Jan Josef Liefers reveals how ketamine therapy reshaped his life

Berlin (dpa) — In a quest for self-discovery, actor Jan Josef Liefers (61) took a low dose of the anesthetic and painkiller ketamine during a therapy session. He wanted to "have an experience," and it worked, the Dresden-born Tatort star revealed in the Hotel Matze podcast. Ketamine is used in medicine, among other things, to treat severe depression.

Liefers, who lives in Berlin, said he had been troubled by whether he was truly as absent or disconnected as he seemed to his wife, Anna Loos, and close friends—especially when he was on set. "I'm just alone then," he said, "this lonely guy." He entered talk therapy with two questions: "What's behind this disconnection?" and "Am I a narcissist?" At first, he pursued the sessions without any aids.

Eventually, during a three-hour session in Berlin under the influence of the drug, he went on a journey, "into something you've never seen or experienced before. You're conscious, but your body disappears. Everything dissolves. You're gone, yet still there—something remains. You could say it's your essence, the core of your being, the heart of your existence."

And there, he found answers to his two questions: "I realized that, contrary to what I believed—and contrary to how I've come across to others—I am connected to everything in every single moment of my existence. And I'm exactly where I'm meant to be."