The varieties of ecstasy experience a phenomenological ethnography.
Ecstasy (MDMA) has attracted widespread attention with its association as a recreational substance that is concentrated in club and rave settings. This paper outlines a phenomenologically grounded ethnographic study of the experiences of ecstasy users in the Sydney, Australia, area. I espouse phenomenology as a framework for describing and understanding these experiences. A number of excerpts are presented from my primary corpus of ethnographic material. For the purposes of this paper I assemble users reports into nine thematic areas (1) initial reactions and peaking (2) the rush (3) plateau (4) coming downscattering (5) love (6) peace, love, understanding, and respect (7) connections on ecstasy (8) unificatory experiences (9) returning to baseline. The typical experiences presented in these reports confirm and extend interdisciplinary approaches to understanding ecstasy. I suggest that a context-specific approach that is phenomenologically attuned to users experiences with ecstasy can contribute to the growing body of literature undertaken in the Australian and international research community.