Year: 1997
Type: article
Abstract: This commentary on Karl Jansen's ketamine model for the near death experience expands upon and raises additional questions about several issues and hypotheses: self-experimentation as a source of data; ketamine's similarities to and differences from classical hallucinogens; the need for quantification of unusual subjective states; clinical research and toxicological implications of this model; drugs as gateways to "religious" states; and "evo lutionary" versus "religious" significance of naturally occurring compounds released in the near-death state.I suggest future research that could help explicate several of these areas.Karl Jansen's paper cogently summarized the pre-cinical pharma cology of glutamate and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors relative to the effects of ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic with "psy chedelic" properties at subanesthetic doses.He also reviewed the less voluminous human literature on subjective effects of ketamine.He suggested that since ketamine, a "neuroprotective" NMDA receptor antagonist, elicits an alteration of consciousness with features similar to those described by individuals having a near-death experience (NDE), that an endogenous ketamine-like substance is released when an organism's brain is faced with potentially life-threatening circum stances.The neuroprotective effects of such an endogenous NMDA antagonist thus are called upon by the organism to reduce the threat of brain damage.The NDE results from the psychoactive properties
Author: Strassman, Rick J.
Institution: University of New Mexico
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4301837282