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A Tentful of Lights
2C-E, Mushrooms & Ketamine
Citation:   PewterG. "A Tentful of Lights: An Experience with 2C-E, Mushrooms & Ketamine (exp95556)". Erowid.org. Feb 18, 2018. erowid.org/exp/95556

 
DOSE:
T+ 0:00
    Cannabis (daily)
  T+ 0:00   oral Mushrooms (dried)
  T+ 7:00 16 mg oral 2C-E (capsule)
  T+ 7:10   oral Mushrooms (tincture)
  T+ 9:45 125 mg IM 2'-Oxo-PCE (liquid)
  T+ 9:50 125 mg IM 2'-Oxo-PCE (liquid)
BODY WEIGHT: 150 lb
Summer ’11 was probably the best and worst summer I’ve ever had. Some of my most cherished memories so far reside in that period of time, along with some of the greatest struggles I’ve experienced in my life. It was around 5 years into my drug using career, and at this point in my life I had explored mushrooms, ketamine, MDMA, and acid extensively. DOM, 2C-B, amphetamines, as well as various other uppers, downers, screamers and laughers also speckle my drug history, but I had not yet explored the realm of some of the world’s more obscure chemicals.

I was using marijuana daily to help control my ADHD-PI (mostly racing thoughts, uncomfortable mental stimulation, fidgeting, difficulty regulating behaviour and difficulty focussing) and was mainly eating it (in these amazing orange press cookies my mother taught me to make) to delay onset and expand the effect.

Ketamine was beginning to emerge as an issue for me, with me spending more money on it than I was comfortable with and using it despite negative repercussions. I was using it at least twice a month and always intramuscular, usually around 100 mgs per shot, increasing with each subsequent trip in a binge. I was even known to take as much as 500 mgs in a shot later in a binge. I enjoyed using it with friends, but I found myself using it alone before bed more often. I relished the feeling of drifting and falling through a changing landscape, riding my bed through the inner workings of reality, and watching shadow people from my life dance around my room as if in some other dimension I was hosting a party right then and there. Sometimes I would stay up until 4 AM tripping alone in my bed.

During a binge, I would take anywhere from 0.5 to 2.0 grams. Every now and then I would fall into a hole and wreak havoc, but most of the time I was alright at handling myself. After using it I would usually feel a little depressed, embarrassed, and over analytical, but I would continue to use it anyways. (More on that story in my report, “The Incident”.)

I had never (from what I know of) tried any 2C-x other than B, which had brought me great pleasure. I actually first found interest in 2C-E when I was looking at a list of what different mixes of drugs with MDMA were called. 2C-E and MDMA was reportedly a “glitter-flip”, which simply sounded like something I would want to try. I started checking out all the standard sites and some trip reports, as well as asking some of my friends who had tried it. I was most intrigued by some sources saying that it left their thought processes fairly unchanged during heavy psychedelica, compared to other psychedelics like LSD or mushrooms, which expand thought considerably. I was very curious as to what a mind not affected by sensory disturbances felt like, especially because most of the reports I heard described intense beauty and colour from this particular chemical. I decided that I would try it at the first festival I went to during the summer. This trip clued me in to why it’s one of the Magical Half-Dozen, and I have been experimenting with it ever since.

The festival I chose to do it at was a little psytrance and world music festival near Quebec City. The setting: a huge campsite in the forest next to a small beach that had formed in the bend of a stream that was toppling down a huge waterfall, with some rapids going to and away from the beach. There was one stage next to the festival entrance playing heavier dance music like drum 'n bass and hard core, one on a boardwalk above the stream that was playing chill music like dub and techno under a tarp, and one at the beach that played exclusively psytrance. I was with some of my good friends, sharing a huge tent with 5 other people.

Leading up to the last night (which was when I tried 2C-E) I had only been using MDMA and ketamine. The ketamine going around was not very good, or maybe the tolerances of some of my friends and I were extremely high, because it never had too profound an effect on any of us except one. I had tried taking a cap of 2C-E on the second night with a Hawaiian Baby Woodrose fruit smoothie from one of the vendors, but I think the smoothie had gone bad during the day and I hurled it all up and slept through any potential effects. When I woke up the next morning, I was offered a small line of speed to pep me up and I accepted it. Now I am awake and excited about the day.

On my morning stroll over the boardwalk soon after, one of the resident psytrance DJs popped up out of the bushes and put a pile of mushrooms in my hands (unknown dose, maybe 2-3 grams). I eat them with the full knowledge that I was planning on doing a different psychedelic that very night. I come up within half an hour, with the social anxiety I experience on mushrooms being the most noticeable effect. Soon after, I notice fields hanging in the air while we were walking through the woods, perhaps light reflecting off certain branches and not others giving the impression of colourful shimmering air. These fields seemed to have some sort of magical significance to me, and gave me a “groovy” feeling, like I was not all solid and just as affected by these fields as by any material objects. Passing through them was almost like passing through heavy smoke in a closed room that only kind of moves when you walk through it. The anxiety soon turned into a couple hours of laughing, doodling, and smoking weed in the sun while listening to one of the DJs play dub/ambient at the entrance stage. Doodling was especially fun, with lines placing themselves where they seemed best suited. It almost felt like the fields from earlier were guiding the marker I was using instead of me, adding to the “groovy” feeling: just draw within the “grooves” and nothing goes wrong. I was feeling particularly playful during and after the trip, and spent most of the rest of the day dancing and exploring the stream’s rapids and waterfall. I didn’t include this trip in the description because there was a significant break in between this trip and my next one, maybe 5-7 hours.

That afternoon, I prepared for a colourful trip. I had picked up 2 caps of 2C-E with 16 mgs in each from a friend who got a bunch online, and wasted one the night before as described. I also picked up 500 mgs of ketamine for hellishly expensive (inner fiend came out a little there) and a mushroom tincture that I was told had about 3 grams in. My reasoning behind the mushroom tincture was that I was expecting to trip hard, and that might be compromised by the mushrooms I had taken that morning.

As the sun begins to dip under the horizon, but while the sky is still crystal clear blue (who needs time at a festival anyways?), I take my cap. About ten minutes later, I down the tincture and get myself prepared. There is always a sort of nervous anxiousness for me directly after taking mushrooms, accompanied by a knowledge that I’m going to have to ride out everything I put inside me regardless of if it turns out good or bad. Two others took the tincture at the same time as me, and after getting everything we needed for the night out of our tent we lay in the grass and watch the sky above through the trees.

As I get the initial alerts of the mushrooms (peripherals shifting, bottomless gut feeling) we make our way to the boardwalk stage, which is playing some really upbeat Balkan music; the kind of music that makes you want to dance in circles wearing extremely flowing clothing and no shoes, complete with accordion and clarinet samples. Immediately when I hear the music, a huge smile comes across my face. This is exactly where and when I want to be. I am living in the moment because this moment right now is fantastic. Although the laugh-inducing quality of mushrooms was depleted earlier that day, I feel on top of the world. The attachable tail I bought earlier in the festival felt like my perfect accessory. It felt amazing swinging it back and forth with my butt, bringing a little of my inner animal out. I felt stolid, yet cute and friendly, like a feline. It starts drizzling, so I take off my shoes and dance in the rain.

As the sky begins deepening in colour, but before the sunset, the 2C-E begins to take form. The first thing I notice as different from the mushrooms is a slightly heavier sticky feeling in the air, maybe 45 minutes after taking the drugs. Soon after, a general shift of consciousness happens; I become one with everything, thought and consciousness no longer being bound down completely by a body, but still filtered through a human brain. Although I was still very much in that body experiencing the awesomeness that was coming out of those speakers at that time, there was a feeling of being separate from it, or being part of the world around it as well. I felt (didn’t see though) the three dimensional universe unfold itself to me. Everything looked far less solid and much squishier than it did before the drugs took hold.

I soon notice that my visuals have been imbued with new colours, textures, details and an intense clarity. I’m a definite +++ now, with OEVs becoming obvious and not ignorable anymore. The intense clarity of visuals from the 2C-E combined with the swaying/melting/moving mushroom visuals created a spectacular show that would creep into my vision and ebb back into my peripherals, reminiscent of some of the better psychedelic posters I’ve seen, mainly the ones inspired by Mayan art. There was broad geometry to the visuals, with a lot of zigzag, squiggle, spiral and square patterning. Colours would coruscate across the visuals smoothly with deep vivid saturated tones, exhibiting the relief of the visuals. Terry Pratchett describes the colour of magic, octarine, as a vivid greenish purple, which is supposed to be unimaginable (or at least ugly) to anyone without the right eyes. This was the colour that dominated my visual distortions and the halos of objects, and highlighted everything that wasn’t a distortion in a very beautiful way. The woman dancing in front of me had long flowing hair, which appeared to be twisting in the unusually thick air as if invisible curlers were picking it up, twirling and spiralling it around itself, and then placing it back on her head. There was a point out of the corner of my eye where it looked like she was wearing a headdress adorned with intricate wires and beautiful jewels, but as soon as I looked at it directly it fell back on to her head. Some of my friends decided to go back to the tent to pick up some stuff just as the sun sets and the party is covered in the blanket of blue that comes right after sunset, so I decide it’s about time to see how this mixes with ketamine.

Immediately after leaving the stage, I exclaim “I feel so FUNKY!!!” I didn’t mean funky like “holy crap change your socks, they smell funky,” but funky like “turn that shit up, that’s some funky shit right there!!!” A difficult feeling to describe, funky, but that was the only word suitable to describe how I felt at that moment. A kind of wild spontaneous cool-ness, I guess. The visuals subside a little on the walk and the break, mostly limiting themselves to intense clarity, deeper colours, and slight mushroomy shifting. I feel happy and excited about life. Since I only have one cooker and syringe left in the tent, I put all the K that I was planning on using (250 mgs) in one syringe and take half of it, maybe at T+2.45. We leave the tent to go find the others, who are just coming back to the tent. Within minutes I feel the characteristic buzz of the extremities I’ve come to expect from ketamine, and I go back in the tent with the others and do the rest of the shot despite already coming up hard. As I come back in to the tent the colours start to pick up again, and after quickly taking the rest of the shot (maybe 5 minutes after the first one), I am KOed.

The ketamine sent me through the roof, making me lose my ego in a much more forceful way than earlier. Rather than becoming one with the surrounding environment, I was completely gone. By completely gone, I mean that it’s probably pointless for me to try to explain my thought process at this point, because I clearly was not thinking. I was not even trying to keep myself together; I was so far from it. I felt like I was in a chilling area set up by the festival to trip us out. It looked like there were intense colourful lights being shone into the tent from the outside, creating beautiful warm slow displays of pink, lavender, blue and red on the tent walls. I thought I was surrounded by rich coloured soft pillows and blankets instead of old smelly wet clothing. I wouldn’t have been able to stand even if I tried. There was so much visual stimulation that I felt like standing up would break my brain and cause my stomach to overturn. Apparently I had actually tried pulling myself up by clinging onto someone who was standing, but everyone in the tent was quick to get me back down. They realized that I was so far gone that it would be stupid to let me roam the grounds.

Soon afterwards, I puke in the tent. As I come to and look around, I realize all my friends are gone and I’m sitting in a puddle of my own puke. I have no idea what time it is. I tried to piece together what had happened but all I remember is being wow-ed by the intense visual experience in the tent. I leave the tent and look for my friends, who are sitting at the entrance stage. I feel embarrassed and depressed, and the intense visuals have mostly subsided by this point. I’m thirsty from not hydrating myself properly for the last couple days and puking, so I go to find my other friends to see if they have water or money for water. After only finding about a quarter cup to last the night, I lay in our hammock with my sleeping bag and try to sleep away the negative feelings; however my body refuses to see that as an option. I lay rocking in the hammock with my eyes open gaping at the clarity I can view the trees with at night. I dwelled on the fact that if I had shared the K, everyone would have been much happier and we would all be partying extra hard right now. My mood begins to lift a little as I lend my thoughts to hammocks and tree-top communities instead. After about an hour and a half of feeling bad for myself and losing myself in the trees, I make my way down to the beach to see what everyone else is doing. The psytrance starts to wash over me, and all of a sudden psytrance makes sense. I had never really been too big a fan of it, but on this night my connection to the genre becomes evident. I have always hung out with the psytrance crowd and I always knew I much preferred the psytrance people to typical ravers. There can be no more avoiding it, because it will always come creeping back into my life. Learn to enjoy it, I was telling myself. I mean, I am at a freaking psytrance festival right now. Enjoy it I definitely did. The funny squelchy noises, intense feelings, epic samples, and driving beat were exactly what I wanted to be listening to in that state, and that stage certainly delivered.

For the rest of the night and into the next morning I danced hard and happy. I felt incredible energy coursing through me that could only be alleviated by dancing. I almost felt like I was on MDMA again, but it had been at least a day since I had used some. I found a 5 dollar bill on the ground and bought some water to keep me going, which I relished. I had never had water that tasted so good. None of my friends were mad at me for puking in the tent as long as I would agree to clean it up (which I did the next day), but I still felt like there was a slight wedge between me and them because I got so out of it.
I still felt like there was a slight wedge between me and them because I got so out of it.
The next day I felt tired and drained, but happy overall. There were no residual effects; however a few weeks later I notice that I still had intense visual clarity in high sensory input situations, like events, which has continued to this day. I had a new sense of potential for the world, and was excited to get back to my life and share my experiences with some of my closer friends.

This trip really exposed me to the potential of 2C-E. I was especially impressed by the visuals of this experience, which were beautiful beyond compare. Upon further exploration of 2C-E, I realize that the energy/stimulation towards the end of the trip is pretty much standard, but concentrating on some kind of activity, whether its dancing, reading, crocheting, meditating, what have you, will help immensely.

Exp Year: 2011ExpID: 95556
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: 20
Published: Feb 18, 2018Views: 3,396
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Mushrooms (39), 2C-E (137) : Festival / Lg. Crowd (24), Multi-Day Experience (13), Music Discussion (22), Glowing Experiences (4), Combinations (3)

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