Salvia Trip

Beginning experiences

Posted by Anonymous on 20/02/2012
Avg Rating:

I really became interested in legitimate uses for psychotropic drugs like salvia during an anthropology course on magic and witchcraft a couple of years ago. I've been researching and moving in the direction of trying it to enhance my own spirituality and creativity ever since, but it just didn't seem like time until recently. I did know that part of legitimate use is to approach it with gravity and respect.

I'm a regular pot smoker but everything I'd read said this was nothing like pot and I wasn't looking for a pot kind of a high anyways. Instead of going for potency, I ordered an ounce of plain old 1X dried salvia leaf. It was something like 20 bucks with shipping and figured that if it was on the weak side it would be easier to control the dose. For the first time user THIS IS ENOUGH. Hell, I can't imagine why anyone would need a higher potency and can't imagine how I'll ever use up all this!

I smoked one crushed up leaf in my bong, using a torch lighter, got a big hit of not very tasty but surprisingly mild smoke, and held it for a bit. Within a few seconds, I felt a heaviness and kind of meltiness as if gravity was trying to pull my skin down and then a sense of things dissolving into smoke. I had a vivid mental image of tendrils of smoke drifting up and swirling and unraveling, all of it the color of the objects from which it came. None of it really touched me - it was more abstract in my imagination - and it subsided from this intensity fairly rapidly. Still I was a little scared and shaken at how incredibly powerful even one hit was.

The next morning, I tried again, this time smoking two leaves and then laying down on the bed. The image of rising smoke came to me again, only this time, I was involved - if I let it, my body would have risen up and dissipated with it. I felt everything pulling upward and rightward (or to the north) but I was held rooted to reality by my head. I'd managed not to overdo the dose so I could hold myself there, though it required some effort. I remember thinking, "No I don't want to go," and a little bit of panic at the idea that maybe I didn't have a choice. It was a little scary to open my eyes and see everything so perfectly normal, because it meant this was all happening on some plane I don't understand. I was able to sit up and was pretty clear headed though a little shaken and feeling deeply introspective.

Even with this light and beginning experimentation, I've gained some profound insight. The core of not wanting to let go has been a hindrance all of my life and I believe this is the path in the journey toward resolving that. But another thing I learned about in anthropology is the rite of passage. Any profound initiation has three stages - who you are before and after, and more importantly, what you are in between. This is called the "liminal" stage and it's frightening because here ego is put to death to make room for the new. And I can't imagine that ever being a pleasant process.

Another thing to add, and this is my own point of view, in traditional use the powers gained through drugs like Salvia are intended for community benefit. I don't know exactly how that translates when adapting this principle from a shamanistic clan to modern society but it's an ethic I uphold.

Comments

1 Comment - Add

Posted by gary on 02/21/2012
Rating:

Amazing, your second-to-last paragraph holds an incredible truth that I've never thought about. This liminal stage you mentioned is what I'm assuming is the 'stage' everybody is in during the trip, ie; loss of the ego. But with me it's not just the ago, but the time/space continuum is lost or distorted. In actuallity I think it depends on the user, I don't consider myself a spiritual person like that so I couldn't really make out any substantial meanings during my trips (while in that liminal stage). For me, my trips probably weren't metephorical at all but it does make me think about reality. I often think reality is far more fantastical than anything else. In fiction, it is too easy, the user can create anything in his or her story. In reality, you never know what could happen.

Add Comment