at 7:22 pm. I took the clock out and looked at the receipt....printed right on it was the time....7:22pm.!
"V" knew I liked Roman numerals...and loved her flowered china clock. She had left it to me in her will, but it had been broken in her move to the rest home. I feel that this was her Christmas gift to me and the replacement for the clock she wanted to leave me that was broken. Funny thing was, exactly a year later at the time she had died, I was changing the battery in it. I dropped it. It broke in the same way the other one had! I glued it back together and still use it!

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Another was when I had an intense vision/trance of my father asking me if he was going to die.
I told him I saw him in the far future quite alive and much older and told him to return to his body and that he would be fine.
I do not hear from him but only every 5 years or so, when I run into him at the mall or whatever. Well about a year later I run into him and he tells me he had open heart surgery and his heart was stopped. He said he saw me drinking coffee and that I looked right at him and he knew he was going to be OK.

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posted May 07, 2009 01:00 AM            

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if NDEs can be induced with a dissociative anesthetic does that mean they are just a chemical reaction

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Technically, ALL consciousness is a chemical reaction. So is everything you see with your eyes, hear with your ears, etc. That doesn't mean it's "not real" anymore than someone who than what we see is "not real" to someone blind who can't see it.

posted May 09, 2009 08:08 AM            

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Technically, ALL consciousness is a chemical reaction. So is everything you see with your eyes, hear with your ears, etc. That doesn't mean it's "not real" anymore than someone who than what we see is "not real" to someone blind who can't see it.

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posted May 09, 2009 08:17 AM            

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Makes you wonder how newborn babies might feel about this business of being born. It probably really sucks. No wonder they cry.

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posted May 02, 2010 04:57 PM            

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Lexx, I want to hear the story about the man you met in the woods! Please!

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Here it is!
It seems oddly connected to the one I posted here about being struck by a car.

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In late September of 1968 I was fishing alone in a VERY secluded hard to walk into place. As I sat there it was so quiet. A lovely late Autumn afternoon.
Suddenly I catch a movement out of the corner of my eye! He made not a sound on the leaves! But there he was! This handsome older man(I was almost 14)! He was wearing a caftan and began talking to me like a chant or tranced reading. Smiling in a far away look he kept talking. What he said was amazing but I do not want to share that. Sorry. But he said someday we will stand in love together in the waters of a great lake.
Then I asked him how he came up to me so quietly and he said.."I think you will find that I am good at doing that!".
I turned to my pack and was going to offer him some nibbles and a pop....but when I turned back he was not there!
Years later in Autumn of 1997....I met my now husband. He is a younger version of that man! I mean every detail! Voice...walk..stature...ears.. eyes..mouth..nose..even the long hair and mustache and beard!
My husband and I were married wearing caftans as we stood in the waters of the lake. Lake Erie..one of the Great Lakes...just like the older man said!
Funny thing is...that at the time I saw that man in 1968 was about the time my husband was conceived in his mother!

PS.and my now husband can "sneak" up on me without making a sound or setting off my psi!
Just like that man in the disappearing woods in 1968!
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Then years later I was at a village Autumn festival...1997...where I encountered an old tiny woman at twilight who gave me a reading...about meeting my now husband...as soon as she finished..I asked..have we met before? She said...Yes..and you can see now...
I was going to ask her what that meant...but was distracted by something a moment and turning back she was gone! Asking around..no one else had seen an old tiny, dressed all in black from head to foot, fortune teller
at the festival.
Then it hit me! OH MY GOD! It was THE WHITE garbed nun! (from 1973 when I was hit by the car!)
Same size and accent...same outfit only black this time!
Her prediction was correct...I did meet my now husband...a few weeks later...
NOTE:
Any connection here?
Mother Teresa died On September 5th. 1997...the same day as the prediction given to me by the black dressed woman.
Were both events her?

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