Burning Through: The Neurobiological Meaning of Heat and Sweating During Low-Dose Ketamine with Selective Inhibition

By Steve Elfrink
Founder, OmTerra | Developer of the 3D Healing™ Model | Specialist in Psycholytic Somatic Integration Therapy

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“My body felt like a furnace. But I wasn’t moving. I wasn’t scared. I was… releasing.”

This is a common report from clients undergoing low-dose ketamine therapy combined with Selective Inhibition (SI). The sudden rush of heat, waves of sweat, and internal burning often arise without physical exertion—yet the experience is unmistakably intense.

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Far from being a danger signal, this somatic heat is a neurobiological signature of healing. It reflects the release of unresolved trauma, the mobilization of previously frozen defenses, and the transformation of implicit threat responses through embodied presence.

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🔍 Understanding Selective Inhibition (SI)

Selective Inhibition is a core mechanism in Psychedelic Somatic Interactional Psychotherapy (PSIP) and PSIT (Psycholytic Somatic Integration Therapy). SI involves:

• Radical stillness
• Suspension of all modulation (no deep breaths, sighs, or movements)
• Complete tracking of interoceptive sensation
• No narrative engagement unless spontaneously emerging
• A commitment to staying present with arising sensation without interfering
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SI works by removing the "brakes" that the nervous system normally applies to overwhelming material. Most people unconsciously modulate rising discomfort through movement, breath, or cognition. SI interrupts these patterned responses, allowing subcortical and somatic memory to fully surface.
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When combined with a psycholytic dose of ketamine—sufficient to reduce cortical filtering but not so high as to induce full dissociation—SI creates an ideal terrain for de-repressing and metabolizing trapped trauma physiology.
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🔬 The Science of Somatic Heat and Trauma Release

1. Heat as a Signature of Sympathetic Mobilization

The sympathetic nervous system (SNS), responsible for the body’s fight-or-flight response, increases core body temperature via:

• Peripheral vasodilation (increased blood flow to the skin)
• Sweat gland activation (for thermoregulation)
• Hypothalamic upregulation (via noradrenaline and cortisol)
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In trauma survivors—especially those with complex or developmental trauma—mobilization energy becomes suppressed or incomplete. When SI is applied, these frozen sympathetic impulses begin to thaw. Heat and sweating are the external signs of sympathetic reactivation and release.
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Think of heat as stored kinetic energy—once mobilized, it must move through the system to complete.
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2. Trauma and Thermoregulation: The HPA Axis Link

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis governs both the stress response and thermoregulation. Early trauma disrupts HPA development, leading to:

• Chronic low-grade inflammation
• Blunted or exaggerated cortisol rhythms
• Thermoregulatory instability
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During SI + ketamine, the limbic system (especially the hypothalamus and amygdala) is disinhibited. This allows repressed trauma responses to resurface without top-down suppression, resulting in a physiological “catch-up” process. Heat emerges as the body recalibrates its internal thermostat in response to unprocessed threat.
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3. Somatic Memory and Heat Storage in Tissue

Somatic and fascial memory stores trauma not as story, but as sensation, tension, and autonomic patterning. Research in psychoneuroimmunology and connective tissue suggests that:

• Fascia holds both physical tension and embedded neurochemical signaling (e.g., substance P, cytokines)
• Thermal signatures may correlate with areas of high restriction, inflammation, or freeze
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When trauma is metabolized—especially in the context of SI—these areas often “light up” with heat as blood flow, lymphatic movement, and interstitial hydration are restored. Clients may feel localized burning or full-body waves depending on where the trauma is stored.
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4. Here-and-Now Anxiety vs. Procedural Memory

The heat is not always “old.” Sometimes, it reflects current-day autonomic overwhelm that could never be processed due to chronic dissociation.
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SI places the client directly in contact with procedural (implicit) memory—the nonverbal, body-held memory of how we survived.
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Heat is a common correlate of:

• Panic that never got to run
• Anger that never had an outlet
• Sexual trauma locked in pelvic fascia
• Grief that never burned itself through
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5. Why SI Works: A Neurobiological Summary

• Default Mode Network (DMN) is quieted by ketamine → reduces narrative control
• Selective Inhibition blocks behavioral bypasses → sensation takes center stage
• Subcortical material (brainstem, limbic circuits) rises into awareness
• Interoception is heightened → the client can track and allow rather than react or shut down
• Discharge mechanisms (heat, sweat, micro-movements) complete what was once interrupted
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This process leads to memory reconsolidation, autonomic repatterning, and ultimately, embodied safety.
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🌊 What To Do When the Heat Comes

1. Stay still. No breathwork, no movement. Let it build.
2. Track it. Where is the heat coming from? What shape, intensity, or direction does it have?
3. Feel everything. The heat may bring emotions, impulses, even tears. Don’t force it—let it emerge.
4. Trust your body. The heat is not pathological—it is the unbinding of survival physiology.
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🧘 Final Thoughts

In Western medicine, heat is often a symptom to be reduced. But in trauma healing, heat is often a sacred fire—the body reclaiming life force, dissolving dissociative walls, and completing incomplete survival responses.
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Through Selective Inhibition and the intelligent support of ketamine, we gain access to the hidden language of the body—a language where heat is not a warning, but a welcome home.

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