i had been most blessed to receive some very pure 2C-B in sufficient quantity for exploration.
my initial allies were the tryptamine plants and at some point realized that my true allies lie in the phenethylamine cactus kingdom.
i am able to hear the cactus speak very clearly, and our connection is far deeper than what i've experienced with other plants.
i have experience with various synthetics and used to hold the opinion that the plant spirit is an indispensable aspect of the shamanic experience.
it's easy to get snobby and say that only plants offer TRUE experiences.
after my first MDMA experience i have never talked down to synthetics realizing them as merely an extension of nature's creative power.
after trying what, for me, was a strong dose of 2C-B recently, i must admit i am very much taken aback by the sheer depth and utter holiness that 2C-B revealed to me. and yes, i said holy.
i experienced something i've never experienced before though with a synthetic: a presence, a spirit, a guiding consciousness.
LSD can no doubt reveal a substantial dose of holiness to your consciousness but i've never felt a presence behind it.
i felt apprehension as the 2C-B came over me.
i'd never taken this much, and am always a touch reluctant to going into a new dose with an unfamiliar compound.
2C-B can be quite "twitchy" and physically strong so i naturally hoped i would be able to settle into such a dose.
my lower doses, reflected what D.M. Turner described as a "speedy acid high, hardly worth mentioning."
lower doses feel much like MDMA mixed with LSD, though less intense.
this stronger dose felt more like MDMA or mescaline mixed with DMT. there was a "strangeness" that reminds me more of DMT than LSD.
also there was a presence which again is more DMT-like than LSD.
as i started peaking, i felt like i was stuck in a spider web. my arms and legs were going numb, i had no desire to move.
i distinctly felt an insect presence buzzing down on me.
i was in her web, she was distincly female.
i felt her stick her stinger into my abdomen and inject me with a warm love and i immediatly tasted 2C-B in my mouth. (even though having swallowed a capsule and not actually tasted it when swallowing.)
i felt poisoned, like she stuck me with her bliss-venom. my face got a little itchy, my legs and arms became more numb.
i knew i trusted the compound to take me so i relinquished my control and consciousness from my muscles and slipped into that vibrating warmth which had now overtaken me.
i distinctly felt a buzzing in my spine that reminded me of being a bumblebee.
i kept mumbling: 2C-Bumblebee, 2C-Butterfly...
i became the little child of that butterfly-spider presence that stuck me in her web.
slipping through worlds behind my eyes was seemless and natural as the boundaries between myself and the universe were dissolved
in such an intense buzzing, as if vibration itself was causing even matter to "unhook" itself and dissolve into the sea of energy from which it came.
all the while i was both intensely in my ego and intensely not aware of my ego. the "I" that watches never changed.
but i kept forgetting who "I" was supposed to report my feelings and perceptions back to.
as if the ego-vortex that usually relates all things back to itself was somehow letting every other thought "slip through the cracks" of awareness.
i reflected on how the south african shamans would use 2C-B in their rituals. they know what they're doing.
2C-B isn't just some random compound. i think it is just as profound as LSD.
it is a classic psychedelic, though simply not "old enough" to be considered so.
with DMT i feel a startling variety of presences that verges on absurdity at times.
what i like about Pedro/Torch is that you go back to the same presence every time you take it.
there is no randomness to the presences you feel, you are going back to the same ally you left last time you came.
i don't have extensive experience with 2C-B but the last few times i took it i felt a similar consistency to it's ally presence.
it feels to me exactly like a female mescaline. i think 2C-B is mescaline's sister.
in some very fundamental ways, mescaline and 2C-B are preaching from the same book.
i was brought to tears by how profound the experience was for me, and it wasn't even a very intense one.
it was barely a plus 3, and i only took 14 mgs.
i am very sensitive to most medicines and 14 mgs. was just enough to open the door so that i could get a full glimpse of what she is without falling over to the other side.
i was so moved by her sweet presence, i even saw that she was worthy of the title "sacrament."
if peyote is grandfather, and trichocereus cacti are his children, then 2C-B is a disincarnate soul-sister drifting through this dimension without the luxury of a physical body as the cactus alkaloids do.
she is the etheric presence of expansive love that is trying, however subtly, to lure this lost humanity back to the fold of divine peace and contentment.
i walked into my cactus garden as the peak subsided and gazed with reverence at all the pedros and torches and juul's giants and bridgesiis.
they glowed a touch brighter than any other plants in the backyard. they have more power in them than most plants do.
silently they said, "we love 2C-B too, she is ours."
granted, some phenethylamines may not have the glory of mescaline, not all are created equal.
but think twice before you call Bumblebee a party drug...the south africans called her "sacrament."
what do they know that we are missing????
approach her with reverence and devotion and she will reflect that love back 100-fold.
approach her with passing interest and distracted inattentiveness and she will certainly buzz and buzz but she won't speak.

a very beautiful, eloquent post there my dragon friend

I agree, eloquent and wonderful to read
still to this day I have no come across any of this sacrament
I am vicariously loving it

Wowsers, what a gorgeous wonderful poetic report regarding 2C-Butterfly, Dragon-nfly. Thank you for sharing!

I had similar access to a quantity of 2C-B a year ago, and my strongest experience was in fact on the smallest dose I had, just under 10 mg. It was far stronger than an experience I had on three times the amount of 2C-B, even though it was physically not so harsh. I didn't experience a specific presence with any of the 2C-B I had, though I did find it to be distinctly "male", so I wonder if your batch was prepared very specially (I do think the way in which it's made has an effect on the outcome) or if what you brought to the experience - reverence and devotion and an apparently warm personality - brought out the "personality" of which you speak. Also, if you don't mind revealing this, are you a female?

I did feel presences though - first the presence of all the elders in the psychedelic subculture and elsewhere who made such experiences possible - and the presence of a "strange man" who suddenly unpredictably came out of the blue, from my right, approximately 2 hours into the trip, and took control of my hand as I tried to scribble in my journal. The only thing I could write was "I am not currently in control of my hand". Your description of being stuck in a spider web is very close if not exactly what I felt with the "strange possessing 2C-B man". I also felt a strange shift in the gravitational field, almost like being pulled by two threads from a spider web coming towards the front of my body from the 11 o'clock and 2 o'clock directions (where noon is straight ahead). I've felt something similar from the mescaline in cactus brews, and it's reminiscent (though not frightening) of the very strange effects salvia has on the perception of gravity; radial and orthogonal gravity and the like. Does anything like this ring a bell with you?

Again, it seems you're bringing something very special to the experience that is bringing something special out of the 2C-B interface. What you describe is certainly very similar to what I've experienced and read about, but very unique. One more thing; you mention 2C-Butterfly as "speaking" if you approach it with the appropriate respect. The first time I took it (the very powerful possessed experience) I asked the 2C-B-containing chocolate if it was a good time to take it; this was approximately 2 AM and I was alone, a time I normally wouldn't take such a substance, but it felt like the right time. The response came out of the blue: "HELLO 'LYSERGIFY', WE ARE THE PHENETHYLAMINE FAMILY!", in a high-pitch, silly, almost smurf-like voice. Something there's no way I could've imagined previously. Dr. Shulgin mentioned that in the lab, he would generally have a good idea of the nature of a given chemical before he (or any human) had taken it. Almost as if the chemical's "spirit" (which you describe as disembodied, cool) filled the laboratory. Very strange indeed...

beautiful beautiful post

Awesome, so happy for you!

Thanks for such a wonderful response Lysergify!!
i don't know how to quote single sentences from your post so i will just copy and paste. if someone could tell me how that'd be great!

lysergify wrote:
"I didn't experience a specific presence with any of the 2C-B I had, though I did find it to be distinctly "male", so I wonder if your batch was prepared very specially (I do think the way in which it's made has an effect on the outcome) or if what you brought to the experience - reverence and devotion and an apparently warm personality - brought out the "personality" of which you speak. Also, if you don't mind revealing this, are you a female?"

i don't mind personal questions. i am male. though i have been meditating for several years for several hours a day. the significance of this is: meditation brings balance to the energies in the body and mind. this results, on a personality level, as male's experiencing very female traits of love and expansive compassion as a part of their own consciousness. deep female meditators experience, in turn, a comforting grasp on reason and impersonal wisdom. i have found that in meditation i experience on a daily basis the sweetest expression of the universe's love towards Her (His, whatever! silly words!) creations here, and have grown increasingly sensitive over the years to the subtle expression's of love that nature is constantly offering to us. this process in me was also, admittedly, greatly amplified by careful practice of MDMA consciousness in sober life. so naturally i am more prone to pick up on the female energies that certain compounds bring forth in the mind. though i don't experience ALL compounds as female so i'm not just living in an imaginary love bubble!!!!
to me it means something like this: male=wisdom. female=heart space
if a compound brings heart qualities forth in me, i call her female....like MDMA (Molly).
if a compound brings forth unfathomable wisdom in me, i call him male....like LSD or psilocybin. (though some call LSD "lucy"
if LSD is female than she is a BEASTLY bliss, she definitely doesn't shave her legs!!!!
of course this is all just general....merely for fun.
the fact is i do feel the "entactogen/empathogen" nature of 2c-Bumblebee along with the mind-splitting trascendental wisdom.
so Butterfly is both, really, depending on Her agenda in the moment. alas, she is just a reflection of us and we, whether male or female, are always a little of "both". i hope i'm not rambling!!

lysergify wrote:
" I also felt a strange shift in the gravitational field, almost like being pulled by two threads from a spider web coming towards the front of my body from the 11 o'clock and 2 o'clock directions (where noon is straight ahead). I've felt something similar from the mescaline in cactus brews, and it's reminiscent (though not frightening) of the very strange effects salvia has on the perception of gravity; radial and orthogonal gravity and the like. Does anything like this ring a bell with you?"

totally rings a bell. reading your phrase "radial and orthogonal gravity" gives semi-pleasant, semi-disturbing flashbacks of salvia!!!!!
when i'm really in that ego-flattened state, i am not really sure whence comes the forces of nature: up, down, or simultaneously here and there.
i haven't had much experience with 2c-butterfly so i can't say for sure.
to be honest i speak of allies and presences but i'm increasingly convinced that we are really just facing and interacting with our higher selves.
psychedelics can show you how much you ARE love. how much you ARE bliss. we tend to speak after the experiences saying: the 2c did this, the 2c did that. but really I did it. but not the narrow ego "I". the "I" that watches, witnesses, and blesses all experiences here as expressions of our eventual return to the eternal bliss that we are all seeking through these sacred medicines.
when we learn to approach life and all it's experiences with reverence and love we will find that synthetics, plants, and baked potatoes reveal that love to us!!!! forgive my preaching!! thanks for your responses again!!

A bit of research suggests that 2c-b is possibly a chemical found in the South African aya-like brew called ubulawu, which is generally made from 15-30 different plants, two of which are often uvuma and silene. Both silene capensis and uvuma have recent threads here at the Nexus. No one seems to be sure whether 2c-b actually is an ingredient within one of these 30 plants, or even if it could be the product of a chemical reaction during the brewing. Plenty of variation, too, in the making of ubulawu, including dream-inducing silene-only ubulawu which probably would not have 2c-b in it. But the experiences of drinking full-blown ubulawu and taking 2c-b are remarkably similar. Especially in talking to beneficient ancestors, or even God, about life.

Several years ago all these herbs were legal in South Africa, but evidently some of them are now scheduled there. For a time, some shamans actually turned to 2c-b (while it was legal)when they could no longer get their ingredients.

Would be nice to learn what all these different plants are and whether they can be grown here.

I think you, or the sources you read from, have misunderstood. Ubulawu nomathotholo (or just Ubulawu) is a Xhosa phrase which means "medicine of the singing ancestors", and applies to any plant or substance that enables the shamans to talk to what they believe are their ancestors. 2C-B was sold under this name in order to enable shamans that couldn't access such plants to still perform their rituals. There's no indication that any ubulawu from plant sources contain 2C-B. Even Silene capensis is considered ubulawu, and ayahuasca would be too if the Xhosa shamans tried it. 'Ubulawu' can be said to be Xhosa for 'entheogen'.


I find this extremely interesting. I think I remember reading or hearing something similar from Shulgin, but I can't seem to find where. Could you perhaps point me in the right direction?

Thanks for a wonderful report, dragon-n! I too find 2C-B absolutely amazing. It is actually Shulgin's favorite in regard to therapeutic potential.

Agreed, wonderful report, also thanks again to Dr. Shulgin for discovering/inventing/"incarnating" 2C-B. Shulgin mentioned this early on in the first half of PIHKAL; I don't have a copy with me but it's shortly after he meets Ann, when Ann offers her view that the plants/chemicals have "spirits" of their own, and that the chemist can impart some of his own "vibe" into the chemical. Shulgin replies that there is no scientific evidence for such a view, but offers his anecdote as a compliment to her view. Very charming.

thank you for adorning my post with such beautiful information, friends!!!
i feel blessed to be able to share and to be shared with!

it is a sacred chemical...

My only thoughts are:
Amen. <3

he probably meant that more metaphorically than literally.
he designed chemicals around a base structure, "spirits" likely refer to the chemical pharmacophores.

it is not a sacred chemical.

Nor any on this list or this one.

Nah I don't think he used the word "spirit" to describe it, that was my addition. I believe all that he stated (at least in PIHKAL) was that he had a good idea of the nature of a given compound before taking it, just from being around it in the lab.

I once had a conversation with an old LSD distributor who talked about how, when laying the dissolved acid onto blotter, he would wear protective clothing, but still, just from being around the poured acid, he would trip very strongly for days afterwards. He implied that his skin was protected from the acid, and therefore it was sort of a "contact buzz" he got from being around large amounts (well comparatively small but...) of LSD. I think this is very similar to what Shulgin was describing.

the only sacred chemical is water.
every other chemical is just a novelty

Careful there...TIHKAL contains an entry for DMT....and if that's not sacred nothing is. NOTHING.

Any chemical that is not harming the body or mind and brings one closer to the godhead is sacred to me.

TIHKAL also contains entries for psilocin and ibogaine, which tribal groups in (at the very least) Mexico and Africa would take issue with being called "not sacred". PIHKAL contains the entry for mescaline, which the Native American Church would definitely claim is sacred. There are plenty of chemicals in these books considered "sacred" by people around the world. Remember, sacred is a subjective and relative term that really can't be addressed in absolutes.

Not this again. Sacred is in the eye of the beholder..its a subjective status that is relevant to who it is sacred to and thats it. To say that something is not sacred says more about your personal relation to it that it does anything else.