DOSE:

3 hits

smoked

Salvia divinorum

(extract - 5x)

BODY WEIGHT:

167 lb

Here I will describe my first experience with Salvia as it occurred on the Big Island under the guidance of my mentor.

Date: Aug-2004

Mindset & Setting:

After a hike which lasted about 30 min up to a beautiful valley on big island, the trip back down revealed a small path into what my mentor simply called the bamboo forest. The hike was refreshing, my mind was clear, and the newness of the bamboo forest (I had never been in one before) was extremely pleasant. My mentor and I sat down on a log after walking about 30 feet into the bamboo forest. A natural resting place where the bamboo seemed to open for us to sit.

Preparations:

My mentor and guide handed me his small metal pipe and we filled it with approx 2 pinches of 5x extract impregnated leaves. Due to the size of the pipe being very small, I was un-certain I would be able to get the pipe hot enough, thus I used a little more then what was recommended because I was sure some would be wasted. To help with this problem I ‘pre-heated’ the pipe without touching the flame to the inside of the bowl.

Timing:

I took 3 full hits within a 3 min period. I held each hit for approx 30 seconds and took the needed ‘breathers’ between hits. At the end of the 2nd I began to experience the initial effects and at the end of the 3rd I needed to hand the pipe to my guide.

Added Notes:

I am a chi gung practitioner and was prepared for alterations in consciousness brought on by ‘serious’ psychedelics. Although the set and setting was actually perfect in my opinion, I also feel my awareness of breath helped ground my mind which allowed me a reference point for the Salvia experience.

Experience:

At the 2nd hit I began to experience the initial effects of the salvia which consisted of a noticeable “shifting” or “slipping” of perspective reality. I can best describe this initial perspective change as becoming cross-eyed for a moment, but then thinking your eyes are straight, but things still appear “crooked”. This slipping or shifting seemed to be amplified by the vertical nature of the bamboo. Before I could reflect on this for to long my mentor recognized this as “the window” and told me to go ahead and take another hit.

At the end of the 3rd hit this “window” I was experiencing as a slipping or shifting of reality seemed to fully open. As a matter of fact as I exhaled out the 3rd.I felt my next inhalation travel directly thru my chest, and this window seemed to fully open into a bubble of awareness that was expanding w/ each breath. This expanding bubble of awareness was extremely mythological in nature, and the perceptions coming in thru my senses took on extremely magical qualities. The texture of the bamboo the verticalness of it’s nature, it’s bending… my eyes followed trials between the stalks… and the ‘slipping’ of earlier seemed a full blown dimensional shift.

Up until this point we were both silent. I said at this point – “this is where the little people live”… and my guide chuckled and winked. (like a good guide should do!)

This is when I heard them. The wind started blowing thru the tops of the bamboo, and my attention shifted to the tops of the bamboo. The bushels of leafy bamboo heads. Talking to each other… in the wind. My body bent and flowed with the stalks waving in the wind, for I was listening in only because I had gone thru some type of identification process. (shape shifted?) w/ the bamboo.

The wind whipped words from bushy stalks leaning to and fro in the sun they were delightfully worshipping. Thus it seemed I was listening in on the conversations of the bamboo, whispering bamboo things in the wind. The most striking thing about this experience was the naturalness of their language. It was plainly evident, like my abstract language centers in my brain had been turned off, or rerouted to apply “language” to the interactive phenomenon occurring around me. The “Symbolism” of nature became much more then symbols or signs or abstractions. It became a very old language that I had forgotten how to speak. This experience lasted about 5-8 min.

After about 10 min (3 min after coming back to a reasonable state of mind) I took another 3 hits and looked up thru the bamboo into the warmth of the sun. My head again turned into the bushy stalks but this time I stretched to the tops of the bamboo and reached towards the light and warmth and heat of the sun. It is at this point that I will say I experienced some essence of the “God” of the plants. I also became aware of a larger tree behind me that seemed to have a consciousness bubble of sorts.

I talked at length about this experience w/ my mentor. He noted that the “God” I experienced in the light and energy of the sun is the religion of the plants. Thus it seemed God like because I was identified w/ the plants, I experienced the religion of the plants.

Exp Year: 2004	ExpID: 42912
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Aug 31, 2007	Views: 12,934
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Salvia divinorum (44) : First Times (2), Nature / Outdoors (23), Guides / Sitters (39), Mystical Experiences (9), Small Group (2-9) (17)