DOSE:

inhaled

Ether

(liquid)

BODY WEIGHT:

140 lb

[Erowid Note: The "water extraction" method is ineffective in separating diethyl ether from the volatile hydrocarbon liquids/gases in "starter fluid". Our understanding of the literature is that there is no such thing as safe use of volatile hydrocarbon gases: their psychoactive effects are inseparable from nerve and organ damage.]

I extract my ether from starter fluid, which can be purchased for around two dollars. I spray it into a plastic bag, and then add an equal ammount of water to it. I seal the bag and watch as two solutions separated. I drain the bottom layer by clipping a hole in the corner and let the bottom layer pour out completely. When that is done, I drain the TOP layer into a bottle. I use a thick and absorbant rag. When I've tried to use a thin rag or something pourous, the ether will evaporate quite fast and all I'll get is a mild rush of heat. I find the best way is to inhale through my MOUTH with slow and deep breaths.

The Experience:

The Ether experience is truly one that stands alone among all other experiences. There is no true way to describe this. I'm simply not intelligent enough to find the words that would do it justice. However, I shall try. Within a few seconds, I usually begin to feel surges of heat throughout my body. The next thing I feel is extreme 'tingly' sensations in different areas. After this, it gets a little weird.

The most intense experience with ether was when I was sitting in my basement with my friend. We were watching television, although I have no idea what it was. It was dark, and my furnace was going. As we huffed away, all sounds began to echo intensely. My furnace sounded like some sort of techno droning. I looked over to my friend and as I turned my head I had an absolute epiphany. The sight of turning my head from the television, to my friends face made me feel as if I had seen that vision before in my dreams, perhaps even before I was born. We removed the rags from our mouths and tried to talk to each other. I tried desperately to explain to him what had just happened, but I simply couldn't find the words. All I wanted to do was share what had just happened, but all I could say was 'I can't even describe it! Holy shit it was like, oh my god!' He was saying the same things. We had both had equally moving experiences and here we were trying to tell each other something we had both experienced, without the proper vocabulary to do so.

Suddenly I realized this and felt the most INTENSE rush of embarassment I had ever felt. We both stopped talking to reflect on what had happened. As I looked at the TV, I felt the same mind blowing realization that I had before. I felt as though I had done what I did MILLIONS of times before, even though I hadn't. The sounds were hauntingly meaningful. Everything I saw and heard seemed to repeat itself thousands of times, although I'm sure they really didn't.

After a few minutes, we noticed that we still had quite a bit of ether waiting for us in the bottle. I lunged for it and soaked my rag in it. I slapped the rag to my face with a gaping mouth, and began taking long, deep, separated breaths. Before I knew it, my eyes were closed and I felt as if I were a flower, moving about in the wind. I could see an infinite ammount of black and green diamonds, as if it was the true image of god. For at least five minutes, I felt what I can only describe as constant deja vu. Everything repeated itself in a cycle. THE cycle. I could predict everything I was witnessing. I knew all there was to know. I was literally exposed to ultimate knowledge. Merely sitting in my basement watching TV felt as if I had been spending years trying to achieve enlightenment, and was now enjoying the payoff.

The universe was revealed to me in my own mind. It was a wave of random events, always in order, always in a continuous loop, and I was seeing these events as they were TRULY happening, not as I would normally experience them with the burden of human consciousness. This went on for nearly an hour, and shockingly, both my friend and I decided at the EXACT same time that we didn't need anymore. We had reached the full potential and were brilliantly satisfied. The meaning of life was so clear. It was so apparent. I'm still aware of the true answer to life, however, the answer is actually beyond any worded description, but yet the feeling makes it abundantly clear. Every single thing that had ever happened seemed to flash in front of me for an instant. It is as if the drug took what I was seeing, and somehow inserted it into the deepest reaches of my memory. All events happened before, in different times, but ultimately came together in this one supernatural occurance.

It was agreed upon between my friend and I that what we had experienced was 'real'. I'm 100% certain that my experiences with ether were much more than just an effect a drug has on my mind, but rather, a true secret of existance that ether unlocked. It was something deep in my mind that I had already known, but never thought about. It was my 'original knowledge' before I was ever taught a single english word.

It was purity.

Exp Year: 2006	ExpID: 56769
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jan 12, 2010	Views: 10,426
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Ether (131) : Glowing Experiences (4), Mystical Experiences (9), Small Group (2-9) (17)