How Ketamine Can Be Used to Treat Mental Illness

Ketamine is a dissociative drug, meaning that it produces feelings of dissociation – dissociation from one’s environment and even dissociation from one’s own body. The drug is used in human and veterinary medicine, both as an anaesthetic (to knock the patient out) and as an analgesic (to numb any feelings of pain). Ketamine is also…

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The Illusion of the Self

No one really doubts that there is a self. In our day-to-day lives, it always appears that there is an ‘I’ who is thinking, perceiving, and interacting with the world. Even the language we use assumes that there is a self – a distinct, separate entity – which exists. When we talk to each other…

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Hypnagogia: The Experience of Being Half-Awake and Half-Asleep

Hypnagogia is the experience you have when you are falling asleep (but not quite asleep). When you’re waking up (but not quite awake) this is known as hypnapompia. Other terms for hypnagogia include: ‘visions of half-sleep’, ‘the borderland of sleep’, ‘half-dream state’ and ‘dreamlets’. The hypnagogic state can be characterised by many sensory experiences. These experiences can range…

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The Wealthiest Countries Are Not Always the Happiest

The extent to which a country is “developed” is usually expressed in terms of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The GDP of a country is the market value of all its goods and services at any given time. The higher the GDP, the more material goods and wealth that country possesses. The country with the highest…

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