DOSE: T+ 0:00	100 mg	oral	Tryptophan	(capsule)
T+ 0:00	120 mg	oral	Ginkgo biloba	(capsule)
T+ 1:00	24 mg	oral	2C-I	(capsule)
T+ 2:00	1 bowl	smoked	Cannabis

BODY WEIGHT:

140 lb

Myself (at time of experience): 20 years of age, approximately 140 lbs, male.

PREPARATION

500mg of 2C-I was obtained and split between two friends and myself. Doses were measured by placing 100mg on a scale (sensitive only enough to that amount) and from that, five piles were eyeballed to 20mg each. Each pile was then placed in a size 0 gel cap. In retrospect, these doses varied rather wildly - upon ingesting a single cap, I had a vivid and intense plus three experience, while on another occasion, the combination of one cap plus a third of another cap led to a plus two experience. This large variation in dose per capsule has been verified by one other friend.

[Erowid Note: Two samples of powder (even of the same chemical) with equivalent volumes won't necessarily weigh the same. For this reason, eyeballing is an inaccurate and potentially dangerous method of measuring, particularly for substances that are active in very small amounts. See this article on The Importance of Measured Doses.]

The particular experience which I am writing about occurred prior to the revelation of the dosage variation, though I knew that eyeballing a dose would yield some noticeable differences from one to the next. It was the third time I had ingested the material from our batch of 2C-I and as such was my third 2C-I experience.

The experience had been planned two weeks prior at the first ingestion of 2C-I. Friend R, Friend B, and myself agreed to drive to a local wildlife refuge in the early morning and spend the whole day there until it was agreed that B was ready to drive back.

Before the experience, I had been feeling rather at ease mentally. While I was not satisfied with where I was in life, I felt that I was making progress and that things were alright. I reread reports online and the 2C-I entry from PiHKAL numerous times. More than anything else, I felt excited to be going to the wildlife refuge - while I have done psychedelics many times, I had not had any opportunities to experience them outdoors.

THE EXPERIENCE

On that day, B showed up at my apartment at approximately 8:00 AM. I made sure to eat nothing, though in retrospect, I should have had a light breakfast. At this time, I ingested a 100mg pill of 5-HTP (which I did not use regularly) and two 60mg capsules of standardized 24% flavone Gingko Biloba (taken semi-regularly). We set off to pick up R, who was not answering his phone. We arrived at his house and knocked on his window - he arose and joined us.

As we drove to the refuge, I was excited to see that the weather appeared to be partly cloudy - clear sunshine came through and the formations were quite beautiful. The weather had been totally cloudy and quite rainy for the week previous and I had not expected a sudden change. It was still considerably cold out, being near the end of Winter, and I had dressed in two layers of everything to stave it off.

During the drive, all three of us ingested our chosen amounts, myself at what I aimed to be 24mg - one full capsule and a small amount of another. The desired amount was placed in a cup of flavored water which was then swallowed. The empty capsule was then swallowed and to the cup was added more water which was then swallowed. This process was used for all three of us.

We arrived at the refuge in a matter of minutes and set to walking about the trails. A while passed with no obvious effects. My mood was rather nice, and though we were not terribly talkative, I felt very comfortable. I began to experience nausea during the walk, and though it was not terribly unpleasant, it felt difficult to resist. We stopped to smoke some high quality cannabis from a short pipe, and while I usually choose not to influence my psychedelic experiences with other substances, I wanted to dispel the nausea. I smoked a very small amount, and soon after, I began to notice the effects of the 2C-I (which were easily distinguishable from the effects of the cannabis).

The first effects I noticed were some mild open-eyed visuals. The bridge that we were standing on appeared to be breathing in and out. I crouched down to look closer and I became aware of the exceptional amounts of detail in the wood. After notifying my friends, it became apparent that I was feeling the effects much sooner than the others. We set to walking again.

I became more aware of colors - it isn't that they became brighter and more saturated, as I sometimes experience on other psychedelics. I was just more aware of how green something was, and how brown that other thing was, and to what degree. I feel that normally I may lump a whole range of colors into the category of red, but on 2C-I, I find it much easier to distinguish between specific shades. This occurs every time I use 2C-I. Though leaves were totally absent from the trees, I was keenly aware of the odd colors of tips of branches where growth was beginning. Across the water, I could see a clear layer of carrot orange in the branches of the trees, and another layer of bright maroon above it. I had never noticed colors like these in trees before, though I am certain that I'd seen the same trees at the same time of year many times before.

In addition to this, I began noticing details in things much more clearly. My vision appeared to have improved, and though I have good eyesight, I felt that I could see even better. I was more aware of exactly how much of everything was in my field of vision, as if I was not filtering out information and only noticing what was particularly important. I wouldn't see one branch on a tree, but a network of branches that looked like obvious fractal patterning. I noticed plants I had never seen before and marveled at details that I had never noticed on ones I see all the time.

Sometime around the beginning of the peak, as we walked, everything in my vision began to shake and vibrate really fast. I stopped walking because I felt that I might lose my balance. I now think that it might have been a temporary and severe nystagmus (eye wiggles), though it didn't quite feel as such. It took less than a minute to cease, though when I began walking again I noticed it for a moment before it dissipated and did not return.

Throughout the entire experience, a sense of seeing the true beauty of nature was prevalent. I was reminded quite a bit of enjoying it as I had when I was young child. At one point, my friends and I came across a dead bird floating in a body of water, and while B seemed a bit disturbed, both R and I felt no anxiety at all. It was just another part of nature - and while I normally think that while baseline, I would also normally think that a psychedelic would cause me to feel sadness at the sight of a dead animal. That was obviously not the case.

A moment came where we all stood still and I was crouched down, overlooking that same body of water. While we had not been talking much, it dawned on me that our constant movement and activity had been creating noise. For the first time in my life, I felt that I could hear absolutely everything in the surrounding miles of the refuge which might be possible to hear. My hearing seemed incredible keen - but it wasn't the ability to hear it that was amazing. The unparalleled beauty of the sounds was overwhelming - no song or sound has ever compared in my whole life to that symphony. I felt myself wanting to cry, but I was concerned about possibly worrying my friends (as I'm sure they wouldn't immediately leap to the conclusion that I was crying over the beauty of the whole thing) and so I stood up, said something along the lines of holy crap, and started looking around to distract myself.

I believe shortly after that, as we discussed something, R remarked on the sound of geese in the distance. We smiled and continued to discuss whatever it is we had been talking about. Maybe five minutes later, I said that it sounded like they were still coming our direction. R laughed and said that there was no way it was the same group, and B said that it probably wasn't. We kept talking, and the sound just got louder and louder, and again I said that they were definitely getting closer and it was definitely the same geese. Both R and B admitted that maybe it was, and for another thirty seconds, the sound got louder and louder until hundreds, possibly thousands of geese were flying not too far overhead, circling around the water. We all began laughing, and while I cannot speak for the other two, I was laughing because of the sheer joy of witnessing such a spectacle. The geese all funneled down into the water, and we caught our breaths and remarked on how incredible that had been. None of us had realized that the geese (and as we later learned, swans) were migrating, and coincidentally we had chosen the location they were stopping for the day, adding to the sense that the day was about as perfect as it could be.

Sometime later, as we walked back to the vehicle to eat a lunch (as anorexia is absolutely not an effect of 2C-I), a light rain settled in and when we actually reached the vehicle, a torrential downpour was occurring. We enjoyed our food, myself particularly enjoying the apple slices I brought along, and not too long after we finished, the rain ceased. We walked back into the park and to one of the bodies of water and watched the massive raincloud sweep across the land out into the distance. As we watched this, I suddenly saw how three-dimensional the cloudscape was. I don't think I've ever really seen clouds that way before, and though I've tried, I have had difficulty seeing it that way since. It was really quite fascinating.

In addition to this, the sun had come out (at least on our part of the landscape) and the direct sunlight felt extremely pleasurable. It felt like a physical thing gently caressing my skin with warmth. I was quite disappointed when a cloud hid the sun again.

Sometime during the cloud watching, I received a phone call from my mother. I usually turn off my phone while on psychedelics so that I don't cause any unnecessary stress, but I felt comfortable and answered the call. I felt that I carried on the conversation quite well and that my mother did not realize that I was on a psychedelic.

After the phone call, I squatted down and closed my eyes. I had not given any time to closed-eye visuals, as for some reason I just forget to while on any psychedelic. I saw vivid colors in my whole vision and rounded shapes, but no obvious patterns or images. This is quite distinct from what I normally see for CEVs on 2C-I, where I normally see fractal patterning and sometimes fluid organic shapes in vague rainbow colors. I believe that the difference arises due to how bright it was outdoors at the time and how dark it normally is when I test CEVs.

Once we were done with the cloud watching, we headed back to the vehicle. We had all come down substantially, and B suggested we drive home. We were all for the idea, and after a few tests decided that B was safe to drive (he always comes down faster than anyone else I know on psychedelics anyway). We proceeded to head home almost entirely in silence, and when I finally arrived at my place, I just relaxed and listened to some music. I can't remember much of what I did for the rest of the day, but there was a general feeling of contentedness.

SUMMARY

As to the nature of the substance every time I have tried it, it feels like I come up for a very long time (and it always feels that way on 2C-I). I always begin feeling the climb at about one hour into it, sometimes earlier, and the peak at about two to two and a half hours into it. The peak then sustains for a number of hours (three to five) and naturally contours to the experience (where something particularly exciting will cause a jump in the effects). The effects then seem to fade rather slowly for me, with residual effects lasting up to the tenth hour and sometimes longer, with sleep almost impossible to achieve until even a couple of hours after that without use of sleeping aids. This is a problem common for me with any psychoactive I take, though, to the extent that even cannabis will keep me awake for up to a couple of hours when I'm extremely tired.

Nausea has been a common occurrence for me, though I have not once thrown up from it. A painful buildup of gas in the intestines occurred the first time and persisted for an hour or so.

Visuals are very prominent. I tend to see faint rainbow colors over everything and objects often times appear to breathe. Objects with fine patterns on them appear to morph and move slightly. Thin lines (such as the gaps between window blinds) will often become overtly colorful, tending toward greens and purples.

Food tastes good, particularly acidic foods such as fruits or sour candies. Greasy foods cause quite a bit of intestinal discomfort for me. Appetite is actually quite often increased, as I can never seem to eat enough.

Tactile sensations are enhanced. Showers and baths feel very good, and solitary sexual activities are quite nice as well (and I would imagine that it would be nice with someone else, too!).

The vast majority of my experiences are with tryptamines, and I would say that hands down 2C-I is easier to maintain control of. While I value tryptamines and quite intend to take more in the future, it seems like there is a large loss of control over emotions and thoughts. On 2C-I, it feels quite easy to maintain a grasp on reality and on emotional states. I have encountered things while on 2C-I that would normally get me stuck in very negative thought loops, I could deal with. I'm not able to ignore things, but I feel like I could actually work through rather than drown in them. I might even say that the substance is almost emotionally neutral - I don't feel a distinctly positive mood shift that I normally get from psychedelics.

2C-I is a very valuable substance to me. I have had experiences with mushrooms, san pedro, morning glory seeds, 5-Acetoxy-DiPT, DXM, DMT, salvia, and sinicuichi, and I would say that 2C-I is one of my favorites.

Exp Year: 2008	ExpID: 69959
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: May 7, 2008	Views: 20,673
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