DOSE:

2 hits

smoked

Salvia divinorum

(extract - 10x)

BODY WEIGHT:

120 lb

0. DISCLAIMER
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This experience report is exactly that: an experience report. It’s written from a subjective point-of-view. Words come short on describing the experience I’ve had; the only thing I can do is try to describe it. Since English is not my native language, it’s even increasingly difficult.

A. Basic information
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I’ll start with some basic information about myself. I’m male, 19 years old, and weigh about 120lbs. I didn’t have any experience with psychoactives before trying Salvia divinorum, but I do have quite some experience with alcohol and Cannabis.

B. Preparation
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Prior to this experience, I did quite a lot of research about S. divinorum. I first read about it about 1,5 years before trying it out for the first time. After having consulted various sources, such as websites (sagewisdom, erowid, some forums), some usenet groups, and some people who tried it before, I became increasingly interested in the plant and its effects. About a year before my first experience, I managed to buy a cutting of the plant, but it was too small to harvest any leaves. It growed very slowly, and after a couple of months the plant suddenly died. I therefore decided just to order some dried leaves, as well as some 10X extract. My plan was to try smoking some leaves first, to get into touch with the drug, and, if I liked the experience, to try out some 10X extract.

I told a friend about my plan, and asked him if he was willing to be my sitter. I gave him a copy of the Salvia divinorum User Guide (as found on Daniel Siebert’s website) and asked him to read it through. He had no problems volunteering, so it was just a matter of waiting for the leaves and extract to arrive.

C. Context
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Once I received the dried leaves and extract, I was very eager to try out this extraordinary drug, but of course I knew that it’d be better to wait for the right moment. The right moment came a couple of days later, when I was quietly sitting in my room, thinking about nothing and everything. I asked my sitter if he wanted to come along, so he came right away.

We were sitting in my room, I was sitting on the bed, the sitter (let’s call him X) was sitting on a chair in front of me. On the left side of the chair, there was a beanbag chair and a standing paper lamp. My desk was on the other side. The room was dimly lit by a desk lamp, and it was quiet. My bong was standing next to me, and I was planning to smoke some dried leaves, and then to lie down on the bed. We also decided to make an audio recording of the experience, since I was going to try and tell as much as possible about what I was feeling during the trip.

D. Experiences
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I filled up a small bowl with leaves (I guess about 0,2g of leaves), and took a large hit, which I could not keep in my lungs. I’m not a regular smoker, so I started coughing immediately. The second time, I did manage to keep some smoke in my lungs, but I didn’t notice any effects. I tried a couple of more times, but wasn’t able to keep enough smoke in my lungs to experience any effects of the drug. My saliva glands did produce much saliva, but I’m not sure if it was caused by Salvia-specific compounds, or just by the fact that I had inhaled smoke.

D.1. The first experience
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I then decided to try some extract, since I’d have to keep less smoke in my lungs for the effects to come up. I took a small pinch of the fortified leaves (ca. 0,05g) and put them in the bowl. I took a hit, kept it in for about 10 seconds, and breathed out, while still sitting down on the bed.

About 5 seconds after breathing out, I felt very weird. It was very difficult to speak, to find the right words; it seemed almost as if I had forgotten the meaning of some words. The whole room seemed to rotate, and horizontal became vertical. Objects in the room got a different function. The beanbag chair and paper lamp became one, and seemed to be the bottom stair of a staircase, or the bottom rung of a ladder. Note that I didn’t see anything different - there were no visuals or anything - but the function of objects, their meaning changed.

I seemed to shift into a different reality, and although my eyes still perceived the room around me, I didn’t remember about the normal (?) reality, such as having smoked Salvia, or having a friend sitting right in front of me. I seemed to have memories of some rules I had to follow, like some kind of ritual you perform before going to sleep (such as climbing the stairs, brushing your teeth,...). This ritual included climbing the steps of the stairs; the bottom stair being the beanbagchair-lamp-union, the second stair being my sitter on his chair, and the third stair, out of sight, since my vision was restricted to the left part of the room for some reason. I had known these rules forever, like they were forced on me by some friendly being a long, long time ago. I guess I must have been aware of the fact that someone was listening to me, ‘cause I tried to explain what I was experiencing, but wasn’t able to pronounce any words. I had a tingling sensation; not exactly in my body, ‘cause I wasn’t actually aware of my body on that moment.

After only about 15 seconds, the effects started to wear off, and I tried to explain what I had just experienced. It was very difficult to put this into words, and the effects hadn’t worn off completely. Suddenly I noticed that my sitter was sitting in front of me, and that he was a human being; at least the left part of his body (he had been the second rung of the ladder all the time, and the left part of the room still was the ladder/staircase). I asked him to move his right arm, to test whether or not he was still part of the ladder/staircase. He did, and suddenly the meaning of things became back to normal; their function was restored. We quickly noticed that I’d forgotten to press the Record-button on the recorder, so nothing was recorded.

I wanted to take another hit, because the experience was so dramatically different from what I had expected. My sitter proposed to make a video recording during the second experience, so we had more reference material. I agreed.

D.2. The second experience
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Quite soon after the effects of the first hit wore off, I took another pinch of extract, fired it up, inhaled the smoke and I lay down on my bed. After about 15 seconds, I exhaled. 5 seconds or so after exhaling, the second trip started.

In fact, it was very similar to the first one. Again, the functions and meanings of objects changed, and I experienced a staircase or ladder; the bottom rung this time being a Neil Young poster on the wall, the second rung being a lamp on the ceiling. This experience was somewhat heftier than the first one, since I felt some force pushing me down, pushing my mind into a horizontal world. I was able to perceive three dimensions, but I was only able to function in a plane. At this moment, the video footage shows me mumbling something like “it’s the same as before” and “but that’s impossible!”. I guess these are about the fact that the experience was similar than the first one, and that it’s impossible to climb the stairs, since there are no stairs at all, and I guess I was starting to become conscious of that fact (although “conscious” isn’t exactly the right word).

It felt as if my spirit was disconnected from my body (did I even have a body?) and even my brain (the brain is part of the body, remember?). As mentioned before, I did see my surroundings, but I wasn’t able to identify them, to give them a proper function or location, mentally. For some reason, I knew that I (not my body, but my mind) was inside of some air bubble in the form of a waterdrop, flying through a horizontal plane, while experiencing “horizontal” as “vertical”. It’s a feeling impossible to put into words - maybe some people who’ve tried Salvia divinorum may understand this somewhat better. After a short amount of time, I came back into this world, and the effects started wearing off; similar to the first time.

D.3. Experiences: conclusion
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Those two experiences were totally unlike anything I had expected, but certainly worth experiencing. I’d never thought that it’d be such a mind-shifting trip - that it’s even possible to forget about the world you know, and to KNOW certain things that haven’t been told, or didn’t happen in the “real” world.

It was very worthwile, allmost pleasant, and certainly extremely rewarding and interesting. I’d certainly do it again, although Salvia divinorum certainly isn’t for daily use - at least not for me.

A word of warning
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Although my experiences with S. divinorum were very positive, I can vividly imagine that some, if not many, people would consider her effects unpleasant, frightening or even terrifying. Be sure to do some proper research beforehand, and to try to get to know what to expect; although I can assure you that this was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced or expected.

Use it with a sitter, and when you’re feeling happy and comfortable, and use it in a comfortable environment. The experience will probably be quite overwhelming. Use it safely and wisely; it could be very rewarding.

Exp Year: 2008	ExpID: 69003
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Feb 27, 2008	Views: 12,812
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Salvia divinorum (44) : Small Group (2-9) (17), First Times (2)