2,5-DIMETHOXY-4-ETHYLTHIOAMPHETAMINE
DOSAGE: 4 - 8 mg DURATION: 8 - 16 h.
QUALITATIVE COMMENTS: (with 4 mg) There was a warm feeling in the total body and a light pressure in the head that changed with time into the feeling of a balloon without any anatomical definition. The usual color perception was not very much increased, and my vision was not sharpened as it was with DOM. Rather, I noticed waves of movement, very smooth and not too busy. Both my tactile perception and auditory acuity were enhanced. The main effect for me was, paradoxically, an easier handling of the outer world. None of the jitters of amphetamine. The body feeling is good, healthy, and I am at peace with the body-mind dualism. These are pretty much personal comments--I will write up the pharmacological points later. (with 5 mg) This turned out to be a day of extraordinary visuals and interpretations. About two hours into it, I felt that the effects were still climbing, but there was a marvelous onset of visual distortions and illusions, right at the edge of hallucination. The logs in the fireplace were in continuous motion. The notepaper I was writing on seemed to scrunch and deform under the pressure of the pen. Nothing would stay still; everything was always moving. There was a phase of unabated inflation. The intensity was noticeably dropping at the five hour point and I observed considerable residual shakes and a muscular tremor. Even towards midnight there was some tooth-rubbiness, but I was able to get a somewhat fretful though adequate sleep. (with 5 mg) I was exposed to a number of new environments and it was difficult to completely separate the experience into what was seen differently and what was seen for the first time. The Santa Cruz Mystery Spot should have been bizarre but it was simply hokey. And yet the boardwalk that should have been depressing was totally magical. The day was unworldly and I ended up with considerable muscular weakness. All in all, I handled it well, but I probably won't do it again. (with 7 mg) An amazing unification of visual hallucination seen only in the very fine detail of something, and what must be considered retinal hallucination. There is no one-to-one correspondence between the many retinal cells of the high-resolution part of the eye. Thus, the mind can pick and choose, sometimes from the right eye, and sometimes from the left. And so a small curve or bump can become whatever you wish. For a moment. And then it chooses again, but differently. Is all of our perceived world as subjective as this? (with 8 mg) Extreme intoxication, but almost no visual phenomena. Even well into the evening, I know I absolutely could not drive. Why? I don't know, since this experiment, at least, seemed to be quite free of strange colors and wiggly lines and streaks of light. It's that I don't trust that the reality I see is the same reality that the other driver might see. I am very much the center of the world about me, and I don't think I could trust anyone else to fully respect my reality.
'PiHKAL: The Chemical Story', by Alexander Shulgin
