Salvinorin: The Psychedelic Essence of Salvia Divinorum
1996
Several days later I repeated this experience, using 500 mcg. of LSD, and smoking 650 mcg. of Salvinorin about 1 1/2 hours into the trip. Immediately after smoking the Salvinorin, familiar sensations began coming over me, however, these seemed gentler than usual. Within seconds the visuals turned into a continuation of the green plant/serpent/goddess I had seen during my recent journey. This first appeared as a large, twisted green vine that was growing, branching,twirling and intertwining itself in every which direction. The energy of this "plant" seemed very pleasant. I paid closer attention to it and saw that the vine strands were actually made of a continuous line of serpents that were biting each other's tails. Then, upon further examination, I saw the vine composed of fish biting each other's tails. As I noticed this it seemed that I was let into a secret, and into a new dimension of experience. These fish were seen doing loops, circles, and cascading all about in electric-psychedelic patterns. Many of the fish looked dolphin or porpoise-like. The feeling this vision evoked was both magical and funny. Thousands of these tiny fish were lightly biting on the entire surface of my body, producing the "needle-like anesthetic sensation" I've come to expect with Salvinorin. The sensation here was much gentler than usual and rather pleasant. Since I found the experience both cosmically meaningful and funny I said out loud "Green Electric Fish," and soon afterwards started laughing. I had a tape recorder running during this session, and later discovered I had spoken these words 20 seconds after smoking the Salvinorin.
One thing I noticed was that green, electric, and fish are three things which a human will immediately reject as being not-self or repulsive. When I saw the plants turn to fish I realized there was a close synergy between them. Both plants and fish have lived on this planet many times longer than humans. In living in balance with and very connected to the earth, they have developed an elaborate consciousness network, which I felt I had been let in on. These green-electric-fish, which represent what humans are not, were inviting me into their world, into their consciousness, and seemingly wanted to play. Soon I found myself in an underwater world. It was as though I had shape-shifted and was now perceiving through the eyes of some creature that lived in the sea. I saw a continual view looking through water. upward toward the light. The scenes that I was watching seemed extremely realistic. and changed at about the rate that a fish swims. At almost all times there was a curving, lens-like effect that looking through water creates. And I now think back on the "lens-like wave" I saw in my recent experience. There were visions looking up through seaweed as it gently moved in the ocean swells while light filtered down, intricate patterns created in the water by other fish swimming above me, and the magical intricacies of light filtering through water. The light always came from above.
With this journey I began noticing that the content of the Salvinorin experience is significantly altered if taken following the ingestion of another psychedelic. This theory has been repeatedly confirmed by my subsequent Salvinorin journeys, taken both with and without other substances. Normally when I smoke Salvinorin there is a tendency to almost immediately begin looking for a reference point, to start coming back. In my baseline state of mind I tend to have a firm definition of "reality." While Salvinorin temporarily breaks my grasp on reality, some mechanism in me begins attempting to reestablish a stable vantage point shortly after. I feel this is an impediment to having useful or enjoyable journeys on Salvinorin, and lately I have conducted most of my Salvinorin journeys while tripping. In the instances when I smoke Salvinorin while already high on LSD, I have been able to effortlessly float into the journey, and into the "Salvinorin realm" for a long period of time. This has provided much more meaningful and eventful experiences. I think this difference is due to LSD's property of diminishing the tendency to continually define one's ego boundaries. In later experiences I discovered that this combination is only useful if Salvinorin is used in the early stages of an LSD journey, while the ego is in a state of releasing its grasp. When I've smoked Salvinorin during the return stage of LSD journeys, when the ego is being reformulated, I've had some of the most negative experiences of my life, one of which is discussed below. The journey described above was also the first in which I shape-shifted and traveled underwater, a theme which has now repeated several times with different variations.