Giorgia Gaia – Paranormal Ethnographies of Ketamine

Giorgia Gaia – Paranormal Ethnographies of Ketamine

Investigating the vast realm of paranormal experiences induced by the use of psychoactive substances, Ketamine journeys appear to be of a central relevance. A very paradoxical substance, Ketamine is hell and heaven enclosed in a unique molecule – where its psychedelic potentials are often shaded by its addictive qualities. However narrations of K’s breakthrough experiences are particularly interesting in the light of paranormal investigation. Ketamine enables users to navigate through the mysteries, deconstructing and reconstructing conceptions of real and unreal, time and space.

This lecture aims to explore the ‘magical’ sides of Ketamine, capable to give access to an hyperdimensional space – which holds similarities with other psychedelics, being very unique at the same time. Ketamine is gaining growing popularity in an underground ‘occulture’ of psychonauts – interested in the esoteric potentials of psychedelic substances – and in the broader community of psychedelia. This ethnographies are a collection of interviews, weird phenomena and manifestations of alter(n)ate realities – as reported by intrepid psychonauts encountered in various set & settings.

Giorgia Gaia is an independent researcher – with degrees in cultural anthropology and in theology (Western esotericism) at the University of Amsterdam. Since her early twenties she has been involved in the underground scene of rave culture, as DJ and event organiser. Her academic journeys have focused on rave scenes, esoteric communities, ecology and psychonautic ethnographies. She spent several years doing participative observation in various cultural scenes around Europe – such as the esoteric intentional community of Damanhur – or the psychedelic trance scene.

Following her fieldwork trip in north Italy, she wrote ‘Damanhur, the Ecology of Spirit’. Her journeys in the contemporary psychedelic rave scene resulted in a documentary called ‘Chai, Charas and Changa’. In 2016, Gaia has delivered an historical and anthropological research on the cultural phenomenon of Changa, a mixture containing DMT. Being herself continuously involved in the creation of alter(n)ate realities & practical magickal experimentations, she founded an intentional community called ‘Villaggio della Luna’ and organises the yearly esoteric conference ‘Occulture Berlin’.

Filmed at Breaking Convention 2019

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