DOSE:	5 glasses	oral	Alcohol - Beer/Wine	(liquid)
	335 mg	smoked	Salvia divinorum	(extract)

Prior to a visit to Mexico, I bought some Salvia Divinorum because I wanted to understand the religious mindset before visiting the Aztec and Mayan ruins. I have been fascinated by these cultures since taking LSD at the age of 17 and seeing Aztec lizardmen (crocodiles maybe). The Salvia was marked '40x', a claim I was dubious about given the likely lack of regulation of legal highs. It was bought from a headshop for £20 (I haggled from £25) for an amount that I now know is enough for 4 experiences. I had also bought but not taken some San Pedro, because Peyote was not available (relevent later). My experience with hallucinogens at this time had involved one LSD trip, three mushroom trips of Mexican and Thai, one weak Morning Glory trip, and a lot of skunk/hash in my youth. I've also taken cocaine about 20 times, about 20 ecstacy pills, amphetamine a few times as well as ephedrine. I am 28, male, weighing 12 stone. I'm not on any prescriptions.

That night I had shared a bottle of wine and had 4 bottles of beer at a gig. I had sobered up by the time I was ready to smoke the Salvia. I was in a good mood but a little anxious about what would happen because of the horror stories I had read online. I put on some fairly light in my bedroom, laid a tie-die over the bed to make the room more visually interesting, and put Deep Forest on the hifi, the only spiritual-sounding CD I had with tribal singing in it. Because I was alone (a sitter is advised by the packaging), I tied myself to the bed to ensure that I didn't go walkabout and hurt myself. I tied my left leg to the bottom left corner of the bed and my right arm to the top right. Sounds silly, but I was glad I had done so later, and this strange preparation only added to the ritual feel of the experience. I leaned over to the side of the bed with my free arm to smoke the Salvia through a water bong, placed almost out of reach on the wooden floor so that I wouldn't knock it over later.

Peak Experience

I filled the bong and finised its contents in two long drags, holding the smoke in each time as I used to with weed. I felt the effects almost immediately and lay down in a mild euphoria with mild visual distortion most similar to the mildest effects of LSD. I was after a full blown shamanic experience, so once I had gathered my thoughts I filled the bong a second time and smoked a second helping in one long draw. This time, the effect was hardcore.

I got tunnel vision focused on the bong, then sank backwards, and 'reality' fractured with dark linear folds. The music became beautiful and enhanced the experience. The Salvia spirits (so I believed at the time) begun pulling me with fuzzy green arms covered in eyes to take me into their dimension. Their vague form was a green loop functioning as both head and arms, with a translucent body in between. They were playful, unthreatening yet determined, tugging with the music. The whole of my right hand side, the side they were tugging at, tingled pleasantly, whereas to my left hand side everything looked and felt normal, as if only half of me was in their dimension. I wanted the feeling all over my body, so I asked for it and offered my cheek but that didn't work. The row of spirits pulling me were themselves pulled by another row of spirits, and so on, in a relief-type hallucination. Their forms had materialised out of the background. My tethered leg and arm formed the line between reality and spirit world and prevented them from taking me, even though I wanted them to. 'Speak to me spirits' I said, and laughed. I was filled with the spirit of god, an overwhelming shining ecstacy that was sexual as well as divine. I have never felt anything like it. It was the most extraordinary experience of my life.

A fuzzy green spirit rose from my peripheral vision, and I greeted it as the spirit of San Pedro (perhaps he was someone else, unless San Pedro Spirit is friends with the Salvia spirits and wanted to say hello before my next planned trip!). The spirit studied me curiously as if it was making it's mind up about me, and was then accepting and friendly. The visuals were not as concrete as LSD, but made sense to me because I perceived these spirits as not fully materialised in my dimension. I closed my eyes and saw dark 3D scenes made from snaking tubes shooting past each other, similar to those in a mescaline video I had recently watched which indicates that the user's memory rather than only the drug could play a part in what is seen, perhaps even that the user can control what is seen. The most powerful part of the hallucination was my belief that the spirits were real. I have no idea how long the peak of the experience lasted. It felt like 10 minutes.

Comedown

The spirit then left and the salvia spirits faded away. The effects were then mild, as they were when I had taken my frst hit on the bong. I got some socially-conditioned guilt for having such a strong experience and wanted to sober up, so I can imagine how some people may freak out, but the desire for reality was not as bad as the moments of confusion I've had in a mushroom/LSD trip. At this point I resolved that it was a good experience not to be repeated. When I felt ready, I untied my hand and dozed for a bit enjoying the comedown. I had pressure marks in various places on my wrist, indicating that I had had been moving around in my euphoria, perhaps even trying to get up. Or these marks were from the spirits pulling me, depending on how you look at it. Given some of the nightmare stories on the internet, I was glad that I had tied myself up and I would recommend that anyone without a sitter does so, maybe even do so if you have a sitter because you are not in control of your faculties whatsoever during the peak experience. The bulk of the experience lasted about 50 minutes, estimated based on the length of the CD I had playing.

Conclusion

A visionary and euphoric gateway to the spirit world. The belief and emotional aspect of the hallucinations makes other drugs pale in comparison. The visuals were second only to LSD out of all I've experienced so far. I will probably do it again sometime, but not for a while. I wouldn't call Salvia recreational, it's powerful and to be used with caution. Given the low dose, it is hard to gauge how much to take so it should only be used in a safe environment.

Exp Year: 2008	ExpID: 72338
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Aug 6, 2011	Views: 11,422
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Salvia divinorum (44) : Alone (16), Music Discussion (22), Mystical Experiences (9), First Times (2), General (1)