DOSE:	15 mg	oral	2C-I	(powder / crystals)
		smoked	Cannabis

BODY WEIGHT:

142 lb

For background's sake, this is my first phenethylamine experience. I had only used the typical 'high school party' drugs until this point -- i.e. cannabis, alcohol, tobacco, caffeine. I post this report in order to inform those who were/are in the same position, as I think there are many kids who have apprehensions before the 1st trip or empathogen experience.

I came across 2C-I, firstly, online -- the 'next ecstasy' so it was touted. My 'hooked up and re-upping' friend had some and I figured it was worth a try. I picked up 2 tabs of 20 mgs each. I had months of research under my belt as inquiring which drug I would try after the aforesaid ones. X was beyond my reach, as was LSD, cocaine I found dangerous, heroin the same and really nothing else was realistic for aquisition. (DXM and other OTC were unattractive at the time and still remain so)

I had the two gelcaps of 2C-I for about 3 weeks before my friend, ‘Z’, and I dropped them. I knew I wanted a close friend to try it with and I also knew that if none of my close friends were up to it, I wouldn't touch it. Z and I hung out one night, with Z crashing at my place. It was pretty late when we swallowed the clear caps. I poured a tiny bit out, considering that 20 mgs was relatively strong for a person of my size and also, for a person unfamiliar with tripping or rolling, etc. etc. I drew the conclusion that I poured 1/4 of my cap into the bag merely by eyeing it. I figured that Z was much larger than myself, and that 2C-I is noted to have a 'sweet spot,' meaning having a larger dose does not particularly make one's experience better. Z took all 20 mgs.

Z and I hit a small strawberry J after taking the capsules and I started to collect my thoughts and feelings for the experience to come. Honestly, researching online made me ready for the experience -- months of clicking away and educating myself, but for some reason, I refused to take anything I deemed 'not to mess with.'

A noticeable 'awakeness' or attentativeness was apparent to me right after taking the capsule. This might have been sheer excitement or anxiety, maybe placebo, maybe not. Shulgin mentions a similar effect.

After, say 20 minutes (I did write down the coming up experience), I noticed a 'headedness,' which I can describe as being open and energized. I felt alert and ambitious, kind of like two Vivarin caffeine pills or a few jacks before a calculus exam. This effect of the 2C-I amplified gradually over the first hour. By 70 minutes or so, I encountered the 'coming up' experience, which for me, was accompanied by squeamish, uncontrollable waves of body temperature change. I felt cold throughout my body, esp. the stomach, yet when I measure my temperature, no irregular temperature was recorded. I felt as if I had had a few too many beers or had drank heavy spirits on a full stomach. Yet in other ways, particularly the body temperature buzzing, I was unfamiliar with the physical attributes of the drug. I had felt at the hour mark that nothing was really gonna happen, or the whole 2C-I experience was exaggerated. I felt that I couldn't take 6 hours of this sick, coming up feeling.

However, I was able to start controlling the squeamishness, and at about 90 minutes it all cleared up. I was left with a full body, with a speedy and energized feeling. I felt incredible -- like I was ready for a full night on the town. And within me, there was a 'clean, buzzy' feeling radiating centrally and then following course to every point of the body, heart to fingertips. The awkward feelings of coming up had vanished.

By 2 hours I started to see the visuals, though I think my dosage kept the OEV's to a minimum. I saw warping and waving of the carpet and my guitar -- some people describe it as breathing. I started to notice changes in depth perception, objects in the room were seemingly closer to me at times and figures on the TV seemed to 'jut out.' Lights had a certain 'halo' around them and if I concentrated on a certain 'attraction' in my surroundings, I was able to see the persian lights effect of the drug, an intricate and colorful pattern that seemed to come out in incomplete helixes.

My friend, Z, is a bit harder-headed and he came across similar reactions, just much slower. I had fasted more than he, opting out dinner completely instead of just keeping dinner light. He also is bigger than I.

My guitar was the trippiest object I could focus on. The strings seemed to vibrate without being played.

However, at my dosage, I found visuals to not be the most attractive aspect of the drug -- the body buzz and the freedom of exploration proved to be greater. On 2C-I, I felt very much like I could tap into any part of my brain, analytical, emotional -- I could look at a certain statement or thought from multiple 'wavelengths' -- the beauty of the drug was trying to tune-in to a certain thought wavelength and just going with it. I could think on many different levels, the hardest part was finding a convergence or unification of them all. The drug allows one to communicate very freely, yet not always articulately. Words seemed like they lived on their 'spines,' not watered down with everyday connotations. Words carried a newfound empathy.

Some interesting thoughts I had were very philosophical, and I will mention a few. I pondered greatly whether there could ever exist more than one individual perception for a specific person, in fact, even before the perceptions of others are realized, I must assimilate or incorporate them into my own -- kind of a question of whether man is the artist with infinite clay or whether man is clay and merely a product of his environment. Nonetheless, this is surface-skinning, the thoughts I uncover on this drug are boundless. I need not list all the ones I came across. Empathy on this drug, and insight, are phenomenal.

The conversations I had with ‘Z’ were very honest, very deep and meaningful. I felt connected to his ideas and above all else, that I was so glad to have such a thoughful and pure-spirited friend to experience all this with. I highly recommend small, tight-knit groups of friends for this drug. I think larger doses, 20+ mgs, make it too intense for social situations. I felt as if I was on the threshold between control and tripping too hard. The drug can be dark or scary trippy if you let it.

Nonetheless, music seemed amplified and 'essentialized' on 2C-I. The actual sound of it was not changed, but the ideas and thoughts and feelings that dealt with the song playing at the time were amplified. Each song carried its own flavor, and Z and I noted that it was like 'starting over' with a new mood with each song. Music occupied most of our trip.

Just to note, at around 2 hours I felt peaked and the drug maintained the peaked feelings for another few hours. Coming down, as far as the intensity of everything, was calm and gradual. Lights caused headaches for me, and I was left with a pretty 'internal' headache as the drug chilled out.

Z and I went outside and I noticed calm visuals, mostly related to the stars and the lights around. We hit a bowl or two of marijuana and quickly, the 'persian carpet' effect came back into my OEV-scape and my body became calmed-out real quick. The cannabis hits hard and you feel the two drugs working each other out -- not in a bad way, I enjoyed the complementation a lot. Z and I went for a walk and simply conversed but we soon enough found ourselves back inside, cracking jokes at the religious evangelicals of late night TV (esp. one that looked like 'Father Time') and changing CD's up; talking music.

Things to note, the drug gave me a wide range and control of my muscles and motion and sometimes I 'went off' on tangents and forget why it is that I got up or walked into the other room, et al. The body buzz sustains well and simply I felt great, energized but not too speedy in an amphetamine or ADHD way... there were no heart palpitations or anything. Doing 'yoga-like' movements felt good and overall I felt as if I was moving slower but with more precision.

Overall, 2C-I was an excellent choice for a first research chem and a first trip. There was incredible control over my experience, I felt as if even if my parents crashed our fun, we could have played it off. The trippy little pill gave me incredible freedom for intellectual gains and understanding. I don't know if it compares to a 'roll,' but I hope to be able to compare the two some day. The whole experience I found to be honest, beautiful in a personal sense of the word, and intellectual. My sense of self was very centered and I found closure in thoughts that probably would have escaped me in an alcoholic or sober state. The drug simply blew other drugs out of the water, and small doses of 2C-I would probably go over real well in a dance/social setting.

I felt particularly buzzed and energized the next day, even with only 4.5 hours sleep. I felt soft, polite and compassionate the next day. This drug caused small inklings to do it again but nothing what one would call dependence or addiction. I could shrug it off with the right mind set. Empathegeons and phenethylamines are definitely the way to go if one enjoys inner-exploration and drugs that 'teach.' I think I would put a few months in between use, as research chem's, contrary to the name, are not well-researched. Even though I didn't feel any 'hangover' effects and everything with me seems to be healthy, I can always minimize adverse health risks by allowing months for recovery and taking my Flintstones. Drinking water during the trip helped, and the headache afterwards wasn't too bad.

2C-I is a little visually trippy. Its best to plan a day around the event, with time to sleep in and relax. I think I am directly a better person from the experience and I have a new frame of appreciation around my life.

Be careful to the best of your abilities, and remember to understand that these chemicals are solely tools 'tap-into' ideas already within you. One can learn to touch and taste the richness of the human experience with careful, moderate use of these drugs -- one can eventually come to the point where these drugs are no longer necessary to feel 'alive,' or to feel fine-tuned to one's inner-languages and emotions. Best wishes, be safe.

---

Follow-up Report, Feb 2007

Of Poets, Priests and Pharmacists, by Dampcinder

While drug experiences are normally confined by the hourly dimensions of “coming up,” hitting a “plateau,” or the (hugely metaphorical) “crash” of “coming down,” the “experience” I had over a year and a half ago is still with me and developing to this very day. Maybe the “fun” and, I am not reluctant to say it, “emotional depth” of the experience ended hours after taking the little capsule, but the more sobering emotions and realizations did not come until well after.

I can admit that I was “searching for self” in taking 2c-i. I was also just an impressionable kid with a little bit more information and curiosity than the average person and $20 bucks I didn’t want to spend at the movies or the hookah bar. I probably got my $20 out of the experience, but that’s not saying much. However trite it is and uncomfortable it makes me to say it, the experience was an illusion. Some cheap thrills dressed up real nicely.

Especially in hindsight, the happiness and the insight of the experience were mostly mental constructions I made outside of its influence. I was spending the weekend with a best friend, assured that we would share an intimate moment during a time in our lives when we already felt on top of the world. Moreover, I was consciously catapulting myself into a kind of chemical confrontation, and thus, it should be no wonder that the experience would carry great magnitude. I would say that seeking and anticipating the drug experience, knowing and expecting what I did, gave me a convincing and pure “excuse” to not make the assumptions that make life outside of the drug experience - “sober life,” that is – seem so painful and dreary and insincere and underdeveloped. While I am not discounting the potential of powerful chemicals in themselves, the drugs worked in part because it was what I thought I needed to break larger social constraints, and no doubt, the mundanity of everyday life. Think Shulgin’s anecdote about the “sugar sedative” that incited his interest to study what he studies.

And while I’m no Shulgin, it is still a perplexing question: Was the drug necessary to feel what I felt? Was the agent of the experience the chemicals or me or both?

But these questions are unanswerable. And to a certain degree, beside the point. I am writing this follow-up because I do not want to give any false impressions. I’m not trying to say that taking psychedelics, in itself, is immoral, or that nothing good will ever come out of using them, or most of all, that there is no need to continue the political and social dialogue surrounding the legality of drugs (from caffeine to Prozac to LSD) and their potential uses for a “better life,” but I am saying that one needs to consider all of the consequences possible (not merely the consequences that one, in one's opinion, sees as applicable or reasonable) in choosing to use illegal drugs and who may be hurt by doing so.

Personally, I took drugs thinking that no one would ever know or people who did would carry certain sympathetic judgments. Furthermore, I did not think that it would ever lead to legal ramifications or affect my career aspirations. That being said, these possible scenarios have not, or at least not seriously or irrevocably, manifested. But I still carry the same conviction: Trying to guess what will or will not happen to me when using substances that are illegal, potentially fatal, hardly researched by the medical community, and frowned upon by the majority of society is foolish. It’s a judgment I shouldn’t think I'm in a position to make. This is what I believe. Also, in kind of a psychoanalytical sense, if you’re living a dual life (that of both the drug and non-drug user, however imposed that dichotomy is), like I did, and are unsure about what kind of a person you are, then, for the lack of a better phrase, “err on the safe side.”

If you think about it, will there ever be drug reform if legal society will only accept criticism from non-drug users? One needs to come up with one's priorities, pick one's fight and stand one's ground. Conceding the pleasure of using illegal drugs could be easy if it meant that something much more important depended on it. And, again, I’m not able to say that this is right or wrong, as some of you reading might, but that it merely is. It’s merely an observation, though one I make now perched from a much higher point than I once was.

So I’d like to tell you: Whether one likes the idea or not, the decisions one makes and the consequences they cause will be seen as one's own.

Ultimately, I do not think this creates a conflict with Erowid’s project, which I still support for its efforts to provide unbiased documentation of drug use, collecting from popular, legal and medical perspectives, among others. Also, there is an intrinsic value within all the reports collected, even though not all of them stand up to a supposed “scientific” rigor or political value. Sometimes I read Erowid reports and see the work of poets. Or pharmacists. Or even priests. Our experiences and the way we express them have tremendous value for ourselves and others.

So then, you have read my opinion and it will enter a vault among many others – some similar, others radically different – its value to be weighed by the individual. Peace and love, unity and respect, be safe.

Exp Year: 2005	ExpID: 44007
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Nov 22, 2005	Views: 22,999
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2C-I (172) : Small Group (2-9) (17), Retrospective / Summary (11), First Times (2)