The second night I was at Burning Man I was offered some GHB. Since I had never done it before, I accepted and was given 2.5 grams, an "average" dose. It tasted quite terrible, but it was a mercifully small amount of material to ingest. Within ten minutes of taking it, as I was feeling the first hints of its effects someone offered me some 2CB. Seeing as 2CB is one of my all time favorite psychedelics I eagerly accepted.

I took a 20 mg capsule and split a second 16 mg capsule with a friend, for a total of approximately 28 mg. The white powder that came out of the second capsule was extremely bitter, very unpleasant. As I took it I was starting to feel the GHB more strongly. I felt sort of "high" and seemed inclined towards a sort of goofy, good natured friendliness and desire to socialize and interact with others. In this way it was similar to MDMA, but the actual high (or drug effect) was much closer to alcohol than any psychedelic.

As the bees came on they were very smooth. The mellow G high blended smoothly into the electric psychedelic 2CB zoom. I continued to be in a social, talkative mode. Many of my companions had taken 2CB as well and I spent some time going from person to person asking them how much they had taken and how their trips were going.

During this time I was dancing around from time to time to the music filtering in from the surrounding camps. We were located between several rave camps, which I was pleased with. The GHB seemed to affect my equilibrium, making me feel a bit wobbly and off center, somewhat like alcohol does.

I sat down with some friends (A, P, E and F) and we started talking. By now the bees were ramping up, making a strong showing and overwhelming the G. Suddenly I realized that I was zooming hard, and mentioned that fact to my companions. I felt really, really good except for a bit of nausea and some gas.

The 2CB had taken a somewhat empathic vector, very reminiscent of ecstasy, although with a very visual element. I was enjoying sitting there, talking to and bonding with my friends, who I had met in person for the first time the day before after close to two years of online acquaintance. I was inexpressibly glad to be exactly where I was, doing what I was doing. I felt I couldn't be happier. Someone passed around a joint, but I chose to pass on it, not wanting to add anything to my blissful mindstate.

E asked what it was like interacting with a bunch of stoned people in the state I was in. He mentioned that in the past he had noticed it was often uncomfortable or awkward for him to interact with others who were in a different mindstate. I thought it was fine and told him so, mentioning that even though I was quite zoomed, I was still feeling very sociable.

The 2CB made it somewhat difficult to focus on the conversation. It wasn't quite like the spaciness of LSD, where one gets distracted by their own thoughts. It seemed like my mind would simply quit processing verbal input from time to time. I would hear the sounds, but they would cease to mean anything for a minute. Or I would hear the words but would be unable to process them and decode the information they contained. This was a transitory effect, and didn't really stop me from enjoying the conversation I was participating in.

Inside the dome we had colored lights spinning, throwing colorful patterns all over the walls. These were pleasing visually, although they tended to mask the 2CB visuals to a high degree. At one point our generator died, plunging us into darkness. I was surprised when the "lightshow" continued, even intensified. Suddenly I was aware of shining, squirming 2CB geometries crawling out of the edges of everything and cascading down the walls in sheets of psychedelic glory. The visuals were abundant, very colorful in the rich pastel tones I am coming to think of as characteristic of phenethylamines, or at least the brominated ones I am experienced with.

The lights came on before long bathing us in swirling chaos again. Our dome was attracting quite a bit of attention and various freaks were wandering in from the surrounding area, mostly the rave camps. I really enjoyed watching and interacting with them in various ways, ranging from a smile and a nod to explanations of what our camp was all about and exhortations to return the next day when we would have everything up and running. I felt a warm, friendly glow towards everything and everyone around me.

Our group fragmented as people went to bed and wandered off. E and I decided to go outside and have a look around. We wandered to a nearby rave camp and then back, discussing various things, including psychoactives and the chaos around us. We stopped and looked at our dome, noting that it was even more impressive from outside. My pen laser was fascinating, as I wiggled it around. I was seeing double, triple and even more after images as I played its beam around the playa. The beauty of everything around me had me in awe.

I decided I was cold and headed back to my where I was camped to get some pants. Inside our tent/dome I was overwhelmed by visuals. I was seeing hundreds of faces forming, winking and squirming everywhere. I was so zoomed I wasn't sure if there was anyone else in the tent or not. I almost figured there had to be for my mind to seize on a "face" pattern and replicate it all over the place. These faces were animated and alive and sort of oozed out of and back into the surrounding "reality".

It took me a few minutes to get out some pants, change into them and then transfer the contents of the pockets of the shorts I had been wearing to the pants. I was sort of discombobulated, trying to do too many things at once, losing track of the task at hand. Finally I managed to get my shit together and get out.

Back in the dome I found E, P and W talking. I joined them, mostly silent now, content to listen and enjoy my trip and their company. I wandered off to touch base with several of my friends, some of whom were trying 2CB for the first time.

I was feeling very "liquid" and eager to dance. I ran into another friend, S and talked him into going with me to find some trance and dance to it. We wandered across the playa to where we heard some pounding beats. Surprisingly, there were only a few others there. Not one to be dissuaded by other's lack of taste I proceeded to get down.

My body felt wonderful, very flexible and flowing. I was able to move it in ways that are normally difficult for me. The dryness of the desert environment seemed to suck the moisture from me as I danced, and I had to stop to drink water frequently. Several times I developed a stitch in my side and had to stop to stretch it out. Dancing under the stars on the playa was wonderful and I wished I had come out earlier in my trip. Before long my companion S and I were the only ones there, which made it difficult to keep the energy level up. After an hour or so we decided to leave as well.

We returned to camp, where we hooked up with R and set out to explore Burning Man nightlife (actually, early morning life, it was probably close to 4 a.m. by then). By this time I was mostly down, left with only a residual glow. I was pleased to be walking around with two very cool people in one of the strangest environments I have ever seen, talking about all the effort that had been put forth to manifest this intensely weird scene. We stopped at yet another rave camp where I found myself dancing again, despite my exhaustion. R commented that I seemed unable to resist a rave beat, and I had to agree. Finally, we headed back to camp and off to bed. I awoke a few hours later due to the intense heat, still very tired but feeling good otherwise.

This was a great trip, one of my best 2CB trips. I really liked this dosage, finding it considerably more visual than 25 mg, but not as obnoxiously "pushy" as 30 mg was. In fact, I found it to be one of the most visual trips I have had, except for those mushroom experiences that have crossed the line into full on visions, a different type of experience. Several times my visual field was nearly obscured by the visuals. There was also a nice amount of empathic content that I found rewarding. The desert environment seemed suited to 2CB, but that may have been due to my expectations, considering the close chemical similarity between 2CB and mescaline, a "desert" psychedelic. In any event, a singularly excellent experience.