Hamilton's Pharmacopeia: Ketamine Realms and Realities
Introduction
In this episode of Hamilton's Pharmacopeia, Hamilton Morris sits down with Timothy Wyllie—artist, writer, and architect of the controversial Process Church—to discuss his lifelong quest to understand the mind. Wyllie offers unique insights into consciousness and the ways perception shapes reality.
Morris then travels to India to explore the production and use of ketamine, speaking with doctors, therapists, and experts along the way. The episode delves into ketamine's medical applications, recreational use, and its potential to expand our understanding of the mind, shedding light on the substance's profound and sometimes surprising effects.
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Quotes
"In 1961, a chemist named Calvin Stevens serendipitously discovered ketamine but didn't know exactly what he'd found until the therapeutic potential of the molecule was recognized by the pharmaceutical company Parke Davis. Clinical researchers found that ketamine possessed most of PCP's therapeutic advantages with relatively few adverse effects."
"John Lilly was a brilliant scientific researcher best known for inventing the sensory deprivation tank and for his work attempting to teach dolphins the English language. He was also one of the first ketamine users to develop a problematic dependence on the drug."
"I've never really been a high dose guy to the truth. They haven't interested me as much as the lower doses. I've known people who've been on flying saucers with ketamine. Now, the question is, were they really on a flying saucer or were they on the flying saucer in their imagination? I don't know the answer to that. I've not been on a flying saucer; I've seen them. I mean, that's always an issue with psychedelics. I guess that's why we do them, to find out what is real."
"It's pretty clear I think to anybody who does ketamine seriously. You completely lose any fear of death because you know there is no death, you just go on."
"India is one of the world's largest producers of generic pharmaceutical medications and has long been regarded as a hub for the industrial production of ketamine. Though ketamine has the reputation of a drug that's either used in clubs or veterinary clinics, the majority of the world's supply is destined for human use in hospitals."
"The high you get with ketamine takes you into a different plane, that is why we use it in a sub-anesthetic dose, it's a good analgesic. It reduces the requirements of all other agents, you don't need to give too much so they recover faster, and they maintain their reflexes very well."
Ketamine & Mental Health
"In Ketamine-Facilitated Psychotherapy, we're using the ketamine to help people have disinhibition, more relaxation and more ease in talking about material that's difficult for them to get to otherwise. There's yet another approach to working with ketamine and that is with Mystical Ketamine or Psychedelic Ketamine, where the clinician has the intention of inducing or inviting psychedelic experience on purpose. The idea is that the visions that people have are meaningful and can be interpreted like dreams and that that may add something to the antidepressant effect."
"In India, psychiatric treatment of mental illness is relatively uncommon but there are still a small number of doctors using ketamine to treat depression that's unresponsive to other medications. No one is exactly sure how ketamine works to fight depression, but its therapeutic effect is rapid and reliable. Proposed mechanisms include increased expression of BDNF in the hippocampus, enhanced synaptic transmission mediated by the protein MTOR and AMPA-activation via the metabolite hydroxynorketamine."
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