DOSE:	2 leaves	smoked	Salvia divinorum	(dried)
	300 mg	oral	Pharms - Lithium	(daily)
	150 mg	oral	Pharms - Lamotrigine	(daily)
	20 mg	oral	Pharms - Aripiprazole	(daily)

BODY WEIGHT:

135 lb

This is more of an accumulated experience record rather than an isolated trip report.

Some background: I am diagnosed Bipolar 2, and every day I take 150 mg Lamictal, 300mg Lithium carbonate, and 20mg Abilify. I am very experienced with cannabis and psychedelics, and also have much experience with cocaine and many swallowed opiate pills. Prior to this last week, I had smoked Salvia only a few times, and had had unenjoyable ++ and +++'s, and a scary breakthrough that totally turned me off to the stuff for years.

Well, about two weeks ago, I was going through an old box and I found five whole dried Salvia leaves from several (more than 5) years ago. Now, I am one to ponder 'coincidence', so of course I felt like this was 'Life, the Universe, and Everything' trying to tell me something. So I made a plan to meditate for a while and then decide whether or not to smoke the leaves. I've actually been scared to 'go back there' with the salvia, but made the choice to smoke the leaves, one at a time, out of a wooden pipe, and I had a very pleasant +++ experience... it was new yet familiar. I felt like my consciousness was pulled back into a more primitive or undeveloped part of my being. I remember asking 'Am I ok here?' and the answer was 'Of course.' This experience erased a lot of the fear and trepidation I had about deliberately seeking out a +++ Salvia experience.

I had such a good session with the Salvia that I decided I wanted to get some more. I didn't even know if it was still legal in Oregon or not. (Turns out it is) So I went online and after some research, I decided that I'd like to grow some Salvia plants, not just order some dried leaf and smoke it; I'd like to be the plants' caregiver and raise them organically with Love, and also be able to have access to fresh leaves to chew as a quid. Also, seeing as how it looks grim for the plant as far as legality goes, I want to have my own plants under my care before (*if* oh please never never) it ever gets banned here.

So, in the last week I have acquired two Salvia divinorum 'Blosser' plants, and a few grams of dried leaf, and a glow-in-the-dark bong ;D. I have come to really enjoy taking a single bong pull with the bong's bowl full of just one or two plain dried leaves (no extracts needed over here thank you), it gives me a ++/ weak +++ experience. Taking a second pull really ramps it up to a +++ full-on immersion, which I'm still kind of learning to enjoy and integrate (very strange visions).

So, the single bong pull, for me, gives a heavy relaxed feeling to my body and mind, kind of like an opiate relaxation but without the apathetic contentedness. There is usually a little bit of visuals, like colors looking brighter and patterns standing out. I like to just take a bong rip and hold it in as long as I can, and then within about 10 seconds after exhaling, I begin to feel heavy and relaxed, and my thoughts calm. I just sit in my chair like a sloth, or this last time I just layed there on the floor after trying to play with the dog...

A second bong hit within a few minutes of the first one will put me into 'total coverage'. It is a sublime, not necessarily enjoyable +++ experience in which my consciousness and thoughts are broken down to their base elements, and I am left confused by it all. There just isn't words to describe it... every time I smoke, I have a habit of wondering how I can possibly convey this experience to somebody else... but honestly I should stop doing that and just go with it, experience it for me. There are no words.

Words of warning:

My suicidal tendencies increased after a scary experience!! -- My first time smoking salvia I had a breakthrough experience and it was very unsettling... my 'vision' was that I was in a class room or something and I had just taken off a mask revealing that 'our reality' as I knew it was simply a 'virtual reality' inside this mask I had just removed, and by smoking salvia here in this universe, I had loosened and removed the mask and returned to some extra dimensional reality, in which the teacher was scolding me for using the mask ('Hey, don't mess with that!')... I quickly put the mask back on, and 'came back' to our reality, very scared and unsettled, thinking that by being 'alive' here in this reality as we know it, I was in some way doing something 'wrong'...

This vision and my inability to integrate it (to this day, in fact) resulted in me feeling pretty depressed, hopeless, and suicidal for about a month... I don't remember how I came out of that depressive episode, but it was pretty bad and I want tell this story as a warning to people who are already inclined towards depression and suicide.

Also, on more than one occasion I have gotten to a +++ level and become scared that I had (finally) gone insane and that the experience was going to last forever and my family was going to find me sitting in my chair with a salvia bong, completely unresponsive. This is a silly fear, I'm working through it. The Salvia only lasts for a few minutes.

I've also been in the middle of a +++ and had a bad premonition or a thought that something bad was going to happen, and I for some reason will think that I'm having a prophesy and seeing the future and that this bad something is going to happen very soon, possibly before I'm done tripping (like the cops busting in, or a fire, or somebody hurting themselves). Again, utter nonsense. Silly fears. I am ashamed to admit: I never have a sitter (I am the only person I know who actually likes salvia), so this fear is one that I will have to address on my own, and be smart about things, and set up my environment for safety prior to using salvia.

I do not plan on seeking a breakthrough +++ experience without a sitter because I don't want to be alone if I become scared or unsettled; I want somebody to be there to remind me that I just smoked some salvia and it will wear off in a few minutes. And also there is an uncoordinated feeling that makes it hard to move gracefully when heavily under the influence of salvia (for me), and I'd like to have somebody there to keep me from wandering around unbalanced.

Conclusion:
In the last four or five days, I've settled into smoking a bong hit of salvia two or three times a day, spaced out by several hours. I wonder if I'm mildly or short term addicted to salvia right now, because I really like the mildly psychedelic and short lived nature of a low dose salvia trip.

I can't wait till my plants are a little fuller and able to be harvested... a fresh leaf quid experience is something that I would love to try.

Exp Year: 2012	ExpID: 95101
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 34
Published: Jul 2, 2020	Views: 692
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Salvia divinorum (44) : Combinations (3), Alone (16)