I agree, so little out there concerning Salvia...

Dioxippus, could it be that we had a conversation at the old edot forum (RIP) about the little white salvia men? Or rather boys...animals whatever you call them... ? Someone on there had the same avatar.

To give this some structure I am going to split the experience into several topics:

Onset: This is fast with sage, from inhaling the smoke to tripping in around ten seconds. I always have a tray at hand and make sure I'm sitting down before I take a toke on the pipe so I can drop it safely; the first time I was standing and fell over as if I had been poleaxed!

Bodily sensation: Is the same with any strength of sage I've tried. It feels as if someone has grabbed you by the shoulders and pulled you hard backward - only you don't stop falling - receding away from your body at lightning speed; the higher the strength of sage, the more vicious the pull. From then on if I concentrate on a body part it feels as if it is churning inside out constantly in a rotating fashion.

Visuals: At first this is nearly always a thin strip a bit like a zipper being undone, and I'm riding along it (being unzipped as well). The best image to describe this is like the one you sometimes get at the beginning of films at the cinema where you are going along a big dipper ride made of acetate film. The strip is made up of simple bright-colored bars; the colors remind me of the ones you get with licorice allsorts.* [Heaven footnotes this with a statement on Salvia's hyper-neon color motifs.]

Sage world: Eventually the scene changes, and I am in sage world. It reminds me of middle world at Mardi Gras in some ways but all the spirits inhabiting it seem to have an edge, a bit sarcastic and manic at the same time. They do talk but nearly always when I'm just arriving, they say, "Wuurp! Here he comes again."

At first I was happy to just look around and be there, but eventually I tried to use the experience as a journey - setting up an initial intention and so forth - and this is where the experience becomes more like navigating dreams. The first time I tried to call up my lower world guides I just couldn't think straight, I couldn't even form the notion of a "guide"; there I was trying to think (it felt like when you have someone's name on the tip of your tongue but can't quite recall it) and all the while the sage spirits are standing around taking the piss with me going shush at them: it was hilarious.

Eventually I worked out that sage world is a distinct world separate from the three we shamans usually use when journeying. Once I worked that out I found a sage world guide and operated as normal within it. For example, once I went there to get assistance with healing for a friend [who was] in the hospital to recover from an operation: it was beautiful, the sage spirit and I traveled to the hospital, and the spirit blew a greenish smoke over her body while she slept. Later she asked me if I had visited her while she was asleep as she had a strong feeling of my presence; her recovery was swift and without complication.

Back in the "real" world the sage experience lasts around ten minutes for me during which time my body is completely immobile. Once I come around, there is a period of about an hour where I'm still under a subtle influence of the sage, and other activities such as divining or shamanic healing are greatly enhanced. The overall "spirit of sage" is seductive, and I often hear a woman's voice calling me back. "Just one more, just a little bit further," she coos. If I give in and go again the experience is usually a little harsher the second time around. The most rounds I've done in one go is four, and the fourth wasn't any worse (or better) than the third. Usually though I just do one round, as this is enough to achieve my purpose for the journey. My preferred dose is 50x.

I was not limited to my body but within a field of energy that could expand as far as I wanted it to. I was sitting outside and could hear some people talking across the valley. My attention went there, and I seemed to literally be pulled to them. It was a completely physical sensation; I could feel an elastic stretching of my (let's call it) energy field extending to where they were so it seemed as if I was standing with them. I could hear them as if they were right beside me and to all intents and purposes I seemed to be over the other side of the valley with them. I wondered if I was actually there with them when what I took to be my honeysuckle said quite clearly, "You're right here right now."

...

I had a vision of an old-fashioned Bakelite radio, which was one I remembered from my childhood. I didn't feel as if I were that radio but the symbol of sound waves, transmission, and reception all seemed to fit with what I was experiencing. The analogy seems quite good for the experience; the radio is a casing with component parts for translating waves into sound. Sound was somewhat visible as the air was so dense that you could watch it rippling and moving as the sound waves moved through it. I remember now once hearing a cannon fired at close range, and the sensation was similar; the sound was visibly moving the air as it passed.

The air felt as solid as the table or any other object, and the plants around me were alive with a vital intelligence and recognition of me; actually it was two ways, I guess a bit like transmission and reception. Again it felt intelligent, as if my mind was expanded to include everything, and if I chose I could know anything and expand anywhere. Or perhaps it's better put that "my" mind didn't exist except as a part of The Mind; that feels more accurate. Overall I felt bliss. The sense of being a part of everything was complete. Time was paused. I was not separate.

...

The sense of boundary-less participation in the mind of the universe was ecstatic.

I do feel Salvia to be a very wise teacher but one that needs a lot of respect. As a therapist I think it would be fairly extreme for many clients who have long lived within the safety of their boundaries. In the context of shamanic use and healing I think there would be more acceptance of the experience as the shamanic world does not work within the limits of ego; nor does Salvia. "I" ceased to exist in the way I usually do. For me this was exstatic; for others perhaps frightening. Most people who seeks therapy want to "mend" their egos, not lose them.

...

I particularly think of it as Zen, since from my knowledge of Zen practice there is recognition of the inherent paradox within a human, and that the practice of Zen is to learn to hold both sides of the paradox simultaneously. The be both within and without your body. To recognize the void as also the fullness from which all comes and returns. Zen also has an acceptance that here and now is all there is; enlightenment is the recognition that this is not something to be sought after but known as being present right now. This is certainly something that seems to be true of Salvia.

...

I will continue to work with Salvia as I feel that perhaps it is better than anything I have so far tried to bring theory into practice. The theories of shamanic thought, the theories behind meditative practice, the ecstatic visions of God as perceived by mystics and saints throughout time, as well as the theories whithin quantum physics - the wave/particle phenomenon. The percepiton that the world is of our own making and is much more fluid than initial appearances suggest. That from nothing we come and from nothing we return, and yet as in all good paradoxes, nothing is not nothing.

Has anyone here read "confessions of a salvia sorcerer"? It sounds interesting.