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Riding the Psychedelic Wavelength
2-Oxo-PCE
Citation:   Kaleida. "Riding the Psychedelic Wavelength: An Experience with 2-Oxo-PCE (exp110481)". Erowid.org. Aug 23, 2017. erowid.org/exp/110481

 
DOSE:
T+ 0:00
20 mg oral 2'-Oxo-PCE (powder / crystals)
  T+ 1:00   repeated smoked Cannabis  
  T+ 17:50 10 mg oral 2'-Oxo-PCE (powder / crystals)
This was my fifth and sixth experiences taking 2'-Oxo-PCE, which occurred on back-to-back days and were close enough to each other for me to consider them like one long high for the sake of reporting. For about a month now I have been experimenting with this molecule with a frequency of about a week between experiences following a short break after an initial test dose, and I think this particular experience is going to be the climax of this experimentation.

Something I had sought to learn from it most was whether or not this kind of usage was at all sustainable for me or if I would need to space the trips out further like I do with psychedelics; I have heard many boast of the ability to take daily doses of dissociatives and still enjoy them, but for me I think the latter is the final conclusion. This trip especially, having two doses so close together, has showed me that while I can see some, even very recreational aspects of the dissociative high not gaining tolerance very quickly, there is undeniably a 'magic' for me that is both connected to how psychedelic-like the high feels for me overall and disappears just as rapidly as it would if I took any old psychedelic this often, like LSD I can say in particular from much experience. So, from now on I suspect that this will be how the bulk of my dissociative experiences are planned out, but this was a fun experiment while it lasted.

So, on to the details of the experience itself! Leading up to dosing I had been in kind of a bad mood, and had been for a while. The dissociative experiences were kind of helping with this, I had been feeling a bit better after each trip, but overall it could only do so much.... It just wasn't really about the way I felt personally, so much as just things that are happening in life, as is often the case, and so getting high was an escape but not really a solution. Some of what I've been worried about is national or global, but others are very local; most relevant to this first night, I was quite anxious about the fact that the next day my apartment was being inspected, to follow-up on yet another treatment for trying to get rid of a bug infestation that has displaced me from my home and put a drain on my wallet for some time now, and I felt like I was about to crack if the problem still wasn't fixed this time. For the time being I had been staying with family, but they were asleep at this point and would be going out of town early the next morning, and this was also the end of the last day of my work week, so I decided to kick it off with a bit of a celebration to calm my nerves. So far with my 2'-Oxo-PCE experimentation I had tried 5 mg once, 10 mg twice, and 15 mg once, so I opted to move up to 20 mg for this occasion.

My previous experience with dissociatives includes ketamine, 2'-Oxo-PCE, memantine, DXM, and nitrous oxide. My most recent trip was about one week before this on the 15 mg of 2'-Oxo-PCE.

T+0:00 - I ingested 20 mg of 2'-Oxo-PCE orally and started preparing things such as a bowl of cannabis for later and headphones for listening to music. Around T+0:07 I also had a sudden, strong urge to go the bathroom, which interestingly felt pretty much exactly the same as what generally happens for me shortly after taking a serotonergic psychedelic. I really do wonder if this one has a bit more serotonergic qualities than some other dissociatives as other PCE-based arylcyclohexylamines seem to, because it does seem to have a lot of physical effect overlaps with them for me, without even mentioning the potential subjective effect overlaps....

T+0:15 - I took a shower to help myself feel a little less grimy from work, and just because I knew it would feel good and I generally do so while coming up on other hallucinogens. I could already tell that it was kicking in fast while I was in there, I was starting to feel quite tipsy and distracted as I did my regular routine, and about fifteen minutes later when I got out and started drying off things were starting to get rather sparkly and wavy like when I'm feeling quite drunk, but with more of a stimulation rather than a disorientation, at least aside from some motor coordination suppression.

T+0:40 - I first went out into the living room to sit on the couch and listen to some music, but as soon as I got out there I could tell that the dissociation was already getting quite heavy, and that soon I might wish I had just gone to lie down in bed instead. I can't even remember if I actually did try to listen to music or anything.... I just know that at this point I did get up and start making my way back there, which was easier said than done. I was starting to feel very distant from my environment, with very familiar things seeming rather unfamiliar and short distances starting to seem quite elongated, while at the same time my visual field overall seemed flatter than normal. I also kept finding myself sitting down and thinking about things again rather than continuing my task of trying to get things ready and undress and all that, but finally I managed to focus just long enough to get it all done, and I was ready to go.

T+1:00 - I turned off the lights, took my first hits of cannabis off the bong, and put on my headphones with some music playing. It sounded very nice and deep, and strangely like I could turn it up to full volume and it still sounded sort of pleasantly distant, and I enjoyed listening to a few songs, but I started to realize that I just still wasn't quite in the right headspace for it.

I turned off the music at about T+1:15 and just started thinking about life, or at least letting the thoughts rolling through my head just play out. This is just what I had worried might happen, and of course should have known that it would from past experiences; going into the trip with lots of frustrated thoughts stuck on my mind is going to make them stronger, not weaker. However, I was at least now capable of thinking about them from a more relaxed and removed perspective, so I knew it would be good for me to just push through them for now. It, once again, felt very much like I expect the heavy, early peak of a serotonergic psychedelics to generally feel like, and it took a little while to really calm down, but I did finally start feeling a bit more leveled out and reoriented again at around T+2:15.

From that point until about T+3:35, I started listening to music again and continued thinking about my life, but this time feeling happier about things and not focusing on the stressful things going on in my life, just really thinking more about the nature of life in general. As I have felt on the past few doses of 2'-Oxo-PCE I've taken as well, I felt that this stage was a lot like the later phase of LSD as well, only with visual distortions more alike alcohol than alike psychedelics and that same drunken anxiety loss rather than serotonergic blissful euphoria, but the sense of peaceful energy and sober contemplation are completely indistinguishable to me. I was quite content at this point, but there were not any interesting hallucinogenic effects or anything like that to really keep me interested for that long, and around this later time stamp I started to get a bit tired.

I didn't make any further notes of anything that happened before I fell asleep, but I do recall a few things that took place.... It seemed that the trip was following a similar pattern to what it had done on some of my previous experiences: first there is a heavy psychedelic-like peak but with visual disconnection instead of overload, then a stimulating psychedelic-like and also alcohol-like plateau, and then it shifts into a more tired primarily alcohol-like state that also allows for more typically dissociative hallucinogenic experiences with eyes closed or in the dark, and these were being brought out especially by the fact that I actually was purposefully letting myself fall into dream states.

One thing I recall is watching moving geometric arrangements of what looked like character sprites from an old 16-bit RPG grid map, and marveling to myself at how these visuals can be so clearly distinct from the kinds I generally get on psychedelics, and yet still feel so much like them overall, like something about the coloring and overall organization just screams psychedelic in a way that's rather hard to concretely grasp. However, much like DXM has been for me, I also found that some of the visuals I was getting were rather dark in a way that psychedelics typically are not; for instance, I specifically recall seeing several flashes of colorful scenes of two women facing each other, with one of them being some sort of demon in disguise who would steal the other's body by absorbing it on to her, I would watch the other woman's body disintegrate and reform on the other woman, leaving nothing but a skeleton in the original's place. There were many scenes alike this, some dark, some light, some neutral, and all seemed to be instilled with some sort of deeper meaning, but I distinctly recall recognizing that that meaning seemed much less clear or obvious than on psychedelics. That is not necessarily worse, as it may just require more work to disentangle, but it also makes me wonder how much meaning actually is in there at all.

Anyway, I could tell that those hallucinations were approaching something deeper, but it seemed they were still not quite enough to take me completely out of my body, despite the fact that I could feel myself getting close to that much physical disconnection while meditating, so I eventually just gave up and passed out. I woke up early the next day to say goodbye to my family, but I don't recall a whole lot else about what happened or what I thought about other than that I still felt quite drunk when I woke up, which I was pretty happy about. This has been a regular occurrence with my past experiences on 2'-Oxo-PCE as well: after the third, more truly dissociative phase, I fall asleep and then wake up happily drunk for the next like half a day. This a drug with an incredible amount of versatility, it's definitely one of the things about it that has impressed me the most so far.

T+14:15 - This was approaching lunchtime and I was still feeling it pretty well, definitely more than I would have expected to at this point from the smaller doses. I have been still smoking cannabis as well though, which has definitely helped keep it alive. Since I was still feeling it so strongly I decided to make another note at this point, about how I was getting ready to eat some leftover pizza (which was delicious, by the way).

T+17:50 - Not long before this, my roommate, who I will call A, came over to the house to hang out while we wonder what's going on with our apartment. He had a good friend, who I will call B, who I had met a few times and once gave some 4-AcO-DiPT, though I wasn't there for her to take it; she and A each took it and went walking around a park. She had wanted to trip again, and this time I had told A that he could invite her over to take advantage of the big, empty house while tripping if she wanted to. I had given her 28 mg of 4-HO-MPT, and A, who had originally not been planning to trip but reluctantly agreed, took 5 mg of 5-MeO-MiPT. These were both new drugs for them, and I was originally going to just trip sit and take advantage of the fact that I was still feeling slightly high from the previous night, but I trusted these two not to go crazy on these doses, and their excitement eventually convinced me to take a little something extra.

So, at this time stamp, which I believe was about fifteen minutes after B's and A's doses, I took another 10 mg of 2'-Oxo-PCE orally.

While waiting around we had been smoking cannabis, and shortly after I dosed we started listening to music. A and I were enjoying it, and B was at first, but I could tell that she was going through the quick and intense sensory overload phase that I associate with the beginning of 4-HO-MPT, and not long afterwards she decided that she was going to change into her bathing suit and go sunbathe out by the pool for a bit. A was not feeling anything more than a bit of anxiety at this point, so he opted to stay inside with me for the time being. I recall suddenly looking over at B going out the back door when hearing her open it from the other room, and when I did so my entire field of vision suddenly started shaking very heavily; out of nowhere, I was smashed. I was quite surprised because the intoxication felt in some ways even more intense than it had the previous night, though felt less like a psychedelic or dissociative in a sensory way overall, I just felt incredibly drunk but still energized. In fact, my whole body was shaking like I've experienced a couple other times on 2'-Oxo-PCE now, and that's also not unlike many psychedelics for me actually, but the shaking was more intense and uncomfortable than it generally is on those. I knew I just had to ride it out, so first I put on some calming music which helped a bit, but when it didn't go away I decided to try getting up and moving around instead.

I went out back to check on B, who was just lying down on a towel next to the pool. She seemed to be enjoying herself, and spoke with very evocative language about feeling like she was traveling the cosmos and just deeply contemplating things about life, and described some of the beautiful visuals she was seeing. She seemed to be more eager for company again, and I felt much better outside and had totally stopped shaking, so I considered coming out to stay myself.

When I went back in and started shaking again, I knew that's what I wanted to do for sure. A was still listening to music, lying on the couch with his eyes closed. I listened to a little more with him and asked him how his trip was going, it seemed to be pretty good so far. He wasn't getting much visual other than enhancement with his eyes open, though he usually doesn't on most things, and with eyes closed he was actually getting some apparently impressive and enjoyable vortex-style patterning. I was happy for him, and announced my plan to go outside soon, to which he quickly agreed. However, before we could my phone dinged with an email, from the property manager of our apartment complex... saying that our apartment is now officially bug-free! At long last, we were pretty excited about this, and it really added to the good mood we were in already. Anyway, after that we both changed into our bathing suits, grabbed some sunscreen, and headed out back.

I really wasn't watching the time for most of this, but we spent at least the next couple of hours just having fun swimming, talking and laughing about life and what we were feeling, trying to balance on the pool floating, listening to music, smoking more bowls of cannabis, and so on.... It was a lot of fun, and despite us all being on fairly different substances, and me not even on something from the same class as them, there was no point at which I didn't feel as though we were all on the same wavelength. This really increased my feelings of how truly psychedelic-like the effects of 2'-Oxo-PCE are for me too, and I also enjoyed explaining these things to my two friends who are less educated in the realm of dissociatives. Finally, after some time we got out and started drying off, and I was the first one to back inside and change.

T+21:45 - Around this time we were back inside, dried off, watching cartoons we like, and waiting for some Mexican food we had ordered. When it arrived we all thought it was delicious, though B didn't manage to eat all that much, but still described herself as incredibly full and satisfied. By the time we finished it we were all pretty much passing the more intensely stimulated parts of our experiences, so we just started sinking into the couch for a bit and getting lost in our own thoughts or activities. B started talking to some people and playing games on her phone, A started playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the Wii U GamePad, and I started looking up some political news on the internet. At this time I could also tell that the mania common to dissociatives when used regularly was starting to kick in a bit more than I had ever felt it yet, but it was only to up to a level that I could compare to alcohol back when I was much newer to getting really drunk; for instance, rather than just sitting on the couch, I had my arms up on either side while backed in to a corner so I could look out towards everything, with a very dominant and relaxed sitting position and a big smile on my face, just a general sense of real confidence in myself and my current position.

However, I didn't really make much use of it as I was distracted with what I was reading, as this was one the news had just broke that Donald Trump shared classified information with the Russians the day after firing James Comey. I told A and B about it and we ended up turning the news on for a little bit and discussing it, before getting tired of the real world and going back to cartoons again.

T+23:35 - B was getting ready to head out at this time, waiting for an Uber driver to come pick her up so she could get some sleep for work. She seemed quite satisfied by how the day had gone, thanked me for everything, and then hugged us both goodbye and was off. I didn't really have much I still wanted to heavily focus on doing at that point, so I let A, who was now finally about totally down from his experience as well, switch to playing the game on the TV instead of the GamePad. Not too long after this, I fell asleep on the couch while watching him play.

T+29:35 - I woke up on the couch to find all the lights off and A sleeping on the couch in the next room. I took one quick sweep around the house to make sure everything was put up that needed to be put up, then headed off to bed.

T+32:45 - I woke up again but this time more fully rested, and started getting ready for the day. I did not continue taking any notes from this point, and I felt mostly down from the high, but I did still feel at least slightly tipsy for the beginning of the day.

In the end, I will say that I think that 2'-Oxo-PCE is a truly special drug, but it does have a couple downsides for me. First of all, while the body load does not seem entirely consistent and usually only lasts mostly for the beginning of the experience, it can be kind of intense and uncomfortable for me, and this is considering that I still have not reached a dose that has taken me totally into a hole. Second, there does seem to be a slight hangover for me, like I've heard of others mentioning for it and also 2'-Oxo-PCM. It's nowhere near as bad as alcohol's hangover, but it feels somewhat similar overall given that it picks up after the end of the trailing alcohol-like effects, and it just makes me feel sort of out of it or weird for a day or two, at least as far as I can tell so far. Notably, I've also had a couple random dizzy spells, like full motion sickness where I couldn't lean my head back without getting uncomfortable for a few hours since I started using this molecule, and that also makes me want to be a little more cautious. I don't think this one is entirely benign, which not to say that it's necessarily all that dangerous either, but I feel like at the least if I did it a lot it might kind of mess with my equilibrium. If it doesn't mess with you personally then I would say do whatever your heart desires, but I am going to be on the look out for these kinds of effects myself with future uses.

Aside from those things however, I think it is quite an impressive psychoactive. As I said, it basically feels quite a lot to me like first peaking and then plateauing on a strong psychedelic, then shifting into a more calmly manic and disconnected dissociative state, then waking up pleasantly drunk, and finally only having a mild hangover. I feel even more strongly about this now, knowing that the first phase also does mix quite well with others who are on actual psychedelics themselves, and am quite happy to have found such a useful molecule to add to my toolbox. It is absolutely one that I think should be treated with respect however, and I definitely will not be using it very often in order to keep this particular level of effect accessible.

So, until then, I will say farewell for now!

Exp Year: 2017ExpID: 110481
Gender: Female 
Age at time of experience: 26
Published: Aug 23, 2017Views: 7,467
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2'-Oxo-PCE (703) : Music Discussion (22), Multi-Day Experience (13), General (1), Small Group (2-9) (17)

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