DOSE:

0.5 g

smoked

Salvia divinorum

(extract)

BODY WEIGHT:

200 lb

My wife and I had acquired 2 grams of Salvia Divinorum extract on a vacation trip to New Mexico. Personally I had tried this substance on ten different occasions, with absolutly no effects. Even though I was very skeptical of the effectiveness of Salvia, she decided she wanted to give it a try.

We waited a few days after we got back from our vacation to try it out. We were both well slept, and had only a single meal much earlier in the day. I had not taken any other medications, nor did I take a vitamin that morning. So, with the exception of nicotine there were, theoretically, no other substances in my body.

The little woman was having some fear issues as she did not know what to expect from the herb. Many of the experiences we had read involved rather unpleasant effects. So I was chosen to be the lab rat for this particular experiment.

In preparation to the experience, we cleaned up the house a bit. It always makes for a nicer setting to have a clean house. I lit a few honeysuckle candles, to give the room a warm inviting smell. I had chosen to play some Jazzy House, this being some of my favorite music. I had figured it might help in the event of a difficult transition. I took a few moments to calm myself, breathing in and out deeply and rhythmically. I smoked a cigarette, then continued the breathing exercises.

We prepared a brand new, clean glass pipe with 1/2 gram of the extract leaf. It had a very dark color, and was slightly damp. I am not sure of the company that manufactured this particular extract. Holding the pipe, I quietly waited for 5:00pm to tick over on the clock, in order to get a good time line. As soon as the hour hit, I began smoking the herb.

T -0:00:00 1/2 gram
I drew on the pipe very heavily, taking in as much smoke as I could without having to cough it all back out. The smoke moved very smoothly through my throat and lungs, it did not cause any discomfort, and I would say it is less irritating than smoking a pipe of Cannabis. I held the smoke as long as possible (approximately 30 seconds), let it out and took another hit of equal size. I held it the same length of time and exhaled only to fill my lungs once more. While I was holding in the third, I started to think that we had been taken for fools by the people who had sold us the Salvia. It was then that things started to happen very fast.

T+0:01:00
At first, it felt very similar to the onset of psilocybin only much faster. I was trying to tell the love of my life that I felt something, however, I am not sure I managed to get the words out. After the initial alert, the world started to look familiarly psychedelic. The main difference is that it kept getting more and more intense. My scope of vision was becoming increasingly distorted, and I was aware that I had a slight case of tunnel vision. It was within this time period that I noticed I was loosing control of my muscles. It was very difficult to move, and even more so to speak. My wife reported to me later on, that all she heard was some garbled noise when I tried to talk. This didn't bother me much, as Salvia has a fairly safe record of use.

There was a feeling of great pressure covering my body, almost like being held down, or moving at a high speed. It was an unpleasant sensation, but not too overbearing. The most distressing part of the onset was when the music started to break down. It sounded nasty, and evil in my ears. It sounded as though it was repeating the same 5 seconds over and over. I knew immediately I wanted the music to stop, but had no way to communicate this with my wife. Total onset time from alert to a full break from reality took approximately 15-20 seconds.

T +0:01:20
I had been looking at the entertainment system and speakers in our home, and it was all falling apart. Not just falling apart randomly, but breaking down at the atomic level from the bottom up. Suddenly, and without warning, they stopped their slow degradation and exploded into the quadrillions of atoms that made them up. The very idea that I could conceptualize, 'Quadrillions', of something was briefly fascinating, but was swept away with the atoms. The atoms suspended in the air for a second or so, and were then blown away by a strong breeze. I could not define the direction of the air movement, only that it was moving.

The evil music disintegrated along with the living room. This at least lessened my discomfort, although I was beginning to feel the beginning effects of fear. I remember this bothering me a great deal:

A. Because my experience with psychoactive has proven that un-checked fear quickly
leads to panic, erratic behavior and violent movement

B. Unchecked erratic behavior and violent movement can lead to serious injury, amongst many other bad things.

I had the feeling of being someplace else, no longer in the safe comfort of my living room. There was blackness all around me, I could not feel or move my body, I could not speak, only think.

As I thought, a large ring appeared to be just above where my head should be. I remember very clearly that there was a relative relationship between where the ring was, and where my head should be. It was constructed of extremely lustrous yellow and black stripes. The way they gleamed in the 'non-light' made them seem almost wet. The ring began turning, slow at first, but gaining speed steadily. I could feel the ring start to swirl the air around me, and it was starting create a small vacuum. The feeling of being drawn towards the ring was slight, yet increasing. The ring made more and more noise, until it was a roar of rushing air. I couldn't hear anything but that roar.

The ring no longer had the defining yellow and black stripes, it had blurred to form a bright white line. Drawing me ever closer, I began to feel a sense of panic at being drawn towards this high speed, 'something'. An even more distressing fact was the sensation of moving at an ever increasing speed. Then I felt the ring make contact with what should have been my feet. As my 'ethereal-self' touched the ring I felt every molecule in my being catch fire. Burning me to the soul. I could feel my brain burning, my bones burning, my eyes, every facet of the body, right down to the individual amino acids that build the proteins in our muscles. It was Spiritual, Terrifying, Exciting, Sad, and Happy all at the same time.

I could feel my atoms being broken apart one by one, in a dance of impossible physics. My brain begged for the obliteration to be done with. I cried out into the vast emptiness that held only this ring, to know.. To know what lay on the other side. Then it was done, as fast as it had begun. I had no form, or sense of direction. There was no longer a body to relate objects to. More importantly, there were no objects to relate a body to. I was moving at what felt to be some sort of fast speed. I could not tell how fast, as I didn't have a body to feel air passing. I just simply knew, somehow, that I was moving.

T +0:6:00
The darkness shook quite violently, and I heard something fading in from the depths of someplace familiar. Slowly, very slowly the words became clear... 'Ja...........Jason.......n you he......Can you hear me?..............Are you okay?' It was the voice of my wife. It was not urgent or frantic. Very calm, like a doctor waking you in the recovery room after a surgery. I started to see the beginnings of light in the darkness. It was not a point of brightness in the distance. More like the lighting of a dark room with a fader switch at slow speed.

As the light became brighter, fuzzy shapes began to appear and take the forms of the Entertainment Center, Speakers, and the rest of the living room. My head felt very fuzzy, and even though I could see and feel myself, I was having a very hard time speaking and moving. I had begun the experience sitting up on the couch, and in the process had slumped over on to my side. My arms flailed in vain as I attempted to right myself. I tried to talk again, and it sounded as though I had a large amount of flem caught in my throat. When I realized I could hear again, the music faded back in, still evil and perhaps more so than in the beginning.

T +0:08:00
I forced myself up right. Started blinking my eyes, which was actually a large chore. Kept thinking to myself, 'Have to learn to move again, and talk, must learn to talk.' It was very much just that way too. I was re-learning to move my body, and then to vocalize. The movements and sounds were all so unfamiliar. Like I had never done any of this before.

At first I bumbled my hands at my face, trying to feel myself. Trying to make sure that I was actually where I thought I was. Then I started babbling, incoherent noises, bubbling spittle from my still malfunctioning lips. I managed to get my head to face my wife, and finally got out one single broken word, 'WOW!'.

I kept repeating it over and over, and apparently loudly. My own voice sounded wonderful in my ears, and over the next minute I could speak just fine. Although movement was still a bit disorganized. I realized the music again, and blurted out to make it stop. My love quietly turned off the music and came to hug me. Then asked, 'Just what do you mean by 'WOW!' exactly.

Notes:
My wife kept a mental and written record of my bodies condition while I was under the effects of the Salvia.

T+0:02:00 There was a vast drop in the temperature of small extremities, particularly digits on the feet, hands, and the nose. A slight rise in heart rate and respiration was noted, but not enough of a rise to be a cause for concern.

T+0:03:00 There was an extreme rise in body temperature. Resulting in massive sweating, and a worried wife. Unlike most reports of hot flashes, this was an external report. My wife actually felt the heat radiating off my skin. There was no way to take an accurate temperature reading at the time.

Comments:
Salvia Divinorum is by far one of the most powerful psychoactive substances I have ever tried. It is absolutely the most powerful I have experimented with, although it is not very far ahead of Datura. The first try I had with it was not very eye opening and I had no great insights. However, I attribute this to my skepticism and how unprepared I was for the effects. I did do another lighter experience later that evening, and found the effects to be much more bearable, even if still slightly uncomfortable.

The duration of my experiences lead me to believe that the dosages we were taking must have been just above the threshold. All of them, without fail were 6 minutes from first inhalation and back to reality. It took approximately 1 hour to come back down to baseline, and I was slightly mentally fatigued.

Someone once described to me their Salvia experience as, 'Feeling like a squashed bug, very unpleasant. Never tried it again.' I find this to be a very apt description of what the initial onset felt like. Just before reality began to break down, I was paralyzed, and felt as though there were a very heavy pressure on top of my body. I suppose this is much what a bug being squashed must feel like. Still, trying it a second time, and even a third. I would have to say that while not recreational, Salvia does defiantly serve a purpose towards spiritual realization. My wife describes the foggy sensation as a dream like state. Almost as if she were having a Lucid Dream.

Exp Year: 2005	ExpID: 43849
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Aug 28, 2006	Views: 13,611
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Salvia divinorum (44) : Small Group (2-9) (17), First Times (2)