Ketamine is a very odd and intriguing entheogen, outpacing all others in sheer range of experience and utter strangeness. It unlocks powers so intense and improbable it is hard believe such a substance could even exist. At first glance it may look like a simple pet anesthetic, but when you actually try ketamine it seems to violate all boundaries of what we generally think is possible. While the notion of cosmic journeys in a cat tranquilizer may seem silly, ketamine is really much more complex than it appears. In fact, everything about ketamine is paradoxical, which is why I refer to its mere existence as a Konundrum.

Konundrum I: Ketamine is synthetic.
It is unlikely enough that you would find a metaphysical wormhole in a simple fungus, cactus, or jungle shrub, but finding one in a little glass bottle manufactured by Parke Davis is just too weird for words. It is like finding psychic rocket fuel in your eardrops - intense. All other psychedelics are grown by Mother Nature herself or are carefully synthesized by craftspeople who have an immense passion for what they do. Ketamine, on the other hand, is stamped out on an assembly line and even comes with a little instruction booklet (often in many languages). If you do the right dose you get the desired effects. It's just that simple.

Konundrum II: Ketamine transcends time and space.
It is unusual enough that ketamine does a great job at keeping people safely unconscious during surgery, but the fact that it can also catalyze inner visualization, out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences, lucid dreaming, time distortions, trans-dimensional shifts, etc. is too bizarre to believe. I would not believe it myself if I hadn't had first-hand experience to prove it, but it is true. It can do all that stuff and more. It is the proverbial Philosopher's Stone, it has its own patent number, and it's illegal.

Konundrum III: Ketamine is addictive yet is used to treat addiction.
Unlike all other psychedelics that eventually say "No more," ketamine incessantly entices you to "do just a little more." The only problem is that there is no such thing as topping out on ketamine, there is only bottoming out, and the bottom is a long, long way down. You can take it for months, weeks, even years and it will never quit you. It will always continue to give and give and give just a little moreÑfor a price, of course. The addictive demon has the power to cure as well, and has been used to treat chronic alcoholics with success. It can be a poison, a medicine, a drug, and much more. How it reacts depends largely on how you approach it.

Konundrum IV: Ketamine is infinite.
There are no boundaries to the effects of ketamine and there are no limits to what can be explored. You will always stumble across familiar places but the undiscovered country is vast beyond comprehensionÑlarger than you could explore in a thousand lifetimes. The molecule is tiny but you can easily get lost in there. Many people do.

Konundrum V: Ketamine gives insights that sound like delusions.
Anyone who's taken ketamine knows what I'm talking about here. Ketamine has the power to make the impossible seem real and the intangible seem manifest. It imparts wisdom on cosmic, sub-conscious, genetic, and quantum levels. However, ketamine's particular gnosis simply transcends language and cannot be adequately translated without coming out sounding like gibberish. The knowledge gleaned is real enough, but it can never be verbalized or repeated. It is both a blessing and a curse.

Konundrum VI: Ketamine is warm and loving while being cold and heartless.
Ketamine will wrap you in a blanket of shimmering warmth while simultaneously sucking you dry. It will make your chi burn with the passion of a thousand suns while transforming your body into a shivering wreck. It will caress you softly with the care of a lover while extracting your soul with the cold efficiency of a machine. It is super-logical and sub-emotional, and attempting to pin it down as one or the other is futile. It can be all things to all people, and that's what's so powerfully attractive and dangerous about it. It can be both a doorway and a trap; it's up to you. There is no doubt that ketamine is a teacher, but it is definitely not a plant teacher nor is it a particularly kind teacher. The lessons learned from ketamine are endless, but so is the toll it can take. Those who enter the world of ketamine without knowing what they want from it, or who fail to leave once they've found what they were looking for, will almost certainly be lost.