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Difficult Experience to Explain
Sceletium tortuosum (Kanna, 5x extract)
Citation:   Kevcrystinall. "Difficult Experience to Explain: An Experience with Sceletium tortuosum (Kanna, 5x extract) (exp63015)". Erowid.org. Jun 2, 2007. erowid.org/exp/63015

 
DOSE:
100 mg insufflated Sceletium tortuosum (extract - 5x)
  100 mg oral Sceletium tortuosum (extract - 5x)
BODY WEIGHT: 111 lb
I am a 22 year old female who is 5'4' and weighs about 111 pounds. My boyfriend, who is helping me to write this, is a 25 year old male who is 5'7' and weight about 140 pounds.

We have had experience with various psychedelics such as LSD, MDMA/MDA, and Psilocybin mushrooms, and I have had one psychedelic experience with marijuana. We have both also used various non-psychedelics such as cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, and alchohol.

Recently I have felt a desire to use drugs and plants for spiritual/exploratory purposes, rather than just to get 'high' or 'have fun.' I want to use these drugs to learn more about myself and the universe as opposed to selfishly using them for fun. My boyfriend has had similar feelings.

This was our first experience with Kanna. I'm going to attempt to describe it in as much detail as possible, step-by-step, as it is hard to summarize without leading a reader to think it was either less or more effective than it was.

We researched kanna and ordered 1g of '5x extract' from a seemingly reputable website. We recieved a small baggie with what looked like little brown rocks. They were a little oily, and had a food-like, spicy smell mixed with a plant odor. Our intent was to try this substance and see what it had to 'teach' us, with an open mind. We didn't really prepare in any way, other than to make sure we had both showered in order to increase comfort and therefore decrease distractions from the experience.

From our research, we concluded that the most effective method of delivery was insufflation(snorting). Knowing from our research that it would hurt like hell, we decided to each take half a dose that way, and smoke half a dose from a pipe. The oilines of the 'rocks' made them nearly impossible to crush as they just stuck back together. We had to use a razor blade to acquire a poor excuse for a powder.

Like I said, we had a gram of 5x extract, and we read that a good dose was between 500mg-1g. We didn't want to overdo it since we were trying it for the first time, so we very un-scientifically divided the contents of the baggie into fifths, and then split a fifth (supposedly the equivalent of 1g unextracted) between us.

We would not normally be so careless with dosage, but had read that this particular substance was fairly harmless. The only negative reports we had read about it were that it didn't work at all. So, we were not fearful or thinking negatively about it in any way. We were trying to approach it with a 'wait and see' attitude as much as possible, although I had read that it was basically 'natural prozac,' which led me to expect little, if anything.

We each snorted half of our dose. I can confirm the reports that say its PAINFUL, and the 'drip' burns the throat. REALLY, it burns. This was a pain different than I have had from insufflating any other drug. Not necessarily worse, but different - perhaps because it wasn't water soluble. I had plant matter dripping down my throat-and sitting inside my nose, refusing to come out or go in-for about 30 minutes. After that it didn't hurt, but I had nasal congestion the entire time. My boyfriend didn't think it as miserable as I did-which is strange, as he usually reacts more to insufflation than I do. Perhaps he's used to it hurting and I'm not? The taste was sort of spicy-the whole thing was not wholly unlike snorting a line of seasoning salt or boullion, from the flavor. It doesn't sound bad, but it got disgusting after a while. Directly after snorting my boyfriend started trying to smoke the rest of his dose. It didn't want to burn-I guess the stickiness/wetness was to blame.

This is where description gets difficult. I recorded the entire experience with a tape recorder, and I have no memory loss, but it was difficult to explain even as it was happening. After a little while(8 or 9 mins) I was starting to feel a little spaced out, but I wasn't sure if it was just because I had snorted something that didn't belong in my nose, or if it was an actual effect.

Then, suddenly, the marijuana resin from the inside of the pipe-we didn't actually smoke pot with it, so we could be sure to find out the true effects-started smelling REALLY strong to me. Strong and nasty. Usually I consider pot to be a mildly pleasant to mildy unpleasant odor, depending on the stuff in question. There was nothing mild about this. It was horrible, and I began to get annoyed at my boyfriend for continually trying to smoke his dose. Everything was annoying to me. I was really irritable and angry, and I kind of wanted to scream but felt too lazy.

I put the rest of my dose under my tongue, as I couldn't stand there smelling that smell any longer and I surely didn't want to spend 20 minutes tring to smoke out of something that smelled like THAT. My boyfriend eventually ended up with most of his under his toungue, too.

I went to lie down on the couch. Walking was weird, there was something not-quite-right about my vision. It seemed like things were going by faster, or maybe slower, than I was walking past them. I was trying to be objective, since I know the placebo effect is a powerful thing, but I was definitely feeling WEIRD. That's the best word I can use to describe it, 'weird' or 'strange.' But never in an extreme sense-perhaps a better way would be to say I felt 'off,' but that is even more vague of a descriptor.

Something funny was on TV and it struck me as HILARIOUS, but laughing was too much work. I wanted to talk and my mind was sort of racing, but all I kept saying were things like 'hey, do you feel anything yet?' and 'I feel...uh...I...uh...feel WEIRD, dude.' I definitely had the general lethargy I get from marijuana, but no 'high' or euphoria. I started to wonder why he wasn't coming over to sit near me. I had some of the clinginess I sometimes get from ecstasy, without the 'epic' feeling. This wasn't a 'I LOOOOVE HIM!!! I love EVERYONE! HE MUST SIT BY MEEE!!' type of feeling, it was more 'Why is he STILL trying to smoke that and creating that godawful smell? Hmmm...shoudn't he be sitting by me? Who cares?'

The light started to bother me, and I was getting the same feeling that I get right as I'm at the cusp of rolling or tripping-a sort of panicked feeling that SOMETHING is happening, with another feeling-excitement?-because something is ABOUT to happen. I kept thinking 'I'm about to roll.' 'I'm about to trip.' and then 'no I'm not. I'm not about to do shit. I just snorted fucking boullion.' I said these things out loud. These were my exact thoughts.

I had gum in my mouth and was chewing it very hard at this point-almost like when I'm 'speedy,' but without any of the other symptoms. The gum felt really neat in my mouth. It felt squishy and soft, and the taste was amazing (this was just plain sugarfree pink gum). I had the desire to squish it with my tounge. Everything felt neat to my tounge, including the inside of my mouth, maybe because I put the powder underneath it?

I was definitely feeling sort of detached and stoned and different, but it was quite mild. I went into the bedroom. Walking down the hall was quite an experience, definitely something altered about my vison, like the first visuals from LSD. The ground and walls seemed to be moving past me either faster or slower than I was moving past them like before but when I concentrated on the feeling, it was gone. As soon as I stopped trying to figure it out and get on with walking, it was back. It seemed to take me a very long time to get where I was going, but I never actually stopped on the way. I felt like I might stumble, as I would if I were drunk, but was having no actual coordination problems.

I turned a black light on, and laid down. Previously, the TV and music was annoying, now I wish I had something to listen to. EH...too lazy. I can't emphasize enough how like the VERY beginning of an LSD trip it was. Everything looked cool. Just cool. Not distorted. Not magical.

When my boyfriend came into the room, he said he also felt weird. He describes it as feeling anxious without any anxiety, 'stress free anxiety.' I agree with his assesment of it, anxiety in which one does not care that he or she is anxious. We laid there for a while and I had sort of the initial feeling of MDMA at this point-a sort of feeling that companionship would be nice, but without sense of urgency or the loving, epic, magical feeling that usually accompanies it.

We laid there for a while and discussed the feeling, without really coming up with much. Something was definitely different, but not different enough to be easily described. We agreed that something to listen to would be nice. I was thinking some Tori Amos (calm, familiar-to me-,deep, introspective) but I'm sure he had other ideas. Netiher of us felt like putting anything on, at any rate.

I started to feel drowsy but not sleepy. I think we both did. I wanted to close my eyes but wasn't tired. I don't remember which one of us said it (the tape ran out on the recorder right before this), but someone said 'I guess the feeling is...I feel...uh...(silence)...I'm horny.' Matter of factly, with no real excitement or surprise.

I definitely believe this could be used as a sexual aid, assuming that one wants a sexual aid, not an intimacy aid. The sex was amazing, we both agreed. But not like ecstasy, where every feeling is heightened. This was plain old sex-more plain than we usually have, and the sensations weren't really any more intense. It was more like I could CONCENTRATE on the good sensations I always have more than usual.

I guess it lowered our inhibitions, but we didn't have any desire to do anything particularly wild. In fact, I would say the sex was LESS wild than normal. We just enjoyed it a little more. We've had better sex, in my opinion, at other times, but this definitely increased the pleasure for such 'vanilla' sex. It was like the (physical) enjoyment from great sex without nearly as much effort. In general, it was lacking in any sense of intimacy and would not be as pleasurable if not for the effects of the drug-we really concentrated on the physical sensations. I don't believe I considered my partner's pleasure very much at all.

Again, this did NOT increase the feeling of intimacy-in fact, I think it was greatly decreased. I had less of a desire for closeness and intimacy than I do normally. I think that reports of this drug as entheogenic are just not true. After that we pretty much fell asleep.

This drug really made me view the world from a more detached, less emotional, less emotionally invested, more selfish place. I hesitate to use 'selfish,' as it has so many negative connotations. But there was almost no empathy at all during the time we were under its effects-I was curious to know if my boyfriend was experiencing anything, but really didn't care for his sake. It was pure curiosity.

Aside from the very beginning, this experience was not at all unpleasurable. In fact, it was quite enjoyable. I would say it was a real relaxant except that there was a vague sense of anxiety that accompanied it. This sounds like marijuana, but was nothing like that, either. It was not intoxicating except in the least sense. It's just a very difficult experience to pin down.

I guess, in a way, it IS much like prozac-it dampens strong emotions. I was on Prozac in high school, and the first 2 weeks I was angry and irritable, later I just ceased caring about anything or anyone. Interesting.

This probably seems like a whole lot of writing about nothing. But really it's not 'NOTHING,' it's definitely 'SOMETHING.' I just can't say what the 'something' is, so I really wanted to try describing it in as much detail as possible. The entire experience lasted maybe an hour, 1 & 1/2 hours, tops.

I feel that it is worth repeating, if just in order to find out the effects at higher doses. We're planning on trying it again, but snorting the whole dose next time since I think that by the time our oral dose hit us we were probably asleep, meaning that, if it truly was a 5x extract, we each barely got the effective dose.

This was about 4 weeks ago, and I still remember it all completely clearly. I've puzzled over it several times, but this is still the best words I can find to explain it. We're planning on trying it again sometime soon.

Exp Year: 2007ExpID: 63015
Gender: Female 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jun 2, 2007Views: 87,497
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Sceletium tortuosum (179) : General (1), Sex Discussion (14), Relationships (44), First Times (2), Small Group (2-9) (17)

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