lookmanolimbs
Bluelighter
Everything is Rainbows!
A Mescaline / alpha-Methyltryptamine Trip Report
With a guest appearance by Ethylphenidate
This TR is quite long and detailed, but definitely worth the read. Sorry about the constant change in narrative/tense and terrible grammar; I was buzzing off the EPh when it was written. Still, this was an amazing experience, one which I don't think I will ever be able to top. I included the Eph in this report as it arrived the morning after the trip and wanted to see what effect (if any) it had on the "hangover", so this is basically 2 trip reports in one. :D
I do also apologise to anyone outside the UK reading this, some of the references alluded to in this TR will probably be lost on you.
I've included Wikipedia links in appropriate places.
Veterans will want to skip the "substances" section.
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Participants
LookMaNoLimbs (myself, the narrator in this epic tale of epicness): First time mescaline & ethylphenidate, 5th time AMT, had been using four days beforehand to explore antidepressant effects at daily 5mg doses, and one 40mg full-on trip (report here). Experienced with other psychedelics. 26y 5m old at time of trip, 88kg.
D: Sitter. Previous exp cannabis, opiates (morphine, codeine as prescription) & several unintentional ('spiked') doses of unknown substances; based on her somewhat vague description of effects I suspect GHB or similar. Interested in psychs herself, planning a proper introduction soon with LSD in the next few months. [She will be adding notes of her own to this report in the next day or so.]
The Substances
(with some background for the newbies
Mescaline (2-(3,4,5)-trimethoxyphenyl)ethanamine) aka Mescalito, Buttons, Peyote, Mesc
A naturally occuring psychedelic phenethylamine similar in structure (and in fact binds to the same receptors) as serotonin, with a long history of entheogenic use, the subject of Aldous Huxley's The Doors Of Perception, and the drug that introduced Sasha Shulgin to the world of psychedelics. I have been meaning to try mescaline for some time since reading Huxley's and Shulgin's works, and in part due to my (pleasant) experiences on other phenethylamines.
Source: very trusted friend, a BLer, who has introduced me to several new psychedelics in the past. Unmistakeably looks like mescaline (offwhite, fluffy strands).
Alpha-Methyltryptamine (2-(1H-indol-3-yl)-1-methyl-ethylamine) aka Trymene, Indopan
Prescribed during the 60s in the USSR as Indopan, a MAOI (monoamine anti-oxidase inhibitor) antidepressant whose molecule's structure is similar to amphetamine, but with an indole group in the place of a benzene ring (making it essentially a tryptamine amphetamine). Easy to obtain here in the UK since it's not covered by the Misuse of Drugs Act.
Source: trusted domestic vendor, GC/MS seen.
Ethylphenidate ((RS)-ethyl 2-phenyl-2-piperidin-2-ylacetate) aka Ethylcaine, Diet Coke
The ethyl ester of methylphenidate (Concerta or Ritalin). I have had since childhood mild ADD whose symptoms are greatly exacerbated by psychedelic comedowns, so naturally “eph”, as I've taken to calling it, piqued my curiosity. It is a NDRI, or norepinephrine/dopamine reuptake inhibitor, similar in structure to benzylpiperidine (BZP). Like AMT it is unscheduled in the UK.
Source: same as the AMT, GC/MS seen. Was a late addition to the trip, as a “post trip pick me up”.
Dosage
T+0:00 200mg mescaline HCl, oral
T+0:00 50mg AMT, oral
T+1:00 10mg AMT, smoked
T+48:00 onward: ~550mg eph HCl (racemic), insufflated in bumps, varied dosage 10-80mg, eyeballed, every 45min-1hr
I have not seen may trip reports on this combination of psychedelics (in fact, only one). I am aware some may be cautious of AMT's monoamine oxidase inhibitory action in conjunction with substituted phenethylamines, but no signs of SS were present whatsoever during the entire trip.
Ethylphenidate was used as a “hangover cure” for my blunted affect and dissociation post-trip, which it tackled superbly, but not without worrying side effects of its own. Both substances have an afterglow and a half, but also have quite harsh, long, drawn-out comedowns that can mean several days of “aw, I don't wanna get out of bed... or move... or do anything”. At least, in my experience anyway.
I should mention that the outcome from previous experimentation regarding AMT as an antidepressant were extremely positive, and if not for the fact it is a tryptamine and thus has some abuse potential it would make a great addition to any psychiatric GP's arsenal. It is highly effective at perking me right up without the horrendous withdrawal symptoms that I get off SSRIs, and without the dissociation and horrible grotty feeling I get after withdrawing from MAOIs like citalopram. (Why are triple monoamine releasers illegal again? sigh.)
Set
My source for the mesc mentioned that he was interested in trying the combo at some point, but wanted my feedback on it. I seem to be his guinea pig at times, not like I mind though. We are both educated enough about drugs to know the do's and don'ts, both having tripped (on some occasions together) many, many times. I am looking forward to this trip, with some trepidation, and I have no idea how intense this trip will get, making me slightly nervous. D's presence helped with the nerves quite a bit. Some minor issues in personal life at the moment, but nothing majorly worrisome.
Setting
Home. Initially K and A from my previous TR ("Like We're Five Again") were meant to trip sit, however D came over around half an hour into the trip, for which I'm now quite grateful since she did a fantastic job. D had also (unintentionally) sat a trip for me once before the first time I tried 25i-NBOMe, despite in the end not needing a sitter due to the lucid nature of the trip. I decided on a sitter for this combo since both can be very powerful (if gentle) psychedelics even in moderate doses.
The Trip
Drop time is 9pm Mon, quite aware that I'll be up well into Tuesday, however I prefer to trip late at night since the visuals are generally far more intense and profound. Despite all this I do manage some sleep toward the end of the trip. Despite mentally preparing myself beforehand, I was truly unprepared for just how intense this trip actually got. I was expecting a colourful menagerie of visuals and introspection, but ended up getting way more than I bargained for.
The Drop
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T+0:00 Simultaneously drop both veg-caps with water. Having read up on the dosage and timing of the respective trips, the peaks should more or less coincide (and they did, oh lawd, they did.) The AMT cap was initially 60mg, but I decided to put aside 10mg of this to try smoking. Did not bother with an allergy dose on this occasion due to previous experience of AMT, and mescaline's impressive safety record.
I decide to try and time this trip (unsuccessfully) on my phone's stopwatch.
T+0:20 D arrives, unaware I've dropped. First thing I tell her is the substances I've consumed. She is initially skeptical, and gives me this look of “aw, dude, why... I was hoping for a quiet night...” but agrees to trip sit in K and A's place. Good thing too: they were insistent about playing dark metal / alt rock (Breaking Benjamin, DcfC etc, not trip music at all! No offence guys, they're alright when sober, but tripping? Nope.)
T+0:30 D heads out briefly to drop some stuff of hers at her place. During this time, I locate some tin foil to try chasing the remainder of the AMT. Managed to get about three quarters (~7mg) into my lungs. Leaves a small amount of brown residue on the foil. I believe the vaping was responsible for the extreme visual nature of the trip.
T+0:40 Objects get “fluffy” edges. The following hour or so was relatively uneventful, and for a while I'm worried that my AMT tolerance is too high. I needn't have...
T+1:00 D returns.
T+1:20 Suddenly very chatty, notice that colours are starting to become more intense. Slight increase in body load.
T+1:45 Nausea sets in as the AMT starts hitting my 5HT3 receptors... and no weed to counter it this time. D is slightly concerned about the pained look on my face, and asks if I'm going to be sick. Immediately, as soon as the word “sick” leaves her mouth, my saliva glands go into overdrive, but all I can manage is a couple of dry heaves. This happens three more times, the last time a tiny amount came up before the nausea dissipated. I had eaten a light meal a few hours prior, which probably didn't help.
Moments of Eternity
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T+2:00? I had read in TDOP that interest in time on Mescaline disappears completely, and coupled with AMT's extreme time dilation I was (and still am) completely unable to recall the timings of events during the trip, therefore all following times are approximate, with D's help. Around the two hour mark I decide to step outside to look at the lights, since brightened lights are generally one of my first alerts. Indeed, some haloing of lights and and increase in intensity is starting to build.
T+2:30? Typically (for me at least) of the AMT, some confusion begins to set in. The TV is on, and I'm not entirely sure what I want to watch. Nothing piques my interest, although TV generally doesn't when I am tripping. Still coming up, faster and faster now. The bare bulb in the lounge is way too bright. D asks if I would like something to eat. I'm peckish, so I try eating some potato wedges (?) but they taste like cardboard. There goes my appetite, then...
T+3:00? I am coming up really, REALLY hard. I indicate to D that I would like to retreat to my room. I'm quite a messy person – my bedroom is a state of organized chaos – and this usually bothers the hell out of me on tryptamines, usually ending in me retreating out of the room as soon as I see it, but it doesn't bother me at all on this occasion.
This is where things get a bit crazy, and the realm of the ineffable begins to rear its head.
I decide that I want to check how far I am into the trip at this point. The timer on my phone reads 48:88:88... at which time I realise I am well and truly fucked. Spannered. Spangled. Tripping balls-to-the-walls. Time to stick on some music. I had discovered Rez by Underworld earlier that day, and felt that its uplifting, dreamy vibe was perfect to trip to, and wow, it was. It came on several times (mainly due to my inability to operate my music player properly) and made the trip's visuals truly epic. Another song that kept playing again and again was Beached by Orbital, another fantastic tripping song in my opinion. As for the music as a whole, I didn't get the “phasing” / overlapping of my previous AMT trip, but instead a flanging effect which endured even past the end of the trip.
Sensual Entactogenesis
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T+3:30? Myself and D climb into bed. The empathogen/entactogen side of the trip took over at this point. We had recently split up, however the breakup was very amicable and our relationship as friends is one of those rare ones where it actually works... but anyway, at this point it's quite warm so we decide to open the window a crack and take our clothes off. Normally D has a plain “girl next door” look about her, but right now, in my eyes at least, she was looking very seductive with a “fuck me, NOW!” look in her eyes. We got really, really close and cuddly and I started to nibble on D's neck. She begins to moan and writhe about very sexually, and I am getting very, very turned on indeed. Her skin on mine feels absolutely heavenly and I can feel every single little bump and hair. Having lost track of time it felt like I had been doing this for hours (it was, in fact, less than a minute), but what I hadn't noticed was that I was biting harder and harder to the point it got quite painful for her, and I had left quite a bruise (not a love bite/hickey – an actual bruise!). I had no interest in sex at this point, despite being rock hard (a rarity on amps/phens). I pull away from D, profusely apologising. Looking back I realise now I was in a thought loop at the time, the only one to occur in the entire trip, which ended when D started complaining about the pain.
T+3:32? OEVs begin to form. D's face is covered in tiny flowers of every imaginable colour (much like this, without the pink background). Since I'm getting OEV's, I figure that CEVs will also be visible if I close my eyes. So I shut my eyes...
...HOLY FURRRWHATHE SHIT.
The instant my eyelids meet, intricately detailed rainbow-coloured fractals burst into my field of vision with an intensity I could no way ignore. I opened my eyes again in total shock, where the visuals left the inside of my eyelids and sprayed all over every wall in the room. The OEVs got more and more and more intense, but at no point were they bothersome.
The ceiling of my room is artexed; last time I was on mushrooms the artex started to spin and take all kinds of pastel colours. On this trip the artex began to spin again, but instead of the muted pastel shades, each circle of artex was a different colour of the rainbow. The light is still on by this point, so D turns it off. I trip to the music for a little while.
T+3:50? The artex OEVs become cogs/gear wheels, all spinning in sync, in the correct direction. I mention this to D and she puts the idea in my head that this is symbolic of the passage of time. This is quite the mindfuck... at least I think it is, until D turns the mindfuckery up a notch by saying “Now, picture just one of the cogs in the system running backwards”. I do so: the teeth on the cogs begin to dissolve, faster and faster, then the dissolution spreads to the wheels of the cogs. The whole system begins to fall apart, getting faster and faster, and things around me start to get slower and slower as the whole system and flow of time breaks down. It gets to the point all of time just stops completely. My field of vision begins to white out, and suddenly I come to, quite dazed and confused, but I recover inside of a minute. I seriously thought D had broken the Universe, or at the very least, my mind...
Into the Exosphere, and Beyond
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T+4:00? I am peaking like I have never peaked before, well into +++ territory, and it's continuing to build. My depth perception is completely shot to pieces; if I put one hand in front of the other, I can't tell which one's in front, and rolling cigarettes takes a phenomenal amount of effort: the rizla feel like they're constantly growing and shrinking in my hands, and I keep putting the tobacco outside of the rizla. I need the bathroom; but I'm staggering all over the place, almost like I'm drunk. While sitting on the can, the woodgrain on the door is moving like crazy, constantly morphing and changing. I sit there for a good few minutes, captivated.
T+4:10? I should mention at this point that D has natural synaesthesia. I was doubtful of this for a while since it's almost impossible to objectively test. A song (I think it may have been by Shpongle) comes on with a relatively heavy drum track, at which point I get CEVs of a drum kit (sans drummer) that is playing itself. I notice that when the stick hits the drum, the drum lights up in a colour corresponding to the frequency. D mentions visualizing the drum track as a mountain range... (“Have you been at my stash...?”, I quip.) The closed cymbals are white/purple, with the bass drum a rusty orange. I hadn't mentioned this to her yet – but she says to me that the cymbals are white and purple, which suprises me somewhat. I mention the bass being orange and she's now the surprised one! Telepathy and synaesthesia!
T+4:45? Rez comes on again, and a very lucid time-lapse scene begins to unfold on the wall in front of me, a city full of people going about their daily business. It looked somewhat like Princes Street, the main throughfare in the centre of Edinburgh, in the middle of spring. It was sunny and breezy, with a slight Scottish bite to the breeze. As the first half of the song winds down the city begins to empty, and the sun begins to set. The second half has a slow buildup (crescendo), and this corresponded with people starting to get ready to go out for the night. I am overcome with a sense of well being and peace. I also note an interesting physical effect at this point, namely that the fullness I had from eating before the trip had completely gone. My stomach feels empty, but I don't want to eat.
I encounter a bit of difficulty and uneasiness during the intro of the next song. Being a writer, D takes me on a verbal trip down the Royal Mile (leading up to Edinburgh Castle), she has quite the way with words, and BAM, I'm there. It's like I'm actually on the Mile, with its picturesque, quirky little shops; I find myself at the top of Cockburn Steps where there is a little archway, and I find myself floating down the steps toward Edinburgh Waverley Station. At this point a change of song snaps me out of the visuals into the next scene. I was quite enjoying these “brain movies”, until...
An Unexpected Breakthrough, or Cap'n, We Just Went Plus Four...
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T+4:55-5:00? With both AMT and mescaline being relatively gentle (if potent) psychedelics, the following five minutes, which felt like forever, took me by surprise. I lay back, and feel like I am sinking into the bed, deeper and deeper. I shut my eyes, and begin to travel through the closed eye visuals. A white spot of pure, brilliant light appears in the distance. I begin to move toward the light, which gets larger and larger. (this is where details get very fuzzy...) I also notice a growing dissociation with my body which gets more and more intense. Like how I imagine a K-hole to be (an “A-hole”...?), although I've never taken ketamine. It's on my list...
An NDE is unfolding before my eyes for the first time in my life... but I'm not anxious, scared, or any of that. I am happy to let go of everything, knowing that I can't fight what is about to happen, so there is no point to doing so.
People say ego death is scary, but accepting it makes the whole thing so much more handleable. I don't fear death even when at baseline, there isn't any point, it's inevitable, it happens to everyone, and you just have to accept it. At this point it feels like I have been flying through a (still rainbow coloured) Mandelbrot set for many, many hours. As I reach the spot I "realise", despite not having the ability to "realise" things at this point, that I just exist. I have no body. I have no form. My ego, my body, everything that makes me me has completely gone. Vanished. I am nothing and everything. I am the Alpha and the Omega, I am the universe, the stars, the earth. I (or, in Huxley's words, the “I that is the Not-I”) am in a state of pure, unexplainable bliss and sorrow simultaneously. There is no time, no matter, nothing, just my consciousness, or at least what is left of it.
This trip had gone full ++++. Shulgin refers to a plus four as a once in a lifetime trip that completely blows your mind and changes the very fabric of your consciousness, and it had just happened to me. The apex of the trip had just been and gone. I felt somewhat shaken and disturbed for some hours afterward, but not in a bad way. More relieved, actually. I am shivering, but not cold, simply from the sheer shock of experiencing ego-death on such a (traditionally) "gentle" pair of psychedelics. Gentle on their own, yes, but put them together...
T+5:05? I am still shaking and sweating buckets from the intensity of the experience. I realise the peak of the trip was about to begin subsiding and as such I decided to make the most of the rest of the experience. I spend the next half hour to 45 minutes holding onto D and trying to figure out what the f**k just happened. Looking back on it now it's obvious; but at the time I didn't know who I was, I hadn't the faintest clue who D was, where I was, or even what I was. It took me a good half hour to come back to earth.
T+5:35? What happened just hits me. I know that this trip is absolutely amazing. Unbeatable. The best trip absolutely possible. By far. I have never, ever, tripped this hard before, it is extremely intense but not overwhelming. Aside, of course, from the moment I just had. Wow. Euphoria doesn't even begin to describe the feeling. Pure joy and bliss at having experienced raw existence, I think, but even that is vastly understating my feelings at this point. I spend the next 10 or so minutes reflecting on and trying to integrate what I have experienced into my newly born-again psyche. I feel so alive! (but also, stuck to the bed still. Damnit.)
The Happy Box
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T+5:45 D decides it would be good to put some nature sounds on (namely, rain and thunder). I agree, knowing that connection with nature (in any form) is fulfilling on pretty much any psychedelic. It's soothing, and relaxing, just what I needed after the startling experience I had just had.
T+6:00 D shows her verbal prowess again. I tell D that with the ambient sound of the rain and thunder, I feel like I'm stuck in a phone box in a storm, and the CEV's reflect that thought immediately. We talk at length about how peaceful a storm sounds while also so violent and full of energy. D mentions the storm growing in intensity, becoming a hurricane, complete with horizontal rainfall. And me, right in the middle of it, with D, in our little glass “phonebox” with this tropical storm lashing down on top of us. I feel safe and protected, more so than at any other point in my life, despite this storm lashing down at full force.
T+6:10 After being startled out of the “hurricane” by the unexpectedly loud vocal intro to (I think) a Grateful Dead song,I begin to come down gradually. The more intense OEVs have mostly stopped, although vivid rainbow colour CEVs pervade the back of my eyelids. Lights have huge rainbow-coloured halos (tinted with the colour of the light source), and my overall field of vision cycles through all colours of the rainbow. I also notice a brief few seconds where AC-powered lights cause strobing of my visual field. Rainbows seemed to be a recurring motif throughout the entire trip, I was aware that mescaline enhances perception of colour, but the degree to which it did so took me by surprise. I later described this to A as “dude, it was insane, everything was rainbows, it was completely fucked up...”. Which was pretty accurate. I'm freezing cold now, and so decide to put some clothes on.
Time perception is beginning to return slowly, although I am still experiencing severe time dilation.
It is around 3am by this point, so D decides to sleep. I am still far too stimulated (definitely by the AMT more than the mescaline; I could tell the difference to some extent of each high, and the AMT was definitely dominant by now) to even contemplate sleep. I decide to go on the computer for a bit. I was expecting to have great difficulty with using it, but I had no such problems, save for slightly out of focus, dancing letters onscreen. I headed on Wikipedia and for the next couple of hours learnt a lot about the history of ambient house music, my favourite genre at the moment. I donned some headphones to listen to music, and had several spontaneous OOBEs, where I felt like I had actually lifted out of the chair and began to wander around the house (whilst still reading and absorbing Wikipedia, somehow! Indescribably weird).
Learning and absorbing information were extremely enjoyable with this mix. I took everything in and can recall a lot of what I took in during these few hours several days later. Traditional nootropics, eat your heart out!
T+8:00 A very noticeable body load is beginning to creep back. Moving takes a great deal of effort in contrast to the amazing body high earlier. It's not a tired “chair-lock” from exhaustion, it's just very difficult to move about, but when I do it feels incredible and I get tingles all over. I spend minutes at a time just enjoying the sensation every now and again.
T+9:00 I smoked nearly a quarter ounce of tobacco during this trip, which is a lot for me. I notice I am down to my last rizla, and being just past 6am the shops downstairs should be opening up for the day. I realise I have no change, so it'll have to be on plastic. I realise lost my keys earlier! Oops. (still missing a few days later, oh dear...) Too confused to look for them, so screw it, door on latch, the shop's barely 30 seconds away. This is the first time I fully venture outside during the trip (and yes, I'm still tripping somewhat) I look at the same lights from earlier and notice the same beautiful light show, still just as intense, complete with rainbow tinting. I am still getting the colour shifting and slight strobing.
The shops turned out to be still shut, they had changed their opening time to an hour later. Nonetheless, I found myself standing for a while, admiring the lettering on my local Co-op store, which looked beautiful, all lit up and complete with rainbow coloured halos on each letter. I realise, after what seemed like an hour but was actually a few minutes, that I look like an idiot, out here staring at a shopfront like a lemon, and decide to head back indoors.
The Morning After
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T+10:00 D wakes up. I'm still tripping quite hard but the intensity has tailed off quite a bit.
T+12:00 The postman drops off my gram of ethylphenidate and sheet of blotter (whose contents shall not be disclosed here... yet) which I had ordered last week. Woot! I'm in for a weekend of fun, this cheers me up a lot.
T+16:00? D offers something for me to try and eat (potato wedges and sausages), and while she's downstairs I crawl into bed. I fail to notice I'm dozing off, and the next thing I know it's partway through the evening. My dinner is gone, D had eaten it before it went cold. Everything STILL has halos, the comedown is properly starting to take hold now. While the trip itself is absolutely incredible, the comedown was quite harsh (feeling more like an alcohol hangover, minus the nausea and horrible taste in the mouth) with a good 18-24 hours of dissociation. I feel like a stiff. For this reason I don't intend to do this combo again, at least for quite some time. I do however, through the groggy disconnectedness, notice a substantial afterglow, more so than, say, MDMA's – I think the afterglows for these two substances “stack up” to quite a significant degree.
T+24:00 Still feeling dissociated and a bit strung out. I socialise a bit with housemates, describing the intense trip I just went through. Still feeling cuddly and affectionate towards D. We decide to watch Pointless on TV. For the non-Brits reading, it's a show where you have to give the most obscure answers possible, to score the lowest number of points. I played along and did quite well, getting the 0-point answers every time. Quite an increase in mental acuity is apparent post-trip, it would seem. (I usually suck at it, actually at quiz shows in general.)
I decide after Pointless has finished, to head to bed. Takes me a good 2 hours to get to sleep, but I'm there in the end.
The “Diet Coke” Bender Begins
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T+~36:00 After a decent night's sleep, I wake up quite refreshed, with the slightest touch of after-effects, including lethargy, a residual “slightly tripping” feeling, and some minor dissociation. To counter the last of the after effects I decide to try the EPH, dropping a weighed out 30mg dose (for eyeballing reference).
T+~37:00 Starting to feel the eph, very gently. I didn't think much of it at this point, just slightly stimulated, not wired, but alert. Decide to insufflate a weighed out 50mg dose... up it went, and OUCH ouch ouch OW fuck me sideways... that stings like hell, way more so than mephedrone. More like 2C-i; tears are forming at the corners of my eyes from the sharp, caustic burn. I suspect eph is somewhat basic (I later tested it, it is in fact alkaline, my sample is turns the litmus very dark bluey-green, about pH 8-8.5ish. Nasty. Like snorting weak bleach, or NaHCO3. No wonder it hurt!)
T+~37:10 Coming up on the eph pretty hard, wow, now this is what I'm talking about!
T+~38:30 Buzzing somewhat. The high is similar to meph but the stimulation is very clean, it's somewhat moreish like meph or speed, and the high feels like a cross between the two, in contrast to many others comparing it to cocaine; cocaine's high is very dirty and “stimmy” (N.B.: see T+52:00), whereas eph feels very clean and it's possible to ignore the urge to redose, unlike meph, where redosing is compulsive. This is about when I decided to begin writing this trip report, while D is still here, and the bits I do remember are still fresh in my memory. Actually starting, is quite difficult and requires me to push myself, but once I am started power through it.
T+~41:30 To make the eph go further, I decide to cut it with sugar. This has the added benefit of partially dilating and neutralizing (to around pH 7.3, says my litmus strip) the caustic eph, it still burns, but much less. This was a good call in hindsight. It was a rough 1:1 cut, 1g sugar with 0.94ish (by now) grams eph. Also notice the drip has a much nicer, sweet rather than bitter chemical taste.
[Note: Adding a cut of low pH (acidic) to the eph definitely seems to work a treat at solving at least some of the burn, there is probably a better substance out there to cut the eph with. I also noticed later, regarding the causticity, that licking the stuff off the card I racked up the pure eph with, caused minor chemical burns on my tongue, and on the same card where I was crushing the eph down into a finer powder, it had eroded a 2cm-wide dent in the (plastic) card! Neutralisation should be the first thing anyone does with this substance, this stuff can evidently eat through plastic... sublingual/rectal/buccal ROA is way, way out of the question.]
T+42-44:00ish? Which brings us up to now, the time I have written the bulk of the report. Currently still buzzing a little, have dosed approx 5 times (30mg each). Feeling a good deal of euphoria, everything is enjoyable and pleasant. Definitely a very clean mephedrone-like buzz (but nowhere near the euphoric, don't give a fuck attitude of meph), and doesn't screw with my already depleted serotonin levels. Negative effects at this point include very mild limb tremors (shaking hands & restless legs), and I am perspirating a little. My genitals (particularly my balls) have noticeably shrivelled... however, the effects on the mind are very pleasant. I will definitely keep an eye on this RC. Colours are still enhanced due to the mescaline afterglow.
Back To Earth With A Bump – The Eph Comedown Strikes Back
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(written at T+52:00): Serious side effects (withdrawal?) from the eph are starting to become apparent. I have been doing various sized bumps throughout the afternoon. I feel like I'm coming down after a cocaine binge - so this is why people say eph is like cocaine's weaker sister! I walked D home after the first couple bumps (after writing the previous entry), and noticed a feeling of uneasiness/paranoia following me around on the walk as I started to come down; it felt almost like I had done something really bad to D, even though I hadn't. This got worse and worse to the point I was almost fighting off a panic attack by the time I got to D's place. I expected some anxiety, but this was bordering on paranoid delusion.
After walking D home (approximately four or so miles) and staying for a little bit (whilst calming the hell down, and getting a bite to eat - had a voracious appetite by now having not eaten properly in some time), I didn't notice that I had railed a good gram and a bit of powder whilst there (about 500-550mg eph, in about 6 hours!) During the walk home (it was apx. 4degC outside) extreme vasoconstriction took hold, which subsided once I got back into the warmth of my place. I found it difficult to breathe, more difficult than normal in the cold. I did the last bump about an hour and a half ago and my hands are shaking so much I'm missing keys on my keyboard. Bit more care and attention to my dosing next time, I think! There is 729mg of powder left in the wrap, plenty for another time. I also noticed - this should have been obvious from the fact it's an reuptake inhibitor, which are known for their diminishing returns - that the euphoria wears off after about 4-6 hours, leaving me just stimulated, with no euphoria.
Less of a fan now than I was at T+42-44, due to the acidity and after effects, however still an enjoyable substance if the correct precautions are taken – neutralise (properly, not the way I did it...), wash out/ blow your nose after each and every line, or dose orally (where the pH of the surrounding environment is much higher than the eph itself).
(written at T+54:00): Feel relatively normal again. Wired as fuck, but no longer shaking like a leaf, and could probably sleep if I tried hard enough. Sobriety, at last. Worn out but content and satisfied.
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Conclusion
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A few things I noticed about the trip:
Over all: I was greatly impressed by the trip itself. High doses of shrooms and acid both come close to this experience, in my opinion, but this combo beats both hands down. One TR on Erowid reports the experience as “like dropping thirty acid tabs at once”, and I'm inclined to agree, with the exception of the lucidity of the trip. This is the most complete trip I've had to date, and a clear signal I am nearing the end of my long journey with psychedelics. I don't think I'll ever top the sheer euphoria, empathogenesis, and sheer visualness of this trip.
This experience has made me much more curious about the substituted phenethylamines I haven't tried yet (although I won't be trying them all), namely 2C-C, 2C-D, 2C-P, the B and C NBOMe's, and the 2C-T-x's, as well as the DOx family. Tryptamines... well, I've found (in my opinion, anyway) the perfect ones in AMT and shrooms, I'm curious about DiPT's funky auditory effects, and of course 5-MeO-DMT and DMT, but I think they can wait until the opportunity presents. I'm not going to go out looking for them, since I definitely feel I have finally stumbled across, after a mere 8 years of tripping, the “perfect trip”. My first trip ever was salvia – I got up to I on the SALVIA scale – and I have been after a similar profound, highly visual trip ever since. I am very happy to have found it, at last.
I think every tripper needs to try this combination of psychedelics, at least once (although if you're new to tripping, it might be a bit much for you). Just watch out for the comedown, and ensure the dosage is spot on - while I didn't have any problems with serotonin syndrome, mixing phenethylamines and MAOIs tends to lead to it if a large enough quantity is taken. In small (as in, sub-therapeutic) doses, MAOIs “dull” out phenethylamines for me, but I don't think AMT's inhibitory action is enough to make a dent on a phen trip. In fact it had the opposite effect; the synergy between the two substances was, to quote the other TR on this combo, special.
Happy tripping, everyone, and be safe. Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. :D
A Mescaline / alpha-Methyltryptamine Trip Report
With a guest appearance by Ethylphenidate
This TR is quite long and detailed, but definitely worth the read. Sorry about the constant change in narrative/tense and terrible grammar; I was buzzing off the EPh when it was written. Still, this was an amazing experience, one which I don't think I will ever be able to top. I included the Eph in this report as it arrived the morning after the trip and wanted to see what effect (if any) it had on the "hangover", so this is basically 2 trip reports in one. :D
I do also apologise to anyone outside the UK reading this, some of the references alluded to in this TR will probably be lost on you.
I've included Wikipedia links in appropriate places.Veterans will want to skip the "substances" section.
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Participants
LookMaNoLimbs (myself, the narrator in this epic tale of epicness): First time mescaline & ethylphenidate, 5th time AMT, had been using four days beforehand to explore antidepressant effects at daily 5mg doses, and one 40mg full-on trip (report here). Experienced with other psychedelics. 26y 5m old at time of trip, 88kg.
D: Sitter. Previous exp cannabis, opiates (morphine, codeine as prescription) & several unintentional ('spiked') doses of unknown substances; based on her somewhat vague description of effects I suspect GHB or similar. Interested in psychs herself, planning a proper introduction soon with LSD in the next few months. [She will be adding notes of her own to this report in the next day or so.]
The Substances
(with some background for the newbies
Mescaline (2-(3,4,5)-trimethoxyphenyl)ethanamine) aka Mescalito, Buttons, Peyote, Mesc
A naturally occuring psychedelic phenethylamine similar in structure (and in fact binds to the same receptors) as serotonin, with a long history of entheogenic use, the subject of Aldous Huxley's The Doors Of Perception, and the drug that introduced Sasha Shulgin to the world of psychedelics. I have been meaning to try mescaline for some time since reading Huxley's and Shulgin's works, and in part due to my (pleasant) experiences on other phenethylamines.
Source: very trusted friend, a BLer, who has introduced me to several new psychedelics in the past. Unmistakeably looks like mescaline (offwhite, fluffy strands).
Alpha-Methyltryptamine (2-(1H-indol-3-yl)-1-methyl-ethylamine) aka Trymene, Indopan
Prescribed during the 60s in the USSR as Indopan, a MAOI (monoamine anti-oxidase inhibitor) antidepressant whose molecule's structure is similar to amphetamine, but with an indole group in the place of a benzene ring (making it essentially a tryptamine amphetamine). Easy to obtain here in the UK since it's not covered by the Misuse of Drugs Act.
Source: trusted domestic vendor, GC/MS seen.
Ethylphenidate ((RS)-ethyl 2-phenyl-2-piperidin-2-ylacetate) aka Ethylcaine, Diet Coke
The ethyl ester of methylphenidate (Concerta or Ritalin). I have had since childhood mild ADD whose symptoms are greatly exacerbated by psychedelic comedowns, so naturally “eph”, as I've taken to calling it, piqued my curiosity. It is a NDRI, or norepinephrine/dopamine reuptake inhibitor, similar in structure to benzylpiperidine (BZP). Like AMT it is unscheduled in the UK.
Source: same as the AMT, GC/MS seen. Was a late addition to the trip, as a “post trip pick me up”.
Dosage
T+0:00 200mg mescaline HCl, oral
T+0:00 50mg AMT, oral
T+1:00 10mg AMT, smoked
T+48:00 onward: ~550mg eph HCl (racemic), insufflated in bumps, varied dosage 10-80mg, eyeballed, every 45min-1hr
I have not seen may trip reports on this combination of psychedelics (in fact, only one). I am aware some may be cautious of AMT's monoamine oxidase inhibitory action in conjunction with substituted phenethylamines, but no signs of SS were present whatsoever during the entire trip.
Ethylphenidate was used as a “hangover cure” for my blunted affect and dissociation post-trip, which it tackled superbly, but not without worrying side effects of its own. Both substances have an afterglow and a half, but also have quite harsh, long, drawn-out comedowns that can mean several days of “aw, I don't wanna get out of bed... or move... or do anything”. At least, in my experience anyway.
I should mention that the outcome from previous experimentation regarding AMT as an antidepressant were extremely positive, and if not for the fact it is a tryptamine and thus has some abuse potential it would make a great addition to any psychiatric GP's arsenal. It is highly effective at perking me right up without the horrendous withdrawal symptoms that I get off SSRIs, and without the dissociation and horrible grotty feeling I get after withdrawing from MAOIs like citalopram. (Why are triple monoamine releasers illegal again? sigh.)
Set
My source for the mesc mentioned that he was interested in trying the combo at some point, but wanted my feedback on it. I seem to be his guinea pig at times, not like I mind though. We are both educated enough about drugs to know the do's and don'ts, both having tripped (on some occasions together) many, many times. I am looking forward to this trip, with some trepidation, and I have no idea how intense this trip will get, making me slightly nervous. D's presence helped with the nerves quite a bit. Some minor issues in personal life at the moment, but nothing majorly worrisome.
Setting
Home. Initially K and A from my previous TR ("Like We're Five Again") were meant to trip sit, however D came over around half an hour into the trip, for which I'm now quite grateful since she did a fantastic job. D had also (unintentionally) sat a trip for me once before the first time I tried 25i-NBOMe, despite in the end not needing a sitter due to the lucid nature of the trip. I decided on a sitter for this combo since both can be very powerful (if gentle) psychedelics even in moderate doses.
The Trip
Drop time is 9pm Mon, quite aware that I'll be up well into Tuesday, however I prefer to trip late at night since the visuals are generally far more intense and profound. Despite all this I do manage some sleep toward the end of the trip. Despite mentally preparing myself beforehand, I was truly unprepared for just how intense this trip actually got. I was expecting a colourful menagerie of visuals and introspection, but ended up getting way more than I bargained for.
The Drop
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T+0:00 Simultaneously drop both veg-caps with water. Having read up on the dosage and timing of the respective trips, the peaks should more or less coincide (and they did, oh lawd, they did.) The AMT cap was initially 60mg, but I decided to put aside 10mg of this to try smoking. Did not bother with an allergy dose on this occasion due to previous experience of AMT, and mescaline's impressive safety record.
I decide to try and time this trip (unsuccessfully) on my phone's stopwatch.
T+0:20 D arrives, unaware I've dropped. First thing I tell her is the substances I've consumed. She is initially skeptical, and gives me this look of “aw, dude, why... I was hoping for a quiet night...” but agrees to trip sit in K and A's place. Good thing too: they were insistent about playing dark metal / alt rock (Breaking Benjamin, DcfC etc, not trip music at all! No offence guys, they're alright when sober, but tripping? Nope.)
T+0:30 D heads out briefly to drop some stuff of hers at her place. During this time, I locate some tin foil to try chasing the remainder of the AMT. Managed to get about three quarters (~7mg) into my lungs. Leaves a small amount of brown residue on the foil. I believe the vaping was responsible for the extreme visual nature of the trip.
T+0:40 Objects get “fluffy” edges. The following hour or so was relatively uneventful, and for a while I'm worried that my AMT tolerance is too high. I needn't have...
T+1:00 D returns.
T+1:20 Suddenly very chatty, notice that colours are starting to become more intense. Slight increase in body load.
T+1:45 Nausea sets in as the AMT starts hitting my 5HT3 receptors... and no weed to counter it this time. D is slightly concerned about the pained look on my face, and asks if I'm going to be sick. Immediately, as soon as the word “sick” leaves her mouth, my saliva glands go into overdrive, but all I can manage is a couple of dry heaves. This happens three more times, the last time a tiny amount came up before the nausea dissipated. I had eaten a light meal a few hours prior, which probably didn't help.
Moments of Eternity
-----------------------------
T+2:00? I had read in TDOP that interest in time on Mescaline disappears completely, and coupled with AMT's extreme time dilation I was (and still am) completely unable to recall the timings of events during the trip, therefore all following times are approximate, with D's help. Around the two hour mark I decide to step outside to look at the lights, since brightened lights are generally one of my first alerts. Indeed, some haloing of lights and and increase in intensity is starting to build.
T+2:30? Typically (for me at least) of the AMT, some confusion begins to set in. The TV is on, and I'm not entirely sure what I want to watch. Nothing piques my interest, although TV generally doesn't when I am tripping. Still coming up, faster and faster now. The bare bulb in the lounge is way too bright. D asks if I would like something to eat. I'm peckish, so I try eating some potato wedges (?) but they taste like cardboard. There goes my appetite, then...
T+3:00? I am coming up really, REALLY hard. I indicate to D that I would like to retreat to my room. I'm quite a messy person – my bedroom is a state of organized chaos – and this usually bothers the hell out of me on tryptamines, usually ending in me retreating out of the room as soon as I see it, but it doesn't bother me at all on this occasion.
This is where things get a bit crazy, and the realm of the ineffable begins to rear its head.
I decide that I want to check how far I am into the trip at this point. The timer on my phone reads 48:88:88... at which time I realise I am well and truly fucked. Spannered. Spangled. Tripping balls-to-the-walls. Time to stick on some music. I had discovered Rez by Underworld earlier that day, and felt that its uplifting, dreamy vibe was perfect to trip to, and wow, it was. It came on several times (mainly due to my inability to operate my music player properly) and made the trip's visuals truly epic. Another song that kept playing again and again was Beached by Orbital, another fantastic tripping song in my opinion. As for the music as a whole, I didn't get the “phasing” / overlapping of my previous AMT trip, but instead a flanging effect which endured even past the end of the trip.
Sensual Entactogenesis
-----------------------------------
T+3:30? Myself and D climb into bed. The empathogen/entactogen side of the trip took over at this point. We had recently split up, however the breakup was very amicable and our relationship as friends is one of those rare ones where it actually works... but anyway, at this point it's quite warm so we decide to open the window a crack and take our clothes off. Normally D has a plain “girl next door” look about her, but right now, in my eyes at least, she was looking very seductive with a “fuck me, NOW!” look in her eyes. We got really, really close and cuddly and I started to nibble on D's neck. She begins to moan and writhe about very sexually, and I am getting very, very turned on indeed. Her skin on mine feels absolutely heavenly and I can feel every single little bump and hair. Having lost track of time it felt like I had been doing this for hours (it was, in fact, less than a minute), but what I hadn't noticed was that I was biting harder and harder to the point it got quite painful for her, and I had left quite a bruise (not a love bite/hickey – an actual bruise!). I had no interest in sex at this point, despite being rock hard (a rarity on amps/phens). I pull away from D, profusely apologising. Looking back I realise now I was in a thought loop at the time, the only one to occur in the entire trip, which ended when D started complaining about the pain.
T+3:32? OEVs begin to form. D's face is covered in tiny flowers of every imaginable colour (much like this, without the pink background). Since I'm getting OEV's, I figure that CEVs will also be visible if I close my eyes. So I shut my eyes...
...HOLY FURRRWHATHE SHIT.
The instant my eyelids meet, intricately detailed rainbow-coloured fractals burst into my field of vision with an intensity I could no way ignore. I opened my eyes again in total shock, where the visuals left the inside of my eyelids and sprayed all over every wall in the room. The OEVs got more and more and more intense, but at no point were they bothersome.
The ceiling of my room is artexed; last time I was on mushrooms the artex started to spin and take all kinds of pastel colours. On this trip the artex began to spin again, but instead of the muted pastel shades, each circle of artex was a different colour of the rainbow. The light is still on by this point, so D turns it off. I trip to the music for a little while.
T+3:50? The artex OEVs become cogs/gear wheels, all spinning in sync, in the correct direction. I mention this to D and she puts the idea in my head that this is symbolic of the passage of time. This is quite the mindfuck... at least I think it is, until D turns the mindfuckery up a notch by saying “Now, picture just one of the cogs in the system running backwards”. I do so: the teeth on the cogs begin to dissolve, faster and faster, then the dissolution spreads to the wheels of the cogs. The whole system begins to fall apart, getting faster and faster, and things around me start to get slower and slower as the whole system and flow of time breaks down. It gets to the point all of time just stops completely. My field of vision begins to white out, and suddenly I come to, quite dazed and confused, but I recover inside of a minute. I seriously thought D had broken the Universe, or at the very least, my mind...
Into the Exosphere, and Beyond
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T+4:00? I am peaking like I have never peaked before, well into +++ territory, and it's continuing to build. My depth perception is completely shot to pieces; if I put one hand in front of the other, I can't tell which one's in front, and rolling cigarettes takes a phenomenal amount of effort: the rizla feel like they're constantly growing and shrinking in my hands, and I keep putting the tobacco outside of the rizla. I need the bathroom; but I'm staggering all over the place, almost like I'm drunk. While sitting on the can, the woodgrain on the door is moving like crazy, constantly morphing and changing. I sit there for a good few minutes, captivated.
T+4:10? I should mention at this point that D has natural synaesthesia. I was doubtful of this for a while since it's almost impossible to objectively test. A song (I think it may have been by Shpongle) comes on with a relatively heavy drum track, at which point I get CEVs of a drum kit (sans drummer) that is playing itself. I notice that when the stick hits the drum, the drum lights up in a colour corresponding to the frequency. D mentions visualizing the drum track as a mountain range... (“Have you been at my stash...?”, I quip.) The closed cymbals are white/purple, with the bass drum a rusty orange. I hadn't mentioned this to her yet – but she says to me that the cymbals are white and purple, which suprises me somewhat. I mention the bass being orange and she's now the surprised one! Telepathy and synaesthesia!
T+4:45? Rez comes on again, and a very lucid time-lapse scene begins to unfold on the wall in front of me, a city full of people going about their daily business. It looked somewhat like Princes Street, the main throughfare in the centre of Edinburgh, in the middle of spring. It was sunny and breezy, with a slight Scottish bite to the breeze. As the first half of the song winds down the city begins to empty, and the sun begins to set. The second half has a slow buildup (crescendo), and this corresponded with people starting to get ready to go out for the night. I am overcome with a sense of well being and peace. I also note an interesting physical effect at this point, namely that the fullness I had from eating before the trip had completely gone. My stomach feels empty, but I don't want to eat.
I encounter a bit of difficulty and uneasiness during the intro of the next song. Being a writer, D takes me on a verbal trip down the Royal Mile (leading up to Edinburgh Castle), she has quite the way with words, and BAM, I'm there. It's like I'm actually on the Mile, with its picturesque, quirky little shops; I find myself at the top of Cockburn Steps where there is a little archway, and I find myself floating down the steps toward Edinburgh Waverley Station. At this point a change of song snaps me out of the visuals into the next scene. I was quite enjoying these “brain movies”, until...
An Unexpected Breakthrough, or Cap'n, We Just Went Plus Four...
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T+4:55-5:00? With both AMT and mescaline being relatively gentle (if potent) psychedelics, the following five minutes, which felt like forever, took me by surprise. I lay back, and feel like I am sinking into the bed, deeper and deeper. I shut my eyes, and begin to travel through the closed eye visuals. A white spot of pure, brilliant light appears in the distance. I begin to move toward the light, which gets larger and larger. (this is where details get very fuzzy...) I also notice a growing dissociation with my body which gets more and more intense. Like how I imagine a K-hole to be (an “A-hole”...?), although I've never taken ketamine. It's on my list...
An NDE is unfolding before my eyes for the first time in my life... but I'm not anxious, scared, or any of that. I am happy to let go of everything, knowing that I can't fight what is about to happen, so there is no point to doing so.
People say ego death is scary, but accepting it makes the whole thing so much more handleable. I don't fear death even when at baseline, there isn't any point, it's inevitable, it happens to everyone, and you just have to accept it. At this point it feels like I have been flying through a (still rainbow coloured) Mandelbrot set for many, many hours. As I reach the spot I "realise", despite not having the ability to "realise" things at this point, that I just exist. I have no body. I have no form. My ego, my body, everything that makes me me has completely gone. Vanished. I am nothing and everything. I am the Alpha and the Omega, I am the universe, the stars, the earth. I (or, in Huxley's words, the “I that is the Not-I”) am in a state of pure, unexplainable bliss and sorrow simultaneously. There is no time, no matter, nothing, just my consciousness, or at least what is left of it.
This trip had gone full ++++. Shulgin refers to a plus four as a once in a lifetime trip that completely blows your mind and changes the very fabric of your consciousness, and it had just happened to me. The apex of the trip had just been and gone. I felt somewhat shaken and disturbed for some hours afterward, but not in a bad way. More relieved, actually. I am shivering, but not cold, simply from the sheer shock of experiencing ego-death on such a (traditionally) "gentle" pair of psychedelics. Gentle on their own, yes, but put them together...
T+5:05? I am still shaking and sweating buckets from the intensity of the experience. I realise the peak of the trip was about to begin subsiding and as such I decided to make the most of the rest of the experience. I spend the next half hour to 45 minutes holding onto D and trying to figure out what the f**k just happened. Looking back on it now it's obvious; but at the time I didn't know who I was, I hadn't the faintest clue who D was, where I was, or even what I was. It took me a good half hour to come back to earth.
T+5:35? What happened just hits me. I know that this trip is absolutely amazing. Unbeatable. The best trip absolutely possible. By far. I have never, ever, tripped this hard before, it is extremely intense but not overwhelming. Aside, of course, from the moment I just had. Wow. Euphoria doesn't even begin to describe the feeling. Pure joy and bliss at having experienced raw existence, I think, but even that is vastly understating my feelings at this point. I spend the next 10 or so minutes reflecting on and trying to integrate what I have experienced into my newly born-again psyche. I feel so alive! (but also, stuck to the bed still. Damnit.)
The Happy Box
----------------------
T+5:45 D decides it would be good to put some nature sounds on (namely, rain and thunder). I agree, knowing that connection with nature (in any form) is fulfilling on pretty much any psychedelic. It's soothing, and relaxing, just what I needed after the startling experience I had just had.
T+6:00 D shows her verbal prowess again. I tell D that with the ambient sound of the rain and thunder, I feel like I'm stuck in a phone box in a storm, and the CEV's reflect that thought immediately. We talk at length about how peaceful a storm sounds while also so violent and full of energy. D mentions the storm growing in intensity, becoming a hurricane, complete with horizontal rainfall. And me, right in the middle of it, with D, in our little glass “phonebox” with this tropical storm lashing down on top of us. I feel safe and protected, more so than at any other point in my life, despite this storm lashing down at full force.
T+6:10 After being startled out of the “hurricane” by the unexpectedly loud vocal intro to (I think) a Grateful Dead song,I begin to come down gradually. The more intense OEVs have mostly stopped, although vivid rainbow colour CEVs pervade the back of my eyelids. Lights have huge rainbow-coloured halos (tinted with the colour of the light source), and my overall field of vision cycles through all colours of the rainbow. I also notice a brief few seconds where AC-powered lights cause strobing of my visual field. Rainbows seemed to be a recurring motif throughout the entire trip, I was aware that mescaline enhances perception of colour, but the degree to which it did so took me by surprise. I later described this to A as “dude, it was insane, everything was rainbows, it was completely fucked up...”. Which was pretty accurate. I'm freezing cold now, and so decide to put some clothes on.
Time perception is beginning to return slowly, although I am still experiencing severe time dilation.
It is around 3am by this point, so D decides to sleep. I am still far too stimulated (definitely by the AMT more than the mescaline; I could tell the difference to some extent of each high, and the AMT was definitely dominant by now) to even contemplate sleep. I decide to go on the computer for a bit. I was expecting to have great difficulty with using it, but I had no such problems, save for slightly out of focus, dancing letters onscreen. I headed on Wikipedia and for the next couple of hours learnt a lot about the history of ambient house music, my favourite genre at the moment. I donned some headphones to listen to music, and had several spontaneous OOBEs, where I felt like I had actually lifted out of the chair and began to wander around the house (whilst still reading and absorbing Wikipedia, somehow! Indescribably weird).
Learning and absorbing information were extremely enjoyable with this mix. I took everything in and can recall a lot of what I took in during these few hours several days later. Traditional nootropics, eat your heart out!
T+8:00 A very noticeable body load is beginning to creep back. Moving takes a great deal of effort in contrast to the amazing body high earlier. It's not a tired “chair-lock” from exhaustion, it's just very difficult to move about, but when I do it feels incredible and I get tingles all over. I spend minutes at a time just enjoying the sensation every now and again.
T+9:00 I smoked nearly a quarter ounce of tobacco during this trip, which is a lot for me. I notice I am down to my last rizla, and being just past 6am the shops downstairs should be opening up for the day. I realise I have no change, so it'll have to be on plastic. I realise lost my keys earlier! Oops. (still missing a few days later, oh dear...) Too confused to look for them, so screw it, door on latch, the shop's barely 30 seconds away. This is the first time I fully venture outside during the trip (and yes, I'm still tripping somewhat) I look at the same lights from earlier and notice the same beautiful light show, still just as intense, complete with rainbow tinting. I am still getting the colour shifting and slight strobing.
The shops turned out to be still shut, they had changed their opening time to an hour later. Nonetheless, I found myself standing for a while, admiring the lettering on my local Co-op store, which looked beautiful, all lit up and complete with rainbow coloured halos on each letter. I realise, after what seemed like an hour but was actually a few minutes, that I look like an idiot, out here staring at a shopfront like a lemon, and decide to head back indoors.
The Morning After
--------------------------
T+10:00 D wakes up. I'm still tripping quite hard but the intensity has tailed off quite a bit.
T+12:00 The postman drops off my gram of ethylphenidate and sheet of blotter (whose contents shall not be disclosed here... yet) which I had ordered last week. Woot! I'm in for a weekend of fun, this cheers me up a lot.
T+16:00? D offers something for me to try and eat (potato wedges and sausages), and while she's downstairs I crawl into bed. I fail to notice I'm dozing off, and the next thing I know it's partway through the evening. My dinner is gone, D had eaten it before it went cold. Everything STILL has halos, the comedown is properly starting to take hold now. While the trip itself is absolutely incredible, the comedown was quite harsh (feeling more like an alcohol hangover, minus the nausea and horrible taste in the mouth) with a good 18-24 hours of dissociation. I feel like a stiff. For this reason I don't intend to do this combo again, at least for quite some time. I do however, through the groggy disconnectedness, notice a substantial afterglow, more so than, say, MDMA's – I think the afterglows for these two substances “stack up” to quite a significant degree.
T+24:00 Still feeling dissociated and a bit strung out. I socialise a bit with housemates, describing the intense trip I just went through. Still feeling cuddly and affectionate towards D. We decide to watch Pointless on TV. For the non-Brits reading, it's a show where you have to give the most obscure answers possible, to score the lowest number of points. I played along and did quite well, getting the 0-point answers every time. Quite an increase in mental acuity is apparent post-trip, it would seem. (I usually suck at it, actually at quiz shows in general.)
I decide after Pointless has finished, to head to bed. Takes me a good 2 hours to get to sleep, but I'm there in the end.
The “Diet Coke” Bender Begins
---------------------------------------------
T+~36:00 After a decent night's sleep, I wake up quite refreshed, with the slightest touch of after-effects, including lethargy, a residual “slightly tripping” feeling, and some minor dissociation. To counter the last of the after effects I decide to try the EPH, dropping a weighed out 30mg dose (for eyeballing reference).
T+~37:00 Starting to feel the eph, very gently. I didn't think much of it at this point, just slightly stimulated, not wired, but alert. Decide to insufflate a weighed out 50mg dose... up it went, and OUCH ouch ouch OW fuck me sideways... that stings like hell, way more so than mephedrone. More like 2C-i; tears are forming at the corners of my eyes from the sharp, caustic burn. I suspect eph is somewhat basic (I later tested it, it is in fact alkaline, my sample is turns the litmus very dark bluey-green, about pH 8-8.5ish. Nasty. Like snorting weak bleach, or NaHCO3. No wonder it hurt!)
T+~37:10 Coming up on the eph pretty hard, wow, now this is what I'm talking about!
T+~38:30 Buzzing somewhat. The high is similar to meph but the stimulation is very clean, it's somewhat moreish like meph or speed, and the high feels like a cross between the two, in contrast to many others comparing it to cocaine; cocaine's high is very dirty and “stimmy” (N.B.: see T+52:00), whereas eph feels very clean and it's possible to ignore the urge to redose, unlike meph, where redosing is compulsive. This is about when I decided to begin writing this trip report, while D is still here, and the bits I do remember are still fresh in my memory. Actually starting, is quite difficult and requires me to push myself, but once I am started power through it.
T+~41:30 To make the eph go further, I decide to cut it with sugar. This has the added benefit of partially dilating and neutralizing (to around pH 7.3, says my litmus strip) the caustic eph, it still burns, but much less. This was a good call in hindsight. It was a rough 1:1 cut, 1g sugar with 0.94ish (by now) grams eph. Also notice the drip has a much nicer, sweet rather than bitter chemical taste.
[Note: Adding a cut of low pH (acidic) to the eph definitely seems to work a treat at solving at least some of the burn, there is probably a better substance out there to cut the eph with. I also noticed later, regarding the causticity, that licking the stuff off the card I racked up the pure eph with, caused minor chemical burns on my tongue, and on the same card where I was crushing the eph down into a finer powder, it had eroded a 2cm-wide dent in the (plastic) card! Neutralisation should be the first thing anyone does with this substance, this stuff can evidently eat through plastic... sublingual/rectal/buccal ROA is way, way out of the question.]
T+42-44:00ish? Which brings us up to now, the time I have written the bulk of the report. Currently still buzzing a little, have dosed approx 5 times (30mg each). Feeling a good deal of euphoria, everything is enjoyable and pleasant. Definitely a very clean mephedrone-like buzz (but nowhere near the euphoric, don't give a fuck attitude of meph), and doesn't screw with my already depleted serotonin levels. Negative effects at this point include very mild limb tremors (shaking hands & restless legs), and I am perspirating a little. My genitals (particularly my balls) have noticeably shrivelled... however, the effects on the mind are very pleasant. I will definitely keep an eye on this RC. Colours are still enhanced due to the mescaline afterglow.
Back To Earth With A Bump – The Eph Comedown Strikes Back
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(written at T+52:00): Serious side effects (withdrawal?) from the eph are starting to become apparent. I have been doing various sized bumps throughout the afternoon. I feel like I'm coming down after a cocaine binge - so this is why people say eph is like cocaine's weaker sister! I walked D home after the first couple bumps (after writing the previous entry), and noticed a feeling of uneasiness/paranoia following me around on the walk as I started to come down; it felt almost like I had done something really bad to D, even though I hadn't. This got worse and worse to the point I was almost fighting off a panic attack by the time I got to D's place. I expected some anxiety, but this was bordering on paranoid delusion.
After walking D home (approximately four or so miles) and staying for a little bit (whilst calming the hell down, and getting a bite to eat - had a voracious appetite by now having not eaten properly in some time), I didn't notice that I had railed a good gram and a bit of powder whilst there (about 500-550mg eph, in about 6 hours!) During the walk home (it was apx. 4degC outside) extreme vasoconstriction took hold, which subsided once I got back into the warmth of my place. I found it difficult to breathe, more difficult than normal in the cold. I did the last bump about an hour and a half ago and my hands are shaking so much I'm missing keys on my keyboard. Bit more care and attention to my dosing next time, I think! There is 729mg of powder left in the wrap, plenty for another time. I also noticed - this should have been obvious from the fact it's an reuptake inhibitor, which are known for their diminishing returns - that the euphoria wears off after about 4-6 hours, leaving me just stimulated, with no euphoria.
Less of a fan now than I was at T+42-44, due to the acidity and after effects, however still an enjoyable substance if the correct precautions are taken – neutralise (properly, not the way I did it...), wash out/ blow your nose after each and every line, or dose orally (where the pH of the surrounding environment is much higher than the eph itself).
(written at T+54:00): Feel relatively normal again. Wired as fuck, but no longer shaking like a leaf, and could probably sleep if I tried hard enough. Sobriety, at last. Worn out but content and satisfied.
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Conclusion
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A few things I noticed about the trip:
- I consumed an unholy amount of tea during the trip (a good litre or two, at least). My body was probably craving antioxidants, or something.
- “Bad” thoughts and feelings were easily pushed aside. When I was at +++, and a sinister-sounding song came on it was fairly easy to temporarily “suspend” the trip to change the song.
- There seems to be a minimum of negative side effects during the actual peak & plateau, although the onset, come-up and comedown were somewhat unpleasant.
- I was still quite lucid throughout most of the trip, with the exception of the semi-blackout at ~T+5:00, where I was apparently “dead to the world”.
- Whilst I doubt a ++++ is possible on AMT alone due to its body load with increasing dose, the mescaline undoubtedly pushed the trip into the realms of ego-shattering. I feel reborn, like a totally new person. Whilst integrating the experience the following day I took a look back on my life so far and have decided that I need to cut down smoking somewhat, and sometime very soon curtail my drug usage (which is currently once or twice a week). Experimentation is all good, but there comes a time that too much is too much.
- The ethylphenidate helped with the after effects at first, but the side effect profile is somewhat risky. You have to watch your intake, very carefully. More than 300 or so mg in a session is probably pretty dangerous, and should not be mixed with other vasoconstrictive substances (although the tea seemed to help with the vasoconstriction in the end.) It does put some stress on the cardiovascular system, my BP is quite elevated (probably around 135/90? normally around 125/85), and pulse slightly so (~80bpm up from 65-70 resting). Exercise is a big no-no on this substance, since you run the danger of over stressing your heart. Also take care dosing intranasally since it is a fairly strong alkali and can cause severe chemical burns if you overdo it.
- Orally, ethylphenidate is a great aid to concentration, and actually getting stuff done. This TR would probably be one or two pages without it, as opposed to the ten pages it has grown to.
Over all: I was greatly impressed by the trip itself. High doses of shrooms and acid both come close to this experience, in my opinion, but this combo beats both hands down. One TR on Erowid reports the experience as “like dropping thirty acid tabs at once”, and I'm inclined to agree, with the exception of the lucidity of the trip. This is the most complete trip I've had to date, and a clear signal I am nearing the end of my long journey with psychedelics. I don't think I'll ever top the sheer euphoria, empathogenesis, and sheer visualness of this trip.
This experience has made me much more curious about the substituted phenethylamines I haven't tried yet (although I won't be trying them all), namely 2C-C, 2C-D, 2C-P, the B and C NBOMe's, and the 2C-T-x's, as well as the DOx family. Tryptamines... well, I've found (in my opinion, anyway) the perfect ones in AMT and shrooms, I'm curious about DiPT's funky auditory effects, and of course 5-MeO-DMT and DMT, but I think they can wait until the opportunity presents. I'm not going to go out looking for them, since I definitely feel I have finally stumbled across, after a mere 8 years of tripping, the “perfect trip”. My first trip ever was salvia – I got up to I on the SALVIA scale – and I have been after a similar profound, highly visual trip ever since. I am very happy to have found it, at last.
I think every tripper needs to try this combination of psychedelics, at least once (although if you're new to tripping, it might be a bit much for you). Just watch out for the comedown, and ensure the dosage is spot on - while I didn't have any problems with serotonin syndrome, mixing phenethylamines and MAOIs tends to lead to it if a large enough quantity is taken. In small (as in, sub-therapeutic) doses, MAOIs “dull” out phenethylamines for me, but I don't think AMT's inhibitory action is enough to make a dent on a phen trip. In fact it had the opposite effect; the synergy between the two substances was, to quote the other TR on this combo, special.
Happy tripping, everyone, and be safe. Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. :D
