Goshawk,
ketamine is a dissociative drug, meaning that while you still feel pain, you perceive it as happening to someone else.

Be sure to look at the sites that Mari left for you, and never take drugs like that without them being perscribed by your psychiatrist or physician.

I can tell you what it does in animals, having seen it used for years in clinical settings for declaws, neuters and other minor proceedures. We used to call it the purple spider drug because as the animals came out of it, the acted as though they were hallucinating. They did vocalize during the proceedures, (one reason I don't like it in animals), leading me to believe that on its own, as opposed to in combination with other drugs, the animals did feel and were aware of the pain. That was a long, long time ago though, and much more is known about using drug "cocktails" to avoid things like that.

It does have addiction potential, and I'll share an amusing anecdote with you.
We used to use the drug to sedate primates for TB tests. One client had a troup of performing baboons that came in every year for their tests. One of his baboons had apparently made the connection between the drug and what must have been a pleasant sensation for her. When she would see us come in with the drug, she would immediately hold out her arm to receive the injection. The TB tests were non-painful and the drug was used as a safety measure for staff. We always had a good laugh over that.

Sam