dankstarR
07-14-2008, 04:39 AM
Hello everyone and thank you for reading my Complete 2c-i FAQ. I will be discussing the beautiful and mysterious 2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodophenethylamine, also known as 2c-i.
Chapters.
1) Background Information
2) Dose
3) What to expect
4) Interactions
5) Synthesis
6) Family
7) Duration
8) Law
9) Price
10) How to use
11) Trip Reports
Chapter 1: Background Information
2c-i is a Research Chemical, developed by the great Alexander Shulgin. 2c-i's chemical name is 2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodophenethylamine. It is a Phenethylamine and also classed as a Psychedelic Hallucinogenic drug. It is most commonly found in a white, fluffy powder, but on occasion you can be given to it in a pill form, depending on how you buy it.
2c-i started to get popular in the early 2000's because of it's popularity from the internet. They're where, and still are, plenty of internet vendors that sell 2c-i and other Research Chemicals.
2c-i is often described as a ecstasy high mixed with a medium LSD dose.
Chapter 2: Dose
The average dose for 2c-i is anywhere from 8-12mg for a light trip, and 15-25 for a medium-high trip, and 30-45 for a intense trip. When you are weighing out your dosages, you should always, ALWAYS have a .001 scale.
It's like this, say you take 20mg's of 2c-i, and then next time you trip you want to take 40mg's two double the trip. It's not like that. if you where to take 40mg's and thought it would be 2x more than 20, you're wrong, it's more like 5-10x stronger. So I will say this again make sure you use a accurate scale when you measure all research chemicals, and never ever eye out a dose.
Chapter 3: What to expect
By now you have you're 2c-i and you just weighed out lets say...20-23mg of it, and now you're going to take it. But wait...you're probably thinking, after I take this what the f*** am i going to feel/see/hear?
The come up of 2c-i and other research chemicals are known to take a good amount of time to fully hit. Users report up to 1-2 1/2 hours to feel the effects. It mostly depends on the person, some feel it more than others, but overall it takes a good amount of time.
Pre-trip: Things to do before you drop your dose would maybe be to take some Dramamine and/or Tums. RC's are infamous for causing nausea and stomach discomfort. Maybe make a playlist on the computer for some good, chill, "tripping" music.
Starting effects: You will start to feel "tingles" in your arms, hands, legs. People refer to it as pinpricks they're. You will start to notice colors look way more...real than they did when you where sober. The colors stand out a lot and mild tracers will occur. Music will sound more interesting than normal, and your emotions will start to play out by what you listen to. i.e. let's say you are listening to some chill, calm music, you're body will start to feel more relaxed than it was. Or maybe you start listening to hyper, up-beat music, your body will feel more awake and energized.
Pre-Plateau/Plateau: You will start to notice the walls will seem like they're "breathing" and the ceilings or walls will have the ripple effect, meaning it will look like they're rippling like an ocean. A lot of users report a strong body load, meaning your body feels like it weighs a ton. You will have tracers like when you look at a lights and turn away, the colors will follow, especially with red. I've noticed red looks SO much different when I'm on 2c-i than any other drug, it's hard to explain, but you'll experience it. Users report when they are Plateauing that whatever they're sitting/laying on starts to feel like a water bed. CEV's will become very noticeable when you close you're eyes. I love to just close my eyes, listen to music and smoke a cigarette. I find it really relaxing. A lot of people, including myself, experience time moving really slow.
2c-i is generally a very happy drug, when I come up I can't help but smile, I don't know why but I just can't help it. It's very hard to have a bad trip off of 2c-i because it kind of pushes away bad thoughts and just bombards your head with happy ones. But everyone is different.
Chapter 4: Interactions
Since all RC's have had barley any research done on them, it's hard to tell what drugs are bad to take with it. I just play it safe, and only smoke weed when I'm on it. It's really hard to tell at this point in time what bad things can happen to you if you where to drink alcohol, do uppers, do downers, or anything while you're under the influence of it.
So just play it safe and only smoke that sweet MJ.
"2C-I has been known to cause seizures when taken with Wellbutrin, a fairly common anti-depressant. "
link: http://tccwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=2C-I
I'm not sure if this is true, but if you are on any type of Anti-Depressant then beware, and I advise against taking 2c-i or any 2c for that matter.
Chapter 5: Synthesis
SYNTHESIS: A mixture of 7.4 g phthalic anhydride and 9.05 g of 2,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine (see the recipe for 2C-H for its preparation) was heated with an open flame. A single clear phase was formed with the loss of H2O. After the hot melt remained quiet for a few moments, it was poured out into a crystallizing dish yielding 14.8 g of a crude solid product. This was recrystallized from 20 mL CH3CN, with care taken for an endothermic dissolution, and an exothermic crystallization. Both transitions must be done without haste. After filtration, the solids were washed with 2x20 mL hexane and air dried to constant weight. A yield of 12.93 g of N-(2-(2,5-dimethoxyphenyl)ethyl)phthalimide was obtained as electrostatic yellow crystals, with a mp of 109-111 °C. A sample recrystallized from IPA was white, with a mp of 110-111 °C. Anal. (C18H17NO4) C,H,N.
To a solution of 12.9 g N-(2-(2,5-dimethoxyphenyl)ethyl)phthalimide in 130 mL warm (35 °C) acetic acid which was being vigorously stirred, there was added a solution of 10 g iodine monochloride in 40 mL acetic acid. This was stirred for 1 h, while being held at about 30 °C. The reaction mixture was poured into 1500 mL H2O and extracted with 4x75 mL CH2Cl2. The extracts were pooled, washed once with 150 mL H2O containing 2.0 g sodium dithionite, and the solvent removed under vacuum to give 16.2 g of N-(2-(2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodophenyl)ethyl)phthalimide as yellow amber solids with a mp of 133-141 °C. This mp was improved by recrystallization from 75 mL CH3CN, yielding 12.2 g of a pale yellow solid with mp 149-151 °C. A small sample from a large quantity of IPA gives a white product melting at 155.5-157 °C.
A solution of 12.2 g N-(2-(2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodophenyl)ethyl)phthalimide in 150 mL hot IPA was treated with 6.0 mL of hydrazine hydrate, and the clear solution was heated on the steam bath. After a few minutes there was the generation of a white cottage cheese-like solid (1,4-dihydroxyphthalizine). The heating was continued for several additional h, the reaction mixture cooled, and the solids removed by filtration. These were washed with 2x10 mL EtOH, and the pooled filtrate and washes stripped of solvent under vacuum giving a residue which, when treated with aqueous hydrochloric acid, gave 3.43 g of voluminous white crystals. This, after recrystallization from 2 weights of H2O, filtering, washing first with IPA and then with Et2O, and air drying, gave 2.16 g 2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodophenethylamine hydrochloride (2C-I) as a white microcrystalline solid, with a mp of 246-247 °C. Anal. (C10H15ClINO2) C,H,N.
Chapter 6: Family
2c-i is classified as a Phenethylamine. It's one of MANY members in it's family.
Here is a link to Pihkal, as an online book. It has the synthesis for all of the Phenethylamines and a trip report for different doses on each subject.
http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/pihkal/pihkal.shtml
2C-B
2C-C
2C-D
2C-E
2C-F
2C-G
2C-G-3
3C-G-5
2C-G-N
2C-H
2C-O-4
2C-N
2C-P
2C-T
2C-T-2
2C-T-4
2C-T-7
2C-T-8
2C-T-9
2C-T-13
2C-T-15
2C-T-17
2C-T-21
[/b]
Chapter 7: Duration
The duration for 2c-i is anywhere from 4-9 hours, somewhat depending on dose. If you took a lot, like 40mg's or more then it may take up to 8-9 hours, everyone's body reacts different, though.
Chapter 8: Law
2c-i is unscheduled in the United States, but sooner or later it will probably be under Analog which means sales for human consumption or possession with the intent to ingest could be prosecuted under the Federal Analogue Act. 2c-b is under analog.
2c-i is illegal in a lot of European Nations, like Denmark, Germany, Greece, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.
The Analog Act was used to say that the drugs such as 2C-I were similar enough to illegal drugs to be considered analogs of those drugs, particularly 2C-B. Due to this, 2C-I has not been explicitly made illegal, but remains in a dubious position regarding law. It is not clearly legal or illegal.
Chapter 9: Price
The price strickly depends on how you purchase it. If you where to get it online, it could cost anywhere from 90-200$ a gram. On the streets, it's too hard to tell, down here it's about a dollar a mg.
Chapter 10: How to use
2c-i is most commonly used orally, but is also known to be snorted and used rectally. If you choose to snort this product, then do know that it is more active at lower doses when snorted, meaning 10mg's snorted isn't equivalent to 10mg's orally.
Smoking is not recommended.
Chapter 11: Trip Reports
A Friday night in early 2001: I want to trip tonight, but I have no particular reason to trip. I remember that there is one chemical in my arsenal that I haven't tried yet: 2C-I. I have a friendly place to hang out tonight, so I decide that this is as good a time as any to explore a new drug. I'd been meaning to find time for it anyway.
I weigh out 20 mg of the slightly off-white, fluffy and voluminous powder (2C-I hydrochloride) and drive to my friends' house. When I arrive I eat the gelcap.
My expectations for 2C-I were guided by its strong chemical similarity to 2C-B. Friends who had taken 2C-I told me that it was surprisingly unlike 2C-B. They said it was deeper, more purely psychedelic, and less sensory. Still, it's hard to ignore what Shulgin calls the 'chemical suggestion'. I knew it would last longer, but I was expecting something that got me in touch with myself and my perceptions, like 2C-B does, as opposed to something that took me away from my ego, like mushrooms. I've had a lot of 2C-B experience and I have a good idea of what it does and how it works. So in this trip report I'll explain 2C-I by making comparisons with 2C-B.
30-40 minutes after eating the 2C-I, I feel the hints of real changes beginning. But they really don't develop into much. Once 2C-B says hello it keeps building right on up to its peak at about t+1:15, but 2C-I takes longer and is more complex. At t+1:15 I wonder if I've taken enough. This feeling persists until t+1:45, when I realize that things are getting more involved. During this comeup I make many comparisons with 2C-B, but I find myself more idenifying how 2C-I is not like 2C-B than how it is. There are almost no visuals, no real audio changes, and pretty straightforward thinking. I seem caught in the limbo of the t+1:00 half-tripping-state. I feel relaxed and my body feels a little fuzzy. Walking feels odd in a 2C-B way.
Finally at t+1:45 things accelerate. Some more people have shown up, and there are maybe 10 people here now. I think I'm the only tripping person, but the others are smoking cannabis and some have taken GHB. I have felt very comfortable so far, since I know all these people well.
I can tell that the 2C-I is getting stronger because as I follow people's conversations I find myself analyzing speech patterns, vocabulary, intonation and thought trains in a surprisingly different way than I usually do. This has fully developed by t+2:15 or so, when the 2C-I reaches its peak. I don't talk much myself, but when I do I analyze what I'm saying in the same way I analyze what other people are saying.
It is as if the pattern detectors in my brain are in high gear, and they are spitting out a continuous stream of stereotypes that match and label the way people speak and the things they say. This is really not that fun! I sense these stereotypes in a way that diminishes each person's individual worth. That is, I see that person A has a manner of speaking and thinking that is similar to persons B, C, and D, all of whom can be identified as belonging to social group X, and it seems unfortunate and shallow that person A is just another one of 'those type-X people' - with all the negatives that are attached to stereotyped social groups. It is hard to concentrate on why person A is unique.
And when I speak, I see this in myself too, and that's unpleasant. Fortunately I don't have much to say so I just keep quiet. It's very strange, because I recognize the standard psychedelic open-mindedness that lets me find patterns in my perceptions that my brain would ordinarily gloss over for my convenience, but these patterns are being presented with a disconcerting message that these patterns, and pattern-matching, are all there is to life.
In a way, this message is twisted and folded in my brain into: 'People are machines, and they work by having an enormous catalog of patterns which are modified and presented in response to external stimulus. People's uniqueness derives not from each person having something fundamentally different from the others, but from the stereotypes which make them up being combined in a unique way to yield a unique result.' On its own this message isn't really positive or negative, it's just insightful, but for whatever reason I perceive it as a total bummer.
To extend the metaphor: each person is a curve through spacetime, and that curve is defined by a system of equations; equations that are shared by everyone, just in different proportions. Instead of seeing the curve, I'm seeing the equations and their coefficients. This is sadly impersonal.
So at this point in my experience I'm not having that great of a time, but things like this do not lead to bad trips for me. I shift into a mode of studying why I feel the way I do, and I learn from it.
But then I remember something. I did something earlier that week that may have been a Career-Limiting Move. I forgot about it for a while, but I had been kicking myself for it, and now I remember it. It's inevitable, of course, that I start thinking about why I did what I did and what kind of statement it makes about me (stereotypes and all) that I chose to do it. I turn the pattern-recognition powers that I was using on other people towards myself. I don't like what I see - but I see some things that are new, and I am very glad that I have seen them.
Now it's t+3:30 or so and I am in damage-control mode. It's impossible to get these thoughts out of my head by sitting quietly in a chair, so I try to distract myself. Visuals are stronger now, but they are mostly colorful fringes and noise, like neutered 2C-B. Music is not that deep. My body does not feel as delocalized as it does with 2C-B. I recognize a common effect of almost all the 2C drugs I've taken - I am still in touch with the world. I can function. Unfortunately, I can't find much to take my mind off my introspection. Can't read a computer screen. So I take a close friend aside and I intentionally start a conversation that is as non-vacuous and intellectual as possible. This helps a lot.
People eventually start leaving, and that friend and I smoke some more cannabis. This smooths things out, and we decide to go to the grocery store. On the walk over I realize that I am feeling much better. And not long after that, at t+5:00 or so, it's clear that the 2C-I is weakening.
I spend the remaining hours in the way I usually do after a psychedelic's peak is over - smoking cannabis, eating junk food, and listening to music (which is now more interesting with the help of THC). I discuss my not-so-fun trip with my friend. At t+8:00 or so I can fall asleep, and I'm fine the next day.
20 mg was strong. On a mass basis, 2C-I is probably about 50% more potent than 2C-B; in terms of raw strength this felt like what a 30 mg 2C-B experience could be like. The iodine atom weighs more than a bromine, so on a molar basis 2C-I is even more potent. 16-17 mg would be a better starting point, I think. I wish I had more to say about the experience, but it was really dominated by negative thought-loops that made me too defensive to explore where things could go, or to remember smaller details that might otherwise have been more interesting.
It seems that my 2C-I trip followed the mold set by Dr. Shulgin and by my friends who have tried it. There was less of an outright sensory show and more of an analytical edge. It is surprisingly powerful. Don't be fooled by these halogenated phenethylamines! 2C-B is a blast on the surface, but there is a huge amount of complexity and potential inside. 2C-I seems to expose itself more; in fact, this inner complexity seems to be most of the drug's package. I can't characterize it too well, since I've only taken it once. Based on my experience and what my friends have said, I could see 2C-I being classified like 2C-E - maybe fun, maybe not, but too interesting to ignore.
Last Monday I took 30 milligrams of 2C-I after getting home from work, having no obligations the next day until 7pm. I had purchased 100 mgs with two friends of mine, the split being 40 to me and to one of them, and 20 to the other. My original purpose for acquiring it was to split 20-20 with a friend of mine who wanted her first experience with psychedelics. When the plan to do so over Thanksgiving break fell through I decided to use my share myself. My original plan was to take 20 mgs (the same dose that I had used when I tried 2C-E), but after one of the others who bought it with me reported less than exciting effects at that level, I decided that, since I had a sitter (My roommate, who I’ll call LTimmy) in case anything went terribly awry, and I could sleep for the entire next day, I’d take 30 mgs instead (I weigh about 62 kgs, so that comes out to just under half a milligram per kilogram). I squirreled away the remaining 10 mgs to combine with the next batch I purchase.
I ingested the dose at around ten o'clock and almost immediately found myself quite queasy. This wasn't entirely the drug, though, as I had already made my stomach uneasy by drinking too much sweet tea earlier that evening. I proceeded to lie down on my side and wait, listening to some soothing music that tends to help me when I get like that. After about 30 minutes I began to experience the beginnings of the body buzz. Within the next 15 minutes the diamond plated design of the refrigerator began to shift and change perceptibly.
For me, drug experiences, particularly with psychedelics are always better when accompanied music (I only rarely have specific effects derived from the music, but listening to it is often nothing short of exhilarating). I turned off the music I had been listening to and put on a record of more appropriate tunes (I've noticed that, while there is significant overlap, I prefer 'lighter' music on 2C-I and 2C-E, as opposed to the music I enjoy when on DXM, for instance, which, while I wouldn't call it 'dark' by any means, it certainly is more so than what I enjoy on true psychedelics). I sat in a chair and sang along as I watched the ceiling ripple and wave. I also spent this time trying to download an album that I had used on a previous trip - but had to return to its owner - and found very enjoyable, but my lack of success at downloading the album made me somewhat irritable (The “real world” never moves fast enough for me during most trips), causing me to snap at LTimmy when he returned from getting food. This was also aggravated by the fact that I was seeing tracers (A first for me!) and his entrance made the one I had been observing go away (The light from the hall was responsible, I suspect).
He left again soon and I proceeded to write him a note explaining what had happened and apologising. It felt very good to do this - to do my best to see that he wouldn't be upset with me (He wasn't exactly a willing sitter. We often trip together, and he was already frustrated that he had no psychedelics to take and had to see me enjoying this; I'd feel the same way. That said, he took good care of me, as always.)
On 2C-E, the body buzz had been incredibly enjoyable and one thing which I had wanted to do and hadn't was take a shower, so as to stimulate as many of those over-sensitive skin cells as possible. I decided not to make the same mistake this time. In the shower was when I first noticed that the body buzz was not as enjoyable as that of 2C-E (my speculation now is that the body buzz was too strong, given the high dose), consisting of the usual increased sensitivity of the senses (smell in particular was heightened, though tactile enhancement was noticeably less than with 2C-E), and an almost ever present tingling somewhere, usually either my hair or my legs, which is where I usually get it. Also in the shower was when I first noticed serious visual effects: the shower curtain was trying to reach out and grab me. I stress, though, that this was not frightening, but rather amusing. I spent a while growling and yelping at the curtain and kicking it before I decided that I was ready to move on.
As soon as I was dressed again I turned off most of the lights and noticed that everything had developed slight halos, mostly of red.
Also, I noticed that the rate at which my eyes registered frames (I hope that explanation makes sense outside of my head) had slowed down significantly. My hands appeared to race over the keys of my keyboard and LTimmy's movements seemed fast and jerky. Observing this effect, particularly his movements, was intensely fascinating. While watching him I noticed his face begin to distort and - unlike similar distortions of his face I saw while we were on 2C-E which were responsible for a period of significant fear on that trip - I didn't find them frightening at all. It is also at this point that I first started noticing patterns that would form, shift, fade, and form again on most surfaces I looked at. I had experienced this to a lesser degree on 2C-E, but nothing coming close to this. After a while of this I moved to the bathroom again, to play with the mirror. On 2C-E, I experienced the majority of my (rather minimal) OEVs while looking in the mirror (the frightening ones were exceptions).
Watching the patterning on my body was an enrapturing experience. It wasn't long before I had removed my shirt so as to observe them on my chest and stomach and arms, as well as my face.
I then moved on to study the way in which my face distorted. With 2C-E, I had seen my face become more androgynous and had also seen pieces of my Father's face in place of mine. I had no control over this, however. This time around, though, I was able to distort the reflection however I liked. I replaced my face in its entirety with my Father's (aside from being rather close, he and I already resemble each other a great deal, which is why this is a recurring theme), I made my image distort into all sorts of caricatures of myself, I even was able to change the complexion of all my visible skin. The latter struck me as a significant achievement, at the time.
When I came back out, tried to explore my thoughts and found, to my displeasure, that I wasn't experiencing much of a change in my headspace. It is for this effect that I predominantly employ psychedelics and its absence was disappointing. I decided to make the best of it, though. After all, I had either consumed or relegated to indefinitely useless over twenty dollars worth of this. I was damn well going to enjoy myself (the days when I could get drugs from LTimmy are long gone. He's really like a stereotypical dealer that way; the first trip was always free, but after that . . . ). I spent maybe an hour (Most of my estimates of time are pretty questionable roughly after the shower; I did my best to remain ignorant of elapsed time, feeling that it would only provide me with a strong-ish grounding in reality, something I had no desire for) looking at paintings on my computer, watching LTimmy, and doing more of the same in the mirror. It was also at this point that I noticed that a particular phosphene that I see whenever I look for them began to change (this phosphene serves as an element of comfort for me on trips, as I can remember having it as far back as Kindergarten). It's appearance became what I can only describe as a 'psychadelicised' version of itself, in the most archetypal sense of the word. During this time I also began to see the vague silhouettes of a friend of mine in my peripheral vision occasionally.
Next, I decided it was time that I go and explore the outdoors. It was late enough at night that I felt like I could avoid close inspection easily enough. This was only my second time outside while like this, and the only other time had been only a simple walk around the building on a relatively mild DXM dose, so I was treading into unknown territory! While outside, I felt like I was viewing everything around me in slow motion, particularly the other people walking about; it reminded me of the effect in movie where the frame rates are tampered with so that the camera appears to be moving faster than it actually is. The moonlight on the wet grass was strikingly beautiful. I found myself chasing after several red lights I saw in windows (They turned out to be 'Exit' signs; I was disappointed), and then I toyed with the idea of walking across campus to visit a friend of mine (It was his birthday) but I decided that the fact that I hadn't brought my phone and would've had to wait for someone to follow into the building was enough to keep me from going ahead with it.
It’s worth noting that I did not consider a fifteen to twenty minute walk across campus a problem; I had no doubts that I’d be able to reach my destination without any difficulties, which is precisely the thing that has kept me inside on almost all my previous trips. I started back for my room and, about halfway there, I felt somewhat fatigued so I found a bench that was nice and secluded and sat down to rest for a few minutes. Here I watched trees reach and grasp at the sky and all sorts of lichens crawl over a nearby brick wall. When I looked at the sky, the stars were unimportant–my attention was fixed solely on the movement of clouds. After my little break, I went back home.
Upon entering the building I was greeted by some rather inebriated girls who were sitting on the steps, drinking (the smell of the vodka, by the way, was strong enough to be painful to my nose, what with the enhanced sensory input). They started talking to me and I struggled to make nice until I could get away politely. Watching patterns crawl all over their faces while they talked wasn't exactly pleasant. Between that and the smell, I was anxious to disengage myself and slip back inside as quick as possible, which I managed to do. LTimmy asked how my walk had been, and I described it briefly to him.
At this point it felt as though I had passed my peak and I decided that I really needed to make the most of what time I had left. I decided to use the technique that has (almost always) proved to be the most rewarding element of any trip: shutting myself in the bathroom with the lights out (It's all but perfectly black in there without them) and letting things happen. Due to the noises from the floor above that had been a distraction throughout the night, I borrowed a pair of earplugs from my roommate and closed the door.
In the past, this technique has succeeded in recovering memories from my childhood that I had repressed, an effect which is one of the main motivations for my use of psychedelics. Aside from the memory fragments, doing this had usually only enhanced already existing background visual affects. And that was how this started. However, once I had the earplugs adjusted so as to block out almost all the noise from upstairs, I began hearing things in my head for the first time ever (that I can remember at least). These started as piping music, but soon developed into incoherent voices. The voices become coherent once the hallucinations started, though, and seemed almost to be mocking, but I did not find their presence bothersome. In fact, I relished in mental shouting matches where I silenced these detractors one by one.
All my previous hallucinations had been either CEVs in which I was able to see intricate images that I found profoundly connected with whatever I was talking/thinking about, dreams in which I merely watched myself in a variety of scenes, or the more mild effects like patterning, halos, facial distortions etc. (The one exception is an out of body experience I had during my first DXM trip, but I remember that trip so poorly that I have trouble using any experiences from it in any sort of analysis) That wasn't the case this time. I found myself in black landscapes where I sought to climb towers that were constructed from pipes of day-glo colors, but could never succeed. Upon realising that I was moving myself in these hallucinations and that I had some degree of control, I set about creating a companion for myself - a cat (This was another thing I had never attempted before). But the cat arrived very quickly, and I spent quite some time petting and scratching him before he lept from my lap and slunk off. I then decided to go back into my head. I was soon watching myself walk through a place of utter blackness (which I knew to be my brain).
After some searching I suddenly found myself in a metallic room where, lying in a dentist's chair, was another me. Standing beside me was a creature which I can only call 'Braniac,' due to his resemblance to the comic book character of the same name. He offered me 'my mind' at which point the top of the head of the “me” in the chair opened up and a rush of images flooded out, within which I was quickly engulfed. Here I found myself with access to every memory I had ever had; I needed only to think of a person, a place, etc. and I would find myself experiencing every memory asociated with it. While exploring this I found myself concious of a deep voice speaking incoherently in the background, which I knew to be that of something else in my head. I immediately placed myself back in the empty black of my head and created a large, thick stick in my hands. I then proceeded to swing it about, smashing things I couldn't see, but could both feel as I hit, and hear shatter (I hope this wasn't my brain trying to tell me that these research chemicals are wiping out a lot of brain cells). I demanded that the deep voice reveal itself or I'd continue, but to no avail.
Eventually, I found myself rather abruptly shunted back into the real world. I decided that I had gone as far as I was meant to for the time being, and just sat there, thinking about possible explanations for what had just happened, during which I experienced vivid visualisations of my thoughts, but nothing that truly struck me as profound.
I emerged when LTimmy demanded to use the bathroom. I felt like I had been in there for twenty, maybe thirty minutes at the most, but his estimation put it at an hour or more. After this, I felt as though the effects of the drug had been drained from me. I suddenly decided to bury my clock so that I couldn't hear its ticking, my reasoning being that I wanted to enjoy the ride down without a reminder that my time was running out. For the rest of the trip I listened to music, admired what visual effects remained, and tried to assemble a cohesive assessment of what had gone on in the bathroom. Around the time that my companion phosphene returned to normal I crawled into bed.
I couldn't sleep for a while and continued listening to soothing music while watching the (normally) unremarkable view out of my window in a sort of drunken awe. Eventually I fell asleep, but I was soon (I think) jolted awake (I literally convulsed as I woke up) by a dream that I can only recall as being very vivid and having a sudden, discomforting ending. After this, I found even the minimal effects that I had experienced before dozing off drastically diminished, and was soon asleep again.
The next day I noticed no sort of hangover (except that I got up earlier than planned so as to have lunch with a friend, and was rather tired that day) or residual effects. This is in stark contrast to my smaller dose of 2C-E; the day after I took that I found myself feeling very detached, and it seemed as though I was watching what my eyes saw from a great distance. I also found music enhanced the day after that trip, to the point of still experiencing some indistinct CEVs at work that day (I was backstage at the rehearsal of an orchestra). It was both unexpected and very pleasant and, luckily, the guy who was working with me didn't seem to notice.
Looking back on it, this trip was probably the best I've had, even compared (in a rough sort of way) to more potent doses of DXM. Compared to 2C-E, I feel that the headspace of 2C-I wasn't as impressive, since on a smaller dose of the former I achieved mental affects that, while not as strong, were close and didn't require my working at them at all. With 2C-I the only profound headspace was achieved when I really tried to force it. The 2C-I trip also didn't include anything I would classify as frightening or upsetting, though this was due in part, no doubt, to my having more experience this time around, as opposed to when I took the 2C-E, which could be quite frightening at times. I feel that, in comparable doses, 2C-E would be a much more contemplative and rewarding (emotionally/mentally) trip. That said, having a companion to talk to on the 2C-E made my mind less prone to getting stuck in loops, so I don't know how the 2C-I trip would've been different if I hadn't been alone, especially since I had the recurring feeling during the trip that if someone were tripping with me, I would've been able to think aloud to them and we could have jointly reached meaningful conclusions. For pure visual effects, I think 2C-I is the better choice.
Also, even though my dose of 2C-I was half again as much as my dose of 2C-I, LTimmy commented afterwards that I was far more able to focus on and complete tasks than I had been with the 2C-E. Muscle tightening, in particular jaw clenching seemed to leave less soreness in the morning than with 2C-E, but that may have been because - knowing what to expect this time - I had gathered a supply of chewing gum to keep my jaw busy, which is where I usually feel it most the next day. I still intend to introduce my friend to psychedelics with 2C-I, both for its more mild mental change and for the social aspect. I hope to acquire another batch before Christmas, and I'd like to try 35 mgs next time (I was actually surprised when my heartrate didn't increase nearly as much as I had expected), preferably with LTimmy who has said that he'd trip with me, but he'd want a different substance for himself.
I hope that this can provide some sort of idea as to what to expect from the experience for anyone who hasn't tried this particular chemical before. Ta!
The story:
Let me first point out that this was probably the most surreal drug experience I’ve ever had. This was largely due to the multitude of drug clichés that epitomized the night.
I showed up at my friends place for a quiet night of poker and conversation. In total, there were 4 of us (Mr. I, myself, Ms. M and Mrs. I). After a brief discussion we decided to scrap poker in lieu of a 2C-I experiment. This was the virgin trip for each of us. Mrs. I was the sober sitter, Ms. M ingested 6 mg, Mr. I ingested 11 mg, and I ingested 15 mg (22:00)
T+00:00 We took our capsules and each emptied them into a cup of heated water. Added to each cup was 1 package of “emergenC” brand powdered vitamin drink. We sat Around the kitchen table and talked, waiting for the first alert.
T+00:15 The first alert is announced by Mr. I. He calls them the “acid tingles”. Music is chosen. 3 CDs. The choices included some jazz, some drum & bass, and ambient compilation stuff (it was later decided that overly wordy music provided too much additional stimulus for our environment, but I will explain below). Conversation was good and the discussion revolved around the art gallery opening where we had spend the earlier part of the evening.
T+00:45 Ms. M remarks that she is feeling a subtle MDMA-like rush, and some jittery amphetamine like stimulation. I feel a + and a definite trend toward more. Mr. I is now outside smoking a cigarette and talking on his roof deck about the future of humanity, and about debt slavery. When he finishes his cigarette the lightbulbs in the house are all swapped out for colored bulbs. The house is now bathed in alternating colors of green and red and purple and blue. A black light is turned on in the kitchen.
T+01:15 Holy shit! The others are still acending slowly. I am exstatic! I experience intense waves of MDMA-like pleasure jolts (without the extreme empathic component) as I continue to climb toward a peak. Very amphetamine like in character. Visual Hallucinations slowly begin. Shadows are ill defined and seem to waver in density like smoke in a slow breeze. The awareness of colors is directly related to the discussion at hand. Mr. I mentions the devil several times and each time I become particularly aware of swirling red glow pouring over his face. The lightbulb directly over his head was red. Why hadn’t this seemed important before? He hadn’t mentioned the devil before.
T+01:30 Mr. I has decided to read poetry out loud. He wanders through the house spouting Elliot, Coleridge, Pound & Williams. Ms. M mentions that she has just downloaded Ginsberg’s Howl. The music in the background/foreground? interlaces with Mr. I’s voice and the asthetic for the evening is set. I feel like I'm trapped in an Oliver Stone movie. Vibrant colors from the rugs in the living room strike me as more present and more relevant than usual. Music is exchanged for ginsberg and after a few stanzas we realize that Mr. Ginsberg sounds robotic. The music is returned.
T+02:00 Despite my SIGNIFICANT intoxication +++, I feel very comfortable cognitively. There are no thought loops as with LSD. Occasionally some abstract thinking enters my mental arena and I lose focus on the stimulus around me. I am vaguely aware of Ms. M. She remarks how wonderful the steam heat from the radiator feels. There is a very sexual push to this. Sober, I am not very attracted to Ms. M, but I would like to touch her now. Mr. I lets his rabbit loose from it’s cage. He is ++/+++.
T+02:15 The rabbit appears out of thin air in several different rooms as I am sitting or moving. I laugh at us as we try to chase the rabbit around the house. What a drug cliché. It helps that the rabbit is white. Mr. I returns to reading the rhyme of the ancient mariner out loud. He remarks that he is feeling sinister. Red glow returns.
T+03:00 The time dilation is extreme. In 15 minutes, an entire evening has been had. I say that I would love to feel the crunch of some moist bell peppers in my mouth. I’m not enticed by the idea of food, just the sensation of that moist pepper snap as one crunches down on a freshly sliced stick of pepper. Mr. I takes out a cleaver to slice the peppers, but discovers there is none. I comment on the cleaver. He cackles. He becomes Ahab. I back away. We realize that this is reminiscent of the rabbit’s defensive posture, posed against Mr. I. We laugh as we begin to eat our celery sticks. We are rabbits.
T+4:00 Mr. I proposes that I join he and his colleagues on the board of directors. He has a newly formed not for profit corporation. I am completely zoned and this seems too surreal. We are somehow in a corporate boardroom and he is showing me his company’s mission statement, and its articles of incorporation. I am delighted by the invitation and my companion lays out the details. He will handle all the legal matters. I will travel and collect data. Others will have their positions. The hour of Gonzo has begun. Mr. I has put a CD full of strange dissonant noises on the stereo. He is now wearing a George W Bush mask and parading around the house in a sheet. The music is vaguely tribal, but the occasional crash of timpani is disruptive to that idea. I feel compelled to place my hand on the back of my neck. Mmm, comforting. Mr. I insists on talking about some of his sexual conquests. He would like to fuck a redhead before his time is up.
T+05:00 Ms. M is now sober and would like to go home. I am in no shape to drive. Ms. I has at this point decided to sleep. The three of us accompany Ms. M to her car and we watch her as she leaves. It is extremely cold and the adrenergic stimulation makes shivering more pronounced. Mr. I and I walk back and pass a few Saturday evening drunks along the way. One is peeing on his own shoes. He looks like a cartoon. I laugh to myself and Mr. I laughs. Life is amusing. We get back to the safety of his home and begin the philosophical discussion. Social, political, scientific notions are flung around amidst the now flickering colors of the bulbs. Why are they flickering? Mr. I removes the green bulb from the kitchen. The kitchen is now filled with a strawberry red intensity. I remark that we need the balance of the kiwi, the strawberry will overpower us without it. The light is reinstalled. This point is more serious than comic.
T+06:00 We descend into more discussion of scientific matters and matters relating to the corporate mission. The intensity of the hallucinations are fading but this is only apparent in a room with normal lighting. I have been drinking water all night, and pissing all night. We both note how wonderful the experience has been, and how clear and clean our cognitive abilities have been. This is not debilitating like other significant hallucinogens.
T+07:00 We realize that the time dilation is gone. My trip is more or less over and I am very capable of driving. I do not feel drained, mentally or physically. I drive home uneventfully. I got to sleep at about 5:30 AM and woke up at 12:30 PM. No hangover, no mental dullness, no physical pain or soreness. Nothing. A positive energy was noted. I am speechless. This is profound, social, comically entertaining and without a significant refractory (hangover) period. I feel very hopeful about this material.
Be safe. Learn your limits slowly. Enjoy your lilfe.
PROEM
4:15 PM PST I took my first trip via an enervated body --- lack of sleep from the night before started me out with the general air of pre-dreamy incontrol, the kind of feeling you get when you keep at doing something you want to get done when you're especially tired, the salient identification of mind-wandering off, as if utterly undisciplined.
STARTING...
At around 8 PM, its effects became obvious to me. Prior to that, I'd taken them to be the usual vision distortion I get for looking at far away items without my glasses (I am nearsighted). Thus, perhaps the effect might have occurred earlier. I first noticed the effects while looking up at the gabled ceilings. Setting description: the roof was composed of these horizontal wooden slabs spaced about 3 inches wide and around 1 foot long, with ridges in between horizontal pieces; long support structures go vertically relative to the plane at each foot, stretching at a constant slope in the z direction. I noticed the ridges started distorting in a repeititive way. Later on, I would become 'familiar' enough with this distortion to label it as 'myriad mouths' ... as if the ceiling was speaking (yet, I experienced no perceptible audio effects).
Let me try to describe the pattern I saw in more detail: the ridges are normally straight lines, however I started seeing these amplitude varying wave envelopes which looked like mouths talking -- they looked superposed onto the ceiling along the ridges, yet they also look like the sort of visual distortion I get from squinting my eyes (normally). Despite the oddity, there was an order to them: they were periodically repeating both in animation and location.
Earlier on, I tried reading a textbook on Clifford Algebra. I was disgusted at finding my reading rate reduced to that of my record low: one page per hour! I was told that 2C-I was an incredible memory drug, but I had difficulty concentrating on forming the right concrete memories in order to flip onto the next page! My Drugsmaster and lover Strange Quark was with me for most of the first day. At around 5, disappointed, I stated nothing's occurred, perhaps the dosage was too low. He told me that 2C-I in small doses gave him feelings of empathy, in essence, like an aphrodisiac. I was still trying to read my Clifford Algebra textbook, when he came back from number theory (5-ish). He slumped down on the bed, stating that he was tired. I was overcome with this intense need to hold him, and before I knew it, we were wrapped in the most intense game of Body Twister, ever. Everything felt more intense. I felt more sensitive and even more convinced that I was madly in love with him. Was it the placebo effect, or might 2C-I also act as an aphrodisiac?
It was wrapped up as such, that in the fading light of twilight, I realized these patterns I saw between 7 and 8 weren't merely the distortion of my myopic eyes. (Later on and during the morning after, it felt as if I knew exactly what he was thinking. When he described his experience of going on a walk and feeling extremely ecstatic, fascinated with existence, in love with life... so much that he would stand out in the ice cold rain for hours and hours, experiencing that feeling, the essence of that almost-graspable... While he was giving this discription, patterns formed off in a nearby wall, and somehow these geometric objects conveyed a further message, further amplifying the theme of almost-graspable, yet vainly not so. Throughout my trip, I had difficulty focusing on just one topic; I had difficulty analyzing something too long without becoming fascinated by something else. I wasn't capable of expressing much of what I experienced via speech or words, aside from these mental conversations which might not be words after all. I found myself extremely dyslexic, unable to read.)
At around 9 PM, I realized that these patterns were generated by my perception of various objects at different angles and via different pupil focusings -- my pupils were twice their usual size most of the time. (As I stared at them in the mirror in the brightly lit bathroom, I realized I could change their sizes by will.) I became fascinated at staring down objects; it seems as if I could comprehend a global pattern from sampling a local bit. That was the theme of the 'studies' that took up most of my experience on 2C-I. (The patterns varied, and it seemed each object had its own unique pattern that I could see if I stare and dilate my pupils in a certain fashion. The pattern was almost always animated. It didn't exactly interfere with my perception of reality, as the pattern always looked superposed onto its object.)
CLIMAX (9 PM)
The climax perhaps lasted for a few minutes, when these patterns grew out of control: I saw them without even having to try to see them. They were just *there.* I was overcome with a feeling of nostalgia, as if I saw these when I was young -- I do have memories of seeing patterns in the dark right before I fell asleep, and then there was the Rachmaninoff that would start playing, and this excruciating fear of yet anticipation for it, but this tendency faded as I grew older --- but have forgotten them, become unable to see them, and am now finally seeing the truth so obvious I had known before.
There was that sense of if I had to choose anything I could do --- what would I do? I realized that I couldn't focus on reading a textbook because it was too mediocre (mea culpa, heh heh), and that in this altered state of consciousness, my attention demanded something more pure. Yet, I couldn't single out one thing extreme enough to work on.
Currently, I am a physics major in a school that is experimenting on ways to make physics education better. In the process of which, the curriculum of one of my courses has reverted to that of the dread high-school-chaos-sort: 'course journals,' 'group discussion,' and 'participation' were worth almost half of one's grade. Physics is the type of subject that I have difficulty discussing with my fellow physics majors... they tend to confuse me more than I am already confused, and the course is on string theory. Anyway, I had a sort of instinctual need to read that Clifford Algebra book, among other things, lest my grades dissatisfy me. I was overcome by the feeling of arbitrariness of that particular 'grading criteria.' The course journal and discussions seemed like pointless BS one would do just 'for a grade.' To my joy, this is only the second course I've taken in college that had elements that took precious time away from studying the material well.
And then, I was overcome by the feeling of how arbitrary society was. It makes sense that one has to 'work' in order to be 'paid,' but I felt immensely saddened by how, in many cases, one cannot seriously work on something one wants to work on without having to accept the BS and pointless standards of society. For example, my personal interpretation of quantum mechanics, which I have had for a long time, will not be accepted until several years after I've obtained a PhD (or perhaps even longer). There is this tradition, such as academicians do not respect non-degrees. Yet, in the process of obtaining a degree, I would have to take these courses that serve nothing but to waste my time! And, there is just so little of it! They say that after 30, your mathematical abilities dwindle, and you cannot see the new that galvanized and excited you and motivated you to do all that BS and kissing-up while you were young.
There are these professors who claim that you should study something slowly until you understand it; yet, with all this arbitrary BS you have to do just to get a degree, you can't possibly afford to study anything slowly... without finding yourself too old to do anything by the time you get your degree.
I seem to be going off a soapbox tangent. Yet, although this might seem petty to you, it is my greatest worry now. A part of me longs to experience Thoreau's Walden for more than the few weeks he tried it on. To be able to take a few select books and my computer into some abandoned log-cabin in the middle of the woods hooked with nothing but perhaps a high-speed internet connection. I want to develop my skills without having to deal with landlords, assignments that do nothing but waste time. Moreover, I want to know the limits of my own ability to develop and create --- freed of the distractions of living in the real world: the irksome street construction-work that never stops, TV-sounds and fights from next door... What if I could study in the midst of serenity; would I find myself distracted less often, to extent where I become unable to function?
I decided to take a shower, since I'd felt groggy the whole day. While in the shower, I started analyzing the faucet. Ordinarily: it's a circular metal slab in the shower tiles, with a faucet-turn-thing at the top part. With years of San Diego's hard hard HARD water, it's developed a sort of rainbow, oil-surface pattern on it. It seemed to move, as if to reform itself right in front of my eyes, in real-time, and I started seeing patterns from it. I had a sort of epiphany, as I became totally convinced of the validity of my alternate interpretation of quantum mechanics -- which I've had for years.. which along, with these crazy scribblings (chaos to everyone else, but an ordered algorithmic pattern to me) on paper that I think represents the ultimate theory of everything, are forcing me to put up with the oft-obvious senseless required for attaining a degree.
anyway...
THE UNIVERSE IS A (quantum, duh) COMPUTER~!!!!
I became absolutely convinced.
And then the thought that there are people who've come across the ultimate unified theory and just decided not to share it... or perhaps were forbidden from sharing it for lack of a degree: they couldn't afford to waste the most precious years of their lives on the ultimately pointless hassle of getting a degree.
Anyway, the remembrance of Ramachandran's studies of people with temporal lobe epilepsy who have experiences of 'conversations with God...' caught me, as this voice started talking to me (I don't consider this an audio effect because it was internal, like the conversations I have in my head), and he sounded like some enlightened being, perhaps the supreme creator of the universe, multiverse, yossiverse. Yet, in a petty way, his voice reminded me of the aliens from Spielberg's AI talking to that AI kid. As I toweled up, euphoric that the dearest thing I'd suspected was right, the voice laughed (or was it many others) and they (or he?) said something along the lines of 'You're part of the club now... and you're doomed to want to understand why that is so.'
I went back to trying to study Clifford Algebra again, now that the drug seems to be taking obvious effect. I still couldn't concentrate. I started having these conversations in my head. I actually usually have them -- they're like the sort of hypothetical situation scenarios that sort of blend in with daydreams. Although I had philosophic discussions with myself and these 'other people' in my head, none of the issues were ones I've not encountered before. Disappointed, I went back to the patterns.
I decided to eat some strawberries. 77 cents from Food4Less. An odd price for a good sized package of strawberries, even in California. I noticed their pungent near over-ripe smell, as I took them from the fridge. With my pattern-searching eyes, I looked at them. For some reason, it felt as if they were talking to me. I could sense its life-history, yet I couldn't concretely understand the events of its life. The strawberry seemed like an innocent entity forced into the dark-side. It appeared to emanate a sort of evil, yet I ate it, thinking I was just imagining things.
I took another strawberry, and I stared at it. The seed speck dots created a pattern that's already faded in my memory. Suddenly, I saw one of the dots moving. It was a white dot, slowly slithering, and I wasn't sure if it was the pattern diverging in a new fashion into another (usually, the patterns diverge in a coherent way, so that all of the pattern sub-components move simultaneously) via just one pattern-subcomponent... or an actual bug. It looked like the extremely small black bugs that are about two 0.7mm pencil lead-dots long, but instead it was white. I had experienced vaginal, perhaps urethral smelliness, for the past few days -- might parasitic ingestion be the cause? To verify that it was a real bug, I barged into the bathroom on Strange Quark, my Drugsmaster. He saw it moving, too. In hindsight, it seems as if the strawberries were warning me. I tried 'communicating' with them again, but I found myself unable to. Already, my rationality was overwhelming me: should I take it to the health-center for parasitic analysis or should I get a microscope to analyse it myself.
AN ENDING...
The morning afterwards, the enervation stayed; it felt like the sort of mental draining you get from having to do too much pointless repetitive extremely easy homework. Perhaps it was the excessive amount of pattern analysis and extreme detail-oriented observation, yet this is the first time I've ever felt burnt out from studying something that is so fascinating. Is there such a thing as neural super-activation leading to a hang-over? 24 hours later, my eyes felt sore, as if I'd read a thousand books non-stop, perhaps that is due to the pupil dilation and constriction as I 'zoomed in' on multiple dimensions of the patterns.
Yet, I still saw patterns the morning afterwards -- fainter, and more in my head, than in the world. I could 'manipulate' the sort of random dots you see when you shut your eyes into patterns that animate and diverge/converge into other patterns. Likewise, in faint lighting. However, even in bright lighting, I have become more aware of the graininess of what I see -- as if the world were made up of extremely tiny pixels. I can manipulate these pixels into patterns. As of now, it is around 8 PM the next day, and I can still see traces of these patterns by will. Although much fainter, the essence of the effects are still with me; I have observed the grainy nature of the fundamentals of reality, a glimpse at a controversial truth I had suspected.
Also, if you are going to venture into Phenethylamines I suggest you read this.
http://www.drugsandbooze.com/showthread.php?t=19396
and
http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/showthread.php?t=235559
I hope you guys enjoyed the FAQ and got some unanswered questions answered. Feel free to shoot me a PM if I missed some stuff, which I probably did. Enjoy!
Some information taken from:
www.tccwiki.com
www.erowid.org
www.experiencefestival.com
Also, thank you to Thermal for added information.
Please do not ask me for Research Chemical links as I will not give you any.
Chapters.
1) Background Information
2) Dose
3) What to expect
4) Interactions
5) Synthesis
6) Family
7) Duration
8) Law
9) Price
10) How to use
11) Trip Reports
Chapter 1: Background Information
2c-i is a Research Chemical, developed by the great Alexander Shulgin. 2c-i's chemical name is 2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodophenethylamine. It is a Phenethylamine and also classed as a Psychedelic Hallucinogenic drug. It is most commonly found in a white, fluffy powder, but on occasion you can be given to it in a pill form, depending on how you buy it.
2c-i started to get popular in the early 2000's because of it's popularity from the internet. They're where, and still are, plenty of internet vendors that sell 2c-i and other Research Chemicals.
2c-i is often described as a ecstasy high mixed with a medium LSD dose.
Chapter 2: Dose
The average dose for 2c-i is anywhere from 8-12mg for a light trip, and 15-25 for a medium-high trip, and 30-45 for a intense trip. When you are weighing out your dosages, you should always, ALWAYS have a .001 scale.
It's like this, say you take 20mg's of 2c-i, and then next time you trip you want to take 40mg's two double the trip. It's not like that. if you where to take 40mg's and thought it would be 2x more than 20, you're wrong, it's more like 5-10x stronger. So I will say this again make sure you use a accurate scale when you measure all research chemicals, and never ever eye out a dose.
Chapter 3: What to expect
By now you have you're 2c-i and you just weighed out lets say...20-23mg of it, and now you're going to take it. But wait...you're probably thinking, after I take this what the f*** am i going to feel/see/hear?
The come up of 2c-i and other research chemicals are known to take a good amount of time to fully hit. Users report up to 1-2 1/2 hours to feel the effects. It mostly depends on the person, some feel it more than others, but overall it takes a good amount of time.
Pre-trip: Things to do before you drop your dose would maybe be to take some Dramamine and/or Tums. RC's are infamous for causing nausea and stomach discomfort. Maybe make a playlist on the computer for some good, chill, "tripping" music.
Starting effects: You will start to feel "tingles" in your arms, hands, legs. People refer to it as pinpricks they're. You will start to notice colors look way more...real than they did when you where sober. The colors stand out a lot and mild tracers will occur. Music will sound more interesting than normal, and your emotions will start to play out by what you listen to. i.e. let's say you are listening to some chill, calm music, you're body will start to feel more relaxed than it was. Or maybe you start listening to hyper, up-beat music, your body will feel more awake and energized.
Pre-Plateau/Plateau: You will start to notice the walls will seem like they're "breathing" and the ceilings or walls will have the ripple effect, meaning it will look like they're rippling like an ocean. A lot of users report a strong body load, meaning your body feels like it weighs a ton. You will have tracers like when you look at a lights and turn away, the colors will follow, especially with red. I've noticed red looks SO much different when I'm on 2c-i than any other drug, it's hard to explain, but you'll experience it. Users report when they are Plateauing that whatever they're sitting/laying on starts to feel like a water bed. CEV's will become very noticeable when you close you're eyes. I love to just close my eyes, listen to music and smoke a cigarette. I find it really relaxing. A lot of people, including myself, experience time moving really slow.
2c-i is generally a very happy drug, when I come up I can't help but smile, I don't know why but I just can't help it. It's very hard to have a bad trip off of 2c-i because it kind of pushes away bad thoughts and just bombards your head with happy ones. But everyone is different.
Chapter 4: Interactions
Since all RC's have had barley any research done on them, it's hard to tell what drugs are bad to take with it. I just play it safe, and only smoke weed when I'm on it. It's really hard to tell at this point in time what bad things can happen to you if you where to drink alcohol, do uppers, do downers, or anything while you're under the influence of it.
So just play it safe and only smoke that sweet MJ.
"2C-I has been known to cause seizures when taken with Wellbutrin, a fairly common anti-depressant. "
link: http://tccwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=2C-I
I'm not sure if this is true, but if you are on any type of Anti-Depressant then beware, and I advise against taking 2c-i or any 2c for that matter.
Chapter 5: Synthesis
SYNTHESIS: A mixture of 7.4 g phthalic anhydride and 9.05 g of 2,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine (see the recipe for 2C-H for its preparation) was heated with an open flame. A single clear phase was formed with the loss of H2O. After the hot melt remained quiet for a few moments, it was poured out into a crystallizing dish yielding 14.8 g of a crude solid product. This was recrystallized from 20 mL CH3CN, with care taken for an endothermic dissolution, and an exothermic crystallization. Both transitions must be done without haste. After filtration, the solids were washed with 2x20 mL hexane and air dried to constant weight. A yield of 12.93 g of N-(2-(2,5-dimethoxyphenyl)ethyl)phthalimide was obtained as electrostatic yellow crystals, with a mp of 109-111 °C. A sample recrystallized from IPA was white, with a mp of 110-111 °C. Anal. (C18H17NO4) C,H,N.
To a solution of 12.9 g N-(2-(2,5-dimethoxyphenyl)ethyl)phthalimide in 130 mL warm (35 °C) acetic acid which was being vigorously stirred, there was added a solution of 10 g iodine monochloride in 40 mL acetic acid. This was stirred for 1 h, while being held at about 30 °C. The reaction mixture was poured into 1500 mL H2O and extracted with 4x75 mL CH2Cl2. The extracts were pooled, washed once with 150 mL H2O containing 2.0 g sodium dithionite, and the solvent removed under vacuum to give 16.2 g of N-(2-(2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodophenyl)ethyl)phthalimide as yellow amber solids with a mp of 133-141 °C. This mp was improved by recrystallization from 75 mL CH3CN, yielding 12.2 g of a pale yellow solid with mp 149-151 °C. A small sample from a large quantity of IPA gives a white product melting at 155.5-157 °C.
A solution of 12.2 g N-(2-(2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodophenyl)ethyl)phthalimide in 150 mL hot IPA was treated with 6.0 mL of hydrazine hydrate, and the clear solution was heated on the steam bath. After a few minutes there was the generation of a white cottage cheese-like solid (1,4-dihydroxyphthalizine). The heating was continued for several additional h, the reaction mixture cooled, and the solids removed by filtration. These were washed with 2x10 mL EtOH, and the pooled filtrate and washes stripped of solvent under vacuum giving a residue which, when treated with aqueous hydrochloric acid, gave 3.43 g of voluminous white crystals. This, after recrystallization from 2 weights of H2O, filtering, washing first with IPA and then with Et2O, and air drying, gave 2.16 g 2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodophenethylamine hydrochloride (2C-I) as a white microcrystalline solid, with a mp of 246-247 °C. Anal. (C10H15ClINO2) C,H,N.
Chapter 6: Family
2c-i is classified as a Phenethylamine. It's one of MANY members in it's family.
Here is a link to Pihkal, as an online book. It has the synthesis for all of the Phenethylamines and a trip report for different doses on each subject.
http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/pihkal/pihkal.shtml
2C-B
2C-C
2C-D
2C-E
2C-F
2C-G
2C-G-3
3C-G-5
2C-G-N
2C-H
2C-O-4
2C-N
2C-P
2C-T
2C-T-2
2C-T-4
2C-T-7
2C-T-8
2C-T-9
2C-T-13
2C-T-15
2C-T-17
2C-T-21
[/b]
Chapter 7: Duration
The duration for 2c-i is anywhere from 4-9 hours, somewhat depending on dose. If you took a lot, like 40mg's or more then it may take up to 8-9 hours, everyone's body reacts different, though.
Chapter 8: Law
2c-i is unscheduled in the United States, but sooner or later it will probably be under Analog which means sales for human consumption or possession with the intent to ingest could be prosecuted under the Federal Analogue Act. 2c-b is under analog.
2c-i is illegal in a lot of European Nations, like Denmark, Germany, Greece, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.
The Analog Act was used to say that the drugs such as 2C-I were similar enough to illegal drugs to be considered analogs of those drugs, particularly 2C-B. Due to this, 2C-I has not been explicitly made illegal, but remains in a dubious position regarding law. It is not clearly legal or illegal.
Chapter 9: Price
The price strickly depends on how you purchase it. If you where to get it online, it could cost anywhere from 90-200$ a gram. On the streets, it's too hard to tell, down here it's about a dollar a mg.
Chapter 10: How to use
2c-i is most commonly used orally, but is also known to be snorted and used rectally. If you choose to snort this product, then do know that it is more active at lower doses when snorted, meaning 10mg's snorted isn't equivalent to 10mg's orally.
Smoking is not recommended.
Chapter 11: Trip Reports
A Friday night in early 2001: I want to trip tonight, but I have no particular reason to trip. I remember that there is one chemical in my arsenal that I haven't tried yet: 2C-I. I have a friendly place to hang out tonight, so I decide that this is as good a time as any to explore a new drug. I'd been meaning to find time for it anyway.
I weigh out 20 mg of the slightly off-white, fluffy and voluminous powder (2C-I hydrochloride) and drive to my friends' house. When I arrive I eat the gelcap.
My expectations for 2C-I were guided by its strong chemical similarity to 2C-B. Friends who had taken 2C-I told me that it was surprisingly unlike 2C-B. They said it was deeper, more purely psychedelic, and less sensory. Still, it's hard to ignore what Shulgin calls the 'chemical suggestion'. I knew it would last longer, but I was expecting something that got me in touch with myself and my perceptions, like 2C-B does, as opposed to something that took me away from my ego, like mushrooms. I've had a lot of 2C-B experience and I have a good idea of what it does and how it works. So in this trip report I'll explain 2C-I by making comparisons with 2C-B.
30-40 minutes after eating the 2C-I, I feel the hints of real changes beginning. But they really don't develop into much. Once 2C-B says hello it keeps building right on up to its peak at about t+1:15, but 2C-I takes longer and is more complex. At t+1:15 I wonder if I've taken enough. This feeling persists until t+1:45, when I realize that things are getting more involved. During this comeup I make many comparisons with 2C-B, but I find myself more idenifying how 2C-I is not like 2C-B than how it is. There are almost no visuals, no real audio changes, and pretty straightforward thinking. I seem caught in the limbo of the t+1:00 half-tripping-state. I feel relaxed and my body feels a little fuzzy. Walking feels odd in a 2C-B way.
Finally at t+1:45 things accelerate. Some more people have shown up, and there are maybe 10 people here now. I think I'm the only tripping person, but the others are smoking cannabis and some have taken GHB. I have felt very comfortable so far, since I know all these people well.
I can tell that the 2C-I is getting stronger because as I follow people's conversations I find myself analyzing speech patterns, vocabulary, intonation and thought trains in a surprisingly different way than I usually do. This has fully developed by t+2:15 or so, when the 2C-I reaches its peak. I don't talk much myself, but when I do I analyze what I'm saying in the same way I analyze what other people are saying.
It is as if the pattern detectors in my brain are in high gear, and they are spitting out a continuous stream of stereotypes that match and label the way people speak and the things they say. This is really not that fun! I sense these stereotypes in a way that diminishes each person's individual worth. That is, I see that person A has a manner of speaking and thinking that is similar to persons B, C, and D, all of whom can be identified as belonging to social group X, and it seems unfortunate and shallow that person A is just another one of 'those type-X people' - with all the negatives that are attached to stereotyped social groups. It is hard to concentrate on why person A is unique.
And when I speak, I see this in myself too, and that's unpleasant. Fortunately I don't have much to say so I just keep quiet. It's very strange, because I recognize the standard psychedelic open-mindedness that lets me find patterns in my perceptions that my brain would ordinarily gloss over for my convenience, but these patterns are being presented with a disconcerting message that these patterns, and pattern-matching, are all there is to life.
In a way, this message is twisted and folded in my brain into: 'People are machines, and they work by having an enormous catalog of patterns which are modified and presented in response to external stimulus. People's uniqueness derives not from each person having something fundamentally different from the others, but from the stereotypes which make them up being combined in a unique way to yield a unique result.' On its own this message isn't really positive or negative, it's just insightful, but for whatever reason I perceive it as a total bummer.
To extend the metaphor: each person is a curve through spacetime, and that curve is defined by a system of equations; equations that are shared by everyone, just in different proportions. Instead of seeing the curve, I'm seeing the equations and their coefficients. This is sadly impersonal.
So at this point in my experience I'm not having that great of a time, but things like this do not lead to bad trips for me. I shift into a mode of studying why I feel the way I do, and I learn from it.
But then I remember something. I did something earlier that week that may have been a Career-Limiting Move. I forgot about it for a while, but I had been kicking myself for it, and now I remember it. It's inevitable, of course, that I start thinking about why I did what I did and what kind of statement it makes about me (stereotypes and all) that I chose to do it. I turn the pattern-recognition powers that I was using on other people towards myself. I don't like what I see - but I see some things that are new, and I am very glad that I have seen them.
Now it's t+3:30 or so and I am in damage-control mode. It's impossible to get these thoughts out of my head by sitting quietly in a chair, so I try to distract myself. Visuals are stronger now, but they are mostly colorful fringes and noise, like neutered 2C-B. Music is not that deep. My body does not feel as delocalized as it does with 2C-B. I recognize a common effect of almost all the 2C drugs I've taken - I am still in touch with the world. I can function. Unfortunately, I can't find much to take my mind off my introspection. Can't read a computer screen. So I take a close friend aside and I intentionally start a conversation that is as non-vacuous and intellectual as possible. This helps a lot.
People eventually start leaving, and that friend and I smoke some more cannabis. This smooths things out, and we decide to go to the grocery store. On the walk over I realize that I am feeling much better. And not long after that, at t+5:00 or so, it's clear that the 2C-I is weakening.
I spend the remaining hours in the way I usually do after a psychedelic's peak is over - smoking cannabis, eating junk food, and listening to music (which is now more interesting with the help of THC). I discuss my not-so-fun trip with my friend. At t+8:00 or so I can fall asleep, and I'm fine the next day.
20 mg was strong. On a mass basis, 2C-I is probably about 50% more potent than 2C-B; in terms of raw strength this felt like what a 30 mg 2C-B experience could be like. The iodine atom weighs more than a bromine, so on a molar basis 2C-I is even more potent. 16-17 mg would be a better starting point, I think. I wish I had more to say about the experience, but it was really dominated by negative thought-loops that made me too defensive to explore where things could go, or to remember smaller details that might otherwise have been more interesting.
It seems that my 2C-I trip followed the mold set by Dr. Shulgin and by my friends who have tried it. There was less of an outright sensory show and more of an analytical edge. It is surprisingly powerful. Don't be fooled by these halogenated phenethylamines! 2C-B is a blast on the surface, but there is a huge amount of complexity and potential inside. 2C-I seems to expose itself more; in fact, this inner complexity seems to be most of the drug's package. I can't characterize it too well, since I've only taken it once. Based on my experience and what my friends have said, I could see 2C-I being classified like 2C-E - maybe fun, maybe not, but too interesting to ignore.
Last Monday I took 30 milligrams of 2C-I after getting home from work, having no obligations the next day until 7pm. I had purchased 100 mgs with two friends of mine, the split being 40 to me and to one of them, and 20 to the other. My original purpose for acquiring it was to split 20-20 with a friend of mine who wanted her first experience with psychedelics. When the plan to do so over Thanksgiving break fell through I decided to use my share myself. My original plan was to take 20 mgs (the same dose that I had used when I tried 2C-E), but after one of the others who bought it with me reported less than exciting effects at that level, I decided that, since I had a sitter (My roommate, who I’ll call LTimmy) in case anything went terribly awry, and I could sleep for the entire next day, I’d take 30 mgs instead (I weigh about 62 kgs, so that comes out to just under half a milligram per kilogram). I squirreled away the remaining 10 mgs to combine with the next batch I purchase.
I ingested the dose at around ten o'clock and almost immediately found myself quite queasy. This wasn't entirely the drug, though, as I had already made my stomach uneasy by drinking too much sweet tea earlier that evening. I proceeded to lie down on my side and wait, listening to some soothing music that tends to help me when I get like that. After about 30 minutes I began to experience the beginnings of the body buzz. Within the next 15 minutes the diamond plated design of the refrigerator began to shift and change perceptibly.
For me, drug experiences, particularly with psychedelics are always better when accompanied music (I only rarely have specific effects derived from the music, but listening to it is often nothing short of exhilarating). I turned off the music I had been listening to and put on a record of more appropriate tunes (I've noticed that, while there is significant overlap, I prefer 'lighter' music on 2C-I and 2C-E, as opposed to the music I enjoy when on DXM, for instance, which, while I wouldn't call it 'dark' by any means, it certainly is more so than what I enjoy on true psychedelics). I sat in a chair and sang along as I watched the ceiling ripple and wave. I also spent this time trying to download an album that I had used on a previous trip - but had to return to its owner - and found very enjoyable, but my lack of success at downloading the album made me somewhat irritable (The “real world” never moves fast enough for me during most trips), causing me to snap at LTimmy when he returned from getting food. This was also aggravated by the fact that I was seeing tracers (A first for me!) and his entrance made the one I had been observing go away (The light from the hall was responsible, I suspect).
He left again soon and I proceeded to write him a note explaining what had happened and apologising. It felt very good to do this - to do my best to see that he wouldn't be upset with me (He wasn't exactly a willing sitter. We often trip together, and he was already frustrated that he had no psychedelics to take and had to see me enjoying this; I'd feel the same way. That said, he took good care of me, as always.)
On 2C-E, the body buzz had been incredibly enjoyable and one thing which I had wanted to do and hadn't was take a shower, so as to stimulate as many of those over-sensitive skin cells as possible. I decided not to make the same mistake this time. In the shower was when I first noticed that the body buzz was not as enjoyable as that of 2C-E (my speculation now is that the body buzz was too strong, given the high dose), consisting of the usual increased sensitivity of the senses (smell in particular was heightened, though tactile enhancement was noticeably less than with 2C-E), and an almost ever present tingling somewhere, usually either my hair or my legs, which is where I usually get it. Also in the shower was when I first noticed serious visual effects: the shower curtain was trying to reach out and grab me. I stress, though, that this was not frightening, but rather amusing. I spent a while growling and yelping at the curtain and kicking it before I decided that I was ready to move on.
As soon as I was dressed again I turned off most of the lights and noticed that everything had developed slight halos, mostly of red.
Also, I noticed that the rate at which my eyes registered frames (I hope that explanation makes sense outside of my head) had slowed down significantly. My hands appeared to race over the keys of my keyboard and LTimmy's movements seemed fast and jerky. Observing this effect, particularly his movements, was intensely fascinating. While watching him I noticed his face begin to distort and - unlike similar distortions of his face I saw while we were on 2C-E which were responsible for a period of significant fear on that trip - I didn't find them frightening at all. It is also at this point that I first started noticing patterns that would form, shift, fade, and form again on most surfaces I looked at. I had experienced this to a lesser degree on 2C-E, but nothing coming close to this. After a while of this I moved to the bathroom again, to play with the mirror. On 2C-E, I experienced the majority of my (rather minimal) OEVs while looking in the mirror (the frightening ones were exceptions).
Watching the patterning on my body was an enrapturing experience. It wasn't long before I had removed my shirt so as to observe them on my chest and stomach and arms, as well as my face.
I then moved on to study the way in which my face distorted. With 2C-E, I had seen my face become more androgynous and had also seen pieces of my Father's face in place of mine. I had no control over this, however. This time around, though, I was able to distort the reflection however I liked. I replaced my face in its entirety with my Father's (aside from being rather close, he and I already resemble each other a great deal, which is why this is a recurring theme), I made my image distort into all sorts of caricatures of myself, I even was able to change the complexion of all my visible skin. The latter struck me as a significant achievement, at the time.
When I came back out, tried to explore my thoughts and found, to my displeasure, that I wasn't experiencing much of a change in my headspace. It is for this effect that I predominantly employ psychedelics and its absence was disappointing. I decided to make the best of it, though. After all, I had either consumed or relegated to indefinitely useless over twenty dollars worth of this. I was damn well going to enjoy myself (the days when I could get drugs from LTimmy are long gone. He's really like a stereotypical dealer that way; the first trip was always free, but after that . . . ). I spent maybe an hour (Most of my estimates of time are pretty questionable roughly after the shower; I did my best to remain ignorant of elapsed time, feeling that it would only provide me with a strong-ish grounding in reality, something I had no desire for) looking at paintings on my computer, watching LTimmy, and doing more of the same in the mirror. It was also at this point that I noticed that a particular phosphene that I see whenever I look for them began to change (this phosphene serves as an element of comfort for me on trips, as I can remember having it as far back as Kindergarten). It's appearance became what I can only describe as a 'psychadelicised' version of itself, in the most archetypal sense of the word. During this time I also began to see the vague silhouettes of a friend of mine in my peripheral vision occasionally.
Next, I decided it was time that I go and explore the outdoors. It was late enough at night that I felt like I could avoid close inspection easily enough. This was only my second time outside while like this, and the only other time had been only a simple walk around the building on a relatively mild DXM dose, so I was treading into unknown territory! While outside, I felt like I was viewing everything around me in slow motion, particularly the other people walking about; it reminded me of the effect in movie where the frame rates are tampered with so that the camera appears to be moving faster than it actually is. The moonlight on the wet grass was strikingly beautiful. I found myself chasing after several red lights I saw in windows (They turned out to be 'Exit' signs; I was disappointed), and then I toyed with the idea of walking across campus to visit a friend of mine (It was his birthday) but I decided that the fact that I hadn't brought my phone and would've had to wait for someone to follow into the building was enough to keep me from going ahead with it.
It’s worth noting that I did not consider a fifteen to twenty minute walk across campus a problem; I had no doubts that I’d be able to reach my destination without any difficulties, which is precisely the thing that has kept me inside on almost all my previous trips. I started back for my room and, about halfway there, I felt somewhat fatigued so I found a bench that was nice and secluded and sat down to rest for a few minutes. Here I watched trees reach and grasp at the sky and all sorts of lichens crawl over a nearby brick wall. When I looked at the sky, the stars were unimportant–my attention was fixed solely on the movement of clouds. After my little break, I went back home.
Upon entering the building I was greeted by some rather inebriated girls who were sitting on the steps, drinking (the smell of the vodka, by the way, was strong enough to be painful to my nose, what with the enhanced sensory input). They started talking to me and I struggled to make nice until I could get away politely. Watching patterns crawl all over their faces while they talked wasn't exactly pleasant. Between that and the smell, I was anxious to disengage myself and slip back inside as quick as possible, which I managed to do. LTimmy asked how my walk had been, and I described it briefly to him.
At this point it felt as though I had passed my peak and I decided that I really needed to make the most of what time I had left. I decided to use the technique that has (almost always) proved to be the most rewarding element of any trip: shutting myself in the bathroom with the lights out (It's all but perfectly black in there without them) and letting things happen. Due to the noises from the floor above that had been a distraction throughout the night, I borrowed a pair of earplugs from my roommate and closed the door.
In the past, this technique has succeeded in recovering memories from my childhood that I had repressed, an effect which is one of the main motivations for my use of psychedelics. Aside from the memory fragments, doing this had usually only enhanced already existing background visual affects. And that was how this started. However, once I had the earplugs adjusted so as to block out almost all the noise from upstairs, I began hearing things in my head for the first time ever (that I can remember at least). These started as piping music, but soon developed into incoherent voices. The voices become coherent once the hallucinations started, though, and seemed almost to be mocking, but I did not find their presence bothersome. In fact, I relished in mental shouting matches where I silenced these detractors one by one.
All my previous hallucinations had been either CEVs in which I was able to see intricate images that I found profoundly connected with whatever I was talking/thinking about, dreams in which I merely watched myself in a variety of scenes, or the more mild effects like patterning, halos, facial distortions etc. (The one exception is an out of body experience I had during my first DXM trip, but I remember that trip so poorly that I have trouble using any experiences from it in any sort of analysis) That wasn't the case this time. I found myself in black landscapes where I sought to climb towers that were constructed from pipes of day-glo colors, but could never succeed. Upon realising that I was moving myself in these hallucinations and that I had some degree of control, I set about creating a companion for myself - a cat (This was another thing I had never attempted before). But the cat arrived very quickly, and I spent quite some time petting and scratching him before he lept from my lap and slunk off. I then decided to go back into my head. I was soon watching myself walk through a place of utter blackness (which I knew to be my brain).
After some searching I suddenly found myself in a metallic room where, lying in a dentist's chair, was another me. Standing beside me was a creature which I can only call 'Braniac,' due to his resemblance to the comic book character of the same name. He offered me 'my mind' at which point the top of the head of the “me” in the chair opened up and a rush of images flooded out, within which I was quickly engulfed. Here I found myself with access to every memory I had ever had; I needed only to think of a person, a place, etc. and I would find myself experiencing every memory asociated with it. While exploring this I found myself concious of a deep voice speaking incoherently in the background, which I knew to be that of something else in my head. I immediately placed myself back in the empty black of my head and created a large, thick stick in my hands. I then proceeded to swing it about, smashing things I couldn't see, but could both feel as I hit, and hear shatter (I hope this wasn't my brain trying to tell me that these research chemicals are wiping out a lot of brain cells). I demanded that the deep voice reveal itself or I'd continue, but to no avail.
Eventually, I found myself rather abruptly shunted back into the real world. I decided that I had gone as far as I was meant to for the time being, and just sat there, thinking about possible explanations for what had just happened, during which I experienced vivid visualisations of my thoughts, but nothing that truly struck me as profound.
I emerged when LTimmy demanded to use the bathroom. I felt like I had been in there for twenty, maybe thirty minutes at the most, but his estimation put it at an hour or more. After this, I felt as though the effects of the drug had been drained from me. I suddenly decided to bury my clock so that I couldn't hear its ticking, my reasoning being that I wanted to enjoy the ride down without a reminder that my time was running out. For the rest of the trip I listened to music, admired what visual effects remained, and tried to assemble a cohesive assessment of what had gone on in the bathroom. Around the time that my companion phosphene returned to normal I crawled into bed.
I couldn't sleep for a while and continued listening to soothing music while watching the (normally) unremarkable view out of my window in a sort of drunken awe. Eventually I fell asleep, but I was soon (I think) jolted awake (I literally convulsed as I woke up) by a dream that I can only recall as being very vivid and having a sudden, discomforting ending. After this, I found even the minimal effects that I had experienced before dozing off drastically diminished, and was soon asleep again.
The next day I noticed no sort of hangover (except that I got up earlier than planned so as to have lunch with a friend, and was rather tired that day) or residual effects. This is in stark contrast to my smaller dose of 2C-E; the day after I took that I found myself feeling very detached, and it seemed as though I was watching what my eyes saw from a great distance. I also found music enhanced the day after that trip, to the point of still experiencing some indistinct CEVs at work that day (I was backstage at the rehearsal of an orchestra). It was both unexpected and very pleasant and, luckily, the guy who was working with me didn't seem to notice.
Looking back on it, this trip was probably the best I've had, even compared (in a rough sort of way) to more potent doses of DXM. Compared to 2C-E, I feel that the headspace of 2C-I wasn't as impressive, since on a smaller dose of the former I achieved mental affects that, while not as strong, were close and didn't require my working at them at all. With 2C-I the only profound headspace was achieved when I really tried to force it. The 2C-I trip also didn't include anything I would classify as frightening or upsetting, though this was due in part, no doubt, to my having more experience this time around, as opposed to when I took the 2C-E, which could be quite frightening at times. I feel that, in comparable doses, 2C-E would be a much more contemplative and rewarding (emotionally/mentally) trip. That said, having a companion to talk to on the 2C-E made my mind less prone to getting stuck in loops, so I don't know how the 2C-I trip would've been different if I hadn't been alone, especially since I had the recurring feeling during the trip that if someone were tripping with me, I would've been able to think aloud to them and we could have jointly reached meaningful conclusions. For pure visual effects, I think 2C-I is the better choice.
Also, even though my dose of 2C-I was half again as much as my dose of 2C-I, LTimmy commented afterwards that I was far more able to focus on and complete tasks than I had been with the 2C-E. Muscle tightening, in particular jaw clenching seemed to leave less soreness in the morning than with 2C-E, but that may have been because - knowing what to expect this time - I had gathered a supply of chewing gum to keep my jaw busy, which is where I usually feel it most the next day. I still intend to introduce my friend to psychedelics with 2C-I, both for its more mild mental change and for the social aspect. I hope to acquire another batch before Christmas, and I'd like to try 35 mgs next time (I was actually surprised when my heartrate didn't increase nearly as much as I had expected), preferably with LTimmy who has said that he'd trip with me, but he'd want a different substance for himself.
I hope that this can provide some sort of idea as to what to expect from the experience for anyone who hasn't tried this particular chemical before. Ta!
The story:
Let me first point out that this was probably the most surreal drug experience I’ve ever had. This was largely due to the multitude of drug clichés that epitomized the night.
I showed up at my friends place for a quiet night of poker and conversation. In total, there were 4 of us (Mr. I, myself, Ms. M and Mrs. I). After a brief discussion we decided to scrap poker in lieu of a 2C-I experiment. This was the virgin trip for each of us. Mrs. I was the sober sitter, Ms. M ingested 6 mg, Mr. I ingested 11 mg, and I ingested 15 mg (22:00)
T+00:00 We took our capsules and each emptied them into a cup of heated water. Added to each cup was 1 package of “emergenC” brand powdered vitamin drink. We sat Around the kitchen table and talked, waiting for the first alert.
T+00:15 The first alert is announced by Mr. I. He calls them the “acid tingles”. Music is chosen. 3 CDs. The choices included some jazz, some drum & bass, and ambient compilation stuff (it was later decided that overly wordy music provided too much additional stimulus for our environment, but I will explain below). Conversation was good and the discussion revolved around the art gallery opening where we had spend the earlier part of the evening.
T+00:45 Ms. M remarks that she is feeling a subtle MDMA-like rush, and some jittery amphetamine like stimulation. I feel a + and a definite trend toward more. Mr. I is now outside smoking a cigarette and talking on his roof deck about the future of humanity, and about debt slavery. When he finishes his cigarette the lightbulbs in the house are all swapped out for colored bulbs. The house is now bathed in alternating colors of green and red and purple and blue. A black light is turned on in the kitchen.
T+01:15 Holy shit! The others are still acending slowly. I am exstatic! I experience intense waves of MDMA-like pleasure jolts (without the extreme empathic component) as I continue to climb toward a peak. Very amphetamine like in character. Visual Hallucinations slowly begin. Shadows are ill defined and seem to waver in density like smoke in a slow breeze. The awareness of colors is directly related to the discussion at hand. Mr. I mentions the devil several times and each time I become particularly aware of swirling red glow pouring over his face. The lightbulb directly over his head was red. Why hadn’t this seemed important before? He hadn’t mentioned the devil before.
T+01:30 Mr. I has decided to read poetry out loud. He wanders through the house spouting Elliot, Coleridge, Pound & Williams. Ms. M mentions that she has just downloaded Ginsberg’s Howl. The music in the background/foreground? interlaces with Mr. I’s voice and the asthetic for the evening is set. I feel like I'm trapped in an Oliver Stone movie. Vibrant colors from the rugs in the living room strike me as more present and more relevant than usual. Music is exchanged for ginsberg and after a few stanzas we realize that Mr. Ginsberg sounds robotic. The music is returned.
T+02:00 Despite my SIGNIFICANT intoxication +++, I feel very comfortable cognitively. There are no thought loops as with LSD. Occasionally some abstract thinking enters my mental arena and I lose focus on the stimulus around me. I am vaguely aware of Ms. M. She remarks how wonderful the steam heat from the radiator feels. There is a very sexual push to this. Sober, I am not very attracted to Ms. M, but I would like to touch her now. Mr. I lets his rabbit loose from it’s cage. He is ++/+++.
T+02:15 The rabbit appears out of thin air in several different rooms as I am sitting or moving. I laugh at us as we try to chase the rabbit around the house. What a drug cliché. It helps that the rabbit is white. Mr. I returns to reading the rhyme of the ancient mariner out loud. He remarks that he is feeling sinister. Red glow returns.
T+03:00 The time dilation is extreme. In 15 minutes, an entire evening has been had. I say that I would love to feel the crunch of some moist bell peppers in my mouth. I’m not enticed by the idea of food, just the sensation of that moist pepper snap as one crunches down on a freshly sliced stick of pepper. Mr. I takes out a cleaver to slice the peppers, but discovers there is none. I comment on the cleaver. He cackles. He becomes Ahab. I back away. We realize that this is reminiscent of the rabbit’s defensive posture, posed against Mr. I. We laugh as we begin to eat our celery sticks. We are rabbits.
T+4:00 Mr. I proposes that I join he and his colleagues on the board of directors. He has a newly formed not for profit corporation. I am completely zoned and this seems too surreal. We are somehow in a corporate boardroom and he is showing me his company’s mission statement, and its articles of incorporation. I am delighted by the invitation and my companion lays out the details. He will handle all the legal matters. I will travel and collect data. Others will have their positions. The hour of Gonzo has begun. Mr. I has put a CD full of strange dissonant noises on the stereo. He is now wearing a George W Bush mask and parading around the house in a sheet. The music is vaguely tribal, but the occasional crash of timpani is disruptive to that idea. I feel compelled to place my hand on the back of my neck. Mmm, comforting. Mr. I insists on talking about some of his sexual conquests. He would like to fuck a redhead before his time is up.
T+05:00 Ms. M is now sober and would like to go home. I am in no shape to drive. Ms. I has at this point decided to sleep. The three of us accompany Ms. M to her car and we watch her as she leaves. It is extremely cold and the adrenergic stimulation makes shivering more pronounced. Mr. I and I walk back and pass a few Saturday evening drunks along the way. One is peeing on his own shoes. He looks like a cartoon. I laugh to myself and Mr. I laughs. Life is amusing. We get back to the safety of his home and begin the philosophical discussion. Social, political, scientific notions are flung around amidst the now flickering colors of the bulbs. Why are they flickering? Mr. I removes the green bulb from the kitchen. The kitchen is now filled with a strawberry red intensity. I remark that we need the balance of the kiwi, the strawberry will overpower us without it. The light is reinstalled. This point is more serious than comic.
T+06:00 We descend into more discussion of scientific matters and matters relating to the corporate mission. The intensity of the hallucinations are fading but this is only apparent in a room with normal lighting. I have been drinking water all night, and pissing all night. We both note how wonderful the experience has been, and how clear and clean our cognitive abilities have been. This is not debilitating like other significant hallucinogens.
T+07:00 We realize that the time dilation is gone. My trip is more or less over and I am very capable of driving. I do not feel drained, mentally or physically. I drive home uneventfully. I got to sleep at about 5:30 AM and woke up at 12:30 PM. No hangover, no mental dullness, no physical pain or soreness. Nothing. A positive energy was noted. I am speechless. This is profound, social, comically entertaining and without a significant refractory (hangover) period. I feel very hopeful about this material.
Be safe. Learn your limits slowly. Enjoy your lilfe.
PROEM
4:15 PM PST I took my first trip via an enervated body --- lack of sleep from the night before started me out with the general air of pre-dreamy incontrol, the kind of feeling you get when you keep at doing something you want to get done when you're especially tired, the salient identification of mind-wandering off, as if utterly undisciplined.
STARTING...
At around 8 PM, its effects became obvious to me. Prior to that, I'd taken them to be the usual vision distortion I get for looking at far away items without my glasses (I am nearsighted). Thus, perhaps the effect might have occurred earlier. I first noticed the effects while looking up at the gabled ceilings. Setting description: the roof was composed of these horizontal wooden slabs spaced about 3 inches wide and around 1 foot long, with ridges in between horizontal pieces; long support structures go vertically relative to the plane at each foot, stretching at a constant slope in the z direction. I noticed the ridges started distorting in a repeititive way. Later on, I would become 'familiar' enough with this distortion to label it as 'myriad mouths' ... as if the ceiling was speaking (yet, I experienced no perceptible audio effects).
Let me try to describe the pattern I saw in more detail: the ridges are normally straight lines, however I started seeing these amplitude varying wave envelopes which looked like mouths talking -- they looked superposed onto the ceiling along the ridges, yet they also look like the sort of visual distortion I get from squinting my eyes (normally). Despite the oddity, there was an order to them: they were periodically repeating both in animation and location.
Earlier on, I tried reading a textbook on Clifford Algebra. I was disgusted at finding my reading rate reduced to that of my record low: one page per hour! I was told that 2C-I was an incredible memory drug, but I had difficulty concentrating on forming the right concrete memories in order to flip onto the next page! My Drugsmaster and lover Strange Quark was with me for most of the first day. At around 5, disappointed, I stated nothing's occurred, perhaps the dosage was too low. He told me that 2C-I in small doses gave him feelings of empathy, in essence, like an aphrodisiac. I was still trying to read my Clifford Algebra textbook, when he came back from number theory (5-ish). He slumped down on the bed, stating that he was tired. I was overcome with this intense need to hold him, and before I knew it, we were wrapped in the most intense game of Body Twister, ever. Everything felt more intense. I felt more sensitive and even more convinced that I was madly in love with him. Was it the placebo effect, or might 2C-I also act as an aphrodisiac?
It was wrapped up as such, that in the fading light of twilight, I realized these patterns I saw between 7 and 8 weren't merely the distortion of my myopic eyes. (Later on and during the morning after, it felt as if I knew exactly what he was thinking. When he described his experience of going on a walk and feeling extremely ecstatic, fascinated with existence, in love with life... so much that he would stand out in the ice cold rain for hours and hours, experiencing that feeling, the essence of that almost-graspable... While he was giving this discription, patterns formed off in a nearby wall, and somehow these geometric objects conveyed a further message, further amplifying the theme of almost-graspable, yet vainly not so. Throughout my trip, I had difficulty focusing on just one topic; I had difficulty analyzing something too long without becoming fascinated by something else. I wasn't capable of expressing much of what I experienced via speech or words, aside from these mental conversations which might not be words after all. I found myself extremely dyslexic, unable to read.)
At around 9 PM, I realized that these patterns were generated by my perception of various objects at different angles and via different pupil focusings -- my pupils were twice their usual size most of the time. (As I stared at them in the mirror in the brightly lit bathroom, I realized I could change their sizes by will.) I became fascinated at staring down objects; it seems as if I could comprehend a global pattern from sampling a local bit. That was the theme of the 'studies' that took up most of my experience on 2C-I. (The patterns varied, and it seemed each object had its own unique pattern that I could see if I stare and dilate my pupils in a certain fashion. The pattern was almost always animated. It didn't exactly interfere with my perception of reality, as the pattern always looked superposed onto its object.)
CLIMAX (9 PM)
The climax perhaps lasted for a few minutes, when these patterns grew out of control: I saw them without even having to try to see them. They were just *there.* I was overcome with a feeling of nostalgia, as if I saw these when I was young -- I do have memories of seeing patterns in the dark right before I fell asleep, and then there was the Rachmaninoff that would start playing, and this excruciating fear of yet anticipation for it, but this tendency faded as I grew older --- but have forgotten them, become unable to see them, and am now finally seeing the truth so obvious I had known before.
There was that sense of if I had to choose anything I could do --- what would I do? I realized that I couldn't focus on reading a textbook because it was too mediocre (mea culpa, heh heh), and that in this altered state of consciousness, my attention demanded something more pure. Yet, I couldn't single out one thing extreme enough to work on.
Currently, I am a physics major in a school that is experimenting on ways to make physics education better. In the process of which, the curriculum of one of my courses has reverted to that of the dread high-school-chaos-sort: 'course journals,' 'group discussion,' and 'participation' were worth almost half of one's grade. Physics is the type of subject that I have difficulty discussing with my fellow physics majors... they tend to confuse me more than I am already confused, and the course is on string theory. Anyway, I had a sort of instinctual need to read that Clifford Algebra book, among other things, lest my grades dissatisfy me. I was overcome by the feeling of arbitrariness of that particular 'grading criteria.' The course journal and discussions seemed like pointless BS one would do just 'for a grade.' To my joy, this is only the second course I've taken in college that had elements that took precious time away from studying the material well.
And then, I was overcome by the feeling of how arbitrary society was. It makes sense that one has to 'work' in order to be 'paid,' but I felt immensely saddened by how, in many cases, one cannot seriously work on something one wants to work on without having to accept the BS and pointless standards of society. For example, my personal interpretation of quantum mechanics, which I have had for a long time, will not be accepted until several years after I've obtained a PhD (or perhaps even longer). There is this tradition, such as academicians do not respect non-degrees. Yet, in the process of obtaining a degree, I would have to take these courses that serve nothing but to waste my time! And, there is just so little of it! They say that after 30, your mathematical abilities dwindle, and you cannot see the new that galvanized and excited you and motivated you to do all that BS and kissing-up while you were young.
There are these professors who claim that you should study something slowly until you understand it; yet, with all this arbitrary BS you have to do just to get a degree, you can't possibly afford to study anything slowly... without finding yourself too old to do anything by the time you get your degree.
I seem to be going off a soapbox tangent. Yet, although this might seem petty to you, it is my greatest worry now. A part of me longs to experience Thoreau's Walden for more than the few weeks he tried it on. To be able to take a few select books and my computer into some abandoned log-cabin in the middle of the woods hooked with nothing but perhaps a high-speed internet connection. I want to develop my skills without having to deal with landlords, assignments that do nothing but waste time. Moreover, I want to know the limits of my own ability to develop and create --- freed of the distractions of living in the real world: the irksome street construction-work that never stops, TV-sounds and fights from next door... What if I could study in the midst of serenity; would I find myself distracted less often, to extent where I become unable to function?
I decided to take a shower, since I'd felt groggy the whole day. While in the shower, I started analyzing the faucet. Ordinarily: it's a circular metal slab in the shower tiles, with a faucet-turn-thing at the top part. With years of San Diego's hard hard HARD water, it's developed a sort of rainbow, oil-surface pattern on it. It seemed to move, as if to reform itself right in front of my eyes, in real-time, and I started seeing patterns from it. I had a sort of epiphany, as I became totally convinced of the validity of my alternate interpretation of quantum mechanics -- which I've had for years.. which along, with these crazy scribblings (chaos to everyone else, but an ordered algorithmic pattern to me) on paper that I think represents the ultimate theory of everything, are forcing me to put up with the oft-obvious senseless required for attaining a degree.
anyway...
THE UNIVERSE IS A (quantum, duh) COMPUTER~!!!!
I became absolutely convinced.
And then the thought that there are people who've come across the ultimate unified theory and just decided not to share it... or perhaps were forbidden from sharing it for lack of a degree: they couldn't afford to waste the most precious years of their lives on the ultimately pointless hassle of getting a degree.
Anyway, the remembrance of Ramachandran's studies of people with temporal lobe epilepsy who have experiences of 'conversations with God...' caught me, as this voice started talking to me (I don't consider this an audio effect because it was internal, like the conversations I have in my head), and he sounded like some enlightened being, perhaps the supreme creator of the universe, multiverse, yossiverse. Yet, in a petty way, his voice reminded me of the aliens from Spielberg's AI talking to that AI kid. As I toweled up, euphoric that the dearest thing I'd suspected was right, the voice laughed (or was it many others) and they (or he?) said something along the lines of 'You're part of the club now... and you're doomed to want to understand why that is so.'
I went back to trying to study Clifford Algebra again, now that the drug seems to be taking obvious effect. I still couldn't concentrate. I started having these conversations in my head. I actually usually have them -- they're like the sort of hypothetical situation scenarios that sort of blend in with daydreams. Although I had philosophic discussions with myself and these 'other people' in my head, none of the issues were ones I've not encountered before. Disappointed, I went back to the patterns.
I decided to eat some strawberries. 77 cents from Food4Less. An odd price for a good sized package of strawberries, even in California. I noticed their pungent near over-ripe smell, as I took them from the fridge. With my pattern-searching eyes, I looked at them. For some reason, it felt as if they were talking to me. I could sense its life-history, yet I couldn't concretely understand the events of its life. The strawberry seemed like an innocent entity forced into the dark-side. It appeared to emanate a sort of evil, yet I ate it, thinking I was just imagining things.
I took another strawberry, and I stared at it. The seed speck dots created a pattern that's already faded in my memory. Suddenly, I saw one of the dots moving. It was a white dot, slowly slithering, and I wasn't sure if it was the pattern diverging in a new fashion into another (usually, the patterns diverge in a coherent way, so that all of the pattern sub-components move simultaneously) via just one pattern-subcomponent... or an actual bug. It looked like the extremely small black bugs that are about two 0.7mm pencil lead-dots long, but instead it was white. I had experienced vaginal, perhaps urethral smelliness, for the past few days -- might parasitic ingestion be the cause? To verify that it was a real bug, I barged into the bathroom on Strange Quark, my Drugsmaster. He saw it moving, too. In hindsight, it seems as if the strawberries were warning me. I tried 'communicating' with them again, but I found myself unable to. Already, my rationality was overwhelming me: should I take it to the health-center for parasitic analysis or should I get a microscope to analyse it myself.
AN ENDING...
The morning afterwards, the enervation stayed; it felt like the sort of mental draining you get from having to do too much pointless repetitive extremely easy homework. Perhaps it was the excessive amount of pattern analysis and extreme detail-oriented observation, yet this is the first time I've ever felt burnt out from studying something that is so fascinating. Is there such a thing as neural super-activation leading to a hang-over? 24 hours later, my eyes felt sore, as if I'd read a thousand books non-stop, perhaps that is due to the pupil dilation and constriction as I 'zoomed in' on multiple dimensions of the patterns.
Yet, I still saw patterns the morning afterwards -- fainter, and more in my head, than in the world. I could 'manipulate' the sort of random dots you see when you shut your eyes into patterns that animate and diverge/converge into other patterns. Likewise, in faint lighting. However, even in bright lighting, I have become more aware of the graininess of what I see -- as if the world were made up of extremely tiny pixels. I can manipulate these pixels into patterns. As of now, it is around 8 PM the next day, and I can still see traces of these patterns by will. Although much fainter, the essence of the effects are still with me; I have observed the grainy nature of the fundamentals of reality, a glimpse at a controversial truth I had suspected.
Also, if you are going to venture into Phenethylamines I suggest you read this.
http://www.drugsandbooze.com/showthread.php?t=19396
and
http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/showthread.php?t=235559
I hope you guys enjoyed the FAQ and got some unanswered questions answered. Feel free to shoot me a PM if I missed some stuff, which I probably did. Enjoy!
Some information taken from:
www.tccwiki.com
www.erowid.org
www.experiencefestival.com
Also, thank you to Thermal for added information.
Please do not ask me for Research Chemical links as I will not give you any.