DOSE:

18 mg

oral

2C-E

(powder / crystals)

BODY WEIGHT:

120 lb

Background: I am male, at the time of this experience 22 years old and weighing around 120 pounds. I do not use prescription or over-the-counter medications, but drink yerba mate and smoke marijuana on a daily basis. I am pretty familiar with psychedelics. In terms of substances similar to 2C-E, I had experimented extensively with 2C-I at doses ranging from 5 to 30 milligrams, and also had experiences using Trichocereus cacti (peruvian torch and san pedro). I am also experienced with mushrooms, MDMA, ayahuasca-type brews and LSD. I was very cautious experimenting with 2C-E, starting out my trials at just 3 milligrams and working up slowly. Given the reputation this compound has for being an intense and often challenging (but rewarding) experience, I did not wish to go off the deep end.

Substance: 2,5-dimethoxy-4-ethylphenethylamine (2C-E)

Dosage: 18 milligrams taken in a little fruit juice after a light breakfast. I do not have a milligram scale, so instead I took a larger known amount (500 mg) and dissolved it in a known amount of 40% alcohol so I could use the liquid measuring technique, allowing me to accurately dose in increments of 0.5 milligrams.

Previous experience: Trials of this compound at 3, 5, 8 and 12 milligrams. All levels were active, with effects developing quickly after about an hour. At 8 and 12 milligram dosages a plus two was reached, with some interesting visual patterning with eyes open and visual imagery with eyes closed. Body load at the 8 and 12 mg levels was already noticeably stronger than with, say, 20 milligrams of 2C-I.

Effects on body noticed at 18 milligrams:
Strong stimulation and energy tremor
Muscle tension and aching
Jaw clenching
Mydriasis (pupil dilation)
Feeling of tightness and rawness in throat
Increased production of mucous in nasal passageways, coughing reflex
Slight nausea
Anorexia (blunted appetite)
Restlessness
Changes in body temperature regulation (chills and flushes)

A day in the park on 2C-E

I wanted to experience the true potential of 2C-E. A recent trial at 12 milligrams, the highest I had yet attempted, had given me a taste. It reminded me a lot of a low-dose acid trip, combined with an amphetamine-like speediness and some nausea. I figured if I was going to be dealing with this amount of body load, I might as well at least up the dosage hoping for some spectacular mental effect which would offset the annoying sense of being overstimulated. I didn’t want to go higher than 18 milligrams just yet, figuring increasing the dosage by 50% over what I’d taken last time should be plenty.

After taking the 2C-E I smoked a couple bowls of pot, hoping to ward off any queasiness during onset. The first thing I noticed was a bit of a jagged alerted feeling, slightly restless and anxious. Around forty minutes after dosing I began seeing things move and shift ever so slightly. The effects started coming in waves, stimulation and a kind of confused mental agitation would overtake me at moments. I laid down for the rest of the onset, and this was much more comfortable. Any stomach twinges disappeared as soon as I lay down.

Until about the third hour into the experience everything was just building up and building up. The waves of effects were becoming more intense now. In previous trials I had been startled at how lucid and rational my thoughts remained on this substance. This same sense of lucidity, of clear-headed tripping, was definitely present at this higher dosage. At the peak of a wave, my thoughts were not nearly so chaotic and disordered as on a sufficient amount of mushrooms or LSD. In between waves, I had enough attention span to attentively read large sections of PIHKAL. I got all caught up in reading of the Shulgin’s research group tripping together on mescaline. Reading took a little longer than normal, but only because I pondered each line deeply until I felt I really understood and resonated with the meaning that each sentence contained.

The visuals were getting stronger too. Mostly I noticed that whenever I moved my head I would see trails behind. Not phosphorescent, glowing trails. More of a brown, earthy trailing effect, fading quickly. Colours were intensified, and white surfaces seemed filled with gentle waves of rainbows, not vibrant but more muted and understated.

The stimulation, and just this tense feeling inside kept growing bigger. Building up the pressure. The release came quite suddenly, without much warning. There was a sensation part pleasant and part painful. There was this feeling like God had put the tip of his finger through my skull and was gently tickling my brain. A sort of shivery-revelatory sensation round the top of the head. At the same time, opening of the heart. An emotional release, almost violent. A few tears forced out of me then trembling I began to breath deeply past the pain. It was okay to feel this way, because I was now profoundly open, to life, to awareness, to emotion. This is what it feels like to be fully alive, it’s both exhilerating and terrifying.

This cathartic effect, the emotional release given by the 2C-E, enabled me to view my life with a certain amount of honesty and distance not normally possible. I thought awhile about some of my hopes and fears, and also reflecting on some habitual patterns I have fallen into. It certainly gave me a new perspective. I would compare the emotional opening I felt to that caused by MDMA, a feeling of being absolute honest with myself. However, the way I had gotten into this space was so different than with MDMA. I wasn’t being pushed and prodded into a euphoric state where I could accept things more easily. No, unlike MDMA I was going to have to work for it this time.

2C-E has been described as emotionally “neutral” or even “unfriendly”. I’m not sure I’d go so far as to call it unfriendly, but it certainly seems a lot more suited to therapeutic use than to recreational use. I wouldn’t take 2C-E hoping to have a good time. It seemed to wind me all up, bring all this emotional baggage up to the conscious, then BAM! Hit me with it all at once. A full-frontal assault forcing me into an open-hearted state of awareness. Not smooth, not gentle, but quite rewarding nonetheless.

After this I felt a great sense of relief. The tension that had been building was now dissipating slightly. I began to settle in and enjoy the experience a little more. A vague euphoria, and pleasant body buzz were evident. Sometimes that feeling of divine revelation, of God gently teasing and tickling my brain, would come back.

Getting up briefly I realized I was a little more affected than I had suspected when lying down. It was a little hard to walk straight, and everything kept moving around in the periphery of my vision in a slightly disconcerting way. Sounds and sights were blending together quite smoothly. I was feeling rather weak and shaky, with a tightness in the stomach, now around 4 hours into the trip.

I prepared a cup of yerba mate and a small piece of bread with cheddar cheese, hoping some food and liquids would replenish my strength and hopefully settle my stomach. Biting and chewing felt incredibly strange, and it took me a good while to eat that bit of bread and cheese because I had so little appetite, I’d have to leave it after every couple bites. Somehow I managed to log onto the internet and pull up some beautiful pictures of flowering peruvian torch cacti, all without being consciously aware of what I was doing. I sort of came to staring at these pictures, going, my don’t these look lovely!

In a lot of ways I found 2C-E to be very much like peruvian torch cactus. The strong effects on the body with each are similar, and I found the visual effects of the 2C-E very much like mescaline visuals. There are these little bright sparkly balls I see floating around people on cactus, and I saw these same little balls of light floating around me with the 2C-E. This particular visual effect I’ve only experienced with cactus and (now) 2C-E, not with any other psychedelic. All the depth and richness of cactus is there in 2C-E as well, it’s not a sort of light, fluffy psychedelic like 2C-I. The only significant difference I noticed was the neutral and lucid headspace on 2C-E. Cactus I find a bit warmer.

I decided a change of scenery and a stroll were in order, so taking a backpack with essentials (water, wallet, sweater for if it got cold, and PIHKAL to continue reading) I headed out to the local park. It was a little bit confusing, orienting myself to walking and sitting rather than lying down, but I did okay. Some slight paranoia when encountering other people walking their dogs and such, after all I was still at a solid plus three and not really comfortable about interacting with others. Some birds flew across my path leaving crazy tracers behind them. I let out a big sigh of energy thinking to myself “those were damn trippy birds”. There were a lot of birds out in the park, I spent some time watching a woodpecker hard at work looking for insects, and all these chirps and bird songs around me gave me a sensation of being in the jungle somewhere.

2C-E is certainly tenacious, I’ll give it that. Almost fully up after only an hour, and that plateau didn’t let up much until the seventh hour. I ran into a friend and we smoked a small joint that I had rolled and been carrying around for about an hour, still too high to contemplate smoking it. The three tokes I had off the joint (nice organic weed, mind you) got me really, really high. I didn’t feel the pot much, but it sure kicked the 2C-E back in. We were sitting in a car to smoke, and I felt very uncomfortable being confined into this little space. The overstimulated feeling was coming over me strongly again. After the joint I had a great deal of difficulty following the train of conversation and spent a lot of time sort of lolling sideways with the intensity of it all, playing with my favourite quartz crystal.

My friend was off to go drinking, and I definitely was not up for being anywhere near a bar, so I just stayed in the park. By now I was coming down enough to be able to read some more of PIHKAL and just bask in the low rays of golden sunshine. After smoking a little more pot I even worked up enough of an appetite to walk down the block and get a slice of pizza and a can of coke. The weak shaky feeling was back, and even if I wasn’t very hungry I figured eating was a good idea.

Shortly thereafter the sun went down and the temperature dropped rapidly. I headed back home, drank some more yerba mate and watched some mindless TV while the last of the effects whiled away. At around T + 9 hours the psychedelic effects were pretty much gone. However, a residual stimulation and muscle tension continued long after this. Even now at T + 15 hours I am too stimulated to go to sleep, hence writing this report.

Overall this experience was more positive than negative. I can imagine myself taking the dosage a little higher, but probably wouldn’t go over 25mg. I hope the body load doesn’t continue to get worse at higher dosages, as it could become unbearable. In future I would take the 2C-E on a full stomach, as the appetite killing effect is quite long-lived.

Exp Year: 2007	ExpID: 83445
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 22
Published: Jun 8, 2010	Views: 21,832
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2C-E (137) : Nature / Outdoors (23), Therapeutic Intent or Outcome (49), General (1), Various (28)