DOSE:

1 hit

smoked

Salvia divinorum

(extract - 10x)

BODY WEIGHT:

143 lb

Overview:
* Salvia divinorum: 10x extract, 1 pipe hit (5+ years old; did not seem to have lost potency)
* Setting: laying down with eyes closed in a quiet, dark room; astrology: no significant transits
* Set: prayer to the spirit world to support my highest good in the experience

I have smoked a salvia extract perhaps 20 times over the course of the past decade, and always documented the details of each session. While each experience was unique, every session had several common characteristics. The experience I had last night was typical (though by no means humdrum!):

T+20 seconds: Rapidly emerging awareness of being immersed in and part of an energy field.
I recall desiring, before I completely lost consciousness of ordinary reality, to reassure my sitter (a novice) that I’ll be okay and not to worry; with considerable effort, I gave her “thumbs up.”

T+30 seconds: Great stillness and amplification of inner experience.
Time seemed to slow down and then come to a halt; I felt a tremendous spaciousness in experience and a holy calmness washed over me. (I described this feeling afterward to my sitter as an attunement to Christ Consciousness, or the infinite intelligence of Universal Mind. My sitter, an intuitive, shared that during this time she felt her energy field suddenly begin “chelating” – activating with a powerful charge and moving up through her spine, as in a Kundalini awakening. I found her report to be a powerful affirmation of the intersubjective reality of my non-ordinary state.)

T+1 minute: Loss of sense of awareness of myself as an individual.
At this point, I had no recollection of who I was before smoking, and became simply awareness-of-energy-in-motion. There were no visuals associated with this sensation.

T+2 minutes: Who am I, and where did I come from?
After a minute or so of adjusting to the new reality of having become simply energy-in-motion, I tried focusing, to no avail, on the context from which I had entered this bizarre situation – namely, the individual who had smoked the salvia, the life he belonged to, and the friend with whom he was sharing this session. I had an extremely vague impression of what that context was, but couldn’t name names or even be certain that that impression held any salt.

T+3 minutes: What reality will I return to?
I became preoccupied with (and a little anxious about) finding my way back to the room where my friend patiently sat. It then dawned on me with great clarity that I no longer had any confidence about whose room, whose body, or whose friend my consciousness would return to. I realized that the context I “returned” to might be a completely different body/life/room than the one from which I had departed; that the new reality would completely replace the old reality once I re-emerged. Knowing this did not feel scary – on the contrary, I found it hilarious to the depths of my being and began laughing hysterically. I did, however, brace myself for the possibility of being shocked upon my return to realize exactly who I was and who my sitter was. When at last, after about 5 minutes in this state, I finally regained awareness of being in a body and in a particular spacetime coordinate, it took no small act of courage to slowly open my eyes and behold who I suspected was sitting by my side! To my relief, my vague suspicions were confirmed.

T+10-40 minutes: Tremendous peace and spaciousness.
After returning to myself (as I know me), for another 5-10 minutes my awareness was so spacious and full that I had no ability or desire to speak. I recall taking one full breath, and feeling every somatic nuance of that breath – it was the most wonderful breath I have ever taken! (According to my sitter, I appeared to stop breathing for several minutes during the peak of my experience. When she expressed that she’d felt concern, I told her, “I was outside of time; I didn’t need to breathe.” That wonderful, full breath I described is the first breath I recall having taken since about 1 minute into the session…) When I finally managed to open my mouth, all I could manage to mutter is, “Wow…” A sense of deep peace and spaciousness continued, slowly waning, for about 30 minutes after I opened my eyes.

An afterthought:
Could regular use of salvia (especially in small doses) be an effective treatment for anxiety and depression? I know of at least one study that suggests this [Hanes, KR. (2001). Antidepressant effects of the herb Salvia divinorum. Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, 21, 634-635.] My personal experience definitely supports this notion: for a day or so afterward, I feel extraordinarily peaceful, light, and clear. I have never experienced negative side-effects such as hangover or withdrawal.

Exp Year: 2014	ExpID: 104398
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 37
Published: Jul 17, 2020	Views: 1,902
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Salvia divinorum (44) : Guides / Sitters (39), General (1), Small Group (2-9) (17)