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Comment by elevenoh | Hacker News Reader

Damn. This has me wonder: had you ever done a psychedelic prior to this?

I had ketamine during wakeful surgery.

Loved it. Grateful it was available.

But I had prev. experience w/ psychedelics & had learned/practiced how to: let go, place attention on what's positive & cease to have expectations.

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I imagine there's also got to be a difference between getting it for a planned surgery that you can prepare for, vs having it thrust on you suddenly during a traumatic and painful experience. Kind of hard to let go in that situation.

An arrest sound like one of the worst set and settings to get dosed with ketamine. The person being arrested might not know what they were injected with. The person might not trust the police. The person is being detained against their will.

And several doses of morphine usually have at least some effect on the body/mind

Some people are immune, or almost immune: https://partner.sciencenorway.no/forskningno-norway-ntnu/gen...

As other people have said, preparation is a big part of enjoying it. Any hallucinogens without knowing what to expect would be scary.

Regarding place attention on the positive: Check out Sam Harris interview with Francoise Bourzat. She goes into depth about so called negative trips and feels they are just as important and useful as positive ones. I'm not sure I can summarize why, but she suggested that even negative experiences can be mindfully approached and handled well.

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