DOSE: T+ 0:00	1 capsl	oral	2C-B
T+ 4:20		smoked	Cannabis

BODY WEIGHT:

135 lb

I had never had the pleasure of attending one before, but I never
expected drugs to be sold so openly at music festivals. My journey to
Spookstock 7 was long an uneventful, and mostly was spent mentally
preparing for whatever psychedelic experiences I might have. I was
actually doubtful that I would be able to find any doses at all, as
it's fairly uncommon in my home state. I was not to be disappointed.

I awoke to the rising sun at about seven o'clock, on the second day of
the festival. I had arrived at the campground at midnight the night
before, to something like an all-night music and drug party, and
hadn't slept much in the intervening time. I was feeling strangely
refreshed anyway, for some reason. I think it was something about the
atmosphere of this place; everyone I met seemed to non-verbally
acknowledge the strange, subtle connectedness that the psychedelic
state awakens me to. It was, perhaps, the change that was refreshing.
Not many people I normally interact with have been awakened in this
way.

As I climbed out of my friend R's car, stretched, and stumbled around,
I encountered three new arrivals, camped out in the space next to
us. were yelling at passerby, 'Molly! Mescaline!'. (T-1:00)
'Mescaline', I thought. That was definitely on my long, but
shortening, list of 'Substances To Experience Before I Die'.

In addition to the connectedness, everyone here is just extremely
friendly, too. Maybe it's all the good pot and beautiful scenery. I
don't know. Anyway, I talked to this 'mescaline' guy for a while, and
he invited me over to his campsite, and offered me some hot chocolate.
He told me that what he actually had was MDMA, Peyote extract, and
2C-B, which he explained was like synthetic mescaline.

However, I already knew 2C-B well from my research. I had never
experienced it, though. It is indeed chemically similar to mescaline,
but it has its own unique and interesting effects, also. I knew that
it's effects are described as 'Somewhere between MDMA and LSD, but
completely unlike a combination of the two.' He agreed to sell me one
of his few doses. I took it on the spot, and proceeded up the hill to
the site where people had been gathered around the bonfire the night
before. I knew there would be a good aura up there. (T0:00)

As a bit of background information, I've been having a mild identity
crisis over the past few months. A lot of my friendships had changed
suddenly, and I found myself more alone than I'd ever been. I realized
at this point that I had been defining myself too much by the people I
was associating with, and, in the absence of them, I wasn't entirely
sure who I was, where I was, or even why I was alive. It was very
disconcerting, to say the least.

The embers of the bonfire of the night before were still smoldering
when I arrived, and about ten of my fellow early morning trippers had
been drawn up here as well. They were all sitting around it, smiling,
sometimes talking sporadically, but mostly just relaxing and being
generally amicable towards the world. I'd never met any of these
people before, but the seemed friendly enough.

A kid in glasses and an all-over print t-shirt welcomed me over. This
was the first time I'd seen the camp in the daytime, and I must say,
it is beautiful beyond description. It was a perfect day. Clear, blue
sky with a warm sun beating down its pure energy onto us. The
greenest, softest grass I'd ever seen encircled the fire like a
carpet, stretching away into the woods at the bottom of the
hill. Birds were flying in an unbelievable dance of life far above us,
as the fire crackled in what I thought was a wise and especially
soothing manner. I was definitely beginning to feel the effects of the
drug now. (T+0:30-0:40)

All of my previous trips have been with tryptamine compounds, and what
I found is that, if 2C-B is any indication, phenethylamines are much
more pleasant. Much warmer, much friendlier, less 'glitchy', and with
less distracting visual activity. That's not to say the visual
activity is not there. If anything, it was much more intense than with
other drugs I've tried. However, I was able to ignore it much more
easily. It wasn't as mesmerizing as what I would see on, for
example, LSD. This was a good thing, as it lets me focus more on my
soul, which is what I came here to do.

When it finally arrived, after maybe 45 minutes, The come-up was fast
and fairly intense; almost overwhelming. I felt the energy of it
washing over me in waves, and it felt amazing. If I had been in a more
neutral or hostile setting, things probably would have been
frightening at this point, but I knew that everyone around me
understood, and was supportive of my state of mind. This made it much
easier to bare my soul, and slip into a pleasant state of openness and
unity with my surroundings. (T+0:40-1:00)

Before I had been there thirty minutes, the kid in the glasses and an
old hippie got together with a guitar and a drum, and started playing
music. It started off rough, and before long the kid admitted that he
was 'too fucked up on mushrooms' to be playing guitar well. Everyone
laughed in that kind of spaced-out way, they switched instruments, and
then proceeded to play the most beautiful music I've ever heard. The
trees swayed, the wind blew, the birds swooped and dove in intricate
patterns, and it seemed as though the whole valley was dancing to the
beat of our collective soul.

Colors ... are amazing. Acid never did the colors thing for me, but on
this ... the grass was the greenest green I have ever seen. I'll never
forget it, as long as I'm alive. The world is a beautiful place, if
only you can eliminate your bias and stop filtering the beauty through
your worldview for a moment. I am in love with this place.

The birds ... its almost as if they act as a single organism, some
kind of a pseudo-hive mind. Every one of them has a soul, but,
together, they are something greater. Something ... beyond ... mere
birds. They are a collective. WE are a collective. We are at peace.

It was quickly apparent that 2C-B is also much more of an intoxicant
than LSD is, at least for me. My memory was dramatically affected, and
somehow in-sync with the waves of energy crashing over my
consciousness. The rest of the trip was superimposed upon sets of
clearly-defined waves of beauty, awareness, and clarity. It was as if
I was in a movie, and, at points, I would suddenly 'awaken' in a new
place, as if a cutscene or transition had taken place. I was fully
sane, conscious, and aware in the intervening time, and I remember it
clearly, but it's not nearly as important as when I was on the crest
of a wave of energy. Its as if I was coming to orgasmic revelations,
every twenty minutes or so.

I remember clearly, at the peak of my come-up, two older clean-shaven
men came over and sat down around the campfire with us. For some
reason, it was obvious to me that they were undercover cops. Looking
back, I'm not sure if they actually were. However, a man in camoflogue
came over to the campfire, talking in a walkie-talkie, convincing me
beyond a doubt that we were surrounded by some kind of undercover SWAT
team.

He reached down behind a log where a kid was sitting, and picked up a
bag of weed. 'What's this?' he said. 'Will you please stand up, sir?'
I was sure that we were getting busted, and was really high at this
point, so it was kind of starting to freak me out. But, it turns out,
the guy was just selling weed. 'Crappy weed is what it is. Nugget
delivery service!' he said. 'Somebody buy some nuggets!' I didn't see
or hear about anyone get arrested during the entire festival. The guys
that I suspected were cops even smoked some of the pot with us. (T+1:30)

As I started to come down from the crest of my first wave, I wandered
away from the campfire, and walked down 'Shakedown Street', the place
where all the vendors are set up. Everyone's face was severely
distorted, but not in a menacing way. It was an obvious drug effect,
so it didn't cause me much worry. The people didn't seem to notice
that I was tripping, or just simply didn't care. I felt a strange
benevolence towards everyone, tinged with a hint of suspisciousness,
as I still suspected there were more undercover cops around here,
somewhere. I didn't have anything on me, so it wasn't a fear, but
rather an understandable delusion that I held for twenty minutes or
so. There probably were cops around there, with all the drug
trafficking going on. However, I recognized it as a drug-induced
delusion, and brushed it off before I left Shakedown.

Eventually, I ended up by the creek that runs through the bottom of
the valley. It's nothing like the creeks from my home state, all muddy
and brown. No, this one was perfectly, unbelievably clear, like in a
dream. Three more dudes were sitting by the creekside playing drums,
and again, it seemed like they were playing to the beat of the
river. Through the music, it seemed to me that they had uncovered the
secret heartbeat of nature. Why hadn't I heard this before? (T+2:00)

I sat there for nearly two hours, in the sun, listening to the drums,
the river, and watching the golden spiderwebs of the morning sky dance
across the perfectly clear water. I bathed in the radiance of the
heartbeat, its warm, pulsating waves. The energy of that time was
absolutely amazing.

I find that, personally, with the exception of Ayahuasca, the 'comeup'
of psychedelics in general is not nearly as useful, in terms of
introspection, as the 'comedown'. That is, the comeup is more
enjoyable, but, if I take anything away from the experience, I'm going
to learn it while descending back to sobriety. That turned out to be
especially true with this substance. During the last four hours or so,
I spent a lot of time wandering around, both in the campground, and in
my mind.

I realized that my identity crisis was more an issue of where I was
derived from. That is, I need to be part of a collective, a culture,
perhaps, or a group of friends, but I cannot be OF that culture. Much
like the flock of birds on the hill, I need to enter into it,
independently, as a developed person, and bring something new to
it. Any other way, I would either be defined by cultural norms, or an
outcast. I need to push out my identity to those around me, rather
than pulling in theirs. This was my problem, and the realization of
this greatly settled my soul, and still does, as I write this more
than a month later.

After the sun had ascended so far into the sky that I could no longer
justify calling this a 'perfect morning', I ended up back at the
campsite of the people who had sold me the 2C-B. They were rolling up
a blunt. Perfect. Everything had that shiny, plastic sheen of order,
yet identity, about it. They invited me over to smoke. It was a
wonderful, communal experience. I felt close with everything. I had a
very intense feeling of having arrived home, at long last. (T+4:20)

There was what seemed to be an extremely long period of intoxication,
after the main effects had ended. This may or may not have been a
product of all the marijuana I had smoked over the course of the day,
though I suspect it was not. I had the same 'waves of energy' feeling,
but without any of the visual activity, or really anything other than
a mild feeling of drunkenness. It was not unpleasant in the slightest,
but it did seem to go on well past the peak of the experience. I was
just confused as to how I could still feel like I was tripping hard,
but without any kind of visuals at all.

I finally was completely sober around 3 or 4 PM. The world retained
its beauty, however, and, strangely, the grass retained its surreal
green color. Even today, I will occasionally come across a
particularly green patch of grass in the morning or evening, with the
sun falling across it just right, and I will again be overwhelmed with
the beauty of the world.

All in all, I think this was hands-down the best trip of my life. I
didn't learn as much from this substance as I did from Ayahuasca, and
it wasn't nearly as intense as LSD or psilocybin mushrooms, but,
rather, a soft, warm day spent in paradise. I'm glad I had the
opportunity to experience this. Highly recommended.

Exp Year: 2008	ExpID: 75201
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jul 20, 2009	Views: 27,324
[ View PDF (to print) ] [ View LaTeX (for geeks) ] [ Swap Dark/Light ]
2C-B (52) : General (1), First Times (2), Relationships (44), Therapeutic Intent or Outcome (49), Glowing Experiences (4), Festival / Lg. Crowd (24)