DOSE:	7 glasses	oral	Alcohol - Beer/Wine	(liquid)
	80 mg	smoked	Salvia divinorum	(extract - 10x)

BODY WEIGHT:

140 lb

Background:

I had my first experience with Salvia a few years ago. A friend of mine we'll call J ordered an ounce of the dried leaves from an online vendor for about 25 bucks, if I remember correctly. When it arrived, I packed up my 2 footer and took a massive rip, holding it in for as long as possible as advised by J. At the time all I was looking for was a pot substitute and was pleasantly surprised at the effects. I went into a fit of uncontrollable laughter for about 2 minutes. I remember being able to coherently form sentences in my head, but when I tried to communicate them to J, all that came out was laughter. It was playfully frustrating! I was really trying to talk and couldn’t. Physically, I remember feeling a pulling sensation, and my depth perception being skewed slightly. I smoked the leaves a few more times, but eventually got bored with them. I hadn’t done any research on the plant, and had no idea what all it was capable of.

A few weeks ago I rediscovered Salvia. I was bored and was typing random thoughts/ideas into Wikipedia, a bad habit I picked up from my manager at work. Its all he does when business is slow. Through the Wikipedia page on Salvia I made my way to other websites and experience reports. I was amazed, to say the least. I thought this plant was just a pot substitute, not a portal to other dimensions! I spent the next few days reading just about all the salvia experiences and decided I had to take a journey into Salviaspace.

I am very experienced with drugs, but not psychedelics. I have done massive amounts of cannabis, but quit about a year ago. I have also done quite a bit of cocaine, MDMA and pain pills, and drink about 3-5 nights a week. I want to dive into the realm of psychedelics, but mushrooms and acid have always been difficult for me to come upon. I decided to order a gram of Salvia standardized 10x extract from what seemed like a good source. It was said to contain exactly 40 mg of Salvinorin A per gram. I ordered it up and waited 5 days for it to arrive.

The experience:

It was a gorgeous, clear night, and I was at a friend’s birthday party pounding PBR (ugh) out of a keg. I had told one of my friends/guy on the couch, B, about my Salvia purchase. He told me about his experience with 20x, that he morphed into all the objects in his room, and had an intense out of body experience. He was apprehensive about going back to Salviaspace, but the combined persuasion of me and the beer he was drinking convinced him to do it. We eventually left the party and went back to my apartment. I was pleasantly drunk, but by no means wasted. We set up shop on the back porch, which overlooks the pool. It is a small screened in porch with 2 inch wide fence-like posts going about waist-high up. There is little light out there, and the only sounds were the soothing splashes of the fountain of the pond behind the pool. I had my little honeybear bong with water and ice to cool the smoke. We sat down in my cheap, white plastic lawn chairs and got ready. We used a normal Bic lighter, though I have since gotten a butane torch lighter and will see what kind of difference it makes.

B went first. He took a big rip and held it in for about 25 seconds, and I could tell he was gone. Remembering the advice I had read on sitting, I stayed quiet while he tripped. When he came to, he told me he had become an umbrella/Ferris wheel like structure in which he made up the spokes. He saw “Mr. Dink” from the cartoon Doug, the guy who always had new inventions and what not. He said it was a pleasant experience and I was happy for him. The whole experience lasted maybe 5 minutes, and I was happy and excited for my turn.

I loaded up what I guesstimated to be about 1/12th of the gram, and took it all in one hit. I was counting in my head, and I got to 19 when I began to leave this world. I was sitting in a plastic lawn chair and I felt a strong force, like two big hands had me around the head and they were pulling me down. It wasn’t unpleasant at all but very strong. I was slouching at this point, bent over with my head between my knees looking at the wooden planks of the floor of the porch. I saw a few blue points form, and extend into thin tubes coming towards me. I thought this was really cool. At this point B said, “Bye, G”. My vision split into sections divided by horizontal lines and from the bottom up, one by one, each section started turning black. I wasn’t scared at all, and eventually blacked out.

I have no idea how long I was blacked out for. Time had completely dissolved. When I came out of my blackout, I was aware that I was at a very familiar house. I moved from Northern Virginia to Wilmington, NC about two years ago for college, and in recall it was definitely my parent’s house in Virginia. My “being” felt “spread out” at this point and I was “looking” at the front of my house. It is hard to describe, because it isn’t really like you’re seeing the vision, it’s more like you see/feel it. It’s a combination of senses or a new sense all together. The weirder thing is, I was “looking” straight at it, but it felt like it was behind me. It was very weird and cool, almost like looking through eyes in the back of your head at the same time as looking forward through your normal eyes. That’s the best way I can describe it, but it doesn’t do it much justice.

After thinking about it, the point of view from my vision was one that the large Bradford Pear tree about 1/4 of the way up my driveway from the house would have. This could explain the “spread out” feeling I had, and wouldn’t surprise me because in many of the trip reports I have read Salvia likes to connect you with nature. Although I am not sure, I think I may have been the tree. This is a tree I would climb and play around often when I was a kid. I have many fond memories of it.

I “saw” the garage door, the tall holly bushes, the port window above the garage, the pile of firewood, and the basketball hoop clearly. It was all so familiar. I then felt a strong and familiar female presence behind me. I came to the conclusion afterwards that it was my mom. She was speaking to me, but the “speech” wasn’t auditory. It was more like telepathy and was jumbled for the most part. What I can remember her saying was something along the lines of “It’s ok, you can go back.” After she said this, I felt two more presences, which were definitely my dad and younger brother. They were happy to see me.

It was at this point that I started coming back. I was flashing between the real world and my vision. I saw the porch, and B sitting there looking at me. For the first few switches between the real world and my vision, I had no idea what was going on, and was confused but never scared at all. When the switches between realms stopped I still had no idea where I was, who I was, or who B was. Then all of a sudden it clicked. I knew I was on my porch and had just done salvia. I thought to myself, “Holy SHIT! That was INTENSE!” I looked at B, and I started to remember him. When I could finally speak, I said, “B? Hold on. B? Wait. B?” He laughed and confirmed that he was indeed B, and that I was back. I was so happy to see and remember him, and with the experience I just had. I shared it with him and felt very euphoric. He told me I was gone for about 3 minutes. After a cigarette I went inside and went to bed, feeling a nice body high until I fell asleep.

I love salvia.

The vision was different than I expected it to be. I thought I would see it in the more traditional sense of sight, but it was still very cool. I feel that I prepared myself as well as I possibly could for the trip and went into it respecting the power of the plant, even though nothing can truly prepare you for it. I also feel that my setting, sitter, and overall mood were positive, and that had a great effect on the experience. I had read advice that this is not a good drug to try as your first psychedelic, but I had a great experience and am glad I ignored that advice.

Also, the sense of time loss feels different to me than I have heard it described. A lot of descriptions say that the vision feels like an eternity. To me, there just simply was no time, like the way time passes while dreaming. I had absolutely no concept of time during the vision and especially the blackout. I couldn’t tell you if it took a few seconds or a few years. There was no time.

I also believe that this is a teacher plant more than ever. I don’t keep in touch with my family as much as I could, but I do love them very much. Salvia took me to see them, and reassured me that everything was ok. I love this plant and my family, and will stay in touch with both.

Writing is definitely my creative outlet and it has been almost as much fun writing this as experiencing it. Thanks for reading. Next time I trip, I’m going to go back home and smoke it underneath the tree that I believe I was in my vision, and I will try and not be drunk this time. I wonder where that will lead me…

Exp Year: 2007	ExpID: 62607
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: May 23, 2008	Views: 6,801
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Salvia divinorum (44) : First Times (2), Glowing Experiences (4), Small Group (2-9) (17)