First Time Experience
October 28, 2015I tried Salvia for the first time last night.
I am an experienced user of hallucinogens. I dropped LSD on frequent occasions when I was much younger, took mushrooms and mescaline, and smoked a whole lot of weed. I have not tripped for many years now, partly because it’s no longer easy for me to get ahold of the illegal stuff. Salvia is legal, and after reading about it I decided to try it. I secluded myself in my private apartment with the blinds drawn, sat down on my bed, and smoked a small bowl of 20x extract.
On the first inhale, I said to myself, “Now I wonder if this is going to do anything…” First I felt a little something, and then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I felt a little dizzy and immediately fell back onto the bed as I attempted to come to grips with the intensity of the distortion in consciousness. I recall saying to myself out loud, “Whoah. I just fell into a deep hole.” I am glad that I had experience with other drugs to fall back on before doing this because the effect was extremely powerful. I would not recommend it to a newbie, at least not the 20x extract I smoked.
For a minute or so I just lay there looking around. The periphery of my visual field was distorted by concentric waves, but otherwise I did not halluciate. I never hallucinated when dropping acid either, though, and there was plenty going on in my field of consciousness without without any visuals. It’s very difficult to describe the experience other than to say that my awareness was greatly heightened, especially my awareness of self and the existence of my body in the physical world. But people respond differently to these things…
At first I simply observed the effects of the drug on my own mind, but after a minute or so I got up and started rambling around the apartment unsteadily. I put Bloch’s Schelemo on at a high volume on the stereo and prayed that no one came to the door (I had turned off my phone). As I became aware of my physical being, perhaps from the effort of moving around, I realized that I was an animal, a primate with a long evolutionary past, and I went through a series of yoga postures. I found that I had recovered my balance, and focused on the interior sensations of stretching to the music.
This was immensely enjoyable, but the effect diminished quickly, so I went back to by bedrom and smoked some more. The second bowl renewed the experience with even greater intensity. At this point I started to be afraid that I had taken too much. I reminded myself that I was just tripping, and I was safe lying on my bed and the effect would not last very long. I just lay there listening to the music, breathing, and observing my own mind. Eventually, I smoked a small third bowl and meditated in a sitting position for perhaps fifteen minutes. After effect had worn off, but I was left with a residual feeling of self-awareness. I found it a little difficult to sleep later, and would not take Salvia again unless prepared to be awake for a while.
A mildly heightened awareness seemed to persist through today, and the whole experience as a whole produced certain insights about my personality and relationships with others that I will carry with me in my real life. These are the kinds of insights that one might hope to gain from psychotherapy. I cannot say whether they were an effect of the drug, the mediation, or both, but I attribute them to the trip having brought parts of my unconscious to the surface. The experience was worthwhile for the benefits of these insights alone.
Salvia is a very intense trip not to be undertaken lightly. It is also a powerful source of self-awareness. Treat it with respect, and it may reveal new things about yourself.
by Anonymous