I grew up with rodeo cowboys (ab)using "horse tranks" on themselves as much as on their horses (shoeing/trailering/etc.) I never saw anyone "riding the k-pony" much less "in a k-hole" but that could easily have been masked by the pervasive alcohol (ab)use. I didn't know this was Ketamine until later. I heard the term "riding the k-pony" but not "k-hole"... probably a more modern term?
I did some work <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0167278984902598> in the early 80's with an anesthesiologist who was full of anecdotes about how anesthesiology was still more an art than a science and his prime exhibit was a recently deprecated cocktail which A) induced paralysis; and B) yielded short-term amnesia. The way they figured this out apparently was that a variation *also* included low levels of Ketamine... not enough to be the primary anesthetic, but to induce modest dissociation "on the way in and out" to reduce anxiety? Those with the Ketamine-laced cocktail fared *much* better in recovery, as *apparently* the others were psychologically traumatized by the experience (imagine paralysis during surgery, even with amnesia), even though they didn't have any physical side effects. My only personal experience with anesthesia was whilst having all 4 (impacted) wisdom teeth removed in my late teens. I can't say I was present for the whole procedure, but I definitely remembered a LOT of details that I didn't think I should have experienced. It was not traumatic, and I think it must have been the strongest experience I've had with dissociation. I can't say it was particularly compelling in it's own right, but I am glad I had the experience. By some extrapolation, I can imagine how such experiences could be in some way addictive. It seems unlikely (for several reasons) that the anesthetic was Ketamine (early 1970s), but significantly dissociative. I have a stronger sense of Dave's "X-consciousness being aware of ego-consciousness and it's fading" in variations on lucid dreaming. Of course my brain activity is not flatlined (I assume) in that mode. I don't have out-of-body experiences but I do become an extreme "observer" of my own consciousness... I can't really parse that well... other experiences with dreaming include what I interpret as a "post-hoc" fabricated "memory". If something intrusive is happening in the world around my sleeping self, I am as likely as not to build an elaborate dream-story around the intrusion (sound, smell, cold, etc) which can feel like it lasts for *hours* when in fact, the intrusion may have been very short, sometimes all but instantaneous. The dream-story "builds up to" the event as if with foreknowledge. I interpret it as "post hoc fabrication". Others report it as "foreknowledge". If I had a k-pony, I suppose I would now have to name it "yoda". - Steve
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