Have you ever had a hallucination? What was it like? (page 7)

Finkelstein

Here are some hallucinatory images taken off the pages of the Watchtower and Awake.

Nathan Natas

St George of England, might that drug have been ketamine? On the street it is known as "Special K" or "horse tranks."

According to wikipedia, ketamine is a drug used in human and veterinary medicine, primarily for the induction and maintenance of general anesthesia. Ketamine has a wide range of effects in humans, including analgesia, anesthesia, hallucinations, elevated blood pressure, and bronchodilation. Like other drugs of its class, such as tiletamine and phencyclidine (PCP), ketamine induces a state referred to as "dissociative anesthesia" and is used as a recreational drug. Ketamine can be effective in treating depression in patients with depression and bipolar disorder who have not responded to antidepressants. It produces a rapid antidepressant effect, acting within two hours as opposed to the several weeks taken by typical antidepressants to work. Patients have reported vivid hallucinations, "going into other worlds" or "seeing God" while anesthetized, and these unwanted psychological side effects have reduced the use of ketamine in human medicine."

I had a cat that had developed an abcessed wound as a result of a feline territorial dispute, so we took him to the veterinarian for treatment. In the vet's words, this was a cat that "escallated easily" - he was fine with my wife and I but he didn't trust strangers, and the vet was a stranger... so the vet felt justified in giving the cat ketamine to anesthetize him, making the wound treatment easier for both of them. The next morning I picked the cat up and he was just waking fron his deep sleep; in fact he had not yet regained control of his hind legs - when we got home he dragged himself around using just his forelegs, and he seemed concerned that he couldn't use his hind legs, which probably made him feel vulnerable, creating an anxiety-loop in his cat mind.

(Reminds me of a line from Monty Python, "So I takes me cat out for a scrape 'round the block...")

But this wasn't funny, it was clear to me that my little buddy was hallucinating, and he was TERRIFIED by whatever it was he was seeing, amplified by his anxiety. He retreated to the security of his cat-carrier and spent most of the remainder of the day in there. When his system finally purged itself of the ketamine, he returned to being his old lovable, rascally cat-self, and he never spoke to me of his experience. I, for my part, called the vet and requested that a note be added to his medical file stating that he should never be given ketamine again.

Months later he was killed by a car; I still miss him.

St George of England

@NN - Many thanks for that, I have no idea what it was, they never told me but I never want to repeat the experience.

Very sad about your cat, they are not just a pet but a friend and part of the family.

George

Violia

I have always wanted an explanation for the witch of endor and Saul with Samuel. Was that Samuel or a demon per the wts? I wonder b/c the Bible says not to attempt to contact the dead-it does not say you can't.

Violia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_head_syndrome

this is real and happens to me. I hate the name for it but it feels like a door slammed in your head or a gun went off in your head. It is bizarre but apparently harmless at least per wiki and my neuro. I think there may be some correlation to head injury but it is not mentioned here.

not to be confused with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderclap_headache. you would definitely need to see a neuro to rule out any serious issues.

Seraphim23

Years ago my cat went missing. Her name was midnight and I was very worried because she had been gone for about 4 days at this point when I had the dream. On a Wednesday/Thursday night I dreamed that she came back on a Sunday afternoon. Her left back leg had a big gash down it. It was not a nice dream to have. Anyway in real life on the Sunday and in the afternoon she did come back. She didn’t have a gash down her leg but her left back leg was broken. I took her to the vet and they operated. What struck me what that after the operation she then did have a nasty big gash down her leg like the dream, where the vet had operated. She died though of an infection to the wound.

adamah

False memories can be planted, as memory is quite plastic:

http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_loftus_the_fiction_of_memory.html

The fallability of eyewitness testimony:

http://www.ted.com/talks/scott_fraser_the_problem_with_eyewitness_testimony.html

I suspect a similar blending of memories occurs where memories attributed to actual events from childhood are actually memories of childhood dreams, and vice-versa.

Adam

zound

Didn't read all thread so don't know if it's been mentioned:

Sensory deprivation hallucinations.

TD

On the subject of hallucinations, I read a fascinating book years ago entitled: The Day of St. Anthony's Fire

There is a fungus with an affinity for rye and related grains called, Ergot. (Claviceps purpurae) It releases a strongly hallucinogenic alkaloid known as ergotomine. The molecules of this compound contain a ring in the lysergic acid moiety. The Ergot fungus flourishes in damp conditions when grain is not properly dried out. Once the grain is contaminated, the hallucinogens are still there even after it's been ground into flour and baked into bread.

In 1951, there was an entire town in France; Le Pain Maudit, where just about everyone experienced ergot poisoning at once. There were several fatalities and many injuries. Respected citizens jumped from windows or into the Rhone, screaming incomprehensible things, like their heads were made of copper or their bodies were wrapped in snakes.

St. Anthony's Fire (Ergot poisoning) was once a scourge of the Middle Ages and has been suggested as the root cause of the incident in Salem in the 1600's.

Even before rye was a cultivated plant, it still grew in wheat fields as a 'weed' grain, so ergot poisoning probably goes a very long way back.

Nathan Natas

...and, of course, "le pain maudit" means "Cursed Bread" in French.

So we have seen that hallucinations are not an uncommon experience.

How many of our society's irrational religious notions have there basis in a hallucinatory experience by a person who was charismatic, like, for example, Saul of Tarsus? ... or Roman emperor, Constantine I?

Have you ever had a hallucination? What was it like?

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