Question Regarding Natural Tolerance

[Kapitan]

Hi there. Apologies in advance for the long, self-centered post.

I consider myself moderately experienced with psychedelic drugs. I've taken 2C-I, 2C-E, 2C-B, 2C-T-2, DMT, Mushrooms, Mescaline, 4-AcO-DMT, 5-MeO-MiPT, LSD, Hawaiian baby woodrose seeds, and Mimosa/Rue Ayahuasca. However, throughout all of my journeys I have consistently required a lower, and often much, much lower dose than any of my friends to achieve what I would consider "strong" effects, and I get much more .... pronounced ... effects, and I'm not sure why.

For example, 14mg of 2C-E gets me to a +++, easily. I'm not sure that I would be comfortable taking more than 18mg. 2C-E is so incredibly complex and immersive for me that it's difficult to describe. On one notable experience, on about 16 mg, I was riding in a car, and I closed my eyes, and was confronted with what I can only describe as this complex, floating city-like thing in the sky of an alien planet. Some kind of humanoid Zen creatures were hovering in the center, teaching and learning, and sending physical packets of very dense and complex information out to floating "buildings" of rainbows around the periphery of the city, where I assume they were stored. The city was also surrounded by clouds and rainbows. It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever experienced.

And then, there are my friends' experiences. I know one person who has taken 25mg of 2C-E at an amusement park and was able to act sober and later claim that it wasn't a very strong experience, and another person who claims to have taken 50mg (!) without getting any "visuals" whatsoever. That in totally and completely incongruous with my experience with that chemical. "Visuals"? I was immersed in a completely different world of my imagination at 16mg, and you didn't get any "visuals" from a 50mg dose?

And then there's mushrooms. One of my friends came up to me the other day and told me that he was on 5g of mushrooms, which is a feat that would be impossible for me, as I'm basically unable to walk or speak on more than 3g. 2g usually has me babbling incoherently and curling up into strange shapes on the ground.

My experiences with psilacetin also seem peculiar. A couple of months ago, I took 27mg of 4-AcO-DMT. 75 minutes after ingestion, my visual field was completely filled with white, spiraling fractal-like patterns. These patterns then started reacting to the music that I was listening to, and, shortly thereafter, all of my senses merged together into one "unisense," and I spun away into a void of nothingness that emerged from the center of my unified perception. I was then was unable to speak in anything other than one-syllable noises for the next six or so hours, and I remember very little of the experience.

What I do remember is basically this: my friend picked me up, and took me to her house and put me in bed, where I spent the rest of the trip. I would dissolve into the unisense, and then emerge into what seemed to me like a completely different place, even though I was still in the same room in her apartment. I spent what I perceived to be years in these places, and then dissolved into the unisense again, only to emerge again shortly thereafter into another, completely different place, where I would again spend years. I thought that this experience had gone on for at least two lifetimes when I was on the tail end of it, and literally cried with joy when my friend finally convinced me that it had all happened in a single evening.

Two other people who took the same dose, from the same batch, were able to interact relatively normally at a party, and fall asleep after four hours. They commented that it was very "colorful." Colorful? I'm experiencing some kind of unified perception coupled with a total, repeated dissolution of the self until seven hours after ingestion, and the most notable part of your experience is the colors?

I know someone who drove across town on 12g of mushrooms. I don't understand how that is possible.

I don't know anyone else who describes this effect, with imaginary worlds bursting forth into their perception. I do see the form constants, but usually if I have taken a high enough dose to see those, my visual perception will merge with my consciousness, and they will develop into fully formed scenes, or entities, or both. If I describe to my friends how I met the insect mother creature and traveled through the kingdom of my mind with her, meeting cave-like rainbow creatures, on Ayahuasca, or how I experienced a complex zen city in the sky on 2C-E, I just get strange looks, and comments like, "No, everything just looks more colorful," or, "Usually everything is just sharper and moving around for me." And the strangest thing is, usually I'm only taking what Erowid describes as a 'common' dose.

Is my natural tolerance low? Or am I just unable to "handle" my psychedelic drugs as well as my friends? Are these effects normal, or is it all in my mind? What's going on?

I don't understand. Any insight or reassurance at all would be appreciated.

Much love.

 

[any major dude]

I know a couple people who get pretty far out there on relatively small doses, and some who require abnormally large doses. Its just an individual variability. I imagine chemistry may have something to do with it, but i suspect it is partially, if not largely psychological though. Do you practice any type of meditation or other mystical-type spiritual practice? I know that a number of people who do such things tend to have an easier time "letting go" and thus have much more immersive experiences. Also, people who take psychedelics with a more recreational intent seem to be less responsive to them. Of course these aren't hard & fast rules, just generalizations from my own personal observations.

Also, it seems like most females tend to require smaller dosages as well, but I have a feeling that is more physiological, as BAC charts are different for men & women as there are some metabolic & body composition differences. Then there's also the more typically male desire to prove to oneself (and sometimes others) that they can take large amounts of drugs.

Do your friends do psych's more often than you? When I was tripping more often than I probably should've, i found 25mg 4-AcO-DMT to be a light experience, but now that i used them about once every 3 weeks, the last time I took 20mg of psilacetin i was pretty blown away. Tolerance and familiarity with the headspace can have a huge effect on intensity. I know plenty of people that trip somewhat infrequently, 1, maybe 2 times a month at the very most, and they find 10mg of 2c-e to be plenty intense for their tastes. In fact one friend of mine took 10mg last weekend and was seeing faces spinning in the sidewalk, trees becoming animated etc.

I wouldn't think there's anything wrong with you, you're just slightly more sensitive to these things than some others. And dosages for any of the newer psych's aren't terribly well documented, so what some may find to be a manageable experience, others would find overwhelming. And on the plus side, you can probably get a lot more doses out of a given amount of what-have-you than hard heads (see pihkal or tihkal for definition).

Don't worry about it, its a pretty common phenomenon.

 

[greenmeanies]

savor your sensitivity, for it is a blessing.

it sounds to me like perhaps some of your friends may be afraid to dig too deep in their own minds... for fear that they will meet their own personal devil instead of the 'mother insect creature'

i feel like i am similar to you in sensitivity. it only takes 4mg 2c-i to give emotional enhancement, energy boost, and "improved colors" (+). bump that up to 12mg and i'm beginning to impose on the transdimensional world for brief moments (++). a few more mg and i'll be swimming in fractal patterns. (+++)

i would just consider it a 'trained ear' toward meditative states. your friends (i don't claim to know them personally) may be too focused on their physical reality to get in touch with the spiritual/underground side of themselves. maybe they have a strong grip on 'normal' in order to prevent a 'bad trip'. or maybe they're not even sure what the various drugs ACTUAL effects are, and they need a shaman like yourself to introduce them step-by-step at lower dosages in a meditative environment...

 

[Kapitan]

Thanks for the replies

I think that, perhaps, it may be a combination of my relatively infrequent use and a different expectation of the effects, like any major dude suggested. I typically use psychedelic drugs as kind of a catalyst for life change and a tool for exploring the deeper recesses of my mind, and thus one trip every six weeks is sometimes too often. I've been tripping about once every six weeks for about the last four years, and I think that's the sweet spot for me. More frequent ingestion is not typically very useful, and doesn't result in much additional insight. With less frequent dosing ... I lose perspective.

Most of the people I associate with use them for entertainment, I think, and they definitely trip more often than I do. Which isn't to say that I think using drugs for their entertainment value is "wrong," it's just a different mindset. They're looking for something different, I guess.

I don't currently practice meditation. Perhaps I should? I do kind of compulsively document and analyze my dreams, however. My subconscious seems to be very fond of symbolism and metaphor, and my dreams are rife with these. In that, they are similar to the state of heightened imaginary imagery that I sometimes experience on psychedelic drugs. Maybe this has something to do with it?

Thanks for the food for thought!