Allright, well, it was about 4:20 (just a coincidence) PM the day after Christmas. I had been doing various chores around the house all day, and was finally ready to dose another 5mg. It was just with my wife home, and the dogs, just a relaxed day. I swallowed 5mg of DOC dissolved in 5ml vodka. Actually, I don't really know if I swallowed it. I squirted the 5ml from a syringe into the back of my throat. 5ml is hardly anything, and it seems the vodka just permeated everywhere, i.e. my entire toungue, throat and sinus area. I hate the awful smell of ethanol. Yech.
About 10 minutes after dosing I hopped in the shower. Something was already going on by the time I got out of the shower and got dressed. By around T+1 hour I knew this trip was going to be stronger, and better, than the one before.
The immersive part of the trip lasted from about T+2 to T+8. I really didn't look at the clock much at all during that time, which was full of timeless moments anyways, so I can't give much of a timeline. I spent much of time hopping from one place in around the house to another, the front porch, the upstairs porch, living room, laying in bed, the back yard, and in every place the same thing: amazing attention grabbing visuals drawing me into an intense trance state with profound clarity. Visuals that say "Hey, you, yeah you, come this way...." and then they lead you to paradise. I did go for a long walk for few hours during the middle of the period. It was a mild clear night, temps in the 60's, the stars were beautiful and alive, as were the christmas lights, city lights and police helicopters (seems they're always on a man hunt where I live), the vegetation, the pollution, everything.
This is a very powerful and immersive psychedelic. But I found this stuff is different from LSD in a very significant way. There was no pressure on the ego as there is with LSD. There is a strong classical psychedelic nature to it as with other phenethylamines, but there also seems to be a very strong focusing energy, sort of like an amphetamine push or smart pill effect, that synergizes with the psychedelic effect leading to incredibly amazing focus and clarity. With LSD, there could be a gazillion insights flooding my consciousness. Same to some extent with DOC. But with DOC its a lot easier to take one of those insights and hold it, evolve with it, and become it. Its not as deep as LSD, but where DOC stands out is focus and clarity. With DOC, I can grab onto a rock or a tree branch and watch the river flow from relatively safe place. On LSD, especially on high dose, its more likely that I'm just gonna flow down the river. Even on a high dose of 2c-e I'm more likely to be flowing down the river than on DOC, or at least be holding on tightly. But you gotta see the river from DOC's point of view. The water is totally clear and lucid. You can see all the way to the bottom. You can see how the molecules are made.
There was a strong body push throughout the experience. It kept making me want to get up and move around, which was why I was hopping from one place to another in the house. If I were able to sit longer, I prolly would have been able to get deeper into the experience. Strangely, for the first 8 hours, my kidneys seemed to have shut down. Could have been that I was sweating a lot. There were times where I alternated between sweats and chills too. It was kinda warm in the house but not enough to make my wife sweat. Seemed to be some irradicness with my body temperature control.
By about T+8 hours I was getting some significant pain in my lower back. Basically my lower back muscles had been fatigued from working around the house earlier in the day, and then further fatigued from the stress, body load, and activity in the trip. When the muscles get fatigued, the ligaments in the lumbar/hip area get strained and start to get inflamed, and when that gets bad it leads to spinal instability, pinched nerves, etc. It wasn't at that point yet, but I was concerned. The best thing it this point, would be to take an anti-inflammatory to keep the swelling under control and watch my posture. Thing was, I hadn't eaten, and I didn't want to take the anti-inflammatory on an empty stomach. So with a bowl of weed handy for any possible nausea, I chugged down 440mg of naproxen with a glass of milk. The weed was needed to hold it down.
This turned out to be a good idea. By T+10 hours the inflammation in my lower back was under control and the pain had subsided. I still had to watch my posture the rest of the trip, but other than that it was OK. The little bit of milk, and perhaps the weed, managed to stimulate my appetite. Over the next few hours I was able to snack on a number of healthy foods. Other than that I spent most of the time revelling of what I had just been through. Seemed my kidneys were functioning well too, and the strong stimulation and body temperature irradicness continued to slow down.
By 8:30 in the morning, around T+16 hours, I was mostly come down, but I still had lingering effects and knew I wasn't going to sleep. So I made a pot of coffee and proceeded with my daily routine, which was to hang out and do nothing anyways, because I had the day off anyways. Around noon I went out riding on my bike and rode about 10 miles or so. I was feeling ok, just really tired like I hadn't slept all night. About 5:00 PM, T+25 hours or so, a nap came. I slept for about an hour and then feel asleep as usual that night.
When I had my DOM trip back in '78, I could see how they gave it the name "Serenity Tranquility Peace". It really did live up to that name. My DOC experience lived up to the same name. I am also reminded by this trip of some red "LSD" tablets, circa 1983, that had a very unique feel to them, and were somewhat long lasting. I didn't think much of it back then, but the tablets were definitely big enough to hold something other than LSD. So I now wonder if they were some sort of DOxx. Hmm....
Regardless, its a shame the DOxx got such a bad rap with the irresponsible distribution of DOM, DOET and DOB pills in the 60's and 70's. And now the bad rap will continue with the irresponsible use of DOC and DOI powders. What a shame indeed. These really are a unique class of powerful psychedelic drugs. But, OTOH, I can see why 5 of Shulgin's magical half dozen are of the 2-carbon variety. The DOxx are powerful and deep, but strangely simplistic in a way. As Shulgin said of DOC "Everything is there in spades, with few if any of the subtle graces, the 'gentle images' and 'gentle fantasies' of the 2-carbon phenethylamines." I think overall the 2c-xx have much more therapeutic potential, but the DOxx are certainly an experience to be had.
