More Than I Expected
ETH-LAD
Citation:   cheshire rat. "More Than I Expected: An Experience with ETH-LAD (exp107190)". Erowid.org. Oct 12, 2015. erowid.org/exp/107190

 
DOSE:
T+ 0:00
150 ug oral ETH-LAD (blotter / tab)
  T+ 11:30 1.2 mg oral Etizolam (pill / tablet)
BODY WEIGHT: 175 lb
Last night my SO, my roommate, and our friend N decided to trip together for N's birthday. The setting was my house: Hot tub, projector for movies, and my bedroom set up with an awesome sound system and green lightbulbs. (We called this the green room.)

I don't have a minute by minute trip report as I wasn't taking notes during, but I wanted to share my experienece with this chem since there aren't a ton out there.

I have to start by saying that one tab knocked me on my ASS. I have some experience with psychedelics and minimal experience with lysergamides. I've taken mushrooms/4-AcO-DMT about 7 times total, 2C-B once, all pretty average doses (nothing heroic) and about 2 months ago had a fun but mild trip with 80-100ugs of LSD. This was by FAR the most intense experience of my life so far. I can't imagine any reason to dose this one any higher.
Anyway...

We got together around 3 pm and gathered snacks and entertaining trip toys. At 4, We shared a few protein shakes (I have hypoglycemia and hate dosing on an empty stomach) and each took one 150ug tab. I swallowed mine, my fellow trippers kept them sublingual for a few minutes. The tabs were small and white, and printed with the name of the chemical on the front and the molecule on the back.

At about 15 minutes, I was noticing some tingling and excitement, and a little bit of visual brightening. Could have been placebo. We settled in to watch an episode of Planet Earth and wait out the come-up. The effects started to creep in a bit, and as a giant tree feel in the jungle on screen, it looked like the entire wall was bending with it. Pretty cool. At this point, one of my roommates put on a video of trippy visuals he found on reddit. That got more and more intense, and eventually we paused it and left the room.

We decided to go sit in the hot tub, since N was feeling cold. (This is about 1.5 hrs in.) The water felt amazing, like burning electricity all across my body, and turning on the bubbles was quite an experience. We turned them off and looked up at the sky. I noticed the clouds start to double and drift, and form some faint hexagons. It was a little less intense then my 80-100ug LSD trip, and I was starting to worry. My friends were staring at the sky in wonder, and I was thinking 'Is this all? Oh well.' I'm not the type to redose, and I'm sure glad of that now. Turns out I was just 15 minutes behind the two of them.

It started to shoot up. The clouds drifted, spun, and moved in hexagonal fractals. The big doug fir trees near our yard looked like google deep dream, fractals with beady eyes at the center. N and I were utterly charmed watching some squirrels play in a nearby deciduous tree, dancing and running through snowflake patterns of branches. We went inside and found the roommate who was tripping with us, who was watching music videos. I sat down and watched with him, and simply couldn't follow. The visuals were beautiful, but overwhelming, and I couldn't tell what was actually in the video anymore. I left to use the bathroom, went outside, and spent 10 minutes watching/listening to a water drip fall in a metal bowl.

It just kept building up. At this point (maybe 2.5 hrs in) we went down to the green room to listen to the new Natasha Kmeto album. My partner and I are big fans, and have been saving her new album to listen to while tripping. We put on the album and I lay back on my bed to listen. From this point on, I'm not 100% aware of what everyone else is doing. I am melting into the bed and the visuals have totally eclipsed my sight. Eyes open, eyes closed, it almost doesn't matter, but when I do close my eyes and let go I become immersed in bright blue, 3D space full of construction paper geometry. It's the most incredible feeling. I'm staring wide-eyed at the ceiling, feeling awestruck and utterly floored. Every second is an eternity, and it just keeps going. I get up and share a perfect dance with N, then sink back to the floor. I get up to get water, and the glass is full of neon pastel spirograph lines. The bathroom is dark with blacklights, and the air is threaded with 3-D visuals. I lay on the bed again. The peak of each song is orgasmic. Sex could have been amazing, but the logistics seem too complicated. The album lasts lifetimes, and then it's over. We almost start it over, but her previous album starts playing and we get into that.

N is overheated and I get up to open a window for her, and things go bad. I knock over a water bottle my partner left open on the windowsill, and it spills onto about $2000 of synthesizers. We unplug them, dry them off, wrap them in towels, freak out, and calm ourselves down. Nothing else to be done but wait for them to dry, so we may as well try to enjoy our trip.

This substance has very little anxiety/negative headspace for me, compared to others. We managed to remain calm, and went back outside. The trip did get a little weird after that, but I think it was just transitioning into the post-peak phase. The visuals were still intense and gorgeous, but the body feelings became more pronounced. My teeth felt electric and melty, and every sip of water felt like it traveled down a confusing fractal structure. My body was asymmetrical and strange, and everything was leaning left. I mostly managed to ignore these effects, and stare up at the sky, half listening to my friends conversing.

We're back at the hot tub at this point. My partner and I see a shooting star. It's the size of a quarter, star shaped, and trailed by a beam of rainbow light. The hot tub is spiderwebbed with geometry. Slowly, I begin to be able to join the conversation, though I still have almost no idea what's going on.

As we begin to come down, our conversations get more lucid and we start talking about the nature of the universe and our place within it. I go inside to use the blacklight bathroom, and have an experience staring into the mirror and communing with myself. My eyes glow green, my hair is a neon fringe of twisting spirals, and my skin is made of galaxies. I learn that I am made of star stuff. I am the universe, and so is every one else, and we're all completely ridiculous, and there's no need to be afraid of what other people think. It's not like they have any idea what they're doing here than I do.

My body is a fractal made of teeth. Everything is too left and I can't get comfortable. I am fixated on the word 'scheduling'. My sober roommate and his girlfriend have joined us in the hot tub. He's cracking jokes and everything is wonderful. We decide that Trader Joe's secretly sells the essence of youth, which is really me, bottled and marketed to yuppies. We talk about the rat park study. We go inside to watch Rick and Morty, and abruptly I am mostly sober. Some visuals, but my head has cleared while I wasn't paying attention. It's only a little past midnight.

At about 1 am, I consider taking an etizolam and passing out, but I've still got some mild visuals and I'm enjoying conversation with my partner and N too much. We realize we're still tripping, it's just that the earlier experience was so intense that we hadn't noticed. We put on Natasha Kmeto again and talk and dance until 3:30. I take that etizolam and pass out.

I think the etiz dose (1.2mg tablet) was way too much for my first time, because I sleep until 1 pm and I am sleepy and zoned out the next day. Two of my fellow trippers fell asleep without any help, so this chem may be easier to sleep on then LSD (even a microdose keeps me wide awake for at least 10-12 hrs with that stuff.)

Short version:

2-3hrs to peak, peak duration another 3-4 hrs, and a few hours of residual stimulation.

Beautiful, overwhelming visuals. By far the most visual substance I've ever taken. There were points when I almost couldn't see the real world through them. CEVS were 3+ dimensional and immersive, OEVs were beautiful, diverse, and everywhere. Lots of spirals, lots of tracers, lots of fractals. Stunning.

Headspace is weird. Some warm euphoria, lots of confusion, very little anxiety/darkness. Overwhelming, and I ended up accepting that the universe is well beyond comprehension, incredible, and utterly ridiculous.

Body high varied between intensely pleasurable and weird/uncomfortable. Might freak out an inexperienced tripper. Very little jaw clenching, very little muscle tension, I had almost no nausea. My partner, who has IBS and gets stomach pain from every psychedelic ever, was actually ok with this one.

Sleep-wise, one member of our group fell asleep without any assistance 9 hours after dosing.

The next day, I am sleepy but functional. I'm curious about this substance in lower doses, but I have a lot of respect for it now. Not a lightweight or easy pych.

Exp Year: 2014ExpID: 107190
Gender: Female 
Age at time of experience: 24
Published: Oct 12, 2015Views: 10,953
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ETH-LAD (688) : Small Group (2-9) (17), First Times (2), General (1)

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