A shaman, Roberto de la Luna, with whom I was in corresondence confided in me one of the greatest secrets of all when working with these two plants together. The trick, he wrote me, is the timing. They should not be used simultaneously, but rather the Salvia (La Maria, he called it) should be quidded or smoked BEFORE the brew is taken so that there is no Salvia peak interfering with the brew. That way, the brews are gently overlaid over a baseline, barely noticeable, of a Salvia afterglow rather than a heavy disorienting peak.

When Roberto has the brew 45 min-1 hour after smoked Salvia, all the plants, he says, mix together for him harmoniously to produce intensely breathtakingly colorful, crystal-clear panoramic landscapes that remind him of the sweeping panoramic visions in Pablo Amaringo's "Ayahuasca Visions", where in every corner, entities were all at work doing completely unrelated activities, and he said you had to choose where to focus your attention because the vision was so complex. Fully formed landscapes appeared, he said, which normally did not occur with aya (at least not at such modest doses).

It appears that Salvia can act, in this regard, as a safe substitute for datura, another analgesic dissociative, that may be responsible for panoramic Amaringo-like visions.

And there is no urgency to understand everything under pressure quickly as with Salvia alone. The window to the spirit world is wide open, and the breeze just gently blows through, ruffling the curtains...

Smoking or quidding Salvia while taking the brew, he says, is too overwhelming, infinitely confusing, and can make the patient very confused about which of any number of multidimensional realities s/he is supposed to be in, if any, at all. Sometimes, he says, the realities will try to trick you as you pass through several. Then the reality that you think is the one you belong in will suddenly turn out to be part of a dream from the perspective of another reality, and then that one can become a dream inside yet another waking reality, which turns out to be yet another dream. This can go on to a point that is totally ungrounding and takes quite a lot of experience to navigate in a psychologically safe manner.

This coming totally ungrounded is not for the faint of heart, he said, and should only be done by experienced shamans with vast experience in the realms, and by someone who is intimately familiar with Salvia's tricks. Remember, he told me, Salvia alone is already very tricky and slippery. However, the method he described of predosing with Salvia and waiting until post-peak levels have been reached is more straightforward to navigate, and at that point has the feel of an ayahuasca experience, but might astonish one because of the "new and improved look". Furthermore, this makes incorporating Salvia into your journey free of the anxiety that is so typical of a Salvia peak without the multidimensional "slippage".

P.S. Likewise, Roberto points out that Salvia should be adminstered BEFORE a yopo experience as well, otherwise the two "clash" for dominance.

DRUID