Sacred Weeds: Salvia Divinorum

[TooStonedToType]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 6419921428

Video with Daniel Seibert and several researchers from Oxford attempt to answer some questions about salvia.

[SallyScot]

The Google Video is definitely worth a look if you haven’t already seen it.

I think someone’s put this together from my source material, which I originally released as part of a much bigger 'psychedelic' selection in the form of a BitTorrent download.  

I put the show out in three parts, splitting at the advert breaks.  The Google Video version has part three repeating at the end - a mistake.  It’s also not as high res. as my BitTorrent version.

My page with links to the BitTorrent version (and the Google Video) is at http://www.salvia-divinorum-scotland.co ... /index.htm

However, it has to be said the Google Video is much simpler to play overall, especially if you don't necessarily want all the BitTorrent download material, and/or otherwise don't want to get into all the BitTorrent technology.

[TooStonedToType]

Thanks, the end is messed up as you mentioned in the Google video.  Worth  downloading via bittorrent if you can.

[Zebedee]

Quite interesting but I'd have liked to have seen more reaction from Daniel and the author bloke, it all seemed rather rushed, more of an excuse for the presenter to get on TV.

A couple of things I noted, first off, the pharmacologist just struck me as a debunker  working for the big boys, downcrying the safety of SD and preaching the benefit of 'good ole' lab produced stuff, which btw we are almost certain that at least 50% of which most certainly ISN'T safe. Something else.. it seemed that the psychiatrist was unusually open minded about it all.

Another point of note, which I found to be of concern  :shock:, lol, was that Daniel struck me as rather jittery and incoherent (even before and after the experiment). I hope that's not an indication of what prolonged useage of SD is capable of.

[Azure Void]

I liked watching Daniel imbibe the salvia. He really had the look of knowing exactly what he was getting into, and kind of bracing himself for it, even if "bracing" meant trying to relax.  I was more nervous watching him smoke it than the other guy.

I agree about the open-minded psychologist and the closed minded pharmacologist. Also strange that the only real expert on Salvia there was Daniel, and it's kinda' insulting that his views were presented as less significant, ultimately, than those of the authorities present who never even tried salvia.

When the pharmacologist started talking about salvia giving a pleasurable quasi-delusional state; or that salvia brings on giggling the same as having a bit of beer; or that it doesn't cause REAL hallucinations; I kinda thought it would be really nice to talk to him after his first major breakthrough.

Daniel did say some good stuff about people being afraid to let go of consensual reality. Yes, there IS something else out there, and yes one does "remember" some of it as well.

The movie kinda' makes salvia look like a lightweight, which is probably OK.

[TooStonedToType]

I didn't like some of the conclusions I think the pharmacologist made such as salvinorin was a toxin produced by the plant.

I noticed a Sacred Weeds episode on amanita muscaria.  Similar format to the salvia one. I think from watching both of these videos, if I ever where to get involved in some type of research like this, the reserchers would have to dose as well.  None of these armchair cowboys should be allowed in the room.

[Azure Void]

I've found that even some of the very best thinkers (such as the biologist E.O. Wilson), have a bit of a flat spot when it comes to the topic of psychedelics. Salvia can show one another realm of consciousness/existence (like a place or other dimension) that one otherwise will likely never stumble upon. Those who've only known "consensual reality" not only may not believe any other exists, but they have no way of beginning to envision it.

Early on in my Salvia explorations, I remember being shocked to discover such a "place" existed, and also that almost nobody else even suspected its existence. I wouldn't have envisioned such a kind of beingness, because I had no leads, no related experience. I can hardly expect others who haven't crossed over to believe in something like "the other side".

Those who assume "this is all there is" naturally come to the conclusion that anything unlike "this" has got to be a distorted and inferior version of "this". But, it's not "this" at all, it's something entirely "else".

Here's a silly analogy. Those who think this is thet only reality against which all others are inferior distortions are like oranges who think bananas are pale, dried up, meaty oranges.

[Azure Void]

I wanna' add one more thing about why most "authorities" don't believe that salvia and other "entheogens" reveal other dimensions or conscious states to us. I think it's because they think, perfectly reasonably, that if such a significant thing existed (as other consciouss dimensions and spiritual experiences), than certainly the great achievers, great minds, and other pillars of our civilization would have told us about it!

I got a master's (in a liberal art no less) without EVER hearing of this stuff even once, at least not directly through my formal education. We are cultural beings and I think except for the very rare individual we are extremely concerned with other people and society in general. If our society, as we know it (most don't read Aldous Huxley's "Doors of Perception", or the writings of Alan Watts on LSD and the spiritual experience) doesn't take such things seriously, than we may feel they aren't really any more worthy of serious interst than are unicorns.

What people don't really think about is that the sorts of experiences salvia brings, and those that seek or partake in them, have been shunned or persecuted throughout history. The reason for this is that such knowledge of ANOTHER reality destroys the authority by which power is manifested by those holding the reigns of power in consentual reality.

Another way of saying it that those running the game don't want people to discover that it's just a game, and the master's control is only over the game. And the masters themselves certaintly don't want to discover this for themselves, so they vehemently reject and persecute the mere prospect.

But it IS real, as anyone who dares to know for his or herself can easily discover. Reality is much more than what the average uninitiated person thinks it is. As Terence McKenna put it, the thought of people going to the grave without ever experiencing transcendant experiences (such as via DMT or Salvia), is as sad as people dying without ever having sex, and it's probably worse.