Hey there,
Most call me Red. I had my first Salvia experience last night. I thik I smoked a bit too much. I pasted the body of an email I sent to a friend below:
"I can only explain a little of what happened. I lost between 20 and 35 minutes of time. I remember lying down after smoking with an intense feeling of travelling away. My only memory after that is "coming down" I heard a thought telling me "this is what you wanted" or "this is what you asked for" and was adament that I got what I was looking for. But, I projected back to the voice that "I didn't want this" or "this isn't what I asked for". At that point, with the voices (not really voices, though. more like living thoughts) still in my mind, I came back to the room. The lighting was way too dark. I was very afraid of the darkness! I managed to get to the light switch. It was tough though, between the dark and the plant effects, my sense of spacial relations was all screwed up. During the coming down when I was afraid, I made a mental effort to get myself straight, thinking myself out of wherever or whatever state I was in. At that point I thought I was only "tripping" for a few seconds. Like I said before, I was gone for between 20 and 35minutes. I am still having a hard time processing that. Obviously, I took a bit too much. I'm quite alright now though, roughly 1.5hrs after smoking.
This plant deserves serious respect. I intend to investigate further but with a slightly reduced dosage. On Dan Siebert's experiencial scale, I believe I had number 6 which was definatley not my intention. I had hoped for 4 or 5 but shot right past them. I'll adjust the dosage accordingly next time."
I think that when I was coming down or coming back, my ego had a hard time dealing with whatever I experienced which led to the fear and perhaps rejection of a kind of deep gnosis.
Just wondering what kind of insight others could offer into the nature of my experience. I must say that I am no more apprehensive about using Salvia again than I was for the first time. I feel that regardless of what kind of experience I have, good, bad or of varying shades of gray, I must accept what has been shown to me. If I can't deal with the larger realities at hand, I may as well stick my head in the sand somewhere and stop learning and growth. I look forward to hearing what others have to say. Thank you.
Happy trails,
Red
hey red, what did you use extraction or dried leaves? and how much did you smoke?
I used an extraction at around 1/20 gram.
I went back there few minutes ago. All I can really express right now is that I have never before experienced a love so deep. Further than saying that I met the Goddess would be pointless as there are no words.
Red
Yo Red... Welcome: Seems like you have indeed begun the dance with the Goddess :) --- That comment about the love you felt during your second outing (even while being apprehensive) shows that you are indeed an intrepid traveller willing to take a somewhat hard road in order to reach your destination... I say, well done, and enjoy the journey as well as the arrival,,,,,,,,,,,,,, sal
Yes, welcome to The Salvia Plane.
I've had the opposite as well in regard to the time distortions. I once thought I had been sitting on the floor for several weeks. When it turned out it was only 5 minutes in that...you know...that thing you use to measure. You mean time? Yea, that's it, in time. For a while there I forgot what that was.
:lol:
In the early 90's I experimented quite frequently with LSD, mesc and mushrooms. Unfortunately, my set and setting were more often than not misaligned with the power of those substances. I knew that to have a chance with Sal. would require better focus on what I wanted to achieve.
I must say that I am blown away by what I experienced today. As for tangible visions, I remember a tunnel of eyes before I was embraced by the Goddess. At that point the love I felt exploded through all senses I had faculty over. Coming down was visually pleasant but "afterglow" was quite a trip as well. I smoked a pinch of cannibus and listened to my favorite band: Tool. I had never heard the songs in the context that I heard them today. I picked up a guitar (which I can't play) and managed to keep rhythm (normally I have no sense of rhythm) for the whole album. What a trip!
I found exactly what I was looking for and so much more! I feel I must meditate on what I have learned and figure out what questions I need to ask next. Until I have figured this out, I most likely will not partake in the sacred Salvia.
thanks for adding to this thread and your continued dialogue,
Red
Hey Red you are correct about Salvia diserving quite a bit of respect... I'm not to sure about what you said about the goddess though. I am agnostic and as such shall share my views in that way (so please don't be offended).
Salvia is a powerfull halucinagen that hits you like a ton of bricks when it hits you. You really have to be sound of mind to do this, and realize that what you experianced was the reaction your body had to the chemicals that you introduced to it.
Don't let Salvia drive you insane I guess is what i'm saying, what it gives you is a good look at the chemistry and inner workings of your own mind. View it as that and that only. Now that is how I look at it and it keeps me very sound of mind and very happy and enlightened after each trip. You however can look at it any way you please just remember....don't let it drive you insane
Hyakitaki,
When I was younger, I danced on the frayed edge of sanityy. I managed to pull out and restructure my life. I now enjoy my life enriched with a family with two beautiful children and an extrodinary wife (who, as it turns out, helped save me from toppling off the edge.)
As with any psychodelic experience, one must be clear of intent of what one is seeking. However, I think that expectation of what an experience will hold can ruin an otherwise fulfilling experience. For example, had I gone into these trips in order to seek a goddess, surely that's what I would find as you might find the inner workings of your mind. On the other hand, when one enters the experience with an open mind, letting go of ego and any "anchors" to a percieved reality, perhaps only then can one enter the state of a truly deep experience. Unfortunately, I lack the verbosity (?) to communicate what it is that I felt and experienced. I can be sure however that it was real and every breath, grain of sand and molecule, known and unknown in our so called reality is a part of what I percieved.
By the way, I'm certainly not offended by agnosticism. And yes, my brain chemistry was certainly altered allowing me, I believe, to experience a different plane of being.
You may find the book Supernatural of interest. Authored byGraham Hancock it is an investigation into the roots of modern human conciousness and it's relation to the developement of spirituality and art. The link below will bring you to his site. The title is not yet published in the US, however, it can be purchased through amazon.ca
//http://www.grahamhancock.com/supernatural/
Red
Hey red, new on here.
I read your first post, and I can say I have experienced that exact same thing, many times, mainly with Sally D more than mushrooms though.
The voice that says 'this is what you wanted, this is what you asked for'. I can remember whilest using mushrooms I comunicated fully with this voice, along with others sharing my experiance.
On Sally D on the other hand, I 'projected' the same reply as you.
I also became an item of food being bought in a supermarket.
Did you see people looking at you, as if you were in a book, and then they put a drop of something on you (to them on the paper), and then you come to life, or is that just me?
Dave
Tunnel of eyes? Sounds just like the Alex Grey painting Collective Vision. I found myself buying one after a salvia experience. Check out his paintings One and Oversoul as well. http://www.alexgrey.com (http://www.alexgrey.com)
(//http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d199/TooStonedToType/collectivevision.jpg)
Dave wrote: "Did you see people looking at you, as if you were in a book, and then they put a drop of something on you (to them on the paper), and then you come to life, or is that just me? "
Well not exactly, I did see Alex looking at some paper, putting a drop of something on each of the eyes and I came to life. Probably not related to your vision. :wink: Welcome to The Salvia Plane as well.
Alex is a big fan of the band Tool. I've seen the band once. It was in Colorado Springs. Perhaps the worst venue in the world, being ground zero of the religious right. They didn't take me as far as The Dead have, but I seemed to have this old little nazi woman assigned to follow me around and make sure I didn't smoke anything - seriously. She was surely from the venue and not the band. If they play somewhere decent around here, I might go see them again.
What album were you listening to?
I saw the eyes but as a tunnel. I didn't pay them too much specific attention,but was definatley aware of their presence. Alex Grey's work is phantastic. I especially like the cover of Dr. Rick Strassman's book DMT: The Spirit Moleule. It features the tunnel of eyes and presumably one of th Dr.'s test subjects laying down.
As for Tool, I was listening to their most recent album Lateralus specifically Disposition and Reflection. Most of the lyrics on this album are just fascinating but for oour discussion here, I think Parabol and Parabola are most relevant. Thy lyrics can be found at: //http://toolshed.down.net/lyrics/latmaster.html
Interestingly, I am almost positive A. Grey did the internal album art for Lateralus. I've seen them twice on this last tour. Their performances were both phenominal. Let me first say that I generally don't enjoy a concert where every song sounds the same as on the album. That being said: they play a lot of intricate time signatures and fairly complex compositions which sounded EXACTLY as on their album. I was blown away. I wish I could see them at Red Rocks. The only show I saw there was Primus and Mike Watte (I think that's how his name is spelled) Primus was amazing of course and the show has subsequently been released as an album.
Red
I was at the June 5, 2004 Primus show at Red Rocks. Don't know if Mike Watt was there or not. Another entheogen friendly band. Although I don't think we smoked any salvia that night. I'll have to think a while though, I think that was the show they ended exactly as a full moon came out from behind some clouds.
Actually the video to Parabol/Parabola is downloadable legally at Tool's website. http://www.toolband.com/source/index.html (http://www.toolband.com/source/index.html) I would agree the song seems to somehow capture the entheogen experience. In the video the guy seems to find himself through the simple act of picking up a leaf. Which not coincidently was animated by Alex Grey - or at least the last part of it is. And yea, he did the art for Lateralus.
Thanks for the tip on the video. I hadn't seen that and WOW, I really liked the A. Grey animation.
I saw Primus in 95. I actually had an extra ticket and traded it for a motorcycle. I was living up in Summit County being a snowboard bum. Good times and my last psychodelic experiences (prior to this weekend) were had there.
Thanks again,
Red
It's been almost 2 weeks since the "breakthrough" experience. What is commonly referred to as the afterglow lasted about 4 days. During this timeframe my mind was racing. Synchronicity became readily seen. I learned quite a bit from my experience. A teaching plant indeed! The blackout I experienced was just as critical to my growth as the "epiphany". COnversations I've had with people in the last few months came flooding back with new meaning and importance.
The downside was that I felt the need to share with all of my friends what I had experienced. I must have sounded a bit like a raving madman or "jesus freak" (but without the jesus part). It took me a while to realize that I needed to temper my enthusiasm and speak in a less impassioned voice.
I look forward to further Salvia experiences but am not quite ready for the next yet. I am learning to "let go" as much as possible in this "dimension" first. I believe this will allow me to further my learning and open up new and unimagined realms to my conciousness.
Red
Personally, I hate smoking this stuff. I get further with tincture, and it lasts longer {about 2 hours}. I bought stuff that had been blessed by a curandero, and that really fucked with my head; I had to void it of his blessing before using it again, then everything went okay.
Smoking it is way too harsh; I can understand why the curanderos advise against it. I used to drop a lot of acid too back in early 90's {good for upping the objective potency of magic}, and I tried shrooms once {ooh, bad blackout trip}, and I smoked DMT once {pretty, but not much practical insight from it}. Salvinorin A is nothing like DMT, despite what some people say; nowhere near as visually intense, at least not for me. I've gone to level 6 smoking it {i.e., forgetting I'd smoked it and thinking I needed to smoke more, finding myself way out of my body, some nasty wind-tunnel/leaning effects, dissociation, etc.}, but aside from some depth perception distortions, auditory distortions and everything looking glossy, bulging and ultra-3D, I didn't see any visual patterns like with DMT or LSD; it reminded me more of a bad, uneventful PCP trip than anything. I see trails all the time, so I don't know if it had any effect like that.
Oral absorption changes things, mostly more intense visions and closed eye visuals, but still no major open-eye hallucinations or distortions. It's fun, but I get more fucked up eating pot brownies, and it lasts longer. It's a great short trip for quick insights, but it only takes me so far before some unrealistic self-doubts kick in. I also noticed that the emotional phantasmagoria is almost nil, compared to the peaks I can attain listening to intense music sober or while on pot or LSD.
I made some wine tincture with 4 tablespoons of crushed leaf last night, and I must admit though, it's a pretty hefty out-of-body, stretched-out trip. I was sitting in my room listening to the stereo, leaning back in my desk chair with my eyes closed, and I saw myself standing in someone's front yard; even eyes open I could still see it, and although I didn't lose all sense of physical location in my room, I almost had to remind myself where I was. The music was balloonish, and everything felt bulged, like I was a cartoon devil or vampire with a maniacal sense of predatory humor (I was listening to Avenged Sevenfold, which might have had something to do with it). I'm still getting that effect right now, listening to music.
I want to try it with 6 tablespoons, but I don't really want to have to rely on a sitter to get through it. I'm still feeling off-center from last night's trip as it is. Anyone else notice that? I always feel left-heavy when I do divinorum, and like my chakras are jammed into the left side of my body. I have to struggle to maintain my equilibrium. That's the only thing I don't like about it; nothing else makes me feel that way, and it makes me feel powerless. It takes me at least a week to fully get over that feeling; I don't see how those Maztec curanderos can do any kind of magic while tripping on it.
I can see how some people could get depressed after doing this stuff; there is a certain amount of low-level anxiety that comes with the residual hangover. People say it's not addictive, but it's the same tense, letting-go anxiety I feel any time I've ever come down off a really good drug trip. The most insidious thing is that it's a low level, creeping effect, which I can see turning into a subconscious anxiety that manifests later as depression. It would take a very self-aware person to catch it before it makes that sort of an imprint. I'm starting to understand now why that kid in Delaware committed suicide; he smoked it and lost his sense of self {the best reason NOT to smoke it}, and it imprinted him with withdrawal anxiety that probably exacerbated an already existing suicidal tendency.
I don't think that should be a reason to criminalize it, but it's something we should all consider. Everything has it's consequences, no matter how good it might make us feel in the present. I still see trails because of all the acid I did, and my brain's effort to mask the visual patternization has dulled my perception and memory; despite having perfect eyesight, there are times when I feel like I'm going blind because my brain is auto-compensating for that edgy, peripheral ebbing I see when my eyes are in sharp focus. Not what I had expected or what Leary raved about, but I have to smoke and drink occassionally to overcome that hurdle, along with some other perceptual problems that my LSD use has caused. To this day, I still can't work out with weights without having acid flashbacks. I'm also starting to have divinorum flashbacks when I work out, mostly sensory distortions from my bad smoke-trips {smoking it made me feel like a robot too, which was wierd. Anyone else get that?}.
Every time I use the divinorum, it leaves me wanting to do more, just like LSD did. I took the divinorum last night because after a month, the tension got to the point where another trip was the only escape. Even with the unpleasantness of smoking it, I got that pattern of yearning to do it again. I think this stuff has the potential to become the psychedelic version of crack, especially for smokers. It's only been 24 hours, and I already want to hit the tincture again.
I also get an ache in the back of my head and behind my ears the day after doing it; does anyone else get that congested feeling? I know it's not the alcohol, because I've gotten that next-day ache smoking it, and making a tea from it. Bass waves from the stereo are also making me a little nausious and headachy. Anyone get that effect?