{"id":1057,"date":"2011-08-16T00:03:14","date_gmt":"2011-08-16T00:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/ketamine-and-%e2%80%9cthe-sky-crawlers%e2%80%9d"},"modified":"2019-07-12T07:36:16","modified_gmt":"2019-07-12T07:36:16","slug":"ketamine-and-the-sky-crawlers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2011\/08\/16\/ketamine-and-the-sky-crawlers\/","title":{"rendered":"Ketamine and \u201cThe Sky Crawlers\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

A comparative review of a competitive NMDA receptor agonist and a film by award-winning Japanese filmmaker Mamoru Oshii<\/em><\/p>\n

First off: spoilers. If this was the future that word would be flashing right now[1]<\/sup><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some background to set the scene:<\/p>\n

Ketamine[I]<\/sup><\/a>: it\u2019s a drug best known as \u201cthat horse tranquillizer\u201d, and although still employed in human pain management it is no longer employed routinely for reasons including (but not limited to) its ability to elicit dissociative-hallucinatory reactions in individuals. The reason for its effects on perceptions is not clear, although they undoubtedly stem from ketamine\u2019s ability to temporarily boost the activity of a certain group of receptors in the brain called NMDA receptors[2]<\/sup><\/a>. One theory is that \u2026. It\u2019s magic[3]<\/sup><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Sky Crawlers<\/em>: the latest film by Mamoru Oshii \u2013 the director probably best known for his Ghost in the Shell<\/em> movie a while back. The movie was released earlier this year and won\u2026 if you want more historical context, well, Wikipedia\u2019s not far[II]<\/sup><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The connection: where the fuck do I begin? I mean, how can I claim that a movie is like a mind-warp? Obviously, we sometimes claim that a movie was \u201ctrippy\u201d, or that it changed the way we \u201csee\u201d things. I might claim that Fight Club<\/em> changed the way I view obedience to consumerism, but what I mean is that it shed light on a desire I sometimes have \u2013 namely to beat the daylight out of my standard self, metaphorically speaking \u2013 not that it showed me something novel. Similarly, I might tell my colleagues after a few shots of J Daniel\u2019s finest that [etc[4]<\/sup><\/a>]. All I\u2019m saying here is that normally<\/em> a movie does not do novel showing, and conversely what The Sky Crawlers<\/em> does do is just that. The Sky Crawlers<\/em> not only presents us with profound ideas, it shows them to us in a unique manner. How so? My \u201ccontention\u201d[5]<\/sup><\/a> is that The Sky Crawlers<\/em> demonstrates the two-way interplay between objectivity and subjectivity and that it presents this interplay to us by our very mode of being observers of the film. These features are similar to the ketamine experience [6]<\/sup><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, what\u2019s it like?\u201d, seems like the most understandable approach to ketamine as an unknown, and it\u2019s a difficult question to answer. You know that scene in The Matrix<\/em> wherein the suave gap-toothed man tells that \u201cYou cannot be told what [it] is; you have it see it for yourself.\u201d That turned out to be bullshit \u2013 it\u2019s not that<\/em> hard to explain the movie\u2019s premise, but in this case, it\u2019s not so far from the truth. For starters, it\u2019s hard to put into words, kinda like a Lost in Translation<\/em> thing but with less potential for engrish jokes. More importantly, there\u2019s something to be said for existence. Reading Lord of the Rings<\/em> might make you hungry[7]<\/sup><\/a> but thinking about \u201chunger\u201d after an all you can eat curry is so far removed from the real thing. So I\u2019ll try to put into words one particular trip; be aware that \u201cthe map is not the territory\u201d[8]<\/a><\/sup>.<\/p>\n

You remember being twelve, going to IMAX, and seeing for the first time that 3D dinosaur coming out of the screen? Ketamine doesn\u2019t start anything like that. For some reason for me, it starts with this distinct taste at the back of my throat, a bit metallic. Then things start to feel a bit strange, not clear why, maybe similar to what you get when you stand up quickly and get a bit lightheaded, but also with a sense of foreignness. This is the \u201cascent\u201d part of the trip, a transition period, and although I remember it to be recognizable, it\u2019s difficult to attribute any important particulars to it. That stereotypical \u201cwoah man, look at my hand\u201d might be applicable, but if so it\u2019s not important. There\u2019s a peak period, not sure how long it lasts for, but it\u2019s where all that\u2019s interesting happens. Approaching this peak is like going through a kind of existential-tunnel-vision thing. All those things we assume at every moment without even realizing are no longer assumed. Right now, as you read these words, you\u2019re assuming that the words were written by someone else, that there are other people, that those people are aware of you, that you came to here from somewhere else (from home maybe) where you did something else (eat a nutritious breakfast maybe). So approaching this peak means no longer seeing all those things so clearly. It\u2019s not that you forget things, it\u2019s just that you stop building everything on top of them, and instead see just now<\/em>. I found it to be freaking terrifying<\/em> \u2013 all those things we don\u2019t realize form our identity (like breakfasts[9]<\/a><\/sup>) slip away. The peak doesn\u2019t last long, but it\u2019s like experiencing existence. If all our lives were pieces of paper with writing on them \u2013 describing the details of our life \u2013 then ketamine would not only show us the way the writing flows or the way the paper looks, it makes us realize that there\u2019s something more primary than the paper\u2026 Anyway, the entire trip doesn\u2019t last much more than an hour, after which you\u2019re about as sober as a corpse[10]<\/a><\/sup>. There\u2019s some other cool shit that goes, things to do with perception of space and embodiment, but they\u2019re not pertinent here. I\u2019ll discuss a bit more below, but first a summary of The Sky Crawlers<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The movie starts off somewhat conventionally with a dogfight between two pilots resulting in the death of one pilot. A few minutes later we see a young man walk into an airfield. He looks a lot like the other character, but this is anime, so everyone looks like everyone[11]<\/a><\/sup>, and anyway, he\u2019s here to replace the pilot who just died. Stuff goes on, they\u2019re pilots in some war; everything\u2019s a bit vague. The boy gets taken out on the town, nothing too titillating. There are heaps of scenes that don\u2019t seem too significant, (where \u201csignificant\u201d is taken to mean \u201cpromoting the advance of a plot\u201d). One of the other pilots gets shot down by an unknown pilot, who\u2019s importantly (it\u2019s said) is an adult. Oh, I forgot to say, the pilots are all distressingly young, apparently called \u201ckildren\u201d who are made for fighting the war. Anyway, you might notice soon that a new pilot arrives who really looks like the old one, but no one comments on this, so you figure why go against the flow[12]<\/a><\/sup>. The movie goes on, there\u2019s no Moment Of Revelation, where everything becomes clear and the great evil is destroyed. Instead, there are a few scenes where some clues are provided, and then eventually the movie ends. What you sort of come to realize is that they\u2019re all just fighting in this kind of bubble. They die and are replaced by identical \u201ccopies\u201d (for want of a word), and oblivious to all change, keep going. They\u2019re in this play-war which is occurring in the midst of another otherwise normal (ish) world, all for the sake of bringing meaning to the world. Ostensibly the \u201cnormal\u201d world has the better perspective, being able to see everything, but in truth, they are bested by a third perspective, namely the viewers. The viewer sees the kildren\u2019s world almost from within, from within their dreamy bubble, but can also by the movie\u2019s end see the bubble from without, and what it is that separates the inside from out. Unlike the kildren the viewer has a sense of continuity, and unlike the outsiders, the viewer has a sense of the \u201cnow-ness\u201d which defines the kildren\u2019s existence.<\/p>\n

You can probably see where I\u2019m going with this[13]<\/a><\/sup>. Kay is about experiencing existence, the fabric of everything, and by offering this timeless-personless perspective, it not only readjusts our perception of objectivity but also readjusts what it means to be a subject within this fucked up matrix. You might have thought that this plain\/plane perception might be antithetical to the sense of \u201cI\u201d, but that\u2019s not the case. Quite the opposite: ketamine allows for a better[14]<\/a><\/sup> appreciation of what it means to be a point of view, an experiencing point within that indescribable something which is existence. Similarly, The Sky Crawlers<\/em> is not merely an illustration of egos being made afresh; it\u2019s a celebration of existence from the first person. \u00a0Both the movie and the drug show us that subjectivity can only be made sense of from some sort of more basic, more outer, world and that only from within this outer non-descript world, is it possible to gain a full appreciation of subjectivity. That\u2019s quite a mouthful so I\u2019ve made a table to try and make the parallels clearer:<\/p>\n

\u201cA\u201d can only be made sense of from \u201cB\u201d, and although \u201cB\u201d appears to be the opposite of \u201cA\u201d, it is only from \u201cB\u201d that \u201cC\u201d can be appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\nA. (subjectivity)<\/strong><\/td>\nB. (objectivity)<\/strong><\/td>\nC. (subjectivity)<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ketamine<\/strong><\/td>\nMe<\/td>\nThe ego-less state<\/td>\nExperience<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The Sky Crawlers<\/em><\/strong><\/td>\nKildren<\/td>\n\u201cNormal\u201d world<\/td>\nMeaning<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

It\u2019s almost impossible not to quote Blake here: If the doors of perceptions were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is – infinite<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Oh shit, before I forget. Ratings. I\u2019d give ketamine 5\/5 with the caveat that it\u2019s probably not everyone\u2019s cup of tea[15]<\/a><\/sup>. And I\u2019d give The Sky Crawlers<\/em> 4.5\/5. It loses half a mark: partly for some scenes where things are s-p-e-l-l-e-d out a bit much, but more-so because Bruce Willis isn\u2019t in it.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

[1]<\/sup><\/a> Incidentally, if you are reading this in the future: man, I\u2019m sorry about the environment; time\u2019s a bitch<\/p>\n

[2]<\/sup><\/a> If you think of your brain as a complicated tangle of wires (here neurons) that send messages from one part to another, then \u201creceptors\u201d are what allow different wires to connect, and hence send information across from one wire to another. There are heaps and heaps of different types, which is useful for example for developing psychotherapeutic drugs; \u201cNMDA\u201d is just one class of receptors.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/sup><\/a> Admittedly this is my theory.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/sup><\/a> I had more, but the hard attempts at wit feel like just that<\/p>\n

[5]<\/sup><\/a> To quote a Yr.12 English essay I once regurgitated<\/p>\n

[6]<\/sup><\/a> Anecdotal evidence obviously, but \u201cobjectivity\u201d is one of those words that gets thrown around a lot by those trying to describe their K-trip, so I doubt I\u2019m all that special<\/p>\n

[7]<\/sup><\/a> Is it just my memory, or were Frodo and Sam complaining about food through 90% of that?<\/p>\n

[8]<\/sup><\/a> Yeah, that\u2019s right, I just blew<\/em> your mind. But seriously, caveats: individual use (and uses) vary, notably \u201cset and setting\u201d remains as true today as it ever did. Erowid.org is a great source for those seeking more information. Information is vital.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/sup><\/a> Incidentally, I kid not. (Said the baby goat).<\/p>\n

[10]<\/sup><\/a> Yeah, I\u2019m not sure what this exactly means either<\/p>\n

[11]<\/sup><\/a> Normally I\u2019m just thankful if there\u2019s no blue hair<\/p>\n

[12]<\/sup><\/a> And reason #6 for why you\u2019d make a shit salmon<\/p>\n

[13]<\/sup><\/a> \u201cSemantic manipulation\u201d, cries the heckler. Maybe.<\/p>\n

[14]<\/sup><\/a> I dare say<\/p>\n

[15]<\/sup><\/a> Would be some cup though. In seriousness: I\u2019ve been frivolous throughout this piece, but ketamine\u2019s a serious experience, I would recommend against its use in a party environment, and although I used words like \u201cpeak\u201d it\u2019s not euphoric in the sense that opiates or amphetamines are, so don\u2019t look to it as access to some high. This isn\u2019t me getting last minute pangs of morality, just ensuring that I\u2019m not presenting some sort of false advertising. We may joke about it, but recreational use of special K is illegal. Fuck over the system. Just don\u2019t fuck yourself over at the same time.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

[I]<\/sup><\/a> Ketamine, sold under the brand name Ketalar among others, is a medication mainly used for starting and maintaining anesthesia. It induces a trance-like state while providing pain relief, sedation, and memory loss. Other uses include <\/em>for chronic pain and for sedation in intensive care. For further details see\u00a0https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ketamine<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

[II]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0The Sky Crawlers is a 2008 Japanese anime film, directed by Mamoru Oshii. It is an adaptation of Hiroshi Mori’s novel of the same name. It was released across Japanese theatres by Warner Bros. Japan on August 2, 2008. For further details see\u00a0https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Sky_Crawlers_(film)<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A comparative review of a competitive NMDA receptor agonist and a film by award-winning Japanese filmmaker Mamoru Oshii First off: spoilers. If this was the future that word would be flashing right now[1]. Some background to set the scene: Ketamine[I]: it\u2019s a drug best known as \u201cthat horse tranquillizer\u201d, and although still employed in human […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[159,197,154],"tags":[],"metadata":[171,158],"class_list":["post-1057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-film-review","category-google-drive","metadata-editors-footnotes","metadata-shai_footnotes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1713,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2010\/11\/19\/nicotine-receptors-and-depression-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1057,"position":0},"title":"Nicotine receptors and depression","author":"Pala","date":"November 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a summary of a review-piece published in the prestigious science journal\u00a0Trends in Pharmacological Sciences\u00a0in 2010 ([link]) entitled \"Nicotine receptors and depression: revisiting and revising the cholinergic hypothesis\". The publication was authored by Yann Mineur and Marina Picciotto and discussed the connection between smoking, nicotinic receptors, and depression. Below\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1675,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2011\/05\/03\/5-ht2a-receptor-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1057,"position":1},"title":"5-HT2A receptor","author":"Pala","date":"May 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Many drugs, and most drugs that are directed at cognitive processes (e.g. anti-depressants, hallucinogenics) target\u00a0receptors. Receptors are\u00a0proteins involved in the way\u00a0cells\u00a0in the body signal to each other. The following is a review of one particular type of receptor called the 5-HT2A\u00a0receptor, and it's role in mediating the effects of\u00a0LSD. 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