As some of you may know, SWIM had his first experience with the sacred spice last night. The setting was in his friend's home with no one but himself, his friend, and his friend's girlfriend. Here's what he had to say.
"In the trip to the house, i felt a strange calmness in regards to the trip. I have only had one other disappointing LSD trip long ago and no psychedelics otherwise. I remember a distinct nervousness before the LSD trip and the prevailing nervousness also kept me from attempting salvia in the past. However, this did not exist before this trip. Rather, there was a strong 'calm' about me as I drove to the location in complete silence, preparing myself for the journey I was about to embark.
Upon arrival, everyone was ready to go. We had abstained from marijuana the entire day in order to remain clear-headed before the journey, yet it seemed to be the farthest thing from our minds. As we sat in his room, preparing the first cannon (i was going first), I still remained eerily calm even though I had no idea what was awaiting me on the other side. Once ready, the lights were killed and a light, transient playlist was queued up (thanks to whoever posted the Selecao playlist here
) We planned to allow full immersion by preparing the room in a way that the subject was seated in a what was essentially a large pillow-chair facing a blank wall.
The time came to begin my journey--I had purchased a new piece just for the occasion and we were using the parsley sandwich method. I eyeballed out what I later calculated to be ~20mg. Lightly vaporizing the top layer of parsley, keeping the dancing flame from igniting it, i slowly inhaled and held my first hit for approximately thirty seconds. I repeated with the second hit. I felt the world around me begin to form and shape itself, the material existences bending and twisting at the will of the gods and colors the auras began emanating from everything. By the time I brought the mouthpiece to my lips for a third hit, the vibration were so strong I felt as if I was being pulled between two worlds. I took the third hit, finally lighting the top of the parsley, but only gently to get a top-cherry burning. As I laid my head back and exhaled, I was lost to this realm.
I was swirling flashing colors everything. Spinning and twirling and flashing the most beautiful colors I had ever seen. All of a sudden things began to take a form. A backdrop of gold-outlined "cards" with a pitch black center filled the entire vastness of existence in what felt like a perfect circular pattern around me. While I was mesmerized by the colors portrayed before me, I felt that there was more to be reached by focusing into the black center rather than the gold outline.
Shapes began spiraling out of the wall, forming what looked serpentine made of smaller versions of the card backdrop. This serpent-card structure's colors included red, black, golden yellow, and white. Atop the head of the serpent was a head with ram horns and a long snout. The head seemed to have a feminine, inviting quality to it, although very distinctly animalistic with a greenish color to the snout and yellowish horns with bright yellow tips. The creature stared at me, as if trying to decipher who or what I was and felt to be trying to communicate with me. Its eyes held the same feeling as the black openings of the backdrop, but so much more powerful--as if it held all the answers I was seeking. It was at this time I felt a horrible nausea (shouldn't've eaten that protein bar just before partaking) and ended up purging into a bin nearby. The vision of the ram-serpent hung in front of me even as I purged, as if telling me that its meant to happen. I was able to pry my eyes open to some degree at this point, staring down into the trash bin and saw the whole twisting, astoundingly luminescent being pulsing energy into me as I watched it move so fluently. It appeared as if it were bound to this small bit of space in this world as I laid back and closed my eyes again.
I watched the colors begin to pull back and felt as if I, too, was being pulled back. A new backdrop took place, consisting of gleaming pale-yellow-to-white bars of alternating extensions and distensions. The bars appeared to be made of a high-gloss marble and shone as such. From this emerged seven angels looking to be composed of the same material. They appeared to grows from the wall, jutting out as if reaching out for me. I felt a song emanating from them as if they were trying to pull me closer to them. I reached out, trying to stay with them, but felt myself being pulled further and further from their reach.
As the angels fell further and further from my vision, i regained my ego and opened my eyes, but the sacrament had not finished showing me what it had to show. Upon opening my eyes, the entire worlds was vibrating with energy. Not in the same way the trip was in the beginning, but in a much more complex fashion. The auras no longer came from only material objects. Instead, I saw every bit of energy in the world flowing freely through me and through everything. I saw how connected everything was. This was not a new experience as this idea dawned on me long ago. However, I never could've imagined seeing it as it truly is nor understood it as it truly is had I not witnessed it myself. The energies radiated in the fluer-de-lis pattern, with the central point of each aura glowing a bright and strong red and emanating this energy out in perfect harmony with every other aura.
I sat there for a few minutes absorbing everything I has just experienced and watched the OEV's begin to fade. Once I was sufficiently functional to stand, I rose and prepared my friend for his journey."
The rest of that night remained a large question mark to SWIM. He and his companions spent the remainder of the evening discussing their adventures and philosophizing about the greater questions of the universe. He returned home late that night, looking forward to a good night's sleep and its assistance in digesting his experience. Even upon awakening, he still felt like there was so much more to his experience.
SWIM did some researching and found that the deity he encountered was the Mayan god Chac. He now believes Chac is meant to be his spirit guide into this higher plane of existence and knowledge. The feeling of uncertainty that SWIM felt after his adventure has been wholly uprooted because he has seen and felt the power and the meaning in this great sacrament. While he was previously frightened to take another journey, the answers he has found has prepared him to continue giving himself up to the power of the gods and to gratefully accept everything they are willing to show him.