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The Odyssey of Uplifted Being
Salvia divinorum, Changa & Hash
by Vuk
Citation:   Vuk. "The Odyssey of Uplifted Being: An Experience with Salvia divinorum, Changa & Hash (exp113317)". Erowid.org. Jul 3, 2019. erowid.org/exp/113317

 
DOSE:
  repeated smoked Cannabis
      Salvia divinorum
      Changa
      Cannabis - Hash
BODY WEIGHT: 64 kg
I knew I could expect something novel and deeply intriguing on my first coming to the Ozora Psychedelic Tribal Festival in Hungary because I’ve been hearing about it for a long time and couldn’t wait to sort out everything and actually go there for myself. Being of an open mindset in regards to new things and experiences I’ve dabbled with psychedelics and other, less ‘profound’ substances for over 5 years now. In that time I have tried various things in various different settings, most of which were of an ephemeral mental influence. Excluding of course mushrooms and 2 or 3 trips on acid which really left a lasting imprint. I could even go so far as to say that mushrooms specifically changed my overall direction in life and actually opened a few doors in my psyche, which led to my ever increasing interest and effort into understanding reality, people in it and of course myself. An organism I found to be much, much deeper and more perplexing in its existential experience of life and ‘the self’ than I have ever imagined possible. Even broke my smoking habit, which kind of amazed me at the time to the pure potential of the neurogenesis that the psilocybin contained.

Natural course of my psychedelic exploration led me to DMT of course and I have always wanted to try it but it was never available in my country, not even in through the streets or some shady underground hubs, which were kind of pushing it in terms of reliability and trust, but hey, I had to check if it even existed here. Suffice to say that my efforts failed and I left it at that for the time being. Now, coming to the Ozora I knew I could expect some freedom in regards to psychedelics and physiological choice of experiencing them if I ever wanted to. But as is usually the case with entheogens, I didn’t expect to be sent on the road they sent me on.

We set up our camp on a small hill just behind the Pumpui stage. Something fast-paced and funky always played there, usually techno or regular psytrance, unlike the Dome or Dragon’s Nest where chill washed the atmosphere in gentle sound waves. First few days were kind of uncomfortable cause we were there for the first time and didn’t know anyone yet. But by the 3rd day, we’ve made friends with people from surrounding tents and camps and the whole thing soon blossomed into a strange society of newly found crazy family from all over the world. And I am not even kidding, every if not every other tent had people from another country. I have never spent so much awesome time with so many different people from so many different places on Earth. It was insane!

And so, on the afternoon of the 4th day, a couple of us were chilling next to our tent outside under a thin, see-through cotton sheet we put above us to shield us from the sun. Right next to us, amongst the field of other tents and people was a big, thickly leafed tree. Our sheet was tied to it with one end and so it provided us with a lot of space and shade underneath it. There were 7 of us sitting beside each other, talking, laughing and enjoying the festival. It was maybe around 3,4 pm and it was very hot and sunny with occasional clouds cutting the light from time to time. Unexpectedly, a guy we met a day earlier, a dude from Tehran, showed up and offered us something very special indeed. He had a small leather pouch full of premixed changa, Afghan hashish and Salvia divinorum.
He had a small leather pouch full of premixed changa, Afghan hashish and Salvia divinorum.
Glancing at it, it looked just like any other random mix of maybe herbal tea or dry ointments. It wasn’t. And I would soon get as an authentic confirmation of that as I could. The guy had very soothing and pleasant energy about him, almost shamanic I thought to myself. With a soft smile he patiently and carefully filled a small, intricately carved wooden pipe of around 10 – 13cm with the mix.

Usually, I like to meditate a bit and prepare myself mentally for the experience before it commences. It helps to affirm that I am letting myself go to the substance, and I ask it not to harm me (if possible) and to show me the lessons I need to learn. This time though, there was no chance for any sort of meaningful meditation. The atmosphere was just too intense, and different colored sounds and vibrations came from all over the place. The pumpui stage was so close that not only could we hear the music from it, which was really loud, but we could actually feel the vibrations from the bass coming from within the ground. Still, I took a few deep breaths and tried to ease my mind with my affirmation before I started. I was very excited and jittery. Knowing and not knowing what to expect from the incoming experience, also a bit scared and apprehensive. I felt very eager and curbed at the same time, which is a normal reaction when one encounters changa for the first time I presume. Throughout the day we smoked weed and hashish and we might have drunk some beer too, though I am not sure right now. Even if we did, it was a glass or two, not too much. I know I was fairly clear-headed though a bit high from the weed. Other than that I was clear, didn’t take any prescription pills or meds of any kind during the period.

The taste was the first thing I noticed. I didn’t expect the smoke to be so stingy and specific, very sharp too. I took 3-4 deep hits with intermittent hold and release, for as long as I could. This wasn’t really very long. I wanted to retain the inhale for at least 30s than take the hit again then hold and so on. But the intense searing through my body and mind was extremely fast and intense and I realized I could barely support my body anymore let alone hold my breath. My happy friend was, of course, aware of this and he patiently waited to grab the pipe from my hands as it started to slip and fall due to my inability to hold it anymore.

I felt like a train hit me right in the forehead. Everything started to buzz and shimmer and huge swaths of energy flew through my body inviting me to experience millions of tiny light circuits which exploded in every atom within me. Immediately I started perceiving multi-layered panels and filters which consisted of complex geometry intertwining with absolutely everything. It didn’t matter whether my eyes were closed or open, I could see the overarching pattern everywhere. All shapes, objects, and people had sharp and accentuated edges and colors. Every tiny movement and change in overall shape and silhouette I could perceive was as if divinely arranged by some higher order of synchronicity.
Every tiny movement and change in overall shape and silhouette I could perceive was as if divinely arranged by some higher order of synchronicity.
It seemed as If I just awoke to the profound playful harmony in everything and it lifted my being in joy, the ability to attend this sudden and glorious masquerade. I remember thinking how strange it is that all of it is usually quite imperceptible when outside of this immersed state of being. I felt it was very similar to high doses of psilocybin but at the same time nothing like it. I tried to laugh but I couldn’t and almost exact with my next deep breath these vast and insanely colorful snakes, insects arachnids and reptiles of differing shapes and forms filled my vision, overtaking previous geometry with their gracious fluid dance. It had only just started and I literally couldn’t believe it already.

As if I were underwater and very drunk, slowly and clumsily I grabbed the small cloth right next to me, which turned out to be a random shirt, and placed it over my eyes while I laid down. I did so because I wanted to block out the outside world and sunshine, I wanted to be with and see only the visions that this journey was showing me. I remember everyone laughing at that gesture, which was expectedly quite weird to them but it seemed quite obvious to me at the moment. I wanted to be fully aware and present for this. There is no event of quite a such magnitude and beautiful intensity as this, not even on a festival. And missing it was not an option. Not like I could, even If I wanted to, but I wanted to make sure. Understandably, it’s very difficult for me to explain this, but ancient worlds spoke to me through dazzling forms and movement. The plethora of snakes and other rich life that squirmed, crawled, flew and ghastly moved in and around me displayed the most beautiful iridescent art I’ve ever seen. The skin of the snakes was imprinted with various patterns, glowing sigils and carvings which all looked absolutely stunning. And I had a feeling like I had seen them somewhere before. I recognized them they reminded me of Aztec, Mayan, Egyptian and other art styles and cultures throughout history which I scarcely knew in great detail yet here they all were. Some were absolutely novel and frighteningly unknown.

I am not sure now if what I saw was a rearrangement of my memory in this chaotic sea of happening or was this ‘the’ place, the source from which all those cultures and civilizations drew their art and inspiration from. Some sort of a collective hyperspace source hub embedded within the unconsciousness of life itself. It was astonishing to the extreme. Beyond the glorious dance of life that enveloped in front of me, I could see\hear\sense\think something of a quality that I could experience not with one sense but more of them in combination. It had a very synesthetic value to it. There was something of a higher principle which wasn’t really a thing but more of an all-encompassing archetype of sorts. And it spoke to me, through me and as me, trying to convey something about the nature of being. Not the concept, the idea, but rather the very essence behind it. It was interchangeable with time and creation and whatever the message was, I didn’t get it. Or I forgot, I am simply not sure anymore. I know only that the previous show with the snakes and everything was an integral part of the message somehow.

And then the snakes left me. All the flamboyant theater of psychedelic dancing subsided. It didn’t quite stop, but the focus of it switched towards the auditory experience. I found that I could hear every sound individually and follow it, amongst the sea of noise coming from everywhere.
I found that I could hear every sound individually and follow it, amongst the sea of noise coming from everywhere.
My ability to focus was way stronger than usual. I could hear the conversation that my friends and acquaintances engaged in crystal clear. And not only hear it, but I was also able to follow each person individually and understand what it was that they tried to say, along with everyone else in the group. Simultaneously I comprehended multiple conversations going on at once. This effect though didn’t last for very long. Almost immediately after I experienced it, sounds started to shut down one by one. It was as if all the people at the festival simply stood up and walked away while still talking, and so I heard this as a low decrease in the intensity of the sound.

Then the Pumpui stage disappeared. It was like somebody just turned off the music. I couldn’t even feel the vibrations from the ground anymore. Then, one by one, people who surrounded me started to fade too. In a few seconds, all the chaotic noise of a music festival vanished. I was left with only one sound, and it was the wind, gently blowing through the branches and leaves of the tree. And this is where the whole experience rose on a whole different, bizarre level. I had never heard more beautiful and more soothing sound than this mysterious wind. It thrilled me and amazed me absolutely. I was blown away by sheer serenity and calm and love residing in just this one simple sound. I felt sorry for myself for not being aware and enjoying this truth before. I’ve been alive for 26 years and I have never stopped to really, really hear the sound of wind and leaves. I thought I did, but it was made very clear to me that I had no idea. It seemed like I missed the biggest and most important thing in life for some reason. I wanted to shout and expand my newly found perspective to my lost and ignorant friends. The need to enlighten and remind them came strong and the fact of them not silently observing and listening to the song of the tree in awe, like me, came as a pure blasphemy and shock. In my heart, it seemed like one of the gravest mistakes one can make in the presence of such magical occurrence.

I would have gladly continued to gawk and admire the sound had it not merged with me and tore me away from reality. I just felt myself slowly becoming one with it and gradually, along with it, the world fell away. Like a cloak of mirage, it slipped off my mind and I could see clearly now. And so this is the part where it gets really, really strange and almost impossible for me to explain. Language as a tool fails miserably to transcribe my experience, but I will of course still try to convey some misshapen imprint of it.

As I converged with the sound, it started to rise in pitch and frequency, going so high that I heard crackling and tearing in my mind as, presumably, my brain tried to process what was happening or ‘I’ was tearing away from the organic matrix. On the wings of this ‘sound’, my reality shifted completely and I was experiencing the self in the farthest reaches of abstraction. I lost cohesion with my body and persona, and there was simply I that is the point, that is the wave, being carried farther and farther by the second. The sound became my being, my refuge within my own soul and with it, I was going somewhere far away. Feeling I have traveled an immeasurable vast distance, galaxies away, I became weary and sick of my journey. Moving at a speed that seemed faster than light, I could not take it any longer. So I asked the trip sincerely and truly to stop and release me of this wonder.

And it did. The moment I uttered the words to myself, we\it\I stopped, and I felt myself being dropped from my soundplane into a world for which there are no words. If there is an alien realm so different and incomprehensible to me, this would be it. I can try and give a grey glimpse of a shadow drawn from my primitive mind’s memory of it, but not only does it not truly represent what is ‘there’ but it barely scratches the surface. This is, of course, nothing new for anyone who has had a breakthrough on DMT and has visited this place, but the magic and immeasurable and inexplicable grand awe towards it never ceases.

An analogy I can give you is that of being dropped in the middle of a vast ocean from a plane high in the air. I felt myself falling and then slowly coming to a stop. The first thing that I noticed around me were these giant cubes of interchanging size and shape, that morphed and evolved constantly, never staying still. Their center seemed to grow outwards while the outside constantly collapsed inwards, akin to our representation of a tesseract, and they were both organic and mechanical at the same time. And this was only my perception of the things I could relate to and retain, yet of the insanely complex geometry around and within them I cannot speak of for I do not know how. These things were everywhere around me and I knew somehow that they were conscious. I had the sense they were doing something of utmost importance on a scale or value much grander than our whole planet.

In the distance, I could see shimmering lights and refracting forms of even larger cubical beings. There was no sense of up or down, everything was just present, everywhere. And then there were these other, light beings, I think is the appropriate term. They were floating around and birthed each other with a wave of a hand or a note of a song. They sang, or shouted, resonated somehow, I truly have no idea exactly, but everything about them revolved around creation and creation as such. They would meld and go into each other than retract and disappear but others would be born or reborn and the endless symphony of harmonic life coming into life never stopped. They spoke or tried to communicate to me, but I was so shocked and awe-inspired that I could only observe, for a very little while, and then be wrenched out from that place and be awoken in my body again.

I was confused as hell, but my first reaction was honest laughter to which everyone turned and started speaking to me realizing my trip has ended. I felt so humbled, cleansed and refreshed.
I felt so humbled, cleansed and refreshed.
I was at peace and I was reborn. I felt so light in my heart I almost cried. Then I laughed some more and started explaining my trip to everyone. I realized I had awoken with a renewed sense of respect, love, and compassion for myself and everyone around me. It was like a spark had ignited the torches of my soul which revealed our true inner power and potential and value that we as humans possess. I felt eager to help people and listen to their stories and journeys that they took. I felt like they were my journeys as well, in a very real sense. I felt that by knowing them, I’d know myself more than I could ever just by being with myself. And everyone seemed like a most precious treasure by just being themselves. And at that moment, I realized that we truly are a reflection of the infinite creation and universal being. That we are one mind, that didn’t take one road, but all of them, simultaneously, and we are living in a magical reverberation of this cosmic choice.

Now, whether this trip was in any sense real or not, I do not know. I know it had a very profound effect on me and pushed me into deep understanding and acceptance. I am also pretty sure that the trip itself, at the moment I experienced it was different not only in the stuff I didn’t remember to tell here, but the events and their sequence of occurrence may be different too. I tried my best to keep it unbiased and clean from my later experiences, memories, emotions, associations though I know I had failed to some extent. Nevertheless, it may not be about it at all. Maybe this place doesn’t exist as we commonly understand space and it could be just our mysterious conscious mind, exploring itself.

Regardless, the effect of it is undeniable. I lost my memory and understanding but my feeling of peace and humble compassion is still with me. And that should be enough to really start considering DMT as a tool for healing and not a drug. Though that will surely take some time, as things change and grow very slow, especially when they are good.

[Reported Dose: "Full chamber 10 - 13cm wooden pipe (5-6 deep, full inhalations)"]

Exp Year: 2017ExpID: 113317
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: 24
Published: Jul 3, 2019Views: 2,221
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Salvia divinorum (44), Changa (816), Cannabis - Hash (93) : Festival / Lg. Crowd (24), Entities / Beings (37), Music Discussion (22), Glowing Experiences (4), Combinations (3)

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