Disregard Everything I say

DISCLAIMER: The only important source I am using here is my own experiences over countless trips and discussions with friends which may be completely different from your own experiences.

Dissociatives are a subset of hallucinogens which give a trip that is vastly different from a psychedelic trip, characterised by bizarre feelings of neutral detachment and dream like states this class of drugs is a close relative to psychedelics but still remains a completely different experience.

Although I would never try to argue that Dissociatives are better or worse than psychedelics it’s safe to say that they are generally worse for your health and much more simplistic in terms of the different mental and visual components attributed to them since the effects can be split into just 2 mental components and 3 visual components. However, the hallucinations and effects of these compounds should not be underestimated and allow you to go just as deep into the impossible as any psychedelic. Although I do not find them to be quite as insightful and introspective as a psychedelic experience they have helped me solve numerous internal conflicts and continue to do so.

Personally most of my experience with Dissociatives comes from MXE and DXM, two substances that I would highly recommend. Since some people simply prefer Dissociatives to Psychedelics I suggest that if you are only familiar with one or the other that you make sure to leave no unexplored territory within your mind and find out which trip suits you best.

Detachment:

All of the visual and mental effects attributed to Dissociatives stem from its ability to completely or partially block out signals to the conscious mind from other parts of the brain. Most Dissociatives do this by blocking what are known as NMDA receptors. These receptors are located at the end of dendrites on a neuron cell. The dendrites send messages to other neurons through these, but when a drug that blocks the NMDA activity is taken, they are partially or entirely blocked, causing a state of dissociation in the user as the subconscious brain begins to fill in these sensory gaps with entirely imagined hallucinations and dreamlike states. 

At lower states of disassociation this essentially feels like an obvious but still difficult to pinpoint feeling of detachment from the body, this is often described as:

• Feeling as though your body is autonomous despite still being under your control.
• Feeling generally separate from the external world.
• Feeling as though life is a film or a video that is playing in front of your eyes.
• Feeling as though you are looking through somebody else’s eyes.
• Feelings of impaired balance, hearing, depth perception and touch.
• Blurred and Double Vision.
• Increased music appreciation.
• Out of body experiences.

However at higher states of disassociation these effects increase until the user becomes completely incapable of walking or functioning in any meaningful way as they are completely detached from their own bodies causing them to slip into the famous dissociative hole. It’s generally here where the best stuff happens.

More Examples: here and here

Profound Shifts in Perspective: 

Another very common mental component of a classic dissociative trip is one of a profound shift in perspective; this generally consists of drastic changes in the physical size attributed to a person’s body, body parts, objects and the room around them.

Feelings of suddenly having an impossibly giant or tiny body are very common and can be quite an incredible experience. This feeling is known by the scientific literature as “Alice in Wonderland Syndrome” and can also be more specifically attributed to the room around you or specific body parts, for example feelings of having a huge head or tiny limbs are quite common. This specific mental component has limitless potential in terms of size and the feeling of being simultaneously huge and tiny or having a body that is larger than the entire universe is not unheard of.

More examples: here, here and here.

Closed Eye Visuals:

The closed eye visuals experienced during a dissociative state are perhaps the only common aspect that psychedelics and Dissociatives share, however they do still have many key differences such as the fact that dissociative visuals are much darker and less colourful with an actual sense of physical size and distance in front of your face that psychedelics do not offer. 

Whilst LSD and Mushrooms merely display the visuals on a flat veil in front of your face with out any sense of physicality, Dissociatives take you directly into the centre of them in a way that is much more hands on than psychedelics.

Dissociative visuals seem much more unchanging, solid and realistic than psychedelic visuals but they are not quite as detailed or complex. The closed eye visuals generated by MXE are often comprised of many tiny interlocking woven lines and DXM or Ketamine visuals are more like very solid versions of typical psychedelic visuals but with an awesome sense of size and space attributed to them.

Spaces

The spaces that Dissociatives typically pull you into are commonly referred to as “holes” and are a unique and fascinating aspect of this category of drugs. During a high dose trip it is very common to be pulled into a dark empty space with a huge monolithic shape comprised of closed eye visuals floating above, below or in front of you as it gradually zooms, rotates or pans into focus and is unveiled before your eyes at a very slow pace.
These spaces typically last 30 seconds to a minute before the person slips back into reality or into another hallucination. Common shapes and spaces include, giant blocks that span miles across, flying through caves and caverns made of closed eye visuals, giant black teardrops or rotating wheels and virtually any geometric shape possible.

These spaces feel very much like a real physical space when experienced and commonly appear to made out of hard materials such as smooth stone and metal which are not necessarily pleasing to look at but definitely fascinating.
Because these spaces are so impossibly huge great distance often has to be covered by means of flying through them when transitioning between these spaces, this travelling often feels as if you are floating silently on an invisible rail through a vast and empty black void on your way to your next destination. Other times the spaces are transitioned between by an elaborate unfolding and reshaping process that happens before your very eyes. 

Above is my attempt at replicating what it’s like to float through a simple generic MXE space. It’s impossible to get a picture of something like this 100% accurate however so you’re going to need to check it out for yourself.

More examples: here

Scenarios

Scenarios are only possible during very high dose trips and are particularly uncommon on DXM. These Scenarios are an intensely realistic component of a Dissociative experience that are often difficult to remember even mere seconds after experiencing them. These scenarios are completely spontaneous and can consist of almost anything but generally follow along the lines of watching autonomous people and entities that are usually going about their daily lives all whilst oblivious to the fact that you are watching. Dissociative trippers also commonly experience visiting landscapes, imagined environments and reliving obscure memories from distant parts of their life.

These hallucinations are generally similar to watching a film play out in front of your eyes and much more convincing than anything found during a psychedelic breakthrough but usually impossible to interact with. They are often downright neutral and ordinary or mundane situations.
The solidity and detachment from these scenarios is what separates them in my opinion from any entity contact or hallucinations experienced on drugs such as Mushrooms or LSD.

NOTE: As you can see this guide is much shorter than my psychedelic guide, this is not because there is less to experience with dissociatives but rather because these compounds have only 5 distinct and simplistic effects. however these effects come with an unlimited capacity.