K-hole

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At sufficiently high doses of the drug ketamine, users may experience the "K-hole", a slang term for a state of dissociation the effects of which may mimic the phenomenology of schizophrenia.

[edit] Description

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.

Users may feel as though their perceptions are located so deep inside the mind that the real world seems distant (hence the use of a "hole" to describe the experience). 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, or even know that they are human, or what that means. Movement is extremely difficult, and a user may not be aware that he or she has a body at all.

[edit] Popular Culture

The 1997 album "Dig Your Own Hole" by the British electronica duo The Chemical Brothers included a song titled "Lost in the K-Hole." The album "So Long and Thanks for All the Shoes", released in 1997 by the American punk-rock band NOFX included a song titled "Kids of the K-Hole". Indie band Silver Jews also included a song titled "K-Hole" on their 2005 album "Tanglewood Numbers". The opening track of CocoRosie's seminal album Noah's Ark is also titled "K-Hole".