First experience with lady salvia...

[Inner Paths]

Hi fellow nexians,

I thought I'd write up my first experience with lady salvia not more than 20-30 minutes ago. The dose was around 50mg plain leaf (weighed with my ebay mg scales) smoked through a glass spoon pipe. I loaded it up, went and had a shower to feel fresh and came back and sat in my favourite chair and put on some peaceful music by John McLaughlin's Shakti. A minute of slowing my breath and becoming meditative and I hit the pipe with a steady flame on the leaf for the majority of the hit. The smoke was fine to inhale in this quantity. Held in for roughly 20 seconds or more then I lower my mindfold for darkness. Here's my experience I scrawled in my journal as soon as the main effects had receded:

"The edge and tingle of salvia space. Twist, tunnel and pull to the right. Vague hints and a slight vision and intimation of children waiting to be picked up out the front of school at the days end. 2-5 minutes max peak effects. Subtle head disconnect from body - toffee apple headed man... Definite psychedelic edge to effects. Initial come on felt similar to changa/dreamtime blend with extra fractalling and tunnelling feel to it."

I was actually surprised at the effects I got from how much I smoked. I definitely enjoyed them apart from the initial first time apprehension when the effects first showed which is to be expected. I thought 50mg would have negligible to non existent effects, I was mainly being cautious with initial first dose in case I'm a softhead with salvia which begs the question...

Is the effects I got surprising for the amount smoked?

I guess this indicates either strong content plain leaf or that I am in fact, sensitive to salvia's effects... a possible salvia softhead?

I would love to hear any thoughts from the resident nexus salvianauts

 

[The Unknowing]

I've been smoking plain salvia leaf quite frequently these last couple of months. I grab a good thick pinch of the stuff (as much as I can grab with my fingers) and load up my bong (probably be the equivilant of 6+ normal bong hits)... then light up and inhale slowly. It took me a while to get used to such a strong hit even using ice in the bong.

Anyway I hold for as long as I can before I cough my lungs out, and by the time I stop coughing (around 30 seconds) I'm very disorientated, vision shows weird fractal-like shapes, I become objects within my field of view, my vision becomes 2-dimensional, or forget I'm human etc. This is normally accompanied by hysterical laughter for no apparent reason which lasts at least 5 minutes.

I love salvia!

50mg seems like an incredibly small amount of leaf, I'm surprised you felt anything at all.
I've had friends take large hits and feel nothing though, so there's definitely more to it than just dosage. Could also be smoking technique?

P.S. I hate it when people write their experience reports all poetic. It really isn't necessary. :?

 

[Inner Paths]

50mg seems like an incredibly small amount of leaf, I'm surprised you felt anything at all.
I've had friends take large hits and feel nothing though, so there's definitely more to it than just dosage. Could also be smoking technique?

P.S. I hate it when people write their experience reports all poetic. It really isn't necessary. :?

That's exactly how it was scrawled out in my journal. The salvia must have still been floating around in my mind a little so I'll shamefully blame the salvia for the bad poetics ... but truthfully it's most likely my fault.

Anyways, I was pretty surprised at the effects I got off such a small amount, when I exhaled after holding it in I didn't see much of anything come out so I must have gotten maximum absorption in my lungs. I'd give the experience a rating of A from Daniel Siebert's S-A-L-V-I-A rating scale on his sage wisdom website, a level 2.

I'm excited to explore some more around this level to get an idea of the territory before upping the dosage. It either looks like I'm a softhead from the get go or I have potent plain leaf.

P.S. It's great to see another Aussie salvianaut on the nexus OneEyeAscension, enjoy your travels in salvia space mate!

 

[gibran2]

It sounds like you took a very small dose and got correspondingly light effects.

As you increase your dose, you’ll realize how far you can go. (Very far!)

Starting low and gradually working your way up is a great way to develop a positive relationship with salvia – you’re on the right track.

 

[Inner Paths]

Thanks for the reply gibran, you're one of the salvianauts I was hoping to hear from.

It was a light experience, definitely not intense but definitive effects none the less. After reading so many posts online of people having to smoke multiple bowls of plain leaf to get mild effects I was surprised to get the level 2 effects off of such a relatively small hit... maybe I got lucky with the right technique, as I explained in an above post, not much of anything came out on the exhale smoke wise.

To tell you the truth, I was pretty stoked to get the effects I got off such a small amount of leaf, it means my stash will stretch out a whole lot more (salvia is pretty hard to come by in Oz), probably for years at the rate I'll chip away. Hopefully I can source a cutting at some point in the future.

I'm happy to stay in the lower levels for now (and in combination with meditation and possibly AVS mind machines), I probably won't venture past level 3 if I can help it for a long while. I want to do the slow dance with Lady Salvia for a long while, I quite enjoyed our first dance together.

 

[Metanoia]

Glad to hear your experimentation with plain leaf. I find that it should be a prerequisite to the extract journeys that people simply dive into.

I enjoyed the somewhat poetical nature of the report, I won't give you anything but praise for an attempt at some flowery phrases

I'm not surprised at the effects from such a small dose, but I'm what you would call a softhead. It didn't begin that way at all, I found it extremely difficult to achieve effects in the beginning, even from relatively potent extracts. So tolerance usually falls with every subsequent journey. I probably would've found plain leaf rather useless in those days. Now I can breakthrough with one bowl :shock:

The sign of a good hit is when you don't see much of anything exhaled. That can be difficult to do with plain leaf, especially if you're hitting it like a madman as I do.

Glad to see this plant being treated with respect, and being explored. It warms my heart Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[Inner Paths]

Thanks for the kind words Dioxippus.

I was surprised to get such a pleasant experience from such a small hit of plain leaf. It felt like a nod from the Goddess to proceed with caution, as I am well aware that she is capable of some wholly unpleasant spankings across the universe if she isn't happy with the way you approach :twisted:

Speaking honestly, I don't really feel ready for a breakthrough experience at all at this stage, maybe one day, but I'm happy to work with the plant within the first three levels in conjunction with meditation and mind machines and see how far that will take me. I also read an interesting report on erowid of harmalas having a nice synergy with salvia, boosting and extending the experience somewhat (I am aware that it wouldn't be through MAOI though as salvia isn't an alkaloid) so that will be on the cards also, I have been having regular sessions with syrian rue extract and my mind machine with good results. Maybe after another handful of meetings with the Lady...

Anyway, thanks for everyones input, I'm happy that I don't have to do ridiculous amounts of plain leaf to get somewhere interesting, I want my stash to really last a long time as I plan on using her on a weekly basis for the furtherment on my path of awakening.

 

[Inner Paths]

Well, I just had my second go around with the Lady. I went for the same dose (50mg) though for some reason, maybe I drew in too hard, I could only hold the smoke in my lungs for about 15 seconds before I had to exhale.

Because of that I had a lighter experience in comparison to my first time, a level 1 (Subtle) on the Seibert rating scale. It was really beautiful though, very meditative, my fingers instantly started doing mudras with the music playing in the background (again, Shakti, which had a playful spirit to it this time round), the finger movements felt very sensual. I stood up about ten minutes in and felt very light and got the urge to do some random tai chi like movements which also felt rather nice

Mild dissociation as well, overall, a very nice, sensual experience. I had a subtle euphoria too. I could dance with the Lady like this on a daily basis for meditative, spiritual purposes with maybe a stronger experience once every fortnight or month. I also started a sage smudging ritual to set the mood before I take a minute or two to slow my breath and focus inward, something I will do each time now.

It definitely feels like I'm developing a relationship with this one, I'm enjoying taking it slow and frolicking in the shallows... one day the plunge into salvia land will happen but for now, the slow dance continues

 

[Metanoia]

I could dance with the Lady like this on a daily basis for meditative, spiritual purposes with maybe a stronger experience once every fortnight or month. I also started a sage smudging ritual to set the mood before I take a minute or two to slow my breath and focus inward, something I will do each time now.

This is exactly how I approach it, even down to the smudging

I barely need extracts at all anymore due to my tolerance being almost non-existent. When I do use extracts (once or twice a month as you said) it's a 5x or even a 3x I made. I could make a stronger extract like a 10x or 20x and only have to inhale a minuscule amount, but there's more of a danger of taking too much with that. I used to like to weigh out every dose but I find being intuitive about it is better for me somehow. I'm not a mathematically minded person so I'd rather just take a pinch and go from there.

I wish more people had this kind of patience that you display There is a lot one can learn from cultivating a relationship with this beautiful plant.

 

[Inner Paths]

Yeah Dioxippus, slow and steady is the way to go. I did a lot of reading here, at entheogen network and of all the sage advice (sorry for the pun ) from salvia gurus like Siebert, Pendell, etc and almost anyone with any kind of experience was stressing taking it slow with plain leaf, develop a relationship and I can see why.

When I step it up dosage wise I might do it by adding some flakes of 5X I made onto the 50mg of plain leaf I have been using. That way I am keeping my amount of smoke to consume low so the process isn't too tricky and I can focus on the ritual easier. 10mg of 5X on top of 50mg of plain leaf effectively doubles the dose with out too much extra material to take in. Once the reverse tolerance comes into play I imagine it'll get even easier.

I have read quite a few posts where people found low doses of salvia dysphoric and uncomfortable but not for me. I find it sensual, tactile and rather peaceful. A wonderful way to get to know the Lady and hopefully that will reward me for when I go deeper and I hopefully get treated kindly. Show respect and you get respect as the old adage goes.

As always, thanks for chipping in Dioxippus :thumb_up:

 

[SalviaDroid]

x20 Standardized extract is my favorite level I would have to say of the few I have tried.

One day I was kinda bored so I packed my pipe Symphony with some dried up foliage that had fallen from my plant. I didn't really expect much out of it; however, shortly after burning the bowl furnace red, it began creeping up on me much stronger than I had expected..

You wouldn't think that plain leaf could be so powerful, but I suppose underestimating Lady Salvia is probably one of the mistakes that has gotten some of us into unpleasant dilemma's haha ;D

PS: I wish I could meet Daniel J Siebert, he is my idol! **Fanboy**

 

[SpartanII]

It's actually surprising to hear you got that much of an effect with plain leaf. I seem to need extracts to break through.

P.S. I hate it when people write their experience reports all poetic. It really isn't necessary. :?

:? Hate is a strong word. If it bothers you that much, maybe it's time to check your ego?

Everyone has their own flavor when describing their experiences; if you don't like it, that's your problem, not theirs.

 

[Inner Paths]

Yes SpartanII and SalviaDroid, the plain leaf can definitely set you down the path into salvialand if the mind is receptive. I was certainly surprised I got any effects at all off such a little amount of plain leaf.

As for OneEyeAscension's comment on my salvia comedown prose, when I first read it I was taken aback but figured he/she probably didn't mean it to sound so harsh (it's so hard to read the tone of online text). If it was meant as it was read, no skin off my sack, ha ha. I was still in the afterglow of my first salvia experience so I was in a damn good mood.

Thanks for having my back though Spartan, much appreciated :thumb_up: