Hello endlessness,
I understand what you are inferring about dissociation from "normal life", as that usually leads to isolation, which is no good. My current approach to psychedelic use is pragmatic. If using drugs causes my perception of my quality of life to go down, then it is time to stop. The main problem with a pragmatic approach towards drug use is that my perspective is altered by the drugs. That extra variable makes my frame of observation even less constant than that of "normal" people.
Also I'm not sure about you, but "normal life" is not appealing to me. People who have no capacity for living in the now, living for future expectations. That is my current perspective of "normal" people. My entire life I have found it very hard to find like minded people. This often leads me to isolation, which I realize is a bad form of disassociation. But choosing the lesser of two negatives is still is not enough to get me going with the herd. I would rather start my own herd, or find one with a similar perspective to mine.
This is why I am so thankful for the internet and forums like this.
As far as phenethylamines I have experimented with the 2C family of research chemicals, as well as MDMA and mescaline. Though I have gotten a lot from these chemicals, I do not have much to offer anyone else beyond my subjective interpretation of my subjective experiences.
Anyway I gotta get going but I will post that video in another thread later today. (its a theory on how our universe may have come from nothing, total energy=0)
Take Care