Hi,

If one takes DXM/K/etc (or along those lines) for example, but ends up getting an awful experience resulting in long term damage, BECAUSE the person was in a bad set and setting.

Could that bad trip be prevented if they learned mediation and meditated while in a K trip?

From my experience, there are two ways you can go with this assuming the same setting is inevitable:
1. Believe that every trip is different and the bad trip was just a fluke. Likely you'll find that the nature of the trip does indeed change on a case-by-case basis, depending on your mood in particular.
2. Face the bad trip head on and come to terms with it. This means getting to the root of what makes it "bad" to begin with and realizing that even a bad trip is pretty cool.

In reality, it's best to do both of these things. Go into the trip with attitude (1) and be ready to enact attitude (2) if things go South. On the flip side, if you approach the presumably bad trip with the playfulness and curiosity of attitude (2), then you will find that you can always get something positive out of the trip, even if it's the type of trip you would've considered bad before.

So my answer is that meditation can help, and my recommendation is that you meditate on (1) and (2) during the trip. Otherwise, I guess the trivial solution is to avoid the setting that caused the bad trip, in which case you might as well go for the exact opposite setting: day/night, indoors/outdoors, alone/with friends. And also, it can't hurt to change setting during the trip if you feel things are taking a negative turn, though you shouldn't drive while under the influence.

Meditation is a good practice but will not fix damage caused by a previous trip.
Some people just do not get along well with dissociatives.

Practice meditation & start with low dosages be for jumping in the deep end to be sure k I something you enjoy doing.

If you do begin going further with dissociatives, keep a close eye on your thought processes & keep uses spaced out.

I abused dissociatives for a while quite heavily & it does seem to slowly produce mental changes (depersonalization, derealization, dissociation long term, etc) that can be hard to reverse & take quite some time to recover from. It happens so gradually that you dont notice it until you really stop & pay attention to the way your mind I working.

Ketamine can be a dangerous and harmful substance. Maybe it is okay in moderation, but if you already have a problem with it, then that is probably a sign to work with a different substance.

If something hurts you, why would you want more of it?

I would suggest meditation, but more then that I would suggest San Pedro or mushrooms. If you want a dissacociative that is way better then ketamine I would try chewed salvia (dont smoke it though). Oral doses of Salvia are way more insightful, and not harmful compared to k.

My thoughts exactly!