DOSE:	few hits	smoked	Cannabis	(flowers)
	4.5 ml	oral	Salvia divinorum	(extract)

BODY WEIGHT:

260 lb

I first tried smoking dried salvia leaves with little effect on my body. I began to wonder if I might be a part of that small fraction that never reacts to salvia. After giving up on smoking I figured I would give it one more try and looked at different methods for intake.

The 10x, 15x, etc. extracts interested me, but then the emerald essence liquid extract really caught my eye. Here was something that seemed easy to take with almost guaranteed stronger and longer lasting effects. The price was a bit steep, but I wanted to try something new and if it worked I figured it would be money well-spent. I purchased the smallest bottle, 1/2 fluid ounce, and it arrived about a week later.

I was on break from school at the time so it was the perfect time to test it out. I followed instructions and took a weak/moderate dose (maybe about 1mL?) at first with almost no result. The next night I upped the dosage (1.5mL) and definitely felt 'something'. I once again upped the dosage to about 3mL and that time I finally started to see visuals and experience physical feedback from the drug. However, at this point my break was over so I was back in school. I had a bunch of extremely important and stressful garbage to deal with in school and for a time I actually forgot I had the salvia extract at all. Then came summer break.

I was cleaning my room and came upon my salvia, 'Oh yeah, I remember this stuff! I wonder if it's still good?' So I planned out a time to do it (at night) and decided that I was going to do a heavy dose and see how my body dealt with it. This time I took a few bong hits of marijuana about 45 minutes beforehand and did about 4.5-5mL of salvia. Whatever plateau I seemed to have been hitting before had completely disappeared.

I didn't even notice the change going from 'normal' to whatever high salvia induces at first, it was nearly transparent. I finally consciously realized something was afoot when I noticed I had been staring deeply at my bedroom wall for ten minutes and couldn't even see the wall! There were so many visuals being created in front of me there was no way to tell what was reality and what my mind was creating. I lay there on my waterbed unable to move, some unseen force was pulling me down from beneath and fusing me with my bed. I listened to my music for about an hour and a half, witnessing the glorious visualizations that my mind created to the music. Sound was not necessarily amplified, but I could focus in on the full range of frequencies in the songs without losing detail. I began noticing the most minute background noises, things that seemed so quiet it was as if the composer put them in as a hidden message that only 'insiders' would know about. These tiny details then became an integral part of the song and were just as outspoken as the overpowering bass beats that had always been there. The trip began to dwindle at that point and my mind was exhausted so I went to sleep.

After that I knew I had to try it again, but nothing was going to cut it unless it was as good as that 5mL experience. I looked in the bottle to see what was left, there was a good amount, but it didn't look like enough to do two 5mL doses. I debated a bit, and then gathered enough courage to go ahead and down the rest of the bottle, probably a bit less than 1/2 of what was originally there. Again I smoked marijuana before I took the liquid to be consistent with the last pleasurable experience I had. As I kept the liquid in my mouth I felt the effects much quicker than I had remembered it taking last time. I knew I was in for the trip of my life at that point and all I could do was take a ride.

The effects were still gradual, the change from natural state to hallucinogenic was just as transparent. This time the visualizations were an order of magnitude more involved, however, and gathered images from all regions of my mind and not simply distortions of what my eyes were actually seeing. Before too long I knew that nothing I was seeing was real and I might as well just close my eyes. I've read some reports here describing differences between open-eye and closed-eye visuals but never experienced such a difference first-hand. This time I could definitely see a difference. As I closed my eyes it was as if somebody had flipped a switch turning my brain on as millions of thoughts rushed through my mind simultaneously.

With my eyes closed my mind went wild, no longer restrained by sight, images from my imagination were streamed directly to my visual cortex just as if they had come from my eyes. I tried opening my eyes again but reality seemed so bland and dull, what I was seeing without the use of my eyes was more real, vivid, alive. The physical effect of being held down that was felt in my last trip was magnified greatly as well. It was as if somebody had tweaked the laws of physics for this time and doubled gravity. I felt my body sink into my bed but found it hard to differentiate between what was 'body' and what was 'bed'. My chest also felt heavier and I found it increasingly harder to breathe but felt no effects of oxygen deprivation so I thought nothing of it. There was an overwhelming sense of warmth as well, focused on my head especially, possibly from the over excitement my brain was getting.

This unbridled rush of images kept streaming in for about 2 hours and then finally began to die down. I can't remember any one specific image that struck me, but I remember having feelings of alternate realities and questioning things that seemed so concrete before. I wondered if some of the images that seemed so very real that were being brought up in the trip had actually happened. Maybe they were memories created entirely by my imagination and the drug and if so, how the hell was I to tell the difference?

Throughout all of these experiences I noticed no sense of hangover or undesirable lasting effects. In fact, those tiny details that I heard in my music while tripping transferred over to sobriety as well and now I can easily pick out those details which allows me to appreciate the complexity of the song without tripping again. The only problem I encountered was with the emerald essence and its harsh method of entering the body. Because it uses grain alcohol as a medium to keep it stable, holding it in my mouth for upwards of 10 minutes is definitely not a pleasurable experience. For about 24 hours after there was a soreness to my mouth, but that is to be expected and is documented in the instructions. Also, the green pulpy salvia material that is in the liquid can discolor things rather easily, even some plastics (probably a reaction with the grain alcohol actually). But, after taking these doses I can say that it was $65 well-spent as I found a drug more intense than anything I could have ever imagined and two experiences I will always remember.

Exp Year: 2003	ExpID: 25238
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Dec 8, 2022	Views: 286
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Cannabis (1), Salvia divinorum (44) : Alone (16), HPPD / Lasting Visuals (40), Music Discussion (22), Glowing Experiences (4), Difficult Experiences (5), Combinations (3)