Running Through a Haunted House
Diethyl Ether & Inhalants (Starter Fluid)
by o.0
Citation:   o.0. "Running Through a Haunted House: An Experience with Diethyl Ether & Inhalants (Starter Fluid) (exp29175)". Erowid.org. Jun 17, 2007. erowid.org/exp/29175

 
DOSE:
  repeated inhaled Inhalants (gas)
    repeated inhaled Ether (gas)
    repeated smoked Cannabis (plant material)
BODY WEIGHT: 135 lb
[Erowid Note: The "water extraction" method is ineffective in separating diethyl ether from the volatile hydrocarbon liquids/gases in "starter fluid". Our understanding of the literature is that there is no such thing as safe use of volatile hydrocarbon gases: their psychoactive effects are inseparable from nerve and organ damage.]

Being a long time drug user, having experienced intense trips such as DXM, and having one goal to try all drugs except for ecstacy, heroin, and meth/speed, and after seeing Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas multiple times, a few friends and I decided to try a bit of ether.

We started out one usual weekend day, getting a quarter of weed for a nice saturday afternoon. As we were talking, the prospect of ether came up, with it being so easy to acquire, we decided to try it. So after buying a couple cans of starter fluid from a gas station, we seperate the ether from the rest of the stuff, and make our way to our favorite tripping spot, a local abandoned building. So we make it to the building, a couple bottles of ether in our pockets, and what was left of our quarter rolled into a couple nice joints. So we get in the building, go in the basement, sit on a few barrels and pass the joints around, then we find an old shirt and make our ether rags. We all pass the bottle around and load our rags, inhale, reload, then all of a sudden, wham!

It's the most intense feeling I have ever had. At first I thought it was just the weed, but when this feeling stayed with me I realized I was on an ether binge. I no longer knew I was in the old warehouse, I had no clue where I was, all I saw was patterns, triangles and colors of shades of blue, moving rapidly back and forth. This goes on for a few minutes, I'm pretty sure I loaded my ether rag again and took a few more breathes of it, but I have no idea.

So time passes, and all 3 of us get the same idea, 'Hey, lets go in the rest of the basement where the old haunted house used to be!' Just to let you know, they used to run a haunted house here, although they hadn’t in a long time, this whole place is in complete darkness, no light whatsoever unless your by a window, I'd been through it plenty of times while sober, and I had a whole lot of trouble finding my way out, but I usually managed. Although we had no thoughts whatsoever about making it out now. So we charge in, running, laughing, attempting to keep up with one another and holding onto each others shirts, seeing crazy looking things all the time, I don't know what was real and what wasn’t, but we ended up using all of the ether and sitting down somewhere in the dark.

Then when the bottles were empty, we decided, hmm, we better get outta here, about now comes a giant blank spot in my memory with very few filled in spaces. I remember sometime going back to 'the shed' and refilling our ether bottle, then one of our friends went back to his house and we said we'd meet up later tonight. While the other 2 of us head back to the haunted house, with a fresh ether bottle. I have absolutely no memory of the next few hours, all I know is we were in the haunted house, running mindlessly through it, and I was seeing so many patterns, and tons of déjà vu, like stuff I remember imagining when I was kid. Then I remember making our way back to the friends house.

We somehow made it back, then went back to the shed, and began to use the last of the ether. We sat on the floor of the old abandoned shed for what could've been 45 minutes or what could've been hours. The only memory I have afterwards is running through somewhere where there was alot of plants and grass. Then I woke up in my friends bedroom around 7:30 the next morning, with my friend laying beside me and another friend in the next bedroom. We all woke up around the same time, and all agreed that we still felt the ether effects mildly. It was more like a Marijuana high. One of our friends had to leave for work, so it was just me, and the guy that lived there. We found another bit of weed and rolled a joint. We smoked it over about 20 minutes, and realized this was some nice stuff. I felt really high for the next hour or so as we sit in the floor and watched some cartoon about an octopus, which was highly amusing at the time. About an hour later I realized I better head home, I said farewell to my friend, and begin the 2 mile walk home.

I never thought I would make it, but I eventually did. I was still relatively high from the weed when I got home, and I could definately feel the ether afterglow. I don’t remember alot for the next 2 days. School was out for a break for a couple weeks and I was the only one home for the weekend. I remember feeling deep emotional feelings over different things, and sometimes feeling angry, and sometimes loving, although I don't know why.

After a couple days I felt completely back to normal, and realized how much ether I had done, and how dangerous that was. I have since done it a couple more times, but I'm done with it now. Ether is definatly not safe, and should not be done often. I may try it again in the future, but if I do it will be only one or two more times. I just stick to natural stuff and DXM nowadays.

Exp Year: 2003ExpID: 29175
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jun 17, 2007Views: 28,280
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Ether (131), Inhalants (29) : Hangover / Days After (46), Combinations (3), First Times (2), General (1), Small Group (2-9) (17)

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