Curious to know

[Angrboda]

The research of Karl Jansen has revealed how the effects of an NDE can be induced by ketamine. In 1996 he published a paper on the subject which concluded "mounting evidence suggests that the reproduction/induction of NDE's by ketamine is not simply an interesting coincidence... ketamine administered by intravenous injection, in appropriate dosage, is capable of reproducing all of the features of the NDE which have been commonly described in the most cited works in this field."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-death_experience

Ketamine (Medical names: Ketanest, Ketaset, Ketalar; Street names: K, Ket, Special K, Vitamin K) is a member of a class of drugs known as "NMDA receptor agonists".  It is structurally similar to PCP, but generally considered much safer (even possessing properties that help prevent neuron damage).  As the dosage increases, ketamine begins binding to a wider range of receptors, including opioid μ receptors and sigma receptors, some of which decrease its bioavailability and help prevent overdose.  This built-in safeguard has made it a popular anesthetic; however, due to the severe hallucinations it can cause, it is generally only used with other anesthetics to help ensure complete unconsciousness.

As a street drug, ketamine is used precisely for said hallucinations.  The experience of being on ketamine is very different from that of LSD, which binds to entirely different receptors (the "G-protein coupled receptors").  The effects of Ketamine have been well studied.  For example, in a Russian experiment with alcoholics:

Thus the enhanced spirituality in patients after KPT might be an important element to the therapeutic action. Regarding spiritual experiences induced by ketamine, it is interesting that many people who never thought about spirituality or the meaning of life reported having profound religious transformative experiences. At the ketamine session, people often experienced the separation of consciousness from the body and the dissolving of the body ego. For many patients, it is a profound insight that they can exist without their bodies as pure consciousness or pure spirit. Some of them said that as a result of their experience, they understood the Christian notion of the separation of the soul and the body. Some people reported contact with God, and after coming back to ordinary consciousness, they feel sure that they have had contact with a higher power. Many patients reported the existence of other dimensions or other worlds that are parallel to ours and seem as real or even more real than our own. Some patients experienced the expansion of consciousness to encompass the whole universe, whole cosmos, etc. They often said: "I ceased to exist, I disappeared, yet still just my consciousness existed. It was like I became the whole universe or the whole cosmos".

Near-Death Experiences: the 'Ketamine' Hypothesis