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Free Mind
2C-I
Citation:   Mandel. "Free Mind: An Experience with 2C-I (exp40218)". Erowid.org. Feb 26, 2005. erowid.org/exp/40218

 
DOSE:
20 mg oral 2C-I
BODY WEIGHT: 160 lb
First let me make a few notes. The most closely related chemical that I had read about was 2C-B, or 4-bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine. It was because of the similarities that I felt my research on 2C-B would suffice in basing predictions on the experience of the test subjects. The test subjects were wonderful enough to allow me to observe them during their experience. They had already come across a small amount of 2C-I and were planning to use it. They let me sit in and help them explore, although I took none of the chemical. I liked to be there to make notes, possibly talk them through difficult moments, and help guide them towards their realization of the meaning of existence. I will refer to the two test subjects as Joe and Miguel. Joe had supplied the substance, and neither had any prior experience with the chemical. The decision to take it occured at approximately two in the morning on a Sunday night. I had Calculus in the morning, but I would happily miss a day to study another chemical. Chemistry always was more fun for me.

Ingestion of both subjects occured at 2:15am. Miguel was originally planning on snorting the 2C-I, but I gave him access to reports of horrible experiences with snorting 2C-B, and so they both decided to ingest. I had calculated a total experience of about 6 - 12 hours. Miguel had eaten, so I expected his to come on a bit slower and linger until Joe's was long gone. However, Joe has a signifigant caffeine addiction, and I was unsure how that was going to affect the outcome of the event.

After ingestion, we all began watching television to wait out the set in time. After about half an hour, at 2:38, Joe got up and went to the bathroom. Upon return, he disclosed that he was feeling the initial effects. Miguel and I adjourned for a cigarette and at about 3:00 he told me that he was getting a little bit of strobing effect from the paneling on the side of the building.

At 3:05 we began watching Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. We felt that it would help to get the experience rolling a little faster, but we didn't plan on sitting through the entire film. At 3:28, Miguel expressed his desire to achieve a different mindstate from the one he was currently in. At the time he gave no further details, and went to the bathroom. When he returned he described the towels in the bathroom as writhing as if they were living organisms. It was at this point that I was confident they were both under the full effects of the substance.

Initially Miguel was very helpful with providing me physiological side effects. He reported a change in depth perception and sense of location. He reported being able to sense that he was in another room than the one he was in by focusing hard enough. Also, he reported difficulty in maintaining continuity in his speech or thought process.

Miguel began to tell me of previous chemical experiments of his and his strategy of attempting to maintain his rational and personal processes while under the influence of mind altering substances. I was happy to hear that I was not the only one that tried to practice almost a Jedi or Buddhist sense of concentration while maintaining not only normal behavior, but normal thinking while under high doses of psychadelic chemicals. However, he said that the predisposition was somehow limiting his experience, because he had a hard time letting go and purposely losing control. Joe was very silent and reserved during the first portion of the journey, although when questioned it was obvious he was feeling the effects of the substance.

We left the noisy living room and sat on the Persian rug in the bedroom. The environment was much more conducive to the stage of the trip we were at. I tried at this point to not make quite so many physical and physiological notes as trying to guide the conversation when I felt appropriate to a level that might help Miguel to his purpose in this trip. Miguel and I discussed some of the mixed emotions he was having. The substance was making him come to several conclusions about question on aspects of life, and he expressed that he was unsettled about having answers to his questions; I think perhaps he was a little 'homesick' in a sense to the ignorance of most forms of sobriety. We went on to discuss his thoughts about introspective reality and how people make up the worlds that they choose to live in. For example imagining the world that the annoyed angry man at the grocery store buying 20 bars of chocolate lives in. How does he feel about his reality. Is his world world the same as ours simply because the two share a mutual piece of physical space?

We moved onto the topic of empathy. Miguel made it clear through his thoughts on the subject that, like myself, he has at least some empathic disposition. He is capable of the wordless level of communication, not so much in the sense that he is telepathic or can read minds, but merely that he can recognize when he and another creature are on the same frequency, if only for a moment. He questions the metaphysical realm as well. He wonders if this existence (which he firmly beleives to be real) is a pre-existing part of reality or if it is only a human-made level of existence established only in our minds and not as an underlying aspect of reality.

The topic meandered around quite a bit for something like three or four minutes, but eventually arrived back at the topic of emapthy. The idea that occasionally people spontaneously arrive at similiar conclusions simultaneously. Communication without speech, or communication without a physical communication. The conversation drifted again to the concept of chi. I was happy that Miguel brought it up because I have been reading a lot of Buddhist and Doaist works of literature and I had taken an Asian Humanities class recently at a local community college. We found a candle and he practiced dancing the flame for a while. I am certain that he was sure that he only imagined the flame moving, but being a sober outsider, I can honestly confirm that he could hold some control over the physical aspects of the flame. It was at this point that Joe came from the other room and joined our pyscadelic pow-wow. At 4:27, we smoked a bowl, and Miguel took this time to express how much fun he was having with the trip. He also told us that he lacked his 'familiar'. I assume he meant a person that had tripped with him before and could reassure him that he was behaving normally enough to not warrant our concern, but I tried to ensure him that he wasn't abnormal enough to need further caution at that point. The fact of the matter is that I have trip-sitted for much more violent participants in the past, and I considered trip-sitting for this particular experience a priveledge.

I was sad that the bowl drained a litle bit of energy from me, which is an unusual reaction for me from cannabis. Meanwhile, the conversation had drifted to the random aspects of events. Both Joe and Miguel came to the conclusion that nothing was random. At 4:39 Miguel began to recall (and reaccount would perhaps be a better word for it) a mushroom trip that he had on a previous date. He compared the reaccount to the true mushroom trip, and made the observations that the mushroom visuals were more fluid and clean, and that this mindstate felt more chemical and induced. Colors were blotchy rather than smooth. This experience was more sporadic. Mood swings. It reminds Joe of his birthday, and a mescaline trip he went on during a season of hurricanes. Miguel begain to beat a tune on his ankle and foot. It was quite amusing, but at points it was intense and I am sure the neighbors downstairs were either slightly amused or pretty annoyed. In either case, I didn't care. He said he longed for a better instument, like a bowl. He then described how fun it would be to travel selling bowls and making music on them for advertisement. After his beats stopped, he fiddled with some things.

At 4:57 we went again for another cigarette. At 5:38 Miguel began to report that he had gained control over some of the aspects of his trip. He could stop and start his patterning at will, depending on which seems more prevalent to the situation at hand. I had been unable to completely gain control of my trips in the past. He made a simile between life and a long trip, and explained the connection of entering any experience...even life itself...with an objective, and coming to a resolution of the objective. We all began discussing activities from our childhoods. Energy passed to me at some point unexpectantly. I am not used to being involved in real conversation without the presence of my familiars. It was at this point that I finally related to Miguels feelings of a lack of familiar. I was embarrassed slightly to be so versed in the translations and movements of energy and to have not seen something so simple as a conversation drifting towards needing my input. Joe brought up semi-repressed memories of drowning in his youth. I regret to say that the trip began to break at this point, as they often show the possibility of slightly after their peak.

Joe and Miguel walked to Joe's house which was about three miles. I hadn't slept in quite a while, and I didn't have the advantage of a stimulant related drug induced state. I had them log their behavior the best they could as I slept. I have report that Miguel went to bed at 10 in the morning, and Joe fell asleep at his house around 4:30 in the afternoon. Miguel woke up the next day at about 6:00, and described being low on energy, but having very vivid recollection of the events. He did say that when he woke up he had to urinate for an extraordinarily long time.

Exp Year: 2005ExpID: 40218
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Feb 26, 2005Views: 9,529
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2C-I (172) : Second Hand Report (42), First Times (2), Small Group (2-9) (17)

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