FREE ESSAY ON SALVIA DIVINORUM

SALVIA DIVINORUM

Salvia How To Smoke Salvia Divinorum by MSSAfter numerous attempts I finally came upon
what I call the Secret of Smoked Salvia divinorum. I will not discuss the subjective
effects except in a limited sense, but what I do wish to discuss is how one might better
feel these effects. First find a comfortable position, preferably sitting down in a quiet
environment. Load a water pipe with a full hit of Salvia, light and inhale as deeply, and
hold as long, as possible. A water pipe is the only tool effective for me due to its
ability to cool the smoke and allow for large volumes to be inhaled easily. While holding
in the hit it may be advantageous to poke out the left over ash/foliage and reload. Upon
exhalation take a couple deep breathes of fresh air then inhale a second hit as above.
Before taking another hit you may want to empty the water pipe of the left over smoke
from the previous hit by simply blowing it out since the smoke stales quickly and make
the next hit more difficult to inhale and hold for a length of time. Depending on unknown
factors, or insufficient inhalations, one may find it necessary to do a hit or two more.
Two deep hits has always been good for me, but I have unusually large lung capacity.
Those who are used to smoking are more likely to feel the effects of Salvia simply due to
the fact that their lungs are much better prepared to inhale a large amount of smoke. One
technique to use to bring in large volumes of smoke is to take a few deep breathes,
exhale all the air in the lungs and then inhale from the water pipe. One other technique
is to continue loading and smoking until you no longer have the coordination to load
anymore. I've tried this last technique before and it is really great for open eye
visuals. After taking the necessary hits close your eyes, lay your head back on a
comfortable support, and get your arms and legs in a comfortable open position that won't
require you to move after the effects have begun. When the effects begin one might have a
strong desire to open ones eyes or change ones position to reestablish an equilibrium. It
is important that you not do this. Lay perfectly still with eyes closed for the duration.
If you desires to attempt the experiment with eyes open I highly recommend staying still
as possible, having no moving objects in sight, and fixing ones eyes upon a motionless
object for the duration. The initial peak last for no more than three to five minutes
while residual effects may carry on for ten. With continued usage over time one becomes
more adept at both noticing the effects of Salvia and at exploring the new landscape. As
I continued using Salvia I reached a peak experience and now the visions are rather
mundane, failing in their once spectacular glory. The three most important factors in
feeling the Salvia experience are appropriate silence, lack of movement, and closed eyes.
I have found that a lack of dialog, either from other participants, or from TV is of
primary importance, but that instrumental music makes for a quite intriguing experience,
especially if 4 speakers are properly placed surrounding ones head. Since silence is such
an integral part of the experience I've conducted sessions with only one person
experimenting at a time. The participation of others during ones Salvia experience can at
times be a hindrance. If others are present when you are experimenting it is important
that they be as quiet as possible, both vocally and in their physical movements (no
creaking in chairs or traversing hardwood floors, heavy breathing, or, the hardest thing
for an observer to hold back, laughter). I've always required of other
participants/observers that they be completely still so as to cause absolutely no noise.
During the experience a new landscape is opened up, one without borders, and space can
appear to go on infinitely. Usually this landscape is one that can shift from one scene
to the next without apparent provocation and which resembles a rapid succession of
unconscious material forcefully trying to push itself into conscious awareness. If
someone makes a noise or speaks the vision may be lost or altered since the noise, and
where it is located in space, can still be comprehended by the conscious and rational
mind. This causes the mind of the experimenter, which can be quite conscious of two
realities at once, to become aware of the inconsistency between these realities, and this
can, and in my case usually does, disrupt the experience. What the motionless body allows
the mind to do is to slip deeper into the 3 dimensional nature of the vision. If the body
is moved the vision will often alter or slip away. In some way the physical body defines
the inner landscapes of the vision. My only way to explain this is to say that the
conscious rational mind retains awareness of consensus reality while under the influence
of Salvia. Since Salvia creates a non-consensus reality body movement causes a dichotomy
of awareness which can cause the mind to attempt a reconciliation between these
realities. Consensus reality often wins, causing the vision to dissipate, or at least
lose its convincing nature. This sort of dual awareness is also played out with sight,
which may be why many who attempt to feel the effects of Salvia, and have failed to try
closing their eyes, cannot. By having ones eyes open the mind appears to be unconsciously
forced to recognize one reality over the next and therefore cannot fall deeply into the
full Salvia experience. Of course this dichotomy of forces appears to be overcome
depending on how much is smoked, and obviously extracted Salvinorin-A forces consensus
reality to the wayside. The main physical effects that I have noticed are a feeling of a
rise of body temperature and a slight tightening of the muscles, especially in the hands.
I found that if I consciously focus on relaxing my body during this tensioning that I
would be pulled further into the vision. This fits into my theory of dichotomy. I've also
found that after the main effects have worn off short term memory may be slightly
impaired. For example, I kept forgetting about my lit cigarette in the ashtray. I would
lay it down and then, in what appeared a couple minutes, it would be completely burned
down to the filter. One may also notice an inability to recall many of the aspects of the
vision and may suffer from incoherent speech. The incoherent speech is very important in
attempting to interpret the experience. Just as in Freudian dream psychoanalysis the mind
make attempts to fill in the blanks of the vision with coherent structure, basically by
adding material to make the vision make sense. But the visions in themselves are
unconscious material coming up to a conscious level and this is very difficult to fully
interpret. When a participant comes down from the experience with me I remain completely
silent, allowing the partaker to speak freely without my interjections or my attempts to
make sense of what is being said. Let them freely speak, without the criticism of the all
to common laughter, and try to form a new mental picture from remembered material. Let
them have enough quiet time to digest what has happened so that they might come to their
own personal understanding. The main psychical effects seem to be a dissociation from
ones physical surroundings. One becomes aware of other surroundings and of communication
with alien, though not necessarily extraterrestrial or spiritual, beings. One of the more
interesting factors I have found with Salvia is its ability to cause laughter, sometimes
even uncontrollably so. Rarely have I seen fear from smoked foliage, but with
Salvinorin-A I understand it is common. Of course these are only my own observations and
I make no guarantees of the same effects for others. Two last, though not thoroughly
tested observations are that marijuana smoked beforehand interferes with the effects of
Salvia and that the effects of Salvia plateau, thereby requiring a rapid succession of
hits. I have yet to see if any other entheogen limits Salvia's effects. I look forward to
testing and hearing about others' experiments with smoked Salvia during Mescaline,
Psilocybin, Ayahuasca, and LSD excursions. It might also be interesting to try Salvia
(masticated or smoked) in conjunction with smoked DMT. I have personally tried a smoked
Salvia/5-MeO-DMT combination with highly dissociative effect on the ego (due to Id
influences) while keeping a sense of superego awareness. I became my superego aware of my
ego as it was being affected and effected by my id. You could also say I became my super
consciousness aware of my conscious mind being affected and effected by my unconscious
mind. Quite a spectacular feeling. Tripartite Being recognized as one. 
Bibliography
ME2001