I have questions for those of SWIY (and I assume there must be some on here) who have taken Salvia over a period of years.

Have your experiences been mostly positive, or have they run the gamut?

Also, how do you feel your usage has instructed your life?

SWIM has journeyed far with Salvia and has had polar positive and negative (or difficult, if you prefer) experiences. That was maybe. . . seven years ago however. I'm curious like a cat though, that's what keeps SWIM journeying on. Once upon a time, I swore SWIM would never take Salvia again. However, he's also said that about mushrooms and would have sorely missed out on years of profound and affirming experiences if he had taken his own advice. I guess I'm trying to gauge how crazy SWIM is and if he wants to venture Salvia-ways again.

Gracias.

You're not crazy, but you do too much SWIMming!

IME, salvia is extremely positive in too many ways to count, but I stick to plain leaf and tincture. I think the crazy-strong extracts are unhelpful and disrespectful.

As soon as my babies are big and bushy, I'll be quidding fresh leaf.

Have you read this?

I might add my own opinions on the subject later, but yall might be interested in this..or not. I don't agree with all of it, but I will give credit to anyone who stands up and attempts to speak about this herb.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fo1Iz-WG1k

Ive found salvia extract leafe material washed with grain alcohol in right dose like an instant form of medetation and very visual..very relaxing and a great antidepresant glow for resat of the day sometimes longer...
Salvia is very strong..and something to respect.. and treat with care ..and finding the right dose is the trick to get a popsitive experisance from it..
Its not for the party scene...

SWIMming is exhausting, thanks for letting me off the hook.

Thank you for posting that link! I thoroughly enjoyed the content, both in terms of information and aesthetic. I'm adding that book to my list.

Well, I just ordered some plain leaf and got myself a solid water pipe to handle it. We will see how it goes, I may post the results up here.

Over the years (about eight or nine years now) my experiences have definitely run the gamut. The most difficult experiences were many years ago, however. With strong commercial extracts. Since beginning to cultivate my own Salvia plants and do my own extractions, I've had nothing but positive experiences, or at the very worst sort of neutral ones that feel somewhat flat and pointless.

Plain leaf is mostly what I smoke nowadays. My tolerance is so low that a good couple hits of plain leaf and I can reach breakthrough level, so the extract is almost unnecessary. When I do smoke extract it's a 5x I made myself with my homegrown leaf. I think the negative/difficult experiences come from overdosing and doing it without any preparation or in the wrong environment. I treat Salvia the same way I treat mushrooms now; silent darkness with a good meditation session beforehand. That's really how I approach all psychedelics now, to be honest.

It's definitely worth returning to this plant after having many years to reflect on your past experiences. Either you'll realize it's not for you or you'll say "Oh, I remember this! How could I forget this!"

I love salvia! My experiences are almost always positive/neutral. Typically they feel more informational than anything else. A few times I felt like I broke the world for everyone and that had a sick-to-my-stomach kind of feeling to it, but I've not had any terrifying experiences.

After about 5 years of using mainly commercial, high-extract leaf, my experiences have become rather similar each time. I also seemed to have developed a bit of a tolerance - opposite of many others' experience.

I started using the leaf weekly, but now only explore every 2-3 months. I am generally shown the same basic thing in different ways.

I typically smoke as much as I possibly can of the highest extract I have in one inhalation. After the first experience winds down, I may or may not go for a second toke. The first one is the one that usually shows me the same basic thing, while the second one is usually a deeper and crazier experience, although not always.

The main idea I see is the 'parental' nature of the space where Salvia takes me compared to this 3D reality. It is shown to me slightly differently every time, but it's the same concept every time. I've tried to put it in words a few times and always feel like I could do better.

Here's my latest attempt: Take a rubber glove and blow it up. The fingers represent people. Under sober reality, I am one of the fingers looking at the world through the eye holes of one of the fingers. When I am on Salvia, I detach from the eye holes and go towards the center of the blown-up glove. I can then see what is on the inside of the whole glove. I can see that the sober world is generated from the space in the middle of glove. The glove frequently turns inside out, and my consciousness is then in a large, open space while the 'sober world' has now become the inside space. As the Salvia wears off, I gravitate back towards my finger of the glove and reattach and again see the 'sober world' through the eye holes of the finger.

I generally see this type of imagery in various ways, but the idea is the same...that I detach from my body into a larger space, and that space is the area where this 3D space comes from.

Enjoy your explorations!!