DOSE:

1 cig.

smoked

Salvia divinorum

(extract - 10x)

BODY WEIGHT:

165 lb

I'm 50 years old and no rookie to recreational drug use. Once while I was discussing my infrequent, casual use of marijuana with a young friend, he mentioned that a local smoke shop sells Salvia. 'Let me give it a try,' I thought.

I purchased a vial of 10x Salvia at the smoke shop. I drove to the countryside to a beautiful, peaceful waterfall in the woods on a friend's private property where I go skinny dipping, drink beer, smoke pot and play my guitar. It was a hot summer day in July. I got naked and applied sunblock.

I was alone - mistake #1.
I had not done any research on Salvia - mistake #2.
My personal life is a mess (long story) - probably the biggest mistake.

I sat on my towel in the sun and tried to pack some Salvia into my 'cigarette pipe' that I use for smoking pot discreetly. I managed to stuff a little bit of Salvia into the pipe and flared it up with a butane lighter. I expected to get a little stoned. I seemed to catch a buzz and my right leg felt like it fell asleep. I realized the cigarette pipe wasn't going to cut it, so I rolled a little joint of Salvia. Salvia doesn't roll well - I folded the joint more than I rolled it. I lit the joint and took a couple of hits on it. I held in the smoke for as long as I could.

Holy shit! The sky began to grow dark. I felt like something was closing me off from the world above my head and covering the sky, like a dome covering a stadium. 'This must be what it feels like to be dying,' I thought. I felt disassociated from my body and from all of my preconceived notions of reality. I felt like I was losing my mind. I felt like I was going into a strange, dark world from which I would not return. 'Oh my god, what have I done?' I thought, 'Somebody please help me!' I curled up into a fetal position on my towel, put my head on the pillow, closed my eyes and waited for it to stop. Unlike acid or mushrooms, I did not see any visions with my eyes closed. Fortunately, the effects of Salvia do not last long. In less than 30 minutes, I began to get a grip on the reality to which I am accustomed. I took a sip of beer to sober up and ground myself. I took a swim in the water under the falls. The effects of the Salvia began to wear off, but I still felt (and even feel now) profoundly disturbed.

A female friend showed up at the waterfall a couple of hours later, and I told her what happened. I felt better sharing my nightmarish experience with a good friend.

While I did have what I consider to be the only bad trip in my life, I did learn something from it. As I wrote earlier, my personal life is a mess. I have been more self-destructive than usual, smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol more than usual. I can't go to my home. I can't see or communicate with my family. I am very sad and lonely at the moment, and I pretty much keep it to myself. This probably explains why the Salvia trip made me feel like I was dying. My experience with Salvia has enlightened me to balance of my life toward being more life-affirming than self-destructive.

I'll probably never do Salvia again. My experience with it scared the living shit out of me. Since it had a very powerful psychoactive effect on me, I strongly suggest that you only do it if you are with good friends and in a healthy state of mind.

Exp Year: 2008	ExpID: 72824
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 50
Published: Jun 11, 2020	Views: 658
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Salvia divinorum (44) : Bad Trips (6), First Times (2), Alone (16)